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Header: Hal-Zuzzu Model Railway Build Blog |
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| Published: Sunday, May 30, 2021 | ||||||
| Post: #80/174 - Views: 45006 |
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Using servos as point motors. The minute I saw a video of someone installing servos to act as point motors, I wanted in. The cherry on the cake was the fact that he also used micro switches to change frog polarity and for different light signals. The cost of this setup is very low when compared to the frog motors I have seen for sale, but although these entail a lot more work to get them to work, more DIY wiring, making/printing the mount, cutting the wire etc etc etc, give me servos any time of day! Why? Because I don't like buying stuff off the shelf and putting it on the layout and I'm done. I have this need to make it work myself, if not make it from scratch, at least I want to get the different parts and assemble it. Its functionality depends on how well I put it together. If it doesn't work well, that is on me, and I will take it all apart and do it all over again, hopefully, better. I have done this countless times and have no regrets. 
Piano wire. Might replace them all with thicker piano wire to put some more oomph into the throw because of the extra 2 inches of polystyrene... 
The most difficult part I found is to put the rod in place. After trying countless different methods, I found the best way is to cut the rods an inch or two longer, bend the servo end into a Z and the points end into an L Slide the rod from the top, through the point throw lever and allow it to hang out of the bottom of the baseboard. 
Pass the rod through the hold in the servo mount and screw the mount to the underside of the baseboard making sure to align the hole in the servo mount with the hold in the baseboard. After inserting the first screw, check if you can throw the point moving the rod from side to side simulating the servo motor. 
Secure the mount with all 4 screws. 
Once done, insert the rod in the bottom hole of the servo horn and secure the horn into place. 
Before trimming any extra rod length at the top, make sure the servo is throwing the point correctly. Once you cut it, there is no going back. 
Four down, many more to go but it is all good fun and rewarding When I'm ready with all the servos, I'll start wiring the frogs. If you are interested in the servo mount, you can download the 3D print files here Stay tuned and don't forget to register for post updates...Check out the live CCTV camera HERE |
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