Control Panels & Related Items

[westtexjohn]

I thought I would post some photos of my control panels and some photos of how I mount my servos and MP-4 switch motors.
I have been working on these for the last month or so. Tedious and slow work but I like the results.

The above photo is the control panel for the 5 turnouts in my helix.

This panel works two turnouts on the upper level of the layout plus has a toggle for track power to a spur. The blue LED lights when the spur has power.

This is a panel in progress. This is the lead track from the helix (at left) on to the two staging tracks at the right of the panel.

The above photo shows a servo bracket glued to a piece of 1/8 inch thick tri-ply board. You can see the small hard to get at holes in the blue mounting bracket. So I used the 1/8 board as a mount with oversize holes which are much easier to access. I use a #6 x 3/4 screw with a flat washer to mount the boards. The oversized holes allow for some wiggle room for fine tuning the final mounting position for operating my turnouts. The lever switch is for frog power. This bracket was modified to fit a tight situation under my layout.

Just another shot of a servo and its mounting board. The blue brackets have the option to mount two lever switches if needed. My controller board provides for lighting of LEDs on the control panel so I only need one lever switch for frog power. I don't plan to have a signaling system on my layout but if I do I can add another lever switch later.

This is a MP-4 turnout motor an a mounting board. This motor had to fit in a tight corner under the layout to work around some bench work supports. I tried my best to avoid any places where a turnout was right over a support but I got close in a couple of places.

Hope you enjoyed the photos. I'll try to post more later..........John

 

[shortwrench]

I thought I would post some photos of my control panels and some photos of how I mount my servos and MP-4 switch motors.
I have been working on these for the last month or so. Tedious and slow work but I like the results.
View attachment 212855
The above photo is the control panel for the 5 turnouts in my helix.
View attachment 212856
This panel works two turnouts on the upper level of the layout plus has a toggle for track power to a spur. The blue LED lights when the spur has power.
View attachment 212857
This is a panel in progress. This is the lead track from the helix (at left) on to the two staging tracks at the right of the panel.
View attachment 212860
The above photo shows a servo bracket glued to a piece of 1/8 inch thick tri-ply board. You can see the small hard to get at holes in the blue mounting bracket. So I used the 1/8 board as a mount with oversize holes which are much easier to access. I use a #6 x 3/4 screw with a flat washer to mount the boards. The oversized holes allow for some wiggle room for fine tuning the final mounting position for operating my turnouts. The lever switch is for frog power. This bracket was modified to fit a tight situation under my layout.
View attachment 212862
Just another shot of a servo and its mounting board. The blue brackets have the option to mount two lever switches if needed. My controller board provides for lighting of LEDs on the control panel so I only need one lever switch for frog power. I don't plan to have a signaling system on my layout but if I do I can add another lever switch later.
View attachment 212863
This is a MP-4 turnout motor an a mounting board. This motor had to fit in a tight corner under the layout to work around some bench work supports. I tried my best to avoid any places where a turnout was right over a support but I got close in a couple of places.

Hope you enjoyed the photos. I'll try to post more later..........John

Nice looking panels and servo mounts.

Glad to see you're using nylon insert locknuts on the microswitches. Will never have to worry about
them loosening up.

 

[Canalligator]

I like the clean graphics.

 

[westtexjohn]

Thanks for the nice comments.
Those small "labels" on the finished panel came from a company in Wichita Falls Tx that does door signs, labels, engraving and banners.
The lettering is 1/8" tall with the plastic carrier piece being 1/4" tall. I think the cost was around $30.00 which includes a $6.00 or so "set-up" fee.
They look better than anything I could cobble together.

The panels are the same 1/8" thick tri-ply boards as the servo mounting boards. I got the stuff from Amazon.
I did a sketch of the track plan on a piece of paper to get an idea of the size of board I would need. I cut the boards to size then painted them flat black. After several days I applied some Tamiya 3mm wide tape to reflect the track plan and then sprayed the boards again this time with gray primer. Rust-o-leum paint works for me. After removing the tape, the track plan now shows in black. Next I drill 5mm holes for the LEDs and 1/4" holes for the toggles. I apply a bit of hot glue on the back of the panels to hold the LEDs in place. Thats it. I was going to try Lexan or Plexiglas for my panels but just went with something that was easier for me to work with.
I have seen some much nicer control panels but this method was easy and not that expensive.

Thanks again for looking.
Take care....John

 

[Rico]

Mine is somewhat similar but I haven’t added any graphics yet, looking good!