Update on 10th April

We're still waiting for the gears! - see below. As the manufacturer makes parts for Panasonic, Bosch etc, we expect the shaft holes to be in the centre, not to one side. This is vital when gears are only (in one case) 4mm in diameter.

Everything else is about ready to go. Frustratingly, the ALSRM Reading show is unlikely now, as we will be making the first batch "in house" and doing rigorous final checks.

If you are on the mailing list, you'll be the first to know about it.

Minxmicrodrives@hotmail.com

 Best wishes from John and Naomi at Minx Microdrives

Update on 1st March  

Components for the actuator are arriving, slowly but surely. There are 16 individual parts and we're still getting a quality issue with the gears. This will mean a change of manufacturer and is already in hand, but it again adds an annoying delay of a week or two.

The modifications to the controller to operate poorly made or a-linear points have been so successful that we may need to de-tune the software, for fear of bending things!

We obviously won't be at the O Gauge Guild Spring exhibition at Kettering this weekend (3rd March), but plan to be ready for the ALSRM exhibition at Reading in early May.

Those on the mailing list will be notified as soon as we're "ready to roll" with the product.

Sign up now at Minxmicrodrives@hotmail.com.

Best wishes from John Arundel @ Minx

Update on 20th January 

Nearly there...

We did a small pre-production run over the Christmas period and tried out several actuators on points. After 20,000+ operations, they were still working fine. We've tried an actuator on a stiff, poorly made double slip, which caused random stalling and have made marginal changes to the drive bar and will look into voltage pulsing. There will, however, be a limit as to how much power an actuator the size of a postage stamp can generate.

It is now the Chinese New Year! Our order for all the components has, in part been sent, with the minor modifications to follow. By mid to late February, we should be in a position to start production. This is very close to the O Gauge show at Kettering on Saturday March 3rd, so I'm uncertain whether we shall make it, as we're not going to any more shows without something to sell - but I'm ever optimistic! 

Those of you on e-mail will be contacted as soon as the product is out; why not sign up now?

Minxmicrodrives@hotmail.com

Best wishes from John Arundel @ Minx

 Update on 6th December 2011

Progress progress......

Following a recent visit to China to sort out the remaining production issues, 14 of the 15 components for the actuator are now in house. The last item, the case mould is ready for despatch; again, we had a lot of difficulty finding a manufacturer who could achieve the required quality.

A test rig has also been constructed to check all despatched actuators and controllers, so we're hoping to do a pre-production run very soon.

A few have enquired why we were not at the O gauge exhibition in Reading, last Saturday. A long standing wedding commitment is the answer. We have also not advertising in the Gazette in November; nothing ominous, we felt we would wait until we had something to sell!

See you in the New Year at an exhibition somewhere and a Happy Christmas to All.

John, Naomi and Tom @ Minx

Update 20th October 2011

Work in progress.....

The actuator we're manufacturing has 15 separate components and 2 are still outside specification. The gears are now being made with the shaft hole concentric, but the basic moulding housing the actuator has several defects. We have moved production to another manufacturer.

At least this spare time has enabled a revision of the controller to cater for the power requirements of DCC and upgrade the microprocessor; the actuator requires 2550 lines of programming to operate all its functions. Our son Tom is in charge of this fortunately!

A visit to China is imminent, primarily to visit some factories and also negotiate quantities. There is an increasing tendency for the minimum order to be 5 - 10,000, which is already troubling more than a few suppliers of O Gauge products.

We hope to have the pack of 2 actuators and 1 controller ready for Christmas. We will assemble and test in this country - at least that will be "in house"!

Best wishes from John and Naomi @ Minx

Update 7th September 2011

Many thanks to all who visited our stand at the O Gauge Guild Exhibition at Telford last weekend. We had a lot of positive comments and encouragement regarding the development of the point actuator and greatly appreciate your support. Tomorrow, another batch of gears arrive; lets hope the factory have drilled the holes concentrically this time - we'll keep you posted.

