I recently read of using an r/c servo as a swithch mac hine, which involved removing the circuit board. I have tried to finc the article, but have been unsucessful. Anyone remember this article?
Yes, it was in the December or January issue of Model Railroader; however, it’s not a good idea to remove the circuit board from an R/C servo.
That article was in January, 2011’s MR. I made a test switch like in the article. I had a 40 year old servo from my R/C airplane days. I removed the circuit board as in the article. Using a DPDT toggle switch to reverse the power to the servo motor and a pushbutton to activate it I have thrown the switch machine more than 600 times over a few weeks powered by a 9 volt battery with an auto taillamp in series. It is not being used as a stall type machine as it is on a Peco HO switch. R/C servos are cheaper than other types of machines and i’m thinking of ordering some from Tam Valley.
Why not?
This company offers servo switch machines that are pretty good and economical. I saw them at an LHS recently.
http://www.tamvalleydepot.com/products/singletservodecoder.html
Servo motors aren’t meant to stall. They do not run continuously in their intended application. Using controllers like Tam Valley’s uses the servo as intended and works pretty well. At least all mine do. It’s more expensive than making a servo into a stall motor, but less expensive than a Tortoise (when you figure you not only get the switch motor but also control pushbuttons and LEDs AND a DCC decoder). Those not using DCC can get the Octopus and get everything but the DCC decoder for an even lower per turnout cost.
–Randy