# Servo controlled uncoupler for hook & loops



## Cougar Rock Rail (Jan 2, 2008)

Hi all,

I just finished putting one of the new Train-Li servo uncoupler kits into my LGB Heidi and wanted to say it works very well. Has anyone else done this yet? The kit somes with a microservo, mechanical "paddle" actuator, and mounting bracket.
In my case, I'm using a Massoth XLS decoder, which can control a servo via function output. You can set the speed & direction of rotation and end points by adjusting the relevant CV's. You could also use a Massoth 8FL function decoder which can drive two servos, or any other decoder that has that capability such as Zimo etc. I used a little Massoth voltage regulator which provides regulated power to the servo and also is set up with built-in pullup resistor for the servo control wire. So basically you hide the servo where convenient, and connect it by fish line to the actuator. The servo moves, pulls the cable against the spring of the coupler and forces the hook down as well as pushes out the opposing hook from the the connecting car. I should have said this is all based on standard LGB hook and loop couplers, but it should be easy to rig a servo to release a knuckle coupler too. Overall it's a very simple but effective system and I think the use of servos in DCC is going to become more and more prevalent as we think of things to do with them.

Keith


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## TonyWalsham (Jan 2, 2008)

Another example of DCC playing catch up with Digital Proportional stick radios.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Yep, nice to see DCC be able to use servos, so it can be used in live steam and any other R/C situation. 

I guess we won't see 12 (not to mention 28) function buttons to control sounds on a Digital Proportional stick radio though huh? 

All good-natured kidding aside, Keith, have any pictures? 

Regards, Greg


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## Cougar Rock Rail (Jan 2, 2008)

Ha ha!! You just let me know when your digital proportional radio can handle 16+ individual functions, sounds, back emf, load dependant smoke and multiple locos & switches from the same handheld simultaneously...









That being said, the new r/c airplane radios are pretty amazing. I'm sure someday we'll end up with the best of both worlds....

Keith


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## Cougar Rock Rail (Jan 2, 2008)

Woops...we were posting at about the same time Greg! Funny we were thinking along the same lines though! I did take a little video late last night with my cell phone, but I haven't downloaded it yet. I'll try to post some pictures when I get a chance--it will explain a lot. 

Keith


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## TonyWalsham (Jan 2, 2008)

Whilst controlling the regulator position of a live steamer with pushbuttons is do-able, it is much more difficult to get smooth operation than it is with a Digital Proportional knob or stick.
I will believe DCC has matched the performance of stick radios for live steam, when I see it being adopted holus-bolus by the finger burning brigade.









I can't see that happening anytime soon. For a start the wheels of live steamers will have to be insulated.


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## Cougar Rock Rail (Jan 2, 2008)

Actually Tony, with the Massoth decoders you can use the rotary throttle to proportionally vary the servo in real time--I do exactly this to control the discharge gate on one of my gravel hoppers! The only thing missing for live steam is the wireless...and that's coming very soon in the DRC300 from Massoth.... 

Keith


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## TonyWalsham (Jan 2, 2008)

Exactly how long has the DRC300 been *"coming"?* ....and do you know when is it going to be released?


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## Cougar Rock Rail (Jan 2, 2008)

Hi guys,

Here are a couple of pictures I took this morning (sorry... really low light) to give you an idea of what it looks like.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Very nice Keith, I've been considering auto couplers on some of the locos that will use as helpers on grades, although I will use Kadees. Kadee has been threatening for a while to release a remote controlled coupler. 

Regards, Greg


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## mbendebba (Jan 22, 2011)

Keith: it looks good, I thought about doing but haven't gotten to it yet. 

Tony: LGB did this about 10 years ago on an diesel switcher, but they did not sell too many of them. There were 2 versions: one analgue, the other digital. If I remember correctly, uncoupling was direction dependent. 

Mohammed


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## TonyWalsham (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By mbendebba on 15 Jun 2011 11:15 AM 
Keith: it looks good, I thought about doing but haven't gotten to it yet. 

