MultiSense Board

Our MultiSense Board is an important feature of the Automatic Block Signal System because it allows you to use multiple optical sensors which appear to the switch to be just one sensor.

You can install as few as one sensor or as many as eight sensors per board and you can link multiple MultiSense Boards together to continually detect occupancy in a very long block.

This board is also very useful in detecting presence for other projects like Grade Crossing Gates, Flashers or sound effects - even at different locations around the layout.

To minimize the number of extra sensors you would need to add a feature like a Grade Crossing Signal, you can design the sensor placement within the block containing the Grade Crossing starting with the sensors for the Grade Crossing. connect them to a SEPARATE MultiSense Board and then add the other sensors from the beginning to the end of the block remembering to add a sensor around four inches after the first and four inches before the last. The same rule applies to the Grade Crossing sensors.

Now, you connect the MultiSense for the Grade Crossing Signal to an event controller channel for the Flasher Controller (for the Grade Crossing Signal). You also combine it with the MultiSense for the rest of the block by using the LINK connections, removing the JMP1 jumper, and then adding a DIODE (like 1N4001) in the SIGNAL connection wire - facing the stripe away from the Grade Crossing MultiSense (toward the block MultiSense).

This will add the sensors for the Grade Crossing to those for the rest of the block and the block will be detected all the way through. The Grade Crossing sensors will activate the switch for the Flasher Controller AND the switch for the Block's Signal Light Controller but the rest of the block sensors will NOT activate the Flasher Controller.

Diagram shows left and right sides of the MultiSense. The middle sections have been left out to keep the picture size more reasonable. Click on the diagram to see a BIGGER version (still with middle sections removed). If lines are missing, click on the picture and it will clear up. Sorry, it is a big picture.