Glad to see the 'Z' bend worked well for that side mounting.
One really needs to have a terminal block close to the Tortoise machine. It's not any real problem to solder the eight wire pigtails to the PC connector directly and then hook up to the terminal block. You don' t need the rather expensive slip on connector, as the pigtails are not any more trouble to disconnect from the terminal and handle the Tortoise in the event of necessary exchange or realignments. Soldered connections at the Tortoise connector will give no chance of long term electrical connection problems. Firm attachment of the wires to the terminal block works well.
In the installed base of layouts, the Tortoise machiens have a reported failure of about single digits per 1,000. They are rugged and reliable. Seldom, if ever, except maybe improper installation will a unit go bad. You could of course ruin one with improper voltage feed to the motor, or mis-wiring of the contacts connections.
Sometimes we make too much ado about nothing.
-ed mccamey-
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-ed mccamey-
COSLAR RR -
http://www.coslar.us/NMRA Standards and Conformance Department
PROTO & FINE Scale Coordinator
I estimate I have about 5 pounds of coupler springs somewhere in the vicinity of my workbench.