Jump to content
RMweb
 
  • entries
    95
  • comments
    408
  • views
    43,744

cobalt point motor +

Chrislock

Entry posted by Chrislock

994 views

 Share

Greetings.

 

This morning two small parcels arrived in the care of my trusty postman Henry- some long awaited bits from shop 3, and a DCC Supplies Cobalt turnout motor ( photo).

I decided to buy a sample one to look at, as althoug Tortoise motors seem the most popular, at 85mm deep they are too big for my little test layout. The cobalt comes in at 67mm including electrical connector(13.5mm) ( though I am going to see if I can remove this and connect directly by solder, which would reduce the depth required to around 55mm. More on that anon).

 

blogentry-5408-0-67600200-1296904620_thumb.jpg

 

There has been little positive activity on the track front this week, as having added temporary power my locos refused to run through one of the turnouts, even thoug my test truck did. In the end, having checked wheel BTB etc, I did the only thing and removed both the turnout in question, and the one connected to it, to rebuild it, reassemble as a single switching unit, then return to the board.

I found the problem was in the curved stock rail, which I had somehow managed to lay crookedly and just hadn't picked up. I had enough chairs left to get as far as relaying this rail, but not enough left to replace the final switching blade, so have to wait for an order from shop 1. :rolleyes:

Certainly the initial rolling truck test suggests it is much improved. :)

I think assembling the two turnouts as a unit will enable me to be absolutely sure transition is smooth before glueing them back down!

 

In the background of the piccy you can see progress on a 10T brake van, which is going together ok, and which I have been enjoying building this week.

 

Sorry, not great at blogs and afraid this one will be far from daily!!

 

blogentry-5408-0-91779300-1297022185_thumb.jpg

 

Regards,

Chris

 Share

6 Comments

Recommended Comments

  • RMweb Gold
bcnPete
  • RMweb Gold

Looks interesting Chris - The depth of the tortoise with my 50mm shelves put me off which is another reason I went with WIT, but with your recess cuts and the smaller unit above, I am keen to see how it maps out.

 

Blog as and when you can...always good to see progress...

Link to comment
SNCF stephen

I am using a Cobalt on the extension to my current layout. It is a nice piece of kit and operates very smoothly. I shall be installing it physically in the next few days but it will be a while before I get to actually wiring it up. I am running mine from an old phone charger which will be linked to a switch to change the polarity of the power supply with each flick.

 

It is a bit smaller than the Tortoise motors and although it is similar I believe the mechanism to be much improved.

 

I look forward to seeing what you do with yours.

 

Stephen

Link to comment
Chrislock

I am running mine from an old phone charger

 

Stephen that sounds really interesting - I would like to keep abreast of your progress in this.

 

Pete - the motor case will actually protrude abot 10mm as it stands, allowing for reinforcing the mounting area with thin ply - necessary I feel with the lack board.

Until I have decided

a) whether there are any legs in this miniproject; and

B) whether I will build a frame to support the boards;

I intend to fir half a dozen wooden feet to raise the lack board a couple of inches above the table top and to clear the motor plus wires.

Killybegs, I suspect that the Tortoise was the original, as I think these are made for DCC Supplies?

( I may be completely wrong there, its just how it reads on their website!)

 

Regards,

Chris

Link to comment
  • RMweb Gold
Donw
  • RMweb Gold

In order to fit tortoise motors on a layout with a thin baseboard. I mounted them on their side along the rear and used brass rods in plastic tube to transfer the drive. The tortoise operating arm ran through a piece of tube soldered to the brass rods. A removable scenic cover hid the motors. Sadly the layout didn't survive a house move. Someone stacked a heavy box of tools on top or the layout when fetching it from storage.

 

Don

Link to comment
SNCF stephen

Cobalt suggested the use of the Adaptor in their manual. As long as it is DC and low volatage (you might need to check but between 4 and 9 volts springs to mind) it should be ok. Mobile phone adaptors, battery chargers etc all do the job equally well as long as it meets the spec. Since I am only running one I am not putting in a complex system of powering it. I will be using a switch that changes the polarity with each press to activate the motor.

 

I have now installed mine into my new module and I will be updating my blog at the weekend (unfortunately its my birthday tomorrow so that has gotten in the way of the blogging ;) )

 

Tortoise was definitely first. These are relatively new on the scene. They were recently reviewed in Model Rail (about 4 or 5 months ago) and I have only seen their adverts recently.

Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...