Can anyone recommend a company that will make up bespoke PCB items.
I would like to get made up a PCB with 10 double pole micro switches mounted on it to drive my Kato Unitrack points rather than the Kato switches.
Ron
PCB mounted micro switches? Intriguing, I'm trying to imagine exactly what you have in mind? Will the PCB sit behind a panel with push buttons actuating the micro switches?
I think most people simply use (ON)-OFF-(ON) biased DPDT toggle switches mounted in a control panel and cross-wired to drive the reverse-polarity DC for the Kato point motors?
That's what I thought :hmmm:
I think the op means something like an Arduino or Raspberry Pi relay module?
Clarification needed! :beers:
If you have access to a suitable drawing program (there some free, dedicated PCB ones, but they can take a bit of mastering), you can use Press 'n' Peel sheets that you put through a laser printer then iron onto copper clad board. Finally etching it with Ferric Chloride. I have used that for my own central heating controls.
I agree the normal route would be to use a control panel and wire the switches in .
Which is the way I may go, however if you can produce a unit of 8 on/off switches like the ones produced by rkeducation.co.uk can't you do the same with on-off-on one's.
Those are double pole on/off switches, so you would need a bigger PCB to take the double throw switches and extra choc block connectors. You could do your own with some vero board.
Quoteyou can use Press 'n' Peel sheets that you put through a laser printer then iron onto copper clad board. Finally etching it with Ferric Chloride. I have used that for my own central heating controls.
whilst fun it now works out much cheaper just to send your gerber files to one of the chinese pcb manufacturers,it takes few weeks,but my last batch of 5 double sided boards from jlcpcb cost about £7 including postage .For a one off pcb design have a look at https://easyeda.com or if you want something offline kicad or eagle are both free.
Bit of a duffer :dunce: when it comes to most things electrickery but is there anything from these folk that may help and offer a fast fix?
https://www.brimal.co.uk/ (https://www.brimal.co.uk/)
Dave G
@ronDB ah, so nothing to do with "micro switches" at all then? You just want centre-biased DPDT toggle switches pre-mounted onto a PCB similar to the photo you provided?
As @Malc (https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?action=profile;u=497) says, you could probably do it with veroboard *but* achieving the cross-wiring would be tricky/fiddly and probably require wire links - in which case you might as well just cross-wire with equipment wire and mount on a panel.
Don't forget you can buy pre-wired DPDT switches intended for Kato and similar point motors. For example:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/283455837788?ul_noapp=true (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/283455837788?ul_noapp=true)
Thanks for all the infor pre wired switches ordered and now to dig out a control panel that I have stored away somewhere plus a power board.
Control panel in the making.
Ron