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Fulgurex or Colbolt


KH1

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blog-0393426001370427144.jpgHave just made up a kit of parts for the last pair of legs but a screw shortage means a delay until this afternoon when I can get some more. Also took the opportunity to shorten the locating tangs on the top of the legs. Just need to clear space in conservatory now and can soon have them all put up - all eighteen and a half feet of it.

 

But a big question now..... I was going to use Fulgurex point motors and have four out of the six I will need but they seem to be in short supply at the moment so will have to scratch around to find the extra two. Now reading a few forums they do seem to get a bit of a bad press and Colbolt seem to get all the glowing reviews so do I just go for six of these?

 

I have also noticed that there is a handy LED route indication and switch pack for them which would certainly make life easier but could lead to problems in the long run. What I intend to do is to make two identical control panels at each end so that the layout can be operated by either one or two people from each end. The other thing I was thinking of doing was wiring the motors up in pairs (as the track plan is essentially three loops), to rule out the risk of running at a closed point twelve feet away at the other end.

 

I know that these motors are meant to be left with power on and staled but not completely happy with this so was thinking of using unlatched switches and just holding them down until the point has thrown. My thinking is also that if I do this I will be able to use two switches at either end but wouldn't be able to do so if I used a latching switch (there goes the handy switch pack).

 

Can anyone think of any problems in doing it like this?

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As far as I know, you must keep point motors such as Cobalt and Tortoise (a little bit cheaper and more highly rated by a supplier  of both makes with whom I discussed them) powered up - they are designed to be run as stalled! The current used is only something around 12mA at 9-12V DC so your six will take less than 0.9W with them all stalled whilst the power demand will only be 2.7W with them all running at the same time (a very unlikely scenario). Both these designs have two change-over contact sets so you can use one to switch frog polarity and the other to provide route indication. If you did things that way, the second pair (route indication) could also switch an additional relay to satisfy your extra requirements.

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I've fitted 7 Cobalts so far and I've found the current draw lower than the figure Gruffalo suggested. Three of these are paired up so that the lever throws the connection and trap at the same time just as the real thing would have done. Unlike tortoise you can't move the things with the power off so you could use push to make switches and hold them down for a few seconds until the switch blades have moved across fully without problems. It wouldn't be difficult to arrange things so that they could be operated from multiple positions either. The instructions (available for download but not included in the box!) give lots of ideas for how to wire in route indication &c. 

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Fulgurex and Lemaco are very similar designs ie worm / wheel with end of travel switches. I found these quite realiable when used with a relco track cleaner, but to noisy for late night operation when my wife was in bed. There's also a small leaf spring that actuates the contacts on the micro switch that can drop out when handled. Cobalts are much more reliable.

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I used Fulgurex motors on my H0m layout but am not very impressed with them. They're incredibly noisy, don't seem particularly well built and, because they can barely throw my Tillig points, need to be very carefully set up. The point blades are not hinged, which was why I opted for a motor drive to avoid excessive force on the tiebar. The force needed to throw the point blades throughout their travel means that there is no overrun when the motor is cut so the spare switch used to power the frog has to be set up to switch before the one that controls the motor. This doesn't always work which led to shorts or, when I rewired them to use both spare switches (one at each end) as on-off switches, to reliance on blade contact to power the frog. 

I did install them as per Fulgurex's instructions with a torque tube but there is a lot of mechanical loss in this and a more direct drive to the point blades would probably work better. 

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