The HO Scale Delaware Avenue Branch

[perezbill]

I have not been posting in a while because I have nothing new to post until now. I am still using servo motors to move my switch points. I purchased a Sprog DCC LCC servo controller. Web page with the servo controller is here: https://sprog.us.com/lcc.html. I have been unable to get the LCC servo controller to work. I have 2 servo motors that have stopped working, both of which were connected to that servo controller. I reached out to their tech support and got one email back but nothing since. I reached out to them again last night. I am not saying this to trash the vendor. It's just an update of what has happened and warning for anyone who attempts to use this product that has no experience with it. It could be a bad board and/or it could be me; my understanding of how it works, and the configuration could be wrong. I honestly do not know.

The method of throwing the servo motors is going to change for me. I am going to using Tam Valley Depot's Octopus III controller to control the servos. The web link is here: https://www.tamvalleydepot.com/products/octopusservodriver.html. Their controller says it will accept input from a majority of model railroad control circuits that can handle active low logic. LCC should be able to work with this as it handles active low logic. I can send the producer events from the RR-CirKits Tower Controller which is where the buttons are connected currently. My order came in today and I will try it this weekend so hopefully I will have an update soon on this method.

I had another idea that hit me like a ton of bricks today when I thought of it. I am going to mount my servos to the front of my layout. The layout has foam board on all of it. I will get some brass tubing and some long wire. I will sink it into the foam near the surface but below the scenery layer. This way all the servos are at the front of the layout and easily accessible. The tubing will keep the channel where the wire connection is located open and not allow the foam to close in on it and make it difficult to throw switches. The only thing I will have to worry about is making a cover for the machines down the road when I am ready for visitors. That should be no big deal. I am thinking any negatives will be outweighed by the positives of doing it this way. The best part I like is that it makes the switch motors (servo's) very accessible for troubleshooting and setting up. I think this is a great idea and want to give it a try. What do you think? Has anyone tried this? Did it work or not?

[perezbill]

As of today, it looks like the TAM Valley Depot method is the way to go. I have gotten just about all of my 10 switches setup. I am using servos and mounting the servos on the outer edge of the layout. This way if one dies it will be easy to replace. Since I am using fast tracks hand laid turnouts, I needed to get .037 wire to move the switch points. It is working perfectly as of this moment. I have 6 servos attached and 8 wires placed. The actual last 4 switches I have to do will be thrown in pairs. They belong to one of two different crossovers. The idea of mounting at the edge of the layout is going to be so great because I am expecting to be much older when the servo's need to be replaced. Quite frankly ducking under my layout to replace a servo does not appeal to me as I get older. I have some new pics of the work being done. I have to remove the control panel as it was in the way of the servo's being mounted. I was going to get a shorter one made but there isn't a lot of room between switches. I am thinking that I will remount the same panel just about an inch or so lower. That should work. I will get that tested as soon as the remainder of the servo's are attached and working. [ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[perezbill]

Ok, another post in less than 24 hours. 

I worked on the railroad tonight and managed to get 2 more servos hooked up and working. These 2 are a little different as they are on a cross over track so both switches need to throw at the same time in opposite directions. Tam Valley Depot sells a reverser and a Y cable that I used to hook up the 2 servos. They work perfectly. I got one of the other turnouts for the last crossover setup with the wire. Need a day to let the glue dry before hooking up the servo. The last turnout needs to have one of the points repaired. It got bent when I was trying to mount my servos differently than I am now. While drilling up from underneath to make a hole the drill popped thru faster than anticipated and grabbed the throw rod tearing it off and bending the point. The throw rod and ties are easily replaced but the point is going to be a little more difficult to repair but not impossible.

