I spend my train model time between this forum and the outdoor railway forum. The outdor guys seem to be coming up with some cool ideas for things that I thought I would share. One guys is using chinese RC servo motors for his switch points. Cut paste this into an ebay search window and you'll see what these are: 10x SG90 9G Micro Servo Motor RC Robot Arm Helicopter Airplane Remote Control He seems quite pleased with his discovery. He also uses RC equipment and batteries for his locos so that he has no need for track power. Some interesting ideas here. I favor small switchers and other locos that could not hold batteries and electrics, so I doubt I would go for the RC control myself, but it's pretty cool to see being done in OO/HO scale.
There are several servo point controllers available now, especially DCC ones. I like the Signalist SC2 which has integrated frog switching for live frog turnouts, but there are quite a few other makes available too. You don't have to make your own motors either - servo based switch machines can be bought off the shelf now too that are just as easy to fit as Peco PL10s. Suzie x
I began using servos for moving the points on my layout is 2010, using the Tam Valley Depot control boards. The SG90 servos are quite small and will fit in places where larger devices -- like the Tortoise -- fear to tread. I love 'em. - Jeff
How much do your servos cost? I am seeing these as being an average of 10 units for 18.00$ free shipping... Oops, clicked the links to see what those cost. I don;t know about needing DCC control boards for my application, so perhaps these cheapies are ok. Then again, cheap is cheap, what's the fail rate?
Geeky - I paid about $2 per servo with free shipping when I bought mine. To use the servos you will need some sort of controller. You can't just connect an unmodified servo to a switch. There are both DCC and non-DCC controller boards available. You can also construct your own controller. There are plenty of circuit designs available on the web. I considered rolling my own controller, but I decided to go with a ready-made solution, the Tam Valley Depot boards. Tam Valley sells both DCC and non-DCC boards for controlling servos, but they are by no means the only vendor. - Jeff
With a little bit of code, an Arduino Nano clone (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nano-V3-0-A...hash=item1a219759ea:m:mQ3V662b3sEGavjpCH--jaw), and a sensor shield (http://www.ebay.com/itm/NANO-I-O-Ex...237309?hash=item1a168928bd:g:31IAAOSwOVpXembQ) you have a solution to drive 16 or more servos for around $5, and the current lowest price on SG90 servos with free shipping is about a buck.