Motors M11,12 and 13 sold well. Buyers were proposing applications such as historical models, a road/rail bus, shunting engines, cranes, dockyard and ships equipment and fans. I have yet to complete a prototype motorised bogie using M12 for electric stock, locos, trams and underground trains but it is possible - just. An alternative idea would be to unscrew the gearbox and drive a radial ring gear on the  back of the drive wheel, using the pinion gear already on the motor. Watch this space. If you bought one of these motors, please let me know how you got on with it.

Best wishes from John Arundel at Minx

Update July 29th 2011

The perils of production engineering!

This week sees the arrival of the last remaining components for the actuator, all of which, we hope, will fit together. Several items sent over the last two months proved to be the manufacturers’ specification, not ours or in materials that did not test satisfactorily. This has tried our patience, and no doubt yours, so many thanks to those still waiting.

Allowing now only for holidays, the first actuator units will be assembled by late August and tested with the original controllers we currently have, which are also awaiting production in final form.

So at the O Gauge Guild Telford show on 3 – 4th September, there will be demonstration units and we can take orders for delivery by October at a special introductory price. The basic pack will comprise 2 actuators and one controller with two channels, connecting ribbon cable and rods, for either surface or under baseboard mounting. Points or signals can be operated in any combination. The controller has switchgear to change frog polarity and one other circuit, with facility to plug in extra switchgear. Full instructions will be provided. We hope you will find it has all been worth waiting for and a significant advance on contemporary ways of operating points and signals.

We have run out of stock of the popular M15 coreless motor and have been told by the manufacturers of a 25% price rise! This reflects 500%+ hikes in the price of some metals, particularly “the rare earths” used in small motor manufacture. We are looking to order another batch but the minimum order quantity (100) means we need first to have at least 30 customers intending to buy. So, if you are interested, please let us know. Regrettably, the cost will be £44 each. For a specification, take a look at the motors page of this website.

Best wishes - John Arundel @ Minx Microdrives

Update May 10th 2011

We are currently waiting production samples of the last remaining part for the point actuator; tantalisingly, everything else has been ready to go for some time. The delay has been caused by the factory we originally engaged being unable to produce a very fine screw thread of the right length and straight. They then said they couldn't make it! We then switched to Japan and were on schedule until a tidal wave turned up. A factory in Taiwan has taken up the challenge to produce samples and we're actively seeking other potential suppliers in Europe and the UK.

Those of you that have been, or are involved with, evaluating prototypes and production engineering will know all about the delays and frustration that goes with it. But we're determined to get a product of the best possible quality and as soon as we have further information, we will e-mail everyone who has expressed an interest. So if you are not yet on our mailing list, let us know by 'phone or e-mail.

Motor M15 is proving popular, coreless and 80% efficient, equivalent in size to the former RG7 Portescap unit but with much more power. It can easily be married to the MSC Models JH 25/1 gearbox or the fold-up unit from Roxey Mouldings. Being only 22mm in diameter, it fits more easily in the boiler space of medium sized and larger tank engines, with less drilling out of the resin cast boilers, found in an increasing number of kits. A backshaft allows a 22mm diameter flywheel to be fitted for very smooth running. .

We think the motor is good value at £36.50 and we can supply either gearbox at cost (£25.50 for the MSC, £13.80 for the Roxey). A flywheel is £5. And we'll assemble and test whatever combination you want for no extra charge.

Best wishes - John Arundel @ the Minx team

Update at 31st March 2011

It was good to meet many of you at the Ketterng show of the O Gauge Guild on 5th March.

Since then, we've been waiting to get a few remaining parts for the actuator, one of which, the screw thread is proving a challenge to manufacture. However, we'll win!

We'll be in touch with all those on the e-mail list as soon as possible.

Sign up at  minxmicrodrives@hotmail.com if you haven't already - or give us a ring on 01932 225568..

