Frog Switch for Copperclad Construction

[Wibble]

As Focalplane says - there is an inherent problem with soldered construction, and believe that's why SMP supplied a glassfibre tie-bar with rivets (in an attempt to ease the stresses), although I've never used them myself.

 

This image shows the arrangement on my storage yard pointwork. I estimate these point motors have operated more than 3000 times, and the trackwork is built to a freelance design (approx' B6 size EM gauge) to suit the geometry of the yard. It's essential that they are set up correctly, as there's a big thump every time they are operated, but in over 20 years of use I've never had to attend to any fractured joints.

 

[AndyID]

there is an inherent problem with soldered construction, and believe that's why SMP supplied a glassfibre tie-bar with rivets 

Yes, it's because you are distorting  something that's a bit like a parallelogram, and the repeated stressing from that can cause the solder joint to fail. Rivets that can rotate in the tiebar is one way to solve the problem. Here's another:

 

 

The blades don't bend. They pivot around the middle of a timber that's free to rotate.

[Junctionmad]

Rather then relpying Individually

 

Frog juicers cause no more wiring in DCC then any other form of frog switching. Used as a hex form it has way less wiring , The typical way DCC is wired , with multiple close " droppers , means in practice you don't need to specifically wire to the turnout , only its frog. You can insert the " juicer" anywhere into the DCC track feed for the relevant power cutoff district. This results in one wire to the specific turnout.

 

Frog juicers can obviously handle running into a turnout set the wrong way , whereas conventional switching in DC or DCC will short

 

Despite what has been, the short circuit of many DC layouts typically causes a complete layout stop ( often it's a PSU trip in DC ) , just like DCC, the solution is simple , in any large DCC layout , especially ones with simultaneous running ability, the DCC feeds should be broken up into power districts , each with its own cutout. Problem solved.

 

As for Martin and PO relays ,,,, we have flown outside our solar system since Martin , I think we can put these quaint ideas to bed now. Modern servos are cheap, way more reliable then needed , programmable to match all sorts of human scale switch blade or semaphore movements, all in all a better " for for purpose" Let's stay in the 21 st century

 

( ps I used to use po relays, years ago , as my grandfather , near the end of his career , did maintainence on a old exchange , but they are noisy, physically large , draw loads of current, and hum , and quite happily pull the turnout mechanism apart )

 

It's a pity current juicers are so expensive , the circuitry is quite trivial, I've breadboarded a simple one, that I will incorporate into my own servo driver board , ( one f these days ) , in correspondsnce with tam valley , I've decided to call my circuit AFS , Auto frog switching as he uses the term " frog juicer ". One of these days I'll tidy up the circuit and stick it up on the MERG forum. The other option I breadboarded was FET switching of the frogs rather then using relays.

 

By the way one of the sillier things , I see, is electronically controlled servos that then use mechanical linkage to switches to switch frogs. doh.....

 

In fact , once you have electronic switching , you could trivially do both, ie switch the frog on turnout change , but with a frog juicer as backup , for the few times you drive into a wrongly set turnout. !!! , now there's a thought

[Junctionmad]

The blades don't bend. They pivot around the middle of a timber that's free to rotate.

Omg , kill it with fire.

[AndyID]

Omg , kill it with fire.

 

Sorry, but that won't work. It''s made with FR-4