Insulfrogs and conductive paint?

[mr magnolia]

Apologies for repeating a blog topic here, but I'm needing advice as well as simply blethering away!

 

simple question: conductive paint over the plastic bits of the insulfrog points seems to

 

a) still allow the layout to work

 

b ) allow the little Farish 04 to trundle around more readily.

 

How can this be? I have made no gaps in the paint smothered over the frogs, so I was surprised to find that anything ran at all!

 

First thought is that cab control rather than the existing single controller setup might change things.

 

Any thoughts or experiences in using conductive paint and an explanation as to why it still works would help me decide whether to keep and disguise it, or simply get rid.

 

trackplan is here

 

photo:

[Suzie]

You have converted your points to live frog by just painting them, and in some scenarios that will not change the way that you wire them.

 

You are likely the get a problem with shorts if you have not modified the wiring, but the conductive paint will go open circuit quite quickly in the event of a short when it is fed from both ends instantly alleviating the problem. Since you still have dead frog wiring in place when the points are all set correctly power will be fed into the paint from both directions and will appear to be continuous with only a tiny break.

 

You might like to think about changing your wiring to be live frog compatible because you should then have less maintenance to do on the conductive paint. In most cases all you will need to do is fit a couple of insulated joiners to the frog rails and a new feed beyond the frog.

 

 

 

 

 

[mr magnolia]

You have converted your points to live frog by just painting them, and in some scenarios that will not change the way that you wire them.

 

does that mean that if Itake a blade to the paint and create a break then it will be the same as before, but with longer conductive bits in place?

 

(not sure what 'open circuit' means, but it doesn't sound good, and I I am trying to avoid more wiring feeds - but then again I might just be fooling myself!)

[Suzie]

does that mean that if Itake a blade to the paint and create a break then it will be the same as before, but with longer conductive bits in place?

 

(not sure what 'open circuit' means, but it doesn't sound good, and I I am trying to avoid more wiring feeds - but then again I might just be fooling myself!)

 

Yes, but cutting a break will be time consuming if you have to do it every time you repaint the frogs. You might as well bite the bullet, perhaps starting with the more problematic locations and rewire them for live frog. It is not hard and once you get the hang of it you will wonder why you ever worried.

 

 

 

[Pete the Elaner]

Open/closed with electricity is the opposite to how a door works: open the door & you can pass through it. Close an electrical switch & current will pass through it.

 

From Susie's comment, it sounds like electrically conductive paint burns off when there is a short. Is this the case? (I've never used it)

[mr magnolia]

Haven't seen any burning off in evidence - but there have been a few pops and a couple of sparks!

 

I've finally worked out what Susie was getting at: I was fixing my brain around better performance from the insulfrogs but really, I've just created electrofrogs.

 

I suspect that this may be worthwhile, as I have a lot of the little beasts, so I shall get going with the wiring and insulated joiners (er, soon...)

 

I've attacked the paint with a track rubber now as a trial and I think it might withstand a little bit of abuse before coming off. Given the sharp geometry through the points, high speed running isn't really a feature, so the rougher surface over the paint doesn't seem to pose much of an issue either

[Dagworth]

Note that you don't need to paint the check rails opposite the frog, they carry no current ever and can be left unpainted.

 

Andi

[mr magnolia]

Note that you don't need to paint the check rails opposite the frog, they carry no current ever and can be left unpainted.

 

Andi

 

thanks Andi - I painted them simply to see whether they looked better as shiny silver rather than shiny brown plastic. Really they should be some sort of rusty silver, but thats another step in the adventure!