Subject:
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Another Motorized Switch Design :-)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.trains
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Date:
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Mon, 15 Dec 2003 00:28:24 GMT
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Viewed:
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1141 times
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What with all the recent discussion on the various designs of motorized points,
I started thinking of ways to further reduce the footprint. After many deadends
& iterations, I finally came up with this (click thumbnails to enlarge):
Here’s a view of the internal mechanism:
A view of a “problem” car negotiating the point:
Features:
- Small (main body is 4x8 studs and 5 bricks tall)
- Fits within standard 8-stud track spacing
- Quick switching time (less than 0.1 second)
- Uses unmodified switch
- Semaphore-like arm indicates switch position
- Uses small number of common parts
This approach does exert a lot of force, but not on the switch lever itself.
Instead, the 4x3 panels absorb the hit when switching. After a while the roof
tends to lift a bit, but after about 200 iterations the thing still hadn’t
self-destructed. Perhaps a second 4x8 plate on the roof will stiffen things up
a bit.
LDraw file:
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/markril/Trains/TSwitch/tswitch.ldr
Folder when moderated (has assembly instructions):
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=65995
Cheers,
Mark
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Message has 3 Replies:
 | | Re: Another Motorized Switch Design :-)
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| (...) Does the motor stall at each limit? You could probably reduce the "problem cars" issue with an axle connector and extension (move the motor further away from the switch lever) and reduce the size of the housing a bit. ROSCO (20 years ago, 15-Dec-03, to lugnet.trains, FTX)
| | | Re: Another Motorized Switch Design :-)
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| New version! Now, the main body is only 4x6 studs: (URL) Another view of the internal mechanism: (URL) When building this, try to use 2x3 panels which have closed studs. Also, the two tiles on top are important for preventing the 4x6 roof plate from (...) (20 years ago, 15-Dec-03, to lugnet.trains, FTX)
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