I
Figured it was time to get back to a project that I started a while ago
Which was started with the Detection?
That I was the optical Detection that I was putting around my turnout
for train Detection for
signaling but also
for
certain amount of automation
Which comes later?
but the next thing that I was planning on doing was
Powering turnouts right now. I've just got to
Caboose industry ground throws
Which are good they do the job nothing wrong with them. They look sort of railroad ii-if a little bit better scale, but
Doesn't matter. They're they're solid they work. They're relatively inexpensive really still we're back when I was buying
Them by the shovel load
No idea what the cost these days
but anyway, that's
That's an aside
So here's a little mock-up that I figured out Mr.. Random
Leftover turnout, this was a used one that I bought from somebody and I mocked up a little servo on to the bottom of it
Now this one
What I would have done on a couple of turnouts just to put a remote control on them
Ran a piece of brass tubing down there this mock-ups. Just got a piece of q-tip tubing then and
piece of wire bent and dropped into the hole on the turnout where the rivet is and
I've used this on the club layout before and
that arrangement works pretty well to twist in the wire the wire gives you a little bit of springiness to
Put some pressure on the points
But my experimenting is with the servo motor
how to mount this is my first experiment the
machine this
the bracket you just needed of the metal that I cut out the
computer case or something
power supply case I think and it's bent them and drilled them and stuck them in there and
then the
Turnout or the
turnout itself, underneath
The the wire from the other side comes up through the hole
Makes it a couple of neytiri vans and into there that was okay that was kind of fiddly to put together
So I decided to try some other methods
I'll just cut and mount up my my next plan here. I'll show you before I do that I
should actually show you how it worked so
I've got just a nano with a
Demo sketch that comes with the Arduino Ide
loaded the sketch called knob
in the servo Library and
basically
There's just that's a very small area of its motion
Which is better from the end maybe I?
Would only have to move that much these servos will go underneath degrees
and
once I actually get going on this I can program just a
normal and reverse position just whatever that number happens to be and it'll go there rather than just turning the knob like I'm doing and
So there's one direction and the other direction
And I wanted to I could program slow-motion
Quite sick silence. I have it slam like I saw and I would
Slow motion would be nice
so that's
That one, and it works and on the layout. I'm not going to use this plastic tubing. That's just
What I had for my quick cheap experiment, so now then I'm going to mount up my other
My next iteration of my experiment and see how well that one works?
Okay, here's my second
Idea for mounting I made this little strap, but assumption brass
unfortunately, it's a little bit too thin and lightweight, and it main gold when I
Was screwing it in but I'm just going to hold it in there my finger and see what happens
come on here Tran okay, so
That works and the alignments a little bit less critical
If I want it to be yeah, I think if I can make a bracket, it's a little bit less
Cheesy than that, so that's my next plan
Off to see what I can find for some material
Alright next version
That's cleaner this
He's needed of a chunk of aluminum. Strap that I got at the hardware store for a couple of bucks for Meter links
the speed Hole
Hmm. It was a blazing at one point the speed hole in there was originally what I was making it
I thought I would leave the melting lugs on the solenoid. There's a servo motor
But then I just didn't have the patience to cut it big enough and precisely the right shape so I
just
Need it like that
And I bent it a little bit too long
so I had to jam some sticky back insulating foam tape in there, but it's nice and solid and
seems to do the job
The only thing I was concerned about in this mode
Was when I got to the extreme
would it pull on the thing and
This little this is just a little bush into the plastic, but I think this will be okay
With the metal tubing that I was planning on using it doesn't seem to be where we going oh
Yes, thank you
Doesn't seem to be pushing that up and out of the rivet hole
if I had a narrower piece of tubing in there
So there was less slop. I think that would be good, so
Upside to this aluminum. It's much more solar than this cheap shim, breath
It's not that expensive like I said couple dollars for a meter or so of it however it is
relatively thick
This way which is much I can't I keep seeing in the camera here
It's it's relatively thick
cross-section
which means the bend Radii or adss are huge and
It's annoying to bend so I'm going to try one more material that I've got kicking around here
And here is the third bracket that I need
When to the fourth bracket that I need and it is made out of some stainless steel strapping which is
really seeing actually
Just getting close here
It's not that much
different thickness than the thickness of the blade my exacto knife
However being stainless steel it's quite strong
It's fairly solid it doesn't bend easily
but that said
Grabbed it was a couple of pairs of pliers meaning fairly Sharp bends in a much sharper
Then than the aluminum
That's almost an omega
and
I cut it totally and bent it a little bit shorter so that I didn't have to worry about that foam tape up there
so it's
that's actually gripped solid right now, and I could tighten it more, but I don't have to and
It's nice and shiny, but most importantly it holds the motor
solidly
while it's moving
So that is what I'm going to go with
Next step to do this upside down on the layout
This is the turnout that I'm going to start my experiment with I've already got
the piece of brass tubing in there and here's the wire which is
Similar it seems lies where that is using over in my experiment
Drop that down into there, so there's that caboose fan, so they're talking it everywhere
They work well for manually throwing but I think this is going to be nicer
There's the view from underneath with my piece of music. We're coming through
So enough to give it a 90 degree bend and chop it off, and I'm going to have to get
into this
area with my big hands and
My skull and some light and can burn myself or not
Call my stuff off the shelf. Oh, I love it
and I don't think the room for me and the camera under there, so
We'll come back to you guys
Once I've got it more or less mounted
It's going to look pretty much the same as it did on my demo board anyway, all right there it is installed
certain amount of contortion and possibly a little bit of language that
Would be in trouble with the missus if the kids read it, but there it is installed on the bracket
And I've got my pistol matic there and here. We are up topside
Okay
Share we sold spring tension there
Spring tension caused by that centimeter or so of wire there?
Same thing down underneath
Hmm
servos are a bit noisy, but
Again, that's got some salt with spring tension against it
So if I come against it
without
Turning it properly
That's going to cause a derailment which that's fair. That's would happen in the real world on a real railroad anyway
But that's part of what I'm heading towards
because I've got Detection over here and
over here
so the Arduino that's driving this guy will monitor those and
Make sure that I don't run through a switch that set the wrong way
which will make life much more fun when I'm doing solar running around here, but that's
The continuing Saga of this project, and there's an awful lot of things that still need doing here too including
More turnouts initially. I'm just going to do all the main lighting turnout
Which we've got Detection on most of them already. It's not going anywhere and
That should do it for today