John Arundel - the Minx team

Development update 3rd March 2011 

We’ll be at the Kettering show of the O Gauge Guild on Saturday 5th March, demonstrating the point actuator. Earlier this week, components for the actuator arrived, but, frustratingly, several have proved to be out of specification. We hope to get the 2 actuators/1 controller package ready for sale as soon as these problems have been resolved. We will then e-mail those who expressed interest, so if you’ve not contacted us already, why not e-mail us now, so we can keep you up to date. Thank you for your patience; we think it will be worth the waiting.

 Meanwhile, we have revised the motor range, so take a look at the photos in the motor section. We’ve been experimenting with M12 in a traction bogie for diesel and electric locos, as it will fit between the back of the wheel tyres in O gauge – just! This puts the motor where it often is in real life – nose hung – and would also suit trams and Underground stock.

 Probably the most interesting new item is a high quality 12v DC coreless motor M15, (seen in the side panel top right) almost identical in size to the original Portescap RG7. At 22mm diameter, it fits between the frames and is intended for medium sized locomotives. On testing, its 80% efficiency makes it quiet, powerful and cool running. Given the trend towards resin cast boilers with very limited space to locate the motor, we think this is a good option to consider.

This motor will easily couple to the Roxey mouldings fold-up gearbox or the MSC Models JH single reduction machined unit and we supply the 2 fixing screws (and an adaptor ring  for the MSC JH). All you need to do is spend a few moments with a Swiss file to ease out the slots in the Roxey gearbox and file a V in the JH to accommodate the fixing screws.

Motor M15 retails a £36.50 and we can supply either gearbox at cost and assemble the whole unit for you at no extra charge. Currently, delivery is 4 weeks from placement of your order.

 See you at Kettering!

 The Minx team – John, Tom and Naomi

Development update January 31st 2011

 Development update 17th December 2010

Many thanks to all of you that visited our stand at the Reading show on Saturday 4th December. We had more useful feedback and have been tweaking the product to accommodate it.

We're now in our pre-production phase; a phase in which we're making a new version to improve on the previous iteration every 3 weeks as we gear up for production. Whilst we're keen to get the actuator on sale as soon as we can, we're going to stay in this pre-production cycle until the engineering is rock-solid. We're expecting to be entering into production towards the end of January, but there will be some inevitable snags, so things may be a little delayed.

All being well, we'll have units for sale at the Kettering show in March.

Each controller will have two channels, and each channel can operate 1 actuator. These can be wired to work either independently or together for crossovers. Following feedback from Reading, we're also adding prototypical switching and a signal control mode to the controller.

We are awaiting final costings from the factory and will confirm product prices closer to launch.

Coming soon - pictures of both the controller and actuator in final form.

Best wishes from the Minx team

Development update 22nd November 2010

In September we demonstrated early prototypes of the Minx point motor at the Telford show. Up to that point, it was a bit of a trip into the unknown for us, but we had a super response and lots of positive feedback; thank you to all of you who shared your thoughts and ideas with us.

 Behind the scenes we’ve been working very hard at making improvements to the usability of the point motor. We’ve also used our development experiences so far, to further engineer the point motor to offer an even better reliability.

 Whilst we recognise that a DCC controlled version is where our main commercial market lies, we have decided to launch the point motor with an ANALOGUE interface. This is easier for us to engineer, and means that the analogue point motor should be available to purchase early 2011.

 The addition of an integrated DCC decoder (all built into the same package) will be our next priority and we aim to have the DCC point motor available to purchase by early summer 2011.

 For those of you who haven’t seen our new point motor yet, it comprises  a controller and a tiny actuator, which are connected together via a thin flat ribbon-cable (we can make these to any length required). The actuator is small enough to be mounted on top of the base board, for example under some prototypical structure, within scenery or partly recessed and is close to scale size. However, it can be just as easily mounted under the baseboard as well if required. The controller can be mounted on the edge of or under