Subject: is it a relay or is it yet another motorized switch? From: "Brian B. Alano" Date: Fri, 19 Sep 2003 09:22:22 -0500 Newsgroups: lugnet.org.us.indylug,lugnet.trains Seeing the pitiful designs I've made for motorized 9v train points, my brother Chris came up with one. Put a housing over it, and people will swear it's a relay. Not too many down sides with this one. There's no getting around the 6 brick height unless you mount it *under* the track (but then it's six bricks low). And you have to be careful not to overdrive your motor. The upsides: moderately small footprint (5 x 7 without signal flag), uses unmodified points, doesn't tear itself apart, snap-on installation, few parts, doesn't rely on the housing for support, and surprising speed. Oh, and it sounds cool. If you're worried about your motors, you can drive it with a pulley, but then you increase the dimensions and lose the amazing speed and satifyingly sharp click. Since the mechanism is so fast though, you motor's duty cycle will be quite low and it will only be stalled for a fraction of a second. I even was able to drive the mechanism with a micromotor attached to the wedge belt wheel (pulley) by a belt, but Chris wasn't. It may depend on how stiff your point is. I've posted instructions and a CAD file. They include signal flags of my design. You won't believe it until you build it, but the parts shown are the only parts needed for a working model. You can conceal virtually every part but the back of the motor and the signal flag connection in a 5 x 7 x 6 1/3 housing. This is left as an exercise to the reader. One hint, though: 1 x 2 x 3 panel . Since the images don't show it connected to the track, here are a couple notes: Small Lever snaps into clips on track Cross axle hole of Axle Joiner Perp. Long (32068) is set over outermost flange of track. Post-moderation: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=57108 http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=57111 some deep links: http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/ALittleSlow/MiniMotorizedPoint/ChrisAlano /chrissswitch.ldr http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/ALittleSlow/MiniMotorizedPoint/ChrisAlano /chrissswitch23.jpg http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/ALittleSlow/MiniMotorizedPoint/ChrisAlano /chrissswitch01.jpg http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/ALittleSlow/MiniMotorizedPoint/ChrisAlano V2/chrissswitch2.ldr http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/ALittleSlow/MiniMotorizedPoint/ChrisAlano V2/chrissswitch220.jpg http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/ALittleSlow/MiniMotorizedPoint/ChrisAlano V2/chrissswitch201.jpg -Brian Alano