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Keep your frogs happy with our frog juicers!


Frog Juicers are also available at Fast Tracks


 

Read the review in the February 2010 Model Railroader

View Model Railroader's video of how frog juicers were installed on their Bay Junction project layout

A review of the frog juicer at the RailfanX Blog

Automatically controls the polarity of DCC power for up to 6 frogs on turnouts or crossings.   If a train drives onto a frog and it is the wrong polarity, the circuit will switch to the opposite polarity.  Essentially the circuit is 6 independent SPDT electronic switches under microprocessor control.  The circuit is set to switch at 2 amps which is below that of most DCC circuit breakers and booster unit cutoffs, so that the the Frog Juicer will switch before these other units sense a fault.  Two amps is plenty of power for the single locomotive that can be on a frog at any given time.   The frogs need to be electrically isolated and have no other connections to the track or DCC system.  Will also work with frogs that are powered through the points (e.g. Peco electrofrog).

Craig Bisgeier says "The Hex Frog Juicer is the ultimate expression of
running your trains and not the track."

Please note - Frog Juicers are DCC (Digital Command Control) devices ONLY.  They will not work with DC or 3-rail.  They will work with most all DCC systems, Lenz, Roco, NCE, Digitrax, Zymo, MRC, CVP.  If you don't see your DCC system here, don't worry, there are just too many to list them all!

Alas, they will not work with the Bachmann EZ-DCC system or the SPROG II as they do not have enough power to reach the 1.7 Amp switching threshold.  However, if you use one or our boosters then you can use frog juicers and other auto-reversers with these systems.


Peco Electrofrog Update- Hex Frog juicers have been modified to work with Peco electrofrog turnouts (and other power-routing turnouts) as they come. The mono-frog and the dual-frog juicers can be used with a couple of electrofrogs (like on a module) but not if you have more than 4 electrofrogs. You still need to insulate the Peco electrofrog turnouts as in the instructions that come with the turnout.  Peco Insulfrogs do not need a frog juicer as the frog is plastic and cannot be powered.


 
Video of the Hex Frog Juicer in action.

I designed this board originally with the prompting of Ted Pamperin and Craig Bisgeier.  Ted was so thrilled with the product that he and Dave Ramos made this video testimonial.

Wiring Diagram for the HFJ (Click to Enlarge)

Wiring Diagram

Here is how the Hex Frog Juicer is wired to your frogs.

A single wire goes to each frog.  Track power goes in at the other end of the board.




Crossing Wiring
Here's how to wire a crossing for automatic polarity control.  It requires 2 circuits on the Hex Fog Juicer.  Two of the frogs diagonally across from each other can be ungapped.  The other two need to gapped and polarity controlled with each frog connected to its own auto-reverser circuit.

Thanks to Craig for pointing this out to me.

Crossover Wiring Diagram
Note: Jumper On, Yellow Orange are paired and blue, green are paired. See Manual.
Double Crossover Wiring Diagram
 

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