Garden Railway Forum

The existing motor housing is basically a metal plate which secures the cylinder to the sleeper of points.

This has several issues including not quite fitting the LGB or PIKO points correctly and forcing the cylinder to support itself

Solution was to design something which was more of an enclosure.
One of the prototypes shown

Finished item in a metalic / silver colour.

Fitted to a set of points

stevenfitch wrote: ↑Sun Nov 13, 2022 4:43 pm Fitted to a set of points
IMG_20221113_161038_066.jpg

Looks like a very neat solution

Rik

ge_rik wrote: ↑Sun Nov 13, 2022 7:12 pm

stevenfitch wrote: ↑Sun Nov 13, 2022 4:43 pm Fitted to a set of points
IMG_20221113_161038_066.jpg

Looks like a very neat solution

Rik

Working a treat, now i just need to find a load of those black LGB screws that come with the motors or equivalent in stainless

I'd love to see/hear more about the system overall. Do you use a compressor or manually pump up a pressure vessel (eg an old inner tube) at the start of a session? What do the operating switches look like? Etc.

Rik

ge_rik wrote: ↑Mon Nov 14, 2022 12:26 pm I'd love to see/hear more about the system overall. Do you use a compressor or manually pump up a pressure vessel (eg an old inner tube) at the start of a session? What do the operating switches look like? Etc.

Rik

I'm using a small compressor from a air brush set as its pretty quiet, i was previously using a 24Ltr one such as this https://www.screwfix.com/p/stanley-b6cc ... 230v/48089 but when it kicked it all of a sudden it gave you quite a shock!
The Controls i use are 12-24V solenoid valves as its all computer controlled, the same reason i use a compressor instead of having to manually pump pressure up.
The solenoids sit in a 4 way manifold to attach the tubing to and are simply open when power on and closed when power off. I run 16 of them directly from a 16 way accessory controller and have no issues with power or overloading the controller (Digikeijs DR4018). The pink plastic bit is just a 3D printed holder for them to sit in, holder screwed down to shelving.

The alternative is manual control using some switches the same size as the minature toggle switches used on many OO gauge control panels.
https://www.sunsetvalleyrailroad.com/pneumatics.html
I have a couple of these manual switches, one is open to the world to vent the whole system down at end of a session or when needed and the other controls a trailing line on the workbench for testing / prototyping etc without having to have the PC control side powered up a running.
Air distribution from the compressor is via simple manifold.
I also have a standard point actuator / point motor fasted inside the control box operating a micro switch which the computer can sense, this is a safety system so if air pressure drops it stops everything on the DCC and wireless DCC. (Wired fail safe so the switch has to be held "on")
The actuators themselves are fitted with an internal spring return so they push out when they get air pressure then when the solenoids release (and vent the air from that line out through their open top into the world) the spring shifts the points back.

Even on a relatively low pressure they are a force to be reckoned with, easily crushes twigs in point blades and pushed stones or ballast out of the way.

A problem i have wanted to solve for quite a while is active feedback from each set of points, I'm currently planning on making a device which fits opposite side of the point to the actuator and uses an electronic switch (probably a sealed reed switch with a magnet) to confirm the blades have actually moved.

Fascinating! It certainly beats the medical syringes linked by pvc tubing we used to use in my primary school D&T days. Does operating it via a computer enable you to operate the points by radio control?

Rik

ge_rik wrote: ↑Thu Nov 17, 2022 5:45 pm Does operating it via a computer enable you to operate the points by radio control?

Rik

Depends what you mean by "radio" control.
The software i am using is Train Control from Freiwald https://www.freiwald.com/pages/traincontroller.htm

Its probably total overkill using it to just change points without using the automation for running, but some people do.

The options i can think of off the top of my head would be:

• TrainController can use a mobile phone / tablet device as a remote controller over the local network (you still need the PC), you'd setup a "switchboard" on train controller with all of you point controls on then use that on the mobile (needs decent WiFi in the garden).

• TrainController can take inputs from various sources (mainly DCC occupancy detectors) and then preform actions based on these inputs so if the remote control system has some form of outputs then they could be linked into these. I use a load of DR4088-CS (Current Sensing for track occupancy) and DR4088-GND (Grounded Sensing for simple inputs such as the microswitch above).

• Ive not tried it but i know there are options like this (The DR5000 is the command station / hub / programmer / etc for all the rest of the Digikeijs stuff)
  https://www.marks-trains.co.uk/shop/dcc ... -throttle/