Battery power possible for LGB electric points?

[robbo777]

I hope I'm posting this in the right place...

I recently bought an LGB electric point, and I want to use battery power to operate it. I use LGB brass track but I don't have power running to the track, as I use battery powered locos based on the Playmobil RC chassis. I think this set of points has got a solenoid inside it, (see the photo) and I've no idea if I can get it to work off a battery or not. Can anyone help me with this? Thanks for any advice anyone can give.

 

[Zerogee]

First off, that is a very, very old EPL switch drive, with those three screw terminals. You may have to look back to some early LGB instructions (most are available in various free archives online) to check how they are wired, it is different from the more modern two-wire ones. I'm not sure if these old ones normally run off the AC or DC supply from the transformer?
Anyway, obviously whichever way you power them you will need to run cables back to a switch box of some sort in order to operate the points, and you may well be able to run that switch box from a battery supply of some kind - though it might at that stage be easier to simply run a small basic transformer off the mains for the points power, unless your layout is so far from any mains supply that this is not practical.

Jon.

PS: I notice this is your first post - welcome to the friendly bunch of nutters that is GSC.....

 

[mmts]

I think it would be possible but each point would need some power and a servo and a reciever??......(but im no expert)

 

[Neil Robinson]

Just try it and see. I suggest at least 12V with a short term capacity of around 0.5A. Connect one side of the battery to the centre point motor terminal and then momentarily touch a lead from the other battery terminal to one of the outer point motor terminals. Next touch that lead on the other outer terminal. You should find that one outer terminal changes the point in one direction, unless it it already set that way in which case it has no effect, and the outer outer terminal changes the point the other way. The point motor should only be powered momentarily otherwise it'll overheat and flatten the battery.

 

[stockers]

I dont see why not. I think you will need at least 12V. A car battery should work but rather big. You would need a momentary contact switch available from Maplins etc or a smaller gauge model railway supplier. I would have thought a bank of about 10 AA's should work.
The middle terminal is probably common to both directions and the outers need feeding from the two output of the switch.

 

[Gizzy]

Welcome to the Forum.

Your point motor should work off a small 12V battery, like those you can get for Fire Alarms? As Jon Zerogee mentioned, it's a very early solenoid type.

You just need to use a DPDT momentary switch that can be wired to swap the polarity.

Or you could use 2 momentary push button switches (non latching such as the Gaugemaster A6 type, wiring one switch for the diverging route and the other for the straight road.

It would be easier still though, if you can buy a cheap transformer and use the Gaugemaster GM511 switch as this will rectify the AC to the correct DC polarity to change your motor....

http://www.gaugemaster.com/item_details.asp?code=GM511&style=main&strType=g

 

[robbo777]

Thanks everyone for your replies - very helpful.

I understand the bit about not having current running to the points all the time, so will make sure I do use a momentary switch.

I'll give it a try with a 12v battery (or combination of batteries)to start with and see how it goes.

Thanks again, this is a great forum!

 

[trammayo]

12 volt works just fine on my line.