Dapol working signals review

[Rshakes3]

Hi Sherr, yes I have both the older and the newer ones - 6 in all. I had an issue with one of the new ones and I carefully drilled out the small 'hole' to uncover the screw. so if you have a small drill bit and a Pin Vice and go carefully you should be able to get to the screw and move along to reset the spring.

 

[Free At Last]

The new Dapol signals now come with a 'control unit' and switch.

 

From Dapol Facebook page...

Edited June 18, 2019 by Free At Last

[Georgeconna]

Lovely Signals but Loads more plastic to Dump if you have no other use for it.

 

Shame really with the likes of Peco for years using Carboard packaging for points and now replaced with Plastic Sleeves.  Baccy Decoders used to come in cardboard now plastic. Seems to be never ending.

 

cheers

 

George

 

[Free At Last]

I enquired as to the purpose of the 'control unit' and whether the present range will come with one...

Quote

The control unit houses the servo motors and the PCB board and clips onto the base of the signal once you have installed the signal super structure. at this current time there are no plans to change over to this method of control for the single arm signals in OO or N Gauge but we may investigate the possibility in time.

 

[Richard E]

They have promised these in 2mm for years and need to keep to that promise but it looks as if they will only do them if there is enough demand. It also seems that they have switched to using servos rather than the small motor they previously used.

[RJS1977]

On 19/06/2019 at 09:10, Free At Last said:

I enquired as to the purpose of the 'control unit' and whether the present range will come with one...

 

 

The separate control unit seems a sensible step given the issues some have reported with the single arm signals failing with time - at least now it may be possible to replace the control unit rather than the whole signal.

[Titanius Anglesmith]

I’m glad I found this thread as I am considering buying some of these. I’ve had a scan through the whole thread and something struck me that I’m surprised no-one else has said. It was mentioned somewhere earlier that the motor gubbins are supplied via a 3v voltage regulator. If you put 12v into the regulator (or 16vac.... which has a peak of 22.6v!!) and get 3v out, that’s a lot of excess energy that gets turned to heat. I wouldn’t be surprised if many of the electrical faults are due to popped regulators. I’m amazed that Dapol’s revised instructions still advocate 9v or 12v, when anything more than about 4v just gets turned into heat. I am not surprised that there’s a few claims here of people running their signals quite happily on 5 or 6v. 

[The Johnster]

I recently installed two of these on Cwmdimbath and am (so far) very happy with them.  I decided to power them with 9V Duracell batteries, which has (again, so far) proved successful.  I left the signals powered for a week to see how long the batteries would last, and eventually gave up; they showed no signs of depletion and are still giving full power.  There is not any overheating issue that I'm aware of but one of the servos makes a bit of transmission noise, sounds like a mouse with something to complain about.  T'other is not far off dead silent.  It's a bit of a worry, because noise must of necessity mean that there is wear or friction somewhere, and the working life of the signal will be reduced, but the servo is a sealed unit and there's nowt I can do about it. 

 

If the signals are actually running on 5 or 6 volts, this presumably means that the 9V batteries are not being heavily loaded which should increase their operating life further, and enable them to operate the signals at more advanced stages of depletion when the voltage is dropping.  But one can buy much larger 6V rated batteries, and I might give this a try when my Duracells finally give up; the lighting levels will be reduced as well, an advantage in my view.

 

I'm pleased with my signals, though, and am looking forward to replacing my splitting home.  They look realistic, are well detailed and finished, and while not cheap, represent good value IMHO.

[tomparryharry]

I've earmarked an old telephone charger for this sort of job. Mrs Smith chucked it out, but I've "Saved it for preservation".

[Suzie]

While the motor bit runs on a 3V regulator, the LED does not so you need sufficient voltage to light the LED via its 820R series resistor - about 8V DC should be as bright as Dapol intend it to be.

[Titanius Anglesmith]

11 hours ago, Suzie said:

While the motor bit runs on a 3V regulator, the LED does not so you need sufficient voltage to light the LED via its 820R series resistor - about 8V DC should be as bright as Dapol intend it to be.

 

I think I could live with it not being as bright as Dapol intended 

[PaulRhB]

31 minutes ago, Titanius Anglesmith said:

 

I think I could live with it not being as bright as Dapol intended 

Yes I painted mine to dull them down. They do work happily off batteries too which is great for modular layouts. 

