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1) Is power supply of 4.7V 700Ma enough to power 12 of them
2) Is 22 Gauge wire running from the switch to the switch machine enough or should i go with a heavier wire. I am going to use 18 Gauge for a bus to the switches that make the torotise work.
Hi Mike, to try to answer your questions, I will start with #2 first....
22 gauge wire is plenty for the tortoise. They require very little amperage to work.
#1 a bit more involved. The 700mA is more than enough to power 12 of them. They use something like 12mA I believe. You may find 4.7 volts is a bit weak to get them to throw and hold. I am using 9v DC in most cases for mine. You will definitely have a problem if you are drawing for lights from the same circuit with the tortoise.
If you already have the 4.7v 700mA power source, give it try and see. If you are buying a power source for it, go with a 9v supply. The tortoise can handle up to 12v, but looks and runs more realistic with 8 or 9 volts.
I used bell wire (solid copper) to hook mine up with no issues whatsoever.
I run them with an NCE switch 8 off DCC track power so I'm not sure what the voltage is. Cool thing is you can light bi-polar LED's in line with no resistor this way.
