Fulgurex Point Motors

"Ian J." wrote

It's a long time since I used one, but from memory they are a simple dc motor which drives a shaft with worm and wheel gears. The wiring therefore should be no more than a simple two-wire affair - reverse the polarity to reverse the motor.

I think there are additional switches built in to allow for the switching of live frogs and the like.

I'm going back a few years but I wasn't impressed with them at all. They had a tendency to lock-up at the extremes of movement, and it was fiddly getting them working again. They may have course improved the design since then.

John.

These are indeed DC motors as you describe, but they are not stall type machines, and a couple of the attached switches are limit-switches, to cut off the current when the motor travel is complete. However these are built-in - according to the instructions all you need to do is provide 8-12v DC to the machine inputs, with polarity switched by a DPDT toggle on the way.

Very noisy devices these, but they do have the advantage of having a low profile, as opposed to my preferred tortoises and switchmasters, and hence I still have one of these in use.

John Dennis

"John Dennis" wrote

You're right, but the limit-switches didn't work reliably on the several motors I had and although they could be messed around with I never found them reliable.

John.

We

have used these motors for years and never had one completely fail. Dirt sometimes gets into the contacts and stop them reversing but this is easily fixed when you now what to look for.

If you operate them at 10V and not 12V then they never lock-up at the extremes of movement, at 12v they have a tendency to over run.

We store our layout in a damp garage with the layout being used only about 5 times a year, and these motors work reliably on every outing.

Back to the original question, we operate ours via a DPDT (double pole, double throw) relay which simply reverses the 10dcv supply.

"Gary Stone" wrote

Poor design then in my book. If they will only work reliably at 10vDC then they shouldn't recommend 12.

John.

Yes John I agree, poor design or bad instructions either way if they are used as instructed at 12 volts they often over-run and jam.

With experience we have managed to use them reliably, but a beginner or Fulgurex 'newbie' will probably have problems with them.