The son of Triangman Posted March 4, 2021 Share Posted March 4, 2021 Money saving tip for those of you making electronic circuits for your model railway. Decades ago I worked in IT in a very senior role, when I scrapped old company PC's I used to salvage everything of use for the IT department spares bins and my MD let me have whatever I needed for home usage. Nowadays when I make pre-production prototype pcb's I use LED's salvaged from old PC cases. Simply unplug and use again when building the next prototype as most of the cases had LED's ready fitted with connectors. it saves soldering in LED's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger1707821911 Posted March 4, 2021 Share Posted March 4, 2021 Discarded or faulty Xmas tree lights are another excellent source of LEDs and lengths of wire.....if you dont mind a bit of de-soldering.Roger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CORKY. Posted March 4, 2021 Share Posted March 4, 2021 CD drives are a source for point motors Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
96RAF Posted March 4, 2021 Share Posted March 4, 2021 CD drives are a source for point motors Explain which parts with photo(s).I know folk use CD/DVD motors to replace ring-field innards but not for points. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CORKY. Posted March 5, 2021 Share Posted March 5, 2021 CD drawer tray motor with linear drive components. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
96RAF Posted March 5, 2021 Share Posted March 5, 2021 CD drawer tray motor with linear drive components. Good idea, but one would have to fore-shorten the travel somehow as 00 points tie bars only throw 3.5 mm.My home grown motor driven point idea is to use the screw-thread to drive a 3.5 mm thick ramp that moves the tie bar. The length of the ramp determines the time it takes to change the point.There then obviously needs to be a limit switch at each end of travel to stop the drive motor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brew Man Posted March 5, 2021 Share Posted March 5, 2021 CD drawer tray motor with linear drive components.Good idea, but one would have to fore-shorten the travel somehow as 00 points tie bars only throw 3.5 mm.My home grown motor driven point idea is to use the screw-thread to drive a 3.5 mm thick ramp that moves the tie bar. The length of the ramp determines the time it takes to change the point.There then obviously needs to be a limit switch at each end of travel to stop the drive motor. I think I'll just stick with the commercial offerings joy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColinB Posted March 6, 2021 Share Posted March 6, 2021 I too was in electronics, I must admit the leds from China (and sometimes the UK) are so cheap now that I just usually use them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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