Mick Bonwick

Has that idea just come to you, or have you used it before?

How many people do you know who have a box somewhere that contains a few wagon kits? How many people do you know who, when seeking that box among all the other carefully labelled boxes, find that there is another very similarly labelled box? How many people do you know who, when examining the contents of the two boxes, find that there a couple of duplications?

Nothing to lose. That will be worth a try, so thanks, Nigel.

Thanks very much to all you respondents. I now know a bit more about point motors and decoders than I did two days ago. I will not be replacing the Cobalt-SS motors with the MP1s, so will not need to obtain a DR4018. I have two Cobalt Classic point motors which have broken internal switches, so will use those and some microswitches to achieve the replacement. All I need to do now is to create something that will change the direction of travel of the Cobalt operating wire through ninety degrees and, because that is a mechanical operatrion rather than an electr(on)ic one, I have a fair chance of being successful. I will keep the MP1s for a rainy day. My 38 SEEP PM1s continue to give me good mechanical service after being in place for several years, so I have no need to replace them, but that does not really have any bearing on the operation of two point motors bought for an experiment, albeit a failed one.

That really is a striking image, Kevin. I cannot see anything about it that tells me it is a model.

The only stupid questions are the ones you don't ask!

If there is a decoder in place it may have been configured to run on DCC only. It reads as if you don't have DCC, in which case replacing the decoder with a blanking plate is your only option.

Thanks, Nigel. While I understand what you say, I was completely bemused by the vast array of items that appeared in response to my search string of 'relay module'. I was expecting to see something with two terminals at one end and three at the other. While the idea of buying something you don't understand, and then playing with it to work out how it is used, is appealing, I think I'll follow your and Iain's advice in this instance and call a retailer for help.

You may have noticed from various photographs in this topic that there are a few goods vehicles present for use to, from, and at Easton. When being run in pure Easton mode there will be short trains mostly composed of stone carrying vehicles, but when being run in fantasy mode there will be some longer trains running right through the station area. At the moment all of the goods stock in place has come out of a blue or red box. I do have an accumulation of kits that will need to be built, and I'm sure it won't be long before I make a tentative start on those. I had a visitor from the Churminster and Stowe Magna vicinity yesterday, who brought along some interesting additions to my accumulation. Although they all come in boxes with the same label on them, it is said that they can be made into several variants, so that will be interesting. I expect that there will be some entertainment value in anything that follows their construction.

Yes.

Iain, Many thanks for the information. I will investigate the converter - I'm not keen on buying more decoders. If push comes to shove I'll use a couple of not-quite-working-properly Cobalts rather than buy more 'stuff.' The MP1s (not PM1s as previously stated - they're SEEP solenoids! ) were bought on recommendation, but I didn't ask the right questions before committing to them.

I have recently bought a couple of mtb PM1 point motors to use as potential replacements for Cobalt-SS motors that are not suitable for my purposes. Thinking that I could use an existing DCC Concepts decoder (AD2fx) to drive them, I got everything ready this afternoon. Then I discovered that the PM1 needs three wires from a decoder and the DCC Concepts AD2fx decoder only produces two. I am hoping not to have to buy yet another decoder to try out these point motors, so am asking if anybody knows of a way to turn 3 x mtb wires into 2 x AD2fx wires. This situation also raises the question, "How many more point motors are there that need 3 wires to drive them, other than solenoid types?" I might want to play with evaluate them at some point, too.

That might allow too much movement or 'shock absorbtion'. You could try inserting a couple of screws to fix them in place. Sorry. I've just realised that you said you'd used foamboard as you baseboard. Wally!

I think that house looks splendid.

Relying on SEEP PM1 contacts to power your common crossings or drive LEDs is a bit risky. They are not precision instruments and require very careful positioning when installed. The travel of the solenoid bar must be absolutely in line with the travel of the point tie bar, and the point operating wire must be perfectly perpendicular and not touch the edges of the hole in your baseboard through which it passes. The central position of the solenoid bar/operating wire must be exactly the same as the central position of the point tie bar. If you get all of those right, the travelling distance of the brass washer along the contact strips will be just right for reliable reporting of point blade position to whatever is at the end of your wires. If any of them are not true, you will have a problem at some time or other. This response has no connection with droppers (your topic heading) but you did mention SEEPs.