Tony: LGB did this about 10 years ago on an diesel switcher, but they did not sell too many of them. There were 2 versions: one analgue, the other digital. If I remember correctly, uncoupling was direction dependent. 

Mohammed 

Thanks Mohammed.

LGB certainly did it on a little diesel switcher but it didn't work like the way shown above using a servo.

Given that you are now officially an agent for Massoth, perhaps you could answer my question from above, which was:

"Exactly how long has the DRC300 been "coming"?[/b] ....and do you know when is it going to be released?"


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## muns (Jul 24, 2008)

Tony, 

The DRC300 was announced as "new" in the 2009 brochure.


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## mbendebba (Jan 22, 2011)

Tony: Mark beat me to it, and god only knows, I do not see it happening in the immediate future. I certainly like that you quote. 

Mohammed


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## TonyWalsham (Jan 2, 2008)

Thanks Muns. 

Mine was a rhetorical question. 
Given that the 2009 brochure came out nearly 3 years ago, I was wondering if the DRC300 was actually "vapourware"?


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## mbendebba (Jan 22, 2011)

Glad to see you here Mark. 
Mohammed


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## krs (Feb 29, 2008)

Posted By TonyWalsham on 15 Jun 2011 03:36 PM 

"Exactly how long has the DRC300 been "coming"?[/b] ....and do you know when is it going to be released?"


Latest info I received from Massoth in April of this year was "Not before Autumn"

(I had "Not before Fall" but changed that for obvious reasons.)

Knut


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## Chip (Feb 11, 2008)

Knut:
Your source on DRC 300 timing? So we might qualify the response.
Thanks
Chip


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## krs (Feb 29, 2008)

Horse's mouth, ie "Massoth" as I mentioned in my post. 

A reply to my query to Massoth, Germany which came directly from Massoth in Germany. 

Knut


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## Cougar Rock Rail (Jan 2, 2008)

Well, three posts out of nineteen to do with the actual topic of the post...thanks Tony. 

Keith


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Yep, what would happen if we brought up DCC on a wireless R/C thread in the battery forum about controlling a steam whistle? 

Greg


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## TonyWalsham (Jan 2, 2008)

Keith. 

My pleasure. 
Nice to see DCC catching up to DP radio. 

Greg. 
How could you do that? You went to great pains to tell me there is no such thing as Wireless DCC, as in cordless direct to a model control.


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## East Broad Top (Dec 29, 2007)

Okay, gentlemen, let's get back to the topic at hand... 

Keith, cool installation. I'll be interested in hearing how it works for you in terms of how often you use it in switching as opposed to having to uncouple between cars. Back in the mid 80s, when dad and I were using 4-channel Futaba R/C controllers for our trains, I hooked a servo up to the coupler of one of my switchers. It worked very well, but I found that maybe 10% of my switching was actually done using that particular coupler. The rest of the time, I was uncoupling between cars that were coupled to the loco, so--while certainly a cool function--it wasn't the most practical application of technology. Last year, I revisited the notion, this time contemplating servos or a solenoid to "pull the pin" on an Accucraft coupler. I kept coming back to that same "10%" thing, and decided that it just wasn't worth pursuing for how I operate my railroad. 

Later, 

K


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## Dwight Ennis (Jan 2, 2008)

Yeah, I agree. It's a neat idea, but in mainline switching, the uncoupling takes place between cars as often as not, and on facing point spurs the front of the loco is used as much as the back if not more. As for such installations in live steamers, the opportunities to switch with live steam are, unfortunately, few and far between. While I've done it a couple of times (great fun), most tracks only have sidings with no spurs, and even those are usually full of parked equipment.


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## Road Foreman (Jan 2, 2008)

Keith, 

To put servo control for hook & loops on a freight car look @ the SMC4 from Team Digital.. Then you can uncouple from either end or if you only have 1 hook you can use a Servette.. This will let you put servos in all your cars if you so wish.. If cost is a issue then look @ Tam Valley Depots products.. 