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[perezbill]

Ok, one more switch completed, one to go. The next job will be repairing the broken switch. Once that's done, I'll hook up the servo and then that should do it. I can then be able to hook up a test button board, which I have and test the actual servo movement via a button press. Below pic is what I put up previously, but I highlighted what needs fixing. Replacing the ties and the tie the connects to the switch points is the easy part. Straightening out the one bent point is going to be difficult but not impossible. [ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[perezbill]

New progress made last night. I managed to repair the damaged turnout. [ Guests cannot view attachments ] This is not a new pic but posting it here for a before picture. The repair was not that difficult. The major damage was the point rail was twisted and bent. [ Guests cannot view attachments ] After fixing it I was able to run a car thru the switch in both directions. It ran smoothly thru.  Next on the agenda is to glue down the rails to the repaired turnout. There are also some others I want to add extra glue to just to be safe. After that I will get buttons working in LCC to throw my turnouts. Hopefully this will happen tonight. I know the work will at least get started tonight. I do have to install the servo on the last turnout but that only takes a few minutes. [ Guests cannot view attachments ] I am getting close to the point where I can clean off the area I am working in and actually run a train on it.

[perezbill]

I have fixed the last turnout. It is now moving points with the servo. I glued down the ties to the layout and glued the turnout rails down to the ties. It's just a matter of waiting for the glue to dry. Next on the list is to make the test button board work with the servo controller via LCC.
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[pjm20]

Looking good, thanks for sharing your progress.

[perezbill]

I ended up making changes. I have happily gone back to using the tortoise switch machines. This is something I wanted from the beginning but thought that servos might work better. I figured out how to setup the tortoise motors to work in LCC. The thing with LCC is a steep learning curve. That's not meant to scare anyone away from it but non the less the steep learning curve is there. Best suggestion is to find someone who's done it and ask for assistance. I would be happy to try to help out anyone. With the advent of Internet communications today we can do some type of screen share/talk, and I can help someone who needs it. I also download documentation that I can email to those that need it.

I have 10 turnouts. All the tortoise motors have been mounted. Six of them have throw wires on them and are working via a single push button. The last 4 are for crossovers so they will be wired in pairs and also work with one push button. Once finished the panel will go back on and the push buttons will be mounted in the panel. My push buttons light up in one of three colors; red, yellow, green, so I am going to see if a tortoise contact can be used to pick a color. Green for normal and red for thrown. I am very happy with the machines on the edge of the layout. The wiring is below them also on the edge of the layout. This will come in really handy when a tortoise stops working and I have to change it. It will be so much easier to change out as I get older. No crawling under the layout to change a machine. Since I am currently 59 that's a blessing. There will be a type of removable cover put on at a later time that protects the machines when not being serviced. One other thing to note here is that I am using an external power supply plugged into RR Cirkits SMD8 to power the tortoise motors. Like everything else important there is a buck board on the power line to keep the voltage to what I need it to be. I use universal power supplies that have variable voltages. I actually have one model that I keep buying off Amazon that works for me. The buck board keeps me from cranking the voltage up to high accidently and frying something. I like doing it this way because I don't have to worry about what power supply to purchase. I just keep buying the same one all the time. It will make it easier when replacing the power supply if they stop making the model I am using also.

So far, I am happy using LCC. Now that I know a little more about what I am doing things are moving forwards. I will be able to run my first train soon. I also added a video this time that shows the switch points moving with a single button. Some of the pictures are a little older showing a RR Cirkits board on the tortoise. I stopped using them because I don't need to use them. The tortoise edge connecters allow me better access to the auxiliary contacts to attach wires.

This is the link to the YouTube video. It's about 25 seconds long but shows the single push button moving the points using LCC from the operators point of view.
https://youtube.com/shorts/M3z9mlu01c8

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[perezbill]

No new pics today but major progress for this 59-year-old guy. All the tortoise motors are hooked up in the zone I am working on. There are 10 total. Two pairs of them are for crossovers. My next endeavor is to mount the panel back onto the layout and get the push buttons re-installed and get the button light wiring connected to the tortoise auxiliary contacts. I will post pics of that progress when I get started working on it. Hopefully that will be tomorrow evening after work. That is the current plan. Hopefully in a few days I will be able to post another update with photos. 

[perezbill]

Last night I was able to get the panel reattached. I just need to figure out the button placement as I am not happy with where they were. The part I needed to get done was getting the panel remounted to the layout. Hoping to get more work done on it over the next couple of days.

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