[Gordon H]

On ‎19‎/‎06‎/‎2019 at 09:10, Free At Last said:

I enquired as to the purpose of the 'control unit' and whether the present range will come with one...

 

 

Did they say whether the switch they now include with it will be an on/off type or a momentary type?

Hopefully they have seen the error of their ways and gone for on/off this time round.

[The Johnster]

4 hours ago, Titanius Anglesmith said:

 

I think I could live with it not being as bright as Dapol intended 

Me too.  I'm going to experiment with a 6 volt battery which should last longer than my 9V ones, not that battery life is an issue as yet, partly with the objective of dimming the lamps a bit.  They're not excessively bright, but too bright to represent the oil lamp glow of real signals, and too much light 'spills' out the sides.  If 6V fails to dim them to something more acceptable, I'll paint them like PaulRhb has his.

[Neal Ball]

Is there any news on the working Bracket signals?

[Richard E]

16 hours ago, Neal Ball said:

Is there any news on the working Bracket signals?

About as much as reports of aliens landing on the White House lawn. That is zilch, nil, nada, nothing from Dapol. Mind you Rails and Hattons are taking pre-orders.

 

I'm fed up with it as these have been promised for about 4 years now and will be looking to build my own using Wizard components.

[The Johnster]

I take it you haven't seen this morning's news about aliens landing on the White House lawn, then...

 

Dap are having an open day next Saturday and hopefully there'll be some news then; sounds like a suitable time for a Steve Jobs type announcement session.

[Welsh Signaller]

O gauge examples on show today.

[Adrian Stevenson]

In the question and answer session at the Dapol open day yesterday I asked about delivery of these. They are now in production and should be here by Christmas.

 

Cheers Ade.

[Mallard60022]

On 16/09/2019 at 13:51, Richard E said:

About as much as reports of aliens landing on the White House lawn. That is zilch, nil, nada, nothing from Dapol. Mind you Rails and Hattons are taking pre-orders.

 

I'm fed up with it as these have been promised for about 4 years now and will be looking to build my own using Wizard components.

 

11 hours ago, Welsh Signaller said:

O gauge examples on show today.

 

  Maybe the 'Brackets' will appear soon then; probably adjusting the hinges! 

Edited September 22, 2019 by Mallard60022

[Richard E]

3 hours ago, Mallard60022 said:

 

 

  Maybe the 'Brackets' will appear soon then; probably adjusting the hinges! 

As I'm waiting for the bracket signals in N I'm not going to hold my breath but press on with scratchbuilding some.

[Mallard60022]

1 minute ago, Richard E said:

As I'm waiting for the bracket signals in N I'm not going to hold my breath but press on with scratchbuilding some.

Hinge & Bracket...….never mind!

Good luck matey.

P

[The Johnster]

I'm now powering mine from a large 6v battery; they work fine and the lights are a little dimmer, but I may still paint over the leds to dull them further.

[Titanius Anglesmith]

 

3 hours ago, The Johnster said:

I'm now powering mine from a large 6v battery; they work fine and the lights are a little dimmer, but I may still paint over the leds to dull them further.

 

I took the plunge and ordered a pair, they arrived yesterday. I tested them at 6v and I still think they’re too bright. I’ll probably leave them though as SWMBO likes things that light up 

[The Johnster]

Battery is now replaced by a mains DC power supply which can be set to various voltages from 3 to 12.  The signals work perfectly on a 5v setting, which dims the lamps a little further.  3v gives a very good effect on the lamps, but is insufficient to actuate the signals, as is 4½v, which actually actuated one signal but not the other one; I assume minor differences in the stiffness of the mechanisms are the reason for this and it is possible that some peoples' signals will work satisfactorily on 4½.

 

I am less unhappy with the lamps now, but I still think they could ideally do with a further dimming for running in low light or at 'night'.  Proper night running will not be possible as the removable head and tail oil lamps can't be illuminated.  The signals don't look too bad in daylight though.  The main problem is light 'spilling' out of the sides and I am giving some thoughts towards ways of preventing this

 

The next stage is to put an on-off switch in the cable from the power supply, so that I can extinguish the lamps at will, but this is not high on the 'to do' list; they can remain lit for now!