Pairing up different point motors

[Phil Bullock]

Hi folks

 

Have just laid in a couple of new crossovers on Abbotswood to improve fiddle yard access at the Gloucester end

 

Using SMD82 and tortoise motors with one output from the SMD driving both motors simultaneously in series works fine - no issues

 

However on the other crossover I have had to substitute a cobalt for a tortoise at one end due to space restrictions - the tortoise in this pair powers over OK but the cobalt doesn't power up at all - but as wired in series must be conducting power through it or tortoise would not power over. Cobalt works Ok on its own too.

 

Anyone any experience of this please folks? Might have to try a cobalt at both ends but don't like them as much as tortoises as in an emergency you can push a tortoise over manually - but not a cobalt!

 

Cheers

 

Phil

 

 

 

 

[tender]

I suspect the Cobalt requires more current to operate that the tortoise but the tortoise being wired in series is limiting the current available to the cobalt.

Have you considered the Tortoise Remote mount which will allow you to mount it a short distance away from the point.

[Nigelcliffe]

Cobalts take far more power than Tortoise motors. This makes Cobalts very marginal (= often not working) on several decoders which are fine on Tortoise.   So, the Tortoise is probably getting enough power to operate but the Cobalt is not. 

 

If you have a spare set of contacts on the Tortoise, suggest using those to switch power to the Cobalt.   Depending on your available power at the site, you might also need a relay (or other hardware) to reverse the polarity to the Cobalt.

 

Or, as "tender" suggests above, some form of remote linkage.

[Phil Bullock]

Thanks folks

 

Yes had thought about tortoise remote but prefer electrical solutions

 

Thoughts on power consumption above confirm my suspicions so an easier solution perhaps given I have spare SMD82 outputs could be to split them and power each end of the crossover independently and group them as a route on ECoS

 

Serves me right for trying to be too clever!

 

Many thanks for input folks

 

Phil