BulletBob


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## krs (Feb 29, 2008)

Why even use a servo for that function which requires a special DCC decoder with a servo output. 
To keep the cost down, a solenoid or memory wire should do for uncoupling and that could be driven by a basic DCC Function decoder which could also be used to control the lights in a passenger car. 

Knut


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## Cougar Rock Rail (Jan 2, 2008)

Why even use a servo for that function which requires a special DCC decoder with a servo output. 

The decoder was already in the locomotive Knut so I just wanted to make use of the ability that was already there. I've got two other locos with the Krois solenoid uncouplers and I wanted to try this particular type using the servo. 

Dwight--for my operation with Heidi there will not be any uncoupling between cars--it will be a matter of coming to the station, uncoupling and running around to the other end again to return. I also do some shuttling of gravel hoppers for loading/unloading with my conveyor, but otherwise this exercise was mainly one of experimentation and fun, not for any higher prototypical reason. 

Tony--you know I like it when you push my buttons....  

Keith


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## vsmith (Jan 2, 2008)

Funny, I've had a "digital" uncoupler for years...


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## krs (Feb 29, 2008)

Posted By Cougar Rock Rail on 16 Jun 2011 08:42 AM 
The decoder was already in the locomotive Knut so I just wanted to make use of the ability that was already there. I've got two other locos with the Krois solenoid uncouplers and I wanted to try this particular type using the servo.

Keith, 
Sorry I didn't make myself clear.
I was already commenting on subsequent posts about remote uncoupling of cars in a consist and how to do that inexpensively.

People are using DCC decoders in some cars today - even LGB made provisions for adding a DCC decoder to certain passenger cars to control the lighting.

All we need is another suitable output of that car based DCC decoder and some inexpensive way to mechanically move something on the coupler hook/loop or knuckle) to uncouple.


Knut


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## East Broad Top (Dec 29, 2007)

Would you then need a separate decoder ID for each piece of rolling stock? Granted, you've got 9,999 of 'em to choose from so I guess you could use the car number (just make sure you don't have duplicates). But in terms of "inexpensively," you've now got the decoder and whatever means to uncouple, and track pick-ups to power the decoder. You could do track pick-ups "cheap" in terms of cost, but the increase in drag would be a killer. You could use ball-bearing wheelsets, but the increase in price counters the "inexpensive" part of the equation. 

I think for a "proof of concept" kind of thing like a display layout (i.e, a "Timesaver" or similar switching layout) it could be pretty cool to set up. Real world application, though, I'm a little less confident about. 

Later, 

K


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## Cougar Rock Rail (Jan 2, 2008)

What I'd like to see is the main locomotive decoder handling all the uncoupling of cars through a shared port like the one already on the LGB locos for power, or maybe a dedicated function decoder in the loco linked to all the cars. I proposed this to LGB years ago but nothing came of it. I'm not sure of the best way to trigger the car you want though...maybe have the decoder recognize how many cars are linked, and then all you have to do is key in the number of the car you want to uncouple? 

Keith


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## Dwight Ennis (Jan 2, 2008)

I wasn't trying to rain or your parade Keith.







Like I said, it's a neat idea, and for your application it sounds quite practical.


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## krs (Feb 29, 2008)

I wonder if one can get this to work as an uncoupler for cars:

http://www.tamvalleydepot.com/products/singletservodecoder.html

$15.96 in quantities of 10 or more give you a DCC decoder, servo and servo driver.

Pretty reasonable I think. 


Knut


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Probably, we use a lot of his stuff (the frog juicers) here in San Diego, where he is located. 

Greg


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## Cougar Rock Rail (Jan 2, 2008)

Interesting...have to do a little reading on those products! 

Also, Uhlenbrock makes a digital servo with a decoder already built in...feed it track power and away you go...81310 I think the number is, but have to figure out where to get them. 

Keith


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