Using the Smartswitch Range by ANEmodel.
Click on any image to enlarge.For many years we have had the twin solenoid machines (Peco, Tenshodo), then along came the motor driven screw machines (Fulgarex, MannMade), then the stall motors (Switch Master, Tortoise) and now we have the SmartSwitch from ANEmodel. This is a servo type device. The servo is not new to modeling; it has been used on model boats, model planes, and model automobiles (cars) for many years. The servo is quiet, powerful, reliable and very easy to adjust with electronics - as easy as turning the volume up and down on your TV. |
Figure One |
SmartSwitch comes in assorted sets. The set I used is shown in Fig 1, it is the DCC Accessory set which includes:
You can see in the photo (Fig One) the difference in size between the servo in its bracket and the Tortoise. There is also a P2K tank car for reference. The Tortoise is a perfectly good motor but sometimes its size is a pain. The set also comes with an 18 page installation manual. 16 pages show you various ways of setting up the servo and 2 pages on how to programme and operate the units. I will not repeat the manual here but I will say it is the best manual of this type I have seen - it is well illustrated and the explanations are very clear. |
Tortoise type mounting 
Switchmaster type mounting |
Fig 2 shows the 2 methods of mounting the servo in the supplied brackets, on the left the servo will operate just like a Tortoise - the bar through the base board moving side to side. On the right it can be mounted above or below the baseboard and operates like a SwitchMaster - this requires a 1mm brass tube through the baseboard with the wire in the tube. This method is good if the turnout is already fixed to the baseboard. |
Figure Two |
| How I used mine | |
I have one section on my layout that is at the end of a peninsula, and to switch the industries the operator has to move from one side to the other to get at the 4 turnouts. Fig 3 shows the slide switch used to operate the turnout. In Fig 3 you can see a small arm on the far side of the turnout, this passes down through the baseboard to the servo. Once the servo was fitted the slide switch was removed. The turnout shown is hand laid Code 55. Mounting the servo under the baseboard is very straight forward, two small screws through the bracket into the base board - exact positioning is not important - just the shaft of the servo must be in line with rod through the baseboard. Using the Tortoise method is just as easy, you just need a larger hole through the base board. The instructions illustrate all these options very well. |
Figure Three |
Fig 4 shows the mounted servo. The white arm is attached to the servo with a small screw - sort of in the mid position - easy adjustment soon! I had already mounted the tube and wire through the layout. I added an extra piece of ply to set the servo at the right height. There is a selection of cables to choose from to plug between the servo and the driver board. The board has neat screw terminals for the power in. This is straight to the track power if you are using certain DCC systems but ideally or if you are using DC, a small 12-20 volts, 500ma DC power pack (A small Wall Wart - see Fig. 7) There are also 5 terminals for the 4 switches or pushbuttons with 1 common - very easy to follow illustrations in the manual. There are also 9 more screw terminals for signals and indicators - 1 common and 2 for each servo. You can use bi-colour LEDs with two or three legs. There is no need for a resistor - the output is current limited. Two LEDs can be mounted in series if required. |
Figure Four |
I mounted my driver board on a piece of 2mm styrene just for convenience when setting up. There are two green LEDs connected just for initial setup. The servos and the driver board are all that are needed for basic switch/pushbutton operation. The basic setup also includes the led drivers for the indicators/signals. I had the optional DCC Accessory Decoder which I then mounted above the other board, there are five connections run between the 2 boards. If you require switching for the frogs (Modified Peco Electro Frog or similar) on your turnouts, there is also two small boards available - SmartFrog or Super Smart Frog. This plugs into the driver board between the servo and the driver board for "short free power routing". Check out the two pages above for details of these. |
Figure Five |
| The Setup | |
I used a single switch to set the servos up before I connected the decoder. I switched the power on and all the servos went to the 'home' position. For turnout #1 this put the point rail about 0.5mm away from the stock rail. So, I pressed button #3 on the driver board until [1] showed on the display. I then used buttons #2 (clockwise) & #1 (anti-clockwise) to set the correct home position. Then I threw the toggle switch and the arm moved to the other position - the point blade was hard against the stock rail and the servo was chattering. So, again I pressed button #3 on the driver board until [2] showed on the display. I then used buttons #2 (clockwise) & #1 (anti-clockwise) to set the correct position. Once I was happy, I pressed #3 until the display showed [-]. This saved the new settings. I did this with the 3 other servos - the easiest adjustments I have ever made on a turnout motor. How easy is this? The other very neat thing you can do is adjust the servo speed. There are nine settings available - the slowest is 20 seconds and the quickest is 0.078 seconds. The default is 2.5 seconds. The speed of each servo can be set independently. |
Buttons and indicator for setting up the Servos |
| Adding the Accessory Decoder | |
Now it was time to add the Accessory Decoder. For those who have not used this bit of your DCC system, it means you can operate the turnout from anywhere in the train room just using your controller. The decoder is shown in Fig 6. The other bonus is that you can set up a "route" and by using a single command, throw any number of turnouts in sequence - great for staging yards or setting the route for your "Flyer". Setting a route is just like setting a 'consist' for your accessories. |
Fig. 6 - The Decoder |
The 5 wires were run from the decoder to the driver board and the decoder was connected to the track bus. The programming is done "on the main" or "ops mode programming" and is quite straight forward. I set my 4 servos up as #25, #26, #27, #28. My other decoders run from 1 to 24 so, a logical progression. I used 2 legged Bi-Colour LEDs as ground signals and used 2 per turnout. These were connected in series and look great. See Figure Eight. No need for extra resistors as the output is already limited to 20ma for use with LEDs. |
The Wall Wart |
Being a lazy modeler I tend to put off any work under the layout - I could easily fall asleep there - but this exercise was very easy and straight forward. To me the biggest benefits of using the servos were the ease of fitting, adjusting, and the small space required for mounting. The servo can also be mounted on top of the baseboard and concealed with a switch tower or similar small building |
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The set I used can be run on DC just as well as DCC. Using the conventional control panel the switch can be placed on the panel over the turnout drawing along with indicator lights for each turnout - except for the LEDs every thing was provided. If you prefer push buttons these are also easy to add. You can have two panels - one at each end of a yard - the pushbuttons are just wired in parallel. The stall motor type machines (Tortoise) is made to sit with the power on all the time without any harm. The servo works almost the same - if the servo "chatters" it has not reached its set position - just a press of the button adjusts this and will give long term, reliable operation |
Fig. 8 - Here are the to 2 simple
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Other applications include:- semaphore signals, train order signals, level crossing gates, operating water spout and what ever the twisted mind can come up with. The operation is very smooth and very quiet. Something that will appeal to most modelers is the cost. The base set (each set includes Four Servos and all the hardware) - no decoder or SmartFrog is only A$99, the set with a decoder it is only A$114. These are available from Timesaverlayouts in Newcastle (Australia) or from Walthers in the USA. |
Fig. 9 - Boom Gates |
Australian Contacts | |
Gerry Hopkins MMR |