So you want to try Tomix FineTrack?

[MrLinderman]

Any thoughts what I can use as those items from Plaza and seems everywhere I look is sold out. Should I look for 3M metal strips?

[disturbman]

Yes, that's the speculation: that Kato is selling overpriced 3M metal tape.

I don't know that anyone figured out which one they are. But that would be a useful information to have.

[MrLinderman]

For those interested I have confirmed that a ferros metal placed underneath the switch negates any stray waves and keeps the switch locked in place till the solenoid activates.

 

Tested with 3m, 1mm thick steel flexible non-metalic strip, now I know what can be used to fix the issue ill test some metal strips allot thinner as 1mm isn't really suitable for a flat wood table im doing my testing on, fine if your building on foam as you can carve out a small pocket.

 

Gotta make sure its a metal that is attracted to magnets but not by itself magnetic.

 

Will pop to the hardware store and see if I can get anything thinner, it's also possible the train I have does have the plate installed inside but maybe it's not thick enough or has moved, I might check that also.

 

Video after, also worked on the switch that would fully flip, but did it on the one just blipping for convenience: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Sn2WIYIPShsPazebOWCnRK8i1TnCMCS0/view?usp=drivesdk

 

Video before:https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SoJ5fEfITC9GntPBDvBrHX05IaBg1u_i/view?usp=drivesdk

[brill27mcb]

Your solution will probably be less expensive and more readily available than the Kato product, which always seemed like a "kludge" to me. I think they offer this solution only begrudgingly to users of competitor Tomix's track. It was the Kato slotless motor that precipitated this issue, and it is an unfortunate side effect of a truly innovative design on Kato's part.

 

Rich K.

[MrLinderman]

So I did some further testing, got a bunch of different thickness iron sheets from ebay (china).

 

Can confirm that you can use 99% iron sheet 0.05mm thick, so super thin, and it works perfectly to block out any stray magnetic waves effecting the switches.

 

Did a bunch of runs over them and the non modified kato motor does nothing to them now even at speed. 

 

Best thing is as its so thin it can be easily cut to the exact size of the magnetic plate under the switch area and either glued on on double sided tape should work. 

 

And it's cheap at about $3 per 100mm squared

[Madsing]

Interesting. So placing the sheet under the switch is enough, I don’t know how to say, to “deflect” the magnetic field from the motor so that it does not affect the switch position. 

[cteno4]

Excellent solution! Thanks for experimenting on this and coming up with an inexpensive solution.

 

yes the magnetic field lines from the motor end up interacting with the sheet of iron more instead of just the bits of the point motor mech so it does not have enough umph to prove the blades at all. Basically sets up a different magnetic field shape there between the motor and the point that does not end up dragging the blades.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[MrLinderman]

This is my interpretation but could be wrong

 

Going by the internals of the switch it appears that the new kato motors basically produce a stronger magnet field than the magnets inside the switch can hold against, meaning that without some type of additional help the little internal magnet that flips from one side to another (and moves the blades) is effected by the motors more than the "holding" magnets on either side of the switch.

 

If you look at the holding magnets they are also orientated so that only a tiny fraction of the side of the magnet is intersecting with the moving "magnet" in the switch, this surface area is small, very small, so a strong field intersecting it does effect its holding power and seems to bump it over to its opposite side.

 

The plate acts like an anchor, so the magnet that flips back and forth and the magnets inside the switch combine to create a tighter control of the moving parts so that when the motor passes over it has little to no effect. as the plate is "flat" or "in-plane" with the magnetic slider it has a decent holding force on the part so when the motor moves over the part the effect of the magnetic force just compels the part to move towards the nearest magnetic source which in this case is the plate instead of towards the opposite side of the switch.

 

At least that's my interpretation of how it works. 

 

 

Edited 7 hours ago by MrLinderman

[MrLinderman]

It's highly possible the coils are also being effected by the motor as i don't see any problems with switches that are 100% manual. Only those with coils seems to get effected allot without something to absorb or block or assist.

 

I did some size testing and this is all you need to neutralise the new motor effects on the Tomix switches. I just stuck it down with sellotape over it all.

 

It's only covering the "coil" electric portion of the switch.

 

Works like a charm 👍

 

For those interested i got the sheets from here: https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/273986269684

 

If your smart with your cutting one sheet should do around 8-9 switches 

Edited 7 hours ago by MrLinderman