I hooked up two of my Tam Valley Singlets and got the servos installed - pretty easy, the alignment it's super picky as long as there is enough room for the arm to move back and forth to completely move the points. The self adjust feature finds the proper servo endpoints, and the rest of the programming is really simple - easist to me is to use Ops Mode and program loco 01. Four CVs control the color of the LEDs, I stuck with red and green. Since I don;t have any fascia installed yet, and I really don't want to install it until I finish the bus wiring - easier to crawl under and more light uderneath without it in place - I needed to do somethig to hold the two controllers so I could use them - hanging by the wires is not an option. Looking around I saw a cardboard box with the flap in decent condition. So I cut the flap off, and using the template supplied with the Singlet, drilled holes in it and mounted the Singlets. Then I ran a few screws through the cardboard to screw it to the side rail of the layout. Works perfectly. I assigned DCC address to them, wrote those addresses on the cardboard, and also drew in the track diagram with a Sharpie. So I can operate the turnouts with the pushbuttons or via DCC switch commands.




--Randy

Neat idea!!! LOL Looks like something I would do

I'm just one of those who can;t do just one part of layout construction until it's finished, them move on to the next. I don't even have all my benchwork built yet. I couldn;t see putting allt he track in and then going back for all the switch motors. Plus I guess a disadvantage of the servos is to complete the install you sort of need to have the controller hooked up. You can center it and HOPE it will work fine once you hook up the controller and set the endpoints, or you can just hook it all up and make sure it works before the screws go in and make it permanent. I also hate doing things twice - so as I install each servo I'm hookign up the controller with it. I'll probably have a few more of those cardboard panels before I'm done.

--Randy

Hey Randy,

What kind of turnouts are you using? And how are the servos at throwing your points?

I use Atlas Custom-Line 83. I bought a Fast Tracks set to try and make my own but I never seem to get acceptable (to me) frog points and point rail blades. At the rate it took me to get my first good one (which actually was the second one I made), it would take me years to make the 15 I need. After I made that good one I wasn;t able to duplicate it. So I gave up and went back and used Atlas which is all I used on my previous layout and I never had a problem.
Since the points are fairly floppy, the servos work great. The really tiny 4.5g ones would be sufficient, but the Motrak mounts are made for the 9g ones, which are more common and cheaper anyway. I mark the throwbar position and drill two holes and then hog out the middle - not good for the drill bits of course but once I'm done with the layout I will not need an 8" drill bit again. I'm just afraid one big hole will not give enough side play, seeing as how I have two layers of 2" foam, 1/4" plywood, and cork rtoadbed to go through.
The 9g servos will easily mode an all-rail turnout in HO, at least up to Code 83 and down to a #4. Heavier rail may require a larger servo. The 9g servo horns can't handle much larger than .032 wire. There are milliosn of other ways to mount these things, such as fromt he top down with the servo directly under the throwbar, or if there is a clearance issue you cna use airplane control rods and bellcranks to put the servo wherever you need. I orginally was goign to use a variation of the J shaped wire with a brass tube runnign throught he layout for operatig the points until Motrak came out with these mounts based off Craig Bisgeier's homemade ones, which makes the servo mount pretty much exactly like a Tortoise, only way smaller.
I ran wires to all my frogs, but nothign ever stalls on them in an unpowered state so I may hold off connecting the frog power relays. I didn;t have any problem on my previous layout, but I figured if I left out the frog wires I'd have issues this time. Nope, works fine with no power. The only time I see a problem with the Atlas turnouts is if a wheelset is out of gauge. 100% of the time - bumps or jumps or outright derailments are traced to bad wheelsets, not a problem with the turnout.

--Randy

Thanks for the reply. It was quite helpful. I was wondering how the servos would work with solid points, something tells me you'd definitely need a .032 wire for sure. That's quite the distance you are running the throw wire through as well. In my case I used FT turnouts with solid points, mounted on to 1/4" Homasote, glued to 3/4 Birch Plywood decking. I'm using Torts because I didn't find out about servos until I'd made a significant investment in Torts. However their smaller size has always intrigued me as long as the torque is there to throw the points.

All that said, I've been debating converting my turnouts to hinged points. That would however require a significant amount of time and effort on my part to "make it happen". But it could be done and I am a glutton for punishment.

Thanks for sharing.