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MTB Point Motors - Any Experiences?


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49 minutes ago, melmerby said:

Looks likeyou used the MP1 as inspiration and scaled it up somewhat!

 

No actually -  I came at it from a completely different direction, working it from first principles, as I made an uncoupling device for the magnetic couplings I made for myself, using a single this cam and follower, and repurposed it into this motor. 

This in turn was inspired by the Walking Man automaton I made last year, which employed a double sided cam with 180 degree offset.

 

 

 

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14 minutes ago, melmerby said:

Interesting.

What wasn't reliable, the microswitch or the actuation of it?

Bit of both, because of my choice of mounts (just using aluminium channel) the placement wasn’t ideal, plus I was using handbuilt N gauge track, with little throw, so they were very sensitive to being in the right place. 

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1 hour ago, njee20 said:

To drag this back on topic I see MTB are doing a retail boxed set of 8 motors with a Digikeijs DR4018. Shame it’s not 16 motors, given it’s a 16-channel decoder, but even so.  I’m increasingly tempted to at least try a few!

 

I'm assuming that's because you need two channels to operate each motor - one gives the signal to be thrown normal and the other to be thrown reverse, which means that you need one DR4018 for every eight points that you have.

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20 minutes ago, Dungrange said:

 

I'm assuming that's because you need two channels to operate each motor - one gives the signal to be thrown normal and the other to be thrown reverse, which means that you need one DR4018 for every eight points that you have.

Yes I think that’s right. Has anyone tried the “next generation” DR50018?

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16 minutes ago, dmumford said:

Yes I think that’s right. Has anyone tried the “next generation” DR50018?

 

an expensive option if all you are doing is using it for all outputs as the same function e.g. turnout control. Why do you need an app? Answer - you don't therefore you are paying €30 extra for no functionality that you cannot get on a DR4018. 

 

If you are using it for multiple different outputs where you want top program each output differently then there is possible justication.

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30 minutes ago, njee20 said:

Ahhh, roger that. Mmm, that increases the cost somewhat. 

For DCC an Arduino nano clone plus some Mosfets

About £5 -£7 or so to drive 5 motors. if you buy from AliExpress.

That's what I did for my MP1s

Use a Mega clone and get extra outputs

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42 minutes ago, njee20 said:

Ahhh, roger that. Mmm, that increases the cost somewhat. 

The DR4018 Manual (https://www.dcctrainautomation.co.uk/user/DR4018-Manual.pdf) indicate that its automatically pre-set to operate eight turnouts.  It can however be used to turn on/off 16 lights or operate 16 two aspect signals.

 

However, @KingEdwardII has indicted on his post on the first page of this thread that a single output from a DR4018 is enough to throw two MTB1 point motors as part of a cross-over. That therefore means that a single DR4018 could potentially operate 16 MTB motors if they were arranged as eight crossovers.  Alternatively, if you have loops off a mainline and you were content to operate the turnout at each end of the loop simultaneously from a single accessory address, then you could again operate more MTB point motors from each DR4018.   I guess that the ultimate cost would therefore depend on your track plan.

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9 minutes ago, Dungrange said:

single output from a DR4018 is enough to throw two MTB1 point motors as part of a cross-over

Yes,

 

I have 7 paired MP1 motors on my layout - either crossovers or cases where a point leading from a main line into sidings has another point in the sidings diverting into a headshunt or equivalent that must be interlocked with the point on the main line.

 

The current loadings of two MP1s are well within the capabilities of the DR4018.

 

Yours, Mike.

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36 minutes ago, melmerby said:

DCC an Arduino nano clone plus some Mosfets

CMME have a DCC 16 channel servo controller that contains an Arduino as its brains - £28 all-in and that includes an Adafruit 16 channel servo board and requisite software both to deal with DCC commands and to control each servo independently, including semaphore bounce:

 

https://chesterfield-models.co.uk/product/arduino-dcc-sniffer-relay-servo-decoder-all-in-one-copy/

 

I'm using one to drive semaphore servos, but it could equally well drive servos to operate points. It will NOT drive MP1 point motors.

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28 minutes ago, Dungrange said:

The DR4018 Manual (https://www.dcctrainautomation.co.uk/user/DR4018-Manual.pdf) indicate that its automatically pre-set to operate eight turnouts.  It can however be used to turn on/off 16 lights or operate 16 two aspect signals...


Be aware that the default setting for a DR4018 is for 8 x solenoid motors which is not correct for MP1 or MP5 motors and you must use Preset 6 for these.

 

The default solenoid output from the DR4018 is for the Kato, Roco, Fleischmann low current solenoids and it is not suitable for high current devices such as Peco, Seep, etc. It may work but it may also simply fail and there will be no warranty.

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