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MTB MP1 point motor query


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1 hour ago, Andy_C said:

I have the odd one or 2 spare, but not a bag full?

Thanks but asyou can see I've ordered. Any time you adjust any of these motors, you are at risk of losing a screw if you are working under the baseboards. So I have stocked up.

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38 minutes ago, RobinofLoxley said:

Thanks but asyou can see I've ordered. Any time you adjust any of these motors, you are at risk of losing a screw if you are working under the baseboards. So I have stocked up.

I’ve had a couple of motors fail, so have cannibalised them accordingly for spares. 

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5 minutes ago, Andy_C said:

I’ve had a couple of motors fail, so have cannibalised them accordingly for spares. 

This is the first I've heard of MP1s failing.

 

Do you know what the causes were? How long had they been in use?

 

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14 hours ago, melmerby said:

It would be nice to know what you think it was, to prevent others making the same mistake.

I think it was a wiring error on my part regarding power to the motor itself, causing the motor to overheat. I'm not sure such erstwhile modellers on here would make such a mistake...😄

Edited by Andy_C
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On 28/08/2023 at 17:57, Ravenser said:

 

 

My understanding from the documentation is that for 12V DC there is a positive common , and negative to each side of the motor/switch. So you need to wire the positive side of the DC supply to Common. That would seem to rule out using the traction supply

 

But , again - what is the situation for 16V AC (where there is no polarity) ? Does it work, and does anyone have any experience of it?

 

The deafening silence everywhere I look about wiring these for AC   is striking - and ringing alarm bells

Coming back to this.

I have tried a MP-1 on AC and they work perfectly*, Ignore the plus sign, it's just a common connection

*I actually used my DCC system which is around 14.5v

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35 minutes ago, melmerby said:

Coming back to this.

I have tried a MP-1 on AC and they work perfectly*, Ignore the plus sign, it's just a common connection

*I actually used my DCC system which is around 14.5v

 

Very useful , and thank you for providing some hard info. This means that it should be entirely practical to swap these in for an existing solenoid point motor without extensive rewiring. That may be a very useful feature for some.

 

In my own case I had already ordered two AC to DC variable twin-output power supplies from an outfit RK Education  I then realised I couldn't find contact details anywhere on the site , the price seemed very good, and I started to panic about a Coopercraft/Modelmasters type scenario.

 

I am very happy to report that the goods arrived about 10 days after my posting with an apology for the delay , and a unit is now installed . There is no documentation available on the RK website for these - the link does not work - so I will report that voltage is varied by turning a potentiometer with a jewellers screwdriver. You know what you are doing, because there are 2 green  LEDS and you can see them grow dimmer or brighter ... It took me some time to realise this , and in attempting to get a voltage reading I managed to short across to ta 16V AC circuit tag and blew one output. Since there are 2 outputs I simply swapped the supply wires for the point motors to the other output... I still don't seem to know how to get a voltage reading with the multimeter. YouTube videos suggest you need 9-10V DC to throw points 

 

I have reused the existing switches and wiring , and merely transferred the power input to the converter unit. The whole lot is in a constricted area, and taking it out and rewiring in a confined space was a job I preferred to avoid. It is necessary to hold over the switch until the motor has fully thrown and shuts off - which is further than it takes to close the point blades. Otherwise the motor won't reverse

 

I've now ordered a further two motors for use on the other board . I have a further AC/DC converter unit to use there. This is partly because I'm thinking about putting some lighting effects in - a welding flash in the open welding area, building lights and the like, and a regulated DC power supply like this is needed to power them

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I have a 15v AC Bus around my layout as I still have several things that run off that supply, I originally had many more as the RS-8 block detectors also used 15v AC but they have been replaced by the Loconet ones that use power from the Loconet bus.

However the MP-1s I have are driven by 12v DC from an Arduino based DCC decoder, which itself is powered from the 15v AC supply.

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9 hours ago, melmerby said:

I have a 15v AC Bus around my layout as I still have several things that run off that supply, I originally had many more as the RS-8 block detectors also used 15v AC but they have been replaced by the Loconet ones that use power from the Loconet bus.

However the MP-1s I have are driven by 12v DC from an Arduino based DCC decoder, which itself is powered from the 15v AC supply.

I thought DCC was just two wires? lol

🤫

 

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