2021_03_01 Point Motors and Switching!

 2021_03_01 Points and switches

Last Thursday Al and I spent the day fitting DCC Concepts point motors and wiring them to a proposed signal panel. and Saturday and Sunday after buying the DPDT switches from "Jaycar", I started wiring them up.

The point motors have two SPDT switches built in, one of which will be used to set polarity of the frogs, and the other will be used to operate signals in the future. 

One drawback I have found (actually two) is that you cannot center the action without power. Thus the 9v battery in the picture. Connecting cables is easy. Simply push the wire in after depressing a button.

Unfortunately, I have had 12 of these  devices in storage for about 12 years. Of the 12, only 8 actually worked. I had to reheat all the solder tabs seen in the picture and after a few wasted hours I managed to get two of them working and two needed to be binned.

I found some picture frames at reject shop. I removed backing and glass, and cut out a perspex panel, to replace glass. At $5 it saved a lot of work.

Jaycar supplied the DPDT switches at $3.75 less trade discount.

I tried to draw out a representation of the area controlled by the motors.  This was drawn on the protecting paper fixed to the perspex.

The switches were fitted into the perspex where marked. Down being straight road and up being diverge.

Panel was screwed into side of layout. Not sure if that was a good idea, but I strengthened the frame with solid angle brackets, seen above

12v Positive and Negative connections all soldered in and connected, with heavier feeds for power connection. Now all I got to do is make it look neat :(

To drill out the perspex, I needed to find a way to drill out the holes without chipping the perspex. So I went to Duck Duck Go, my new favorite search engine. They suggested using the drill  fitted into the Ryobi, and lubricated with soap, which is in the onion bottle :) And every hole was clean, and not one of them cracked the perspex. WOO HOO!!

All the cables running from the point motors arrived behind the panel, were numbered to match the numbers on the panels, and the connections were made.

All I have to do now is connect in the crossovers. That is two point motors need to be operated from one switch, to cross trains through. Need to work out which wire connects where? I suspect the wires will cross to the second motor.

When the panel is tested and working, I will mark out the underside of the perspex and line the track diagram with white tape. Then paint the back of the panel black. This should look the part :)

Then tidy up the wires....

Cheers

Rod