Electric Points Control (LGB/Piko)

dunnyrail said:
You will need some kind of servo driver, a RC receiver, some use servo testers that are very inexpensive or a servo card that would need to live indoors. You cannot drive a servo both ways with a direct current DC applied.
Click to expand...
Hi there

isn't this the servo controller ? Basic servo controller kit

All I need to add is the servo motor such as 9g micro servo, plus a switch ?

I got inspired by this on youtube ..Surface mounting servos for model railway turnouts

As I said no experience at all .... apart from spending most of the arvo looking this stuff up ! :)

Cheers
Mal
 
<Slight thread drift>
So, the race is on:
AI to become self-aware, or the cats to evolve opposable-thumbs!
:nerd: :D

Get yourself a couple of cheap 'SG90' clone servos. - Most will be copies, but are fine for this, and a servo tester. - Normally in a blue and yellow 'wrap'..

You can play with this, and it will give you an idea of what the servo can do, the amount of travel they provide etc.

If you mount a servo in (say) a suitable 3D printed 'equipment cabinet. - Body upper-most, so it is off the ground.
You can use this to drive a point. There are cheap ways to add control, or you can use something like a Megapoints board, or MERG also have servo driver boards, I believe?

PhilP.
 
PhilP said:
<Slight thread drift>
So, the race is on:
AI to become self-aware, or the cats to evolve opposable-thumbs!
:nerd: :D

Get yourself a couple of cheap 'SG90' clone servos. - Most will be copies, but are fine for this, and a servo tester. - Normally in a blue and yellow 'wrap'..

You can play with this, and it will give you an idea of what the servo can do, the amount of travel they provide etc.

If you mount a servo in (say) a suitable 3D printed 'equipment cabinet. - Body upper-most, so it is off the ground.
You can use this to drive a point. There are cheap ways to add control, or you can use something like a Megapoints board, or MERG also have servo driver boards, I believe?

PhilP.
Click to expand...
Yeah PhilP, stellar idea...off to aliexpress...

I already have a couple of Seeps on their way but I need to get a handle on this servo stuff as well... cheers mate.

Mal
 
As you need to put some kind of slot in your box for the mechanism to work, it may be worth trying to mount the box at a slight angle, so any moisture can drain out of thst slot.
 
These are inexpensive and simple to modify but be careful of the type you buy one design throws the servo to the extreme ends at power up as a sort of self test and they cannot be separated by looking at them I asked a seller to test them before sending and all I got was crickets. I put mine outside in airtight food containers they run off a 12V battery with a 12V-5V step down.
I opted for a home grown solution using a picaxe microcontroller but an arduino would do the same job and be easier to use. Again AI is your friend for designing and programming it
Servos outside can suffer from water ingress so require some protection I am using MG-90 as they are more robust with metal gears but more expensive.

If you give a full description of what resources you have, your experience and what your plans are I may be able to help; send in PM if need be.

To get you started; here is a prompt to put into ChatGPT. Assumed a complete novice to get the most basic explanation.

Explain to me, as a complete beginner with very little electronics experience, how to wire and control G-scale model railway points (turnouts) using an Arduino and standard RC servos. No coding is required at this stage—focus only on wiring and the physical setup.

Please include:
  1. A simple explanation of how a servo works in the context of point control.
  2. A clear list of the exact parts needed (Arduino model, servo types, power supply, connectors, optional switches, etc.).
  3. The safest way to power servos outdoors on a garden railway.
  4. A wiring diagram described in words—explain where each wire goes.
  5. How to prevent electrical noise or brown-outs by isolating servo power from the Arduino.
  6. How to add a manual switch or push-button to change the point position in addition to Arduino control.
  7. Tips for waterproofing, cable choice, and protecting the servo outdoors.
  8. Common beginner mistakes and how to avoid them (servo jitter, wrong power supply, poor connections, grounding issues).
Write the explanation in very simple language with no jargon unless it is explained. Imagine you are teaching someone who has never wired a servo before.
 
JimmyB said:
GUIDE, being the operative word here!!!
Click to expand...
Oh Yeah the number of times I have caught it out is big. If in doubt I feed the answer into another one and see what it says then feed that back into the first one playing one against the other is sometimes entertaining.
 
korm kormsen said:
does that mean, that servos need to have a three cable input, like the first LGB point-motors, for moving forward and back?
Click to expand...
A servo does have a three cable input..
Positive and Negative supply, and a control signal.

There is some electronics in a servo, then work by having a (roughly) 1.0 - 2.0ms width pulse sent to them. - 1.5ms being the notional 'centre' position.

Most servos have around 90° of rotation as standard.
Some will allow you to 'extend' this to around 130 - 150°.

There are also continuous turn servos. - The model boat people refer to them as Capstan Servos.
These tend to stop/hold at the neutral (mid) point, then rotate one way or the other, when the signal is either side of the mid-point.

PhilP.
 
Interesting. I've been using LGB point motors which are basically a form of solenoid for over twenty years. I've had to replace three of them in that time as they became too rusty to work reliably. They don't have waterproof enclosures in fact they're hardly even damp proof.

OK - they have been designed to work outdoors whereas SEEP aren't. But I think you might be able to get away with something a little less complicated than AI is suggesting.

Rik
 
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