Hey Guys, I'm trying to learn about the Hare II with Feedback. Looking at the Tony's website, I see the Hare instruction manual for revision K. I did not see references for feedback from the HARE II. I did see how you could add an opto to the Hare, but I presume that the HARE II has that built in. Also, the photo of the HARE II appears to have dip switches. Is that right?………….Allan G.

Hi Allan: Rev K is the current version of the Hare manual. All of the Hares come with the feedback opto installed now, although that might have been overlooked in the current manual. [Note we'll update as soon as we can, erik].

The Hare does have dip switches [S1]. The S1 switches are to set up the wiring for auto throw using the Tortoise contacts to route power to the trigger rails and to the turnout frog (if needed). With the switches, you do not need any external wiring to power the frog or enable auto throw. The idea was that some folks have difficulty understanding the wiring, or just don't want wires hanging down. If you don't have an electro-frog turnout and are not using auto throw, they should be left in the OFF position.

The feedback is pretty simple. U3 is a dual channel optical coupler with isolated transistor outputs. J3-1 is the throw collector. J3-2 is the throw emitter. J3-3 is the clear collector. J3-4 is the clear emitter. Since you have access to both the emitter and collector, you can use the output to either pull up (collector to + voltage) or pull down (emitter to ground) a load when the output is active. Obviously, throw turns on when the points are in the throw position, and clear is on when the points are in the clear position.

The U3 interface can be used to simply turn on/off a red/green LED to indicate point position, such as with a dwarf signal. I can also interface with most system's discrete interface units to the proprietary cab bus. Hence, it can be used with LocoNet, NCE, LCC, etc.