Model Railway Forum

Not sure if this is the right place to post, so mods feel free to move if required !

What I would like to be able to do is use my point solonoids with my old school peco switches, but without having to run the wires for the points all the way around my board as that would require around 40 ft of 3 wires for each point, and there will be around 24 points on the layout !
Having a wireless control board for each solonoid, or being able to group several to one multiple control unit mounted nearby would sort that.

I am aware that I can use my DCC controller to do this, but would prefer there to be actual switches, as A: controlling locos and points from one controller would tax my feeble brain capacity beyond its ability, and B: with switches they can be plotted to a schematic so I can work out what switch throws which point

Is there a way to do this ?

If not, could I use a separate DCC controller (like a select) specifically for points and display points visually on a screen if wired separately from the main DCC loco controller (I have a Signatrack Ace 3 controller I bought for loco running when I started collecting all the gubbins).

You might want to look at DCC Concepts Alpha system this simply uses the DCC bus to power the point motors and transmit the signals from their Alpha control panel which just has simple push buttons. Although it is designed to work ideally with their Cobalt IP point motors. I do not know if it can be made to work with solenoids but it might be worth speaking to DCC Concepts if they can supply a suitable decoder. It is not cheap but using Cobalt motors it certainly cuts down on wiring.

https://www.dccconcepts.com/product-cat ... alt-alpha/

Richard

While not wireless control.... If you're up to soldering components onto a PCB with very good, illustrated instructions to aid construction, then consider joining MERG (Model Electronic Railway Group) and purchasing some of the CBUS kits. For this to work it needs a pair of twisted data wires (7/0.2mm wire is ideal) plus a pair of 12 volt DC bus feed wires (4 wires around the layout).
Or the MERG EzyBus system that uses Arduino boards - Uno and Nano.
Alternatively, Megapoints produce ready-made and tested PCBs for similar operation to CBUS, but they are far more expensive than MERG kits.

Thanks Brian and Tricky Dicky, something to investigate
Although , the DCC concepts stuff look quite pricey at first glance, especially with 24 points to control !

I am installing the DCC Concepts Alpha System at the moment. I have had twenty five Cobalt digital point motors working on my layout for sometime - operated via toggle switches and my Hornby Elite. I purchased the Alpha system over a period of time - it's not cheap by the time you have got everything required. I did remove the toggle switches a few months ago, together with "miles" of wire - so the points are currently working via the Elite. I have also installed the Alpha system 5amp power booster - probably a bit over the top, but all Cobalts and loco's will receive power and operating signals through just two wires attached to the track bus. Having a single pair of bus wires is not normally recommended, but DCC Concepts assured me it would work without any problems.

Well I bit the bullet last night and opted to try the Hornby HM6010 Accessory Decoders.
The plan being to have just these on the Hornby DCC App, Each box can be renamed , but not the individual points currently.

I plan on printing a cheat sheet so I can refer Box name and then the 3 sets of points named on the cheat sheet in a way I can identify them. Not as intuitive as a mimic panel but will cut down on metres of wiring and works out relatively cost effective.

As multiple points are operated in pairs as passing loops or track changeovers I need 5 boxes, and Hornby currently have them in the sale for £16.99 each, plus triple reward points yesterday.

That probably means they have a better version in the pipeline, but as I had a fivers worth of hobby points, just under £80 for enough to work my planned layout seemed too good an opportunity to miss