PIKO Switch Drives

[Madman]

I have recently installed three Piko switch dives in my garden track layout. Two have Supplementary Switches. I covered alittle about these in another thread. One works perfectly, changing the signal lights with the point position changes. The other has a two-fold issue. It seems the switch drive doesn't throw the points fully. Also, the supplementary switch doesn't seem to be quite fitted properly against the switch drive. It easily moves a tiny bit.
Now the points not travelling fully are what I believe the issue is with the signal not going to Red from Green. However, I have re-installed the Supplementary Switch several times and it just doesn't feel like it's fully in place.

 

[Gizzy]

It is worth trying the supplementary switches in other drives or swapping them over Dan?

Might help in diagnosing where exactly the problem is....

 

[Madman]

I wrote to Piko about the issue and Jonathan Meador was kind enough to answer in detail.

"Hi Dan:

From what you?ve described, here are my thoughts:

In the process of opening up the machine, I would guess that the round pinion gear turned a few gear teeth while the cover was off. The gear has a little indicator molded in, which must be placed at top-dead-center, when the throw rod is also in the center of its motion. Otherwise, the machine will be strong in one direction and weak in the other. The solution is to make sure the gear and the throw rod are properly centered. One other note: Some switch controls, such as the LGB switch control boxes or the reed switches used for automatic operation, basically cut the voltage in half before it goes to the switch machine. The PIKO 35260 switch control boxes provide basically the full input voltage to the machine, which makes the machine much more responsive. Use of a slightly higher-voltage transformer and larger wire will also help improve the performance of the switch machines.

The supplementary switches do fit a bit more loosely than I would like. The natural thing is to tighten down on the screw which holds the small cover plate in place. But this causes the outer tabs on the cover plate to bow upwards, actually holding the supplementary switch more loosely. Loosening up a bit on this screw should help somewhat, so that the cover plate sits more flat. I have also talked with a customer who put a long thin black zip-tie lengthwise around the machine and the supplementary switch, which seemed to help.

Best regards,


Jonathan Meador
PIKO America, LLC"