Servo mount

[Dani]

Hi,

 

I've been using Uhlenbrock servos for turnouts in my layout, but I was quite disappointed with that solution: Servo mounts are just two small squares difficult to fix to the servo because they must be screwed to the servo's plastic and the result is very weak.

 

I bought some cheap servos to Chine and I found this servo mount in HobbyKing. They are strong, fixing is perfect and I think the price is more than reasonable (10 servo mounts 25$ including shipping to Spain):

 

 

I wrote more detailed explanation in my blog (http://clubncaldes.blogspot.com.es/2012/05/servos-and-servo-mount.html).

 

I hope you find it useful!!!

 

Dani.

[Martijn Meerts]

I went with ESU servo's myself, which come with a whole set of accessories and mounting materials. Especially useful is the special servo swing arm to mount the wire on. Not the cheapest solution, but it saves me a lot of time ;)

[stevenh]

I used the exact same servos and just drilled them into the board... it was simply a prototype scenario... but a building could easily cover them:

 

Also, if you want to control with an Arduino:

http://modelrail.otenko.com/arduino/controlling-pointsturnouts-with-servos-via-the-arduino

I'd used a rotary encoder and could set the position very easily. It's great to watch N Scale turnouts move so slowly!

 

 

Very good work on the mounts though, would make everything a lot neater... but they are mounted on the wrong axis?

[Dani]

Very good work on the mounts though, would make everything a lot neater... but they are mounted on the wrong axis?

 

Thanks, I'm a fan of your page and I'd love to use also Arduino. I'm programmer and I did some projects also with Mbed and now I'm trying RaspBerry Pi, but finally it was consuming too much time and founds  . But I don't discard using Arduino (Mega version) for lightning and surround sounds.

 

Why do you say they are mounted on the wrong axis? I don't get it..... the work grate... I'm mounting them under the desk, not on the top 

[stevenh]

Do you mount them as per the way the servo is sitting in your first picture?

Or use some sort of support to have the servo axis as seen in my pictures?

 

Can you show me a pic of how you've actually mounted it all?

 

I would expect that you'd need to get the servo axis perpendicular to the baseboard?

[Dani]

Do you mount them as per the way the servo is sitting in your first picture?

Or use some sort of support to have the servo axis as seen in my pictures?

 

Can you show me a pic of how you've actually mounted it all?

 

I would expect that you'd need to get the servo axis perpendicular to the baseboard?

 

That's how I mount them, under the desk, just under each switch:

 

[stevenh]

Interesting method... I wouldn't've thought that the servo, turning on that angle, would have successfully switched the point.

I imagine that's some fairly stiff piano wire?

What is the potential for damage if you switch the servo too far? Will you bend the hole in the point 'rod'? Lift the point?

My method can successfully remove a point from it's glued down location! :)

 

Nice work again, a very neat and unobtrusive method.

[Martijn Meerts]

I do it the same way as Dani does, ESU also recommends it that way for switches. I've seen people come up with all sorts of weird constructions to protect the turnout in case of servo failure and all that, but it's not necessary. The Peco turnouts are really well built, and the ESU servos (and probably most other servos) are strong enough that they'll actually bend the piano wire and eventually just pull it out of the hole in the turnout. Of course, you can toss the wire after it happens (I have first hand experience =)), but rather the wire than either the turnout or servo.

[Dani]

Right Martijn, and also the hole of the deck where the piano wire goes through acts as a limit for the piano wire movement.

Probably the piano wire will bend or the servo plastic arm will crash but the switch will suffer no damage.

 

Cheers,

 

Dani.

[Dani]

I just want to share my last discovery  : the PAPERCLIP!!!!

 

I was searching in all shops near my home for any kind of piano wire for the servos. When you buy servos they come with different plastic arms, but no piano wires. I was frustrated at home after visiting the nearest shops without success, and thinking where to buy that kind of wires while I has playing with a paperclip between my fingers and bending it.

 

It's a stupid discovery, but I mounted two servos today using small paperclips as the axle and they work nice. It's easy to bend but strong enough to move switches.

 

If there's someone as silly as me, stop searching and buy a little box of paperclips.     

 

Cheers,

Dani.

[cteno4]

LOL, that's great! I can't count the ways I've used paper clips over my life! As a kid I even did little sculptures out of them with the soldering iron, planes ,boats, cars, etc. frankly I think they are more versatile and useful than lowly duct tape.

 

Glad to here it worked out so simply.

 

Cheers,

 

Jeff