Ideas for replacing Lemaco and Fulgurex turnout motors

[VonRyan]

I posted this over in the DCC/Electronics sub-forum, but nary a response, so I'll bring it over here where more  can post their pondering's.

The club I belong to, New Jersey Southern (N-Trak), utilizes Lemaco and Fulgurex turnout motors for the majority of our turnouts.
The only problem is that these are no longer in production and when some come up for sale on eBay, they tend to fetch hefty prices.
The machines themselves are easily serviceable to keep in working order, but with a need to put machines on other modules, we have to look for new options.
Tortoises and Cobalts are quite high in terms of price, the club moved away from twin-coil machines ages ago, and we're looking for something that will work with our CTC system without modification to the system.
The CTC system uses 8-conductor wire as the bus for 7 turnout motors (the eighth wire is the common) with each turnout motor having a stereo jack which gets a plug from a numbered modular box.
I've heard some folks on here talk about using servos for turnout control, and IIRC some of the servos that people have looked at are quite cheap, but how easy are they to set up?
The club has standardized on Peco turnouts, although there are a couple modules that use ME turnouts.



-Cody F.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I think servos will be the way to go.

I don't know anything about their implementation, but I am interested in learning about them too.

[RAILCAT]

Servos and the Tam Valley Servo controller.
Cost effective and they work well. Also the new Switchwright works on DCC.
Not sure whether posting a direct link is allowed but Google Tam Valley.

[conrail98]

Servos and the Tam Valley Servo controller.
Cost effective and they work well. Also the new Switchwright works on DCC.
Not sure whether posting a direct link is allowed but Google Tam Valley.

There was an article in MRR a few months ago on servos and the Arduino. I'm interested in that was well as the Tam Valley controllers,

Phil

[VonRyan]

Servos and the Tam Valley Servo controller.
Cost effective and they work well. Also the new Switchwright works on DCC.
Not sure whether posting a direct link is allowed but Google Tam Valley.

Do you have any experience using them? Personal photos/videos perhaps?


-Cody F.

[GaryHinshaw]

We have an in-house expert on these:

Links are encouraged -- here is one to the singlet servo controller:

http://www.tamvalleydepot.com/products/singletservodecoder.html

-gfh

[VonRyan]

We have an in-house expert on these:

Links are encouraged -- here is one to the singlet servo controller:

http://www.tamvalleydepot.com/products/singletservodecoder.html

-gfh

Looks like it would take too much to modify to adapt to our CTC system.

In a best case scenario, we're looking for something with a similar drive system to the Lemaco and Fulgurex turnout motors, both of which just so happen to have the frog power being mechanically controlled by the turnout motor.

It looks to be that the specific link you provided isn't applicable for us as they'd have to be re-engineered to be non-DCC, and to work off of a single DPDT toggle switch.

Is there an option for a servo with just a board that limits the travel of the arm and it is up to the user to choose the method of control?
The Tam Valley Octo III seems like it has the potential to fit the bill, but it is more designed for use on a home layout where the main board can be centralized. For our requisites we require something more modular where the components are stand alone for each module and can be rearranged with each configuration.



-Cody F.