Model Railway Forum

Seeps.

I’ve just been under the layout tracing wiring and I can see exactly where I decided to cut the wrong corner!

The solution is to run two new feed wires between the switch and the motor - sounds easy. But the route is across two board joints and I’ve run out of spare pins on the D-sub plugs I used.

I think for the time being, I will run two unbroken feed wires to prove it works then worry about the plugs later. Fortunately the return wires all run to a return bus directly to the CDU (I did that bit right at least.).

What I find confusing is that when I first installed the points and motors (including the dodgy wiring) they both worked perfectly but I can’t see why they should now throw a hissy fit.

Seeps are notorious for being both power hungry and their need for 100% accurate alinement to the point above. If one or both are not fulfilled its the road to the beginning of a problem! It is also possible the point itself is a little tight?

Good idea to run two temporary feeds, but also worth releasing the non working motor from its point and baseboard and check it "Pops" over and back without a load. Which proves the motor is OK.

The major problem with connecting one motor to the next is that the first one "Grabs" most of the power via its coil and there is little left for the next one along. Hence my recommendation to feed them individually, but from the same switch or lever.

The concept of a ‘power grab’ by the first motor makes a lot of sense but, as you said, independent feeds have solved the issue and now all motors are firing as they should.
I routinely set my Seeps ‘loose’ - a lesson learned the hard way on layout number one. I have also notice that the iron rod in the point motor tends to tarnish with time and I suspect that adds a bit of friction - a very small drop of oil seems to help.

Thanks for the tips Brian.

I have had several Seep PM1 operating rods fall out! They are held in by a tight fit and a sort of spline. But the continual movement loosens them and then you wonder why the point motor can be heard but the point isn't moving!
Seep PM1 to PM4 range are IMO a cheap motor and I guess its a case of "You get what you pay for"!

A Wee drop of Epoxy Resin will sort the problem and it lasts. And after gluing pin in leave little blob above the push rod and that will stop it dropping even if it does loosen. Even if it is 5 minute epoxy give it a day to cure befor using the point.

The shed has acquired an overhead crane - heavily adapted from the Ratio hoist kit to make it wider and lower to fit the shed.
I have a few more bits of clutter on backorder from ModelU3D.

2022-11-12_01-01-46 by Steve Mumford, on Flickr

Love the lathe, reminds me of my first job in engineering, it was an old building that still had the old drive shafts in the roof which would back in the day have driven machines like that lathe.
The boss wouldn’t have them taken down because he said it reminded him of “better time’s “!

Great picture - shed looks better with the roof off. I suppose you could remove a few sheets of the roof corrugated iron? Some old sheds did have big holes in the roof?

Damn you Barry. You know I will be building a load of roof trusses as a result of your suggestion!

It was only a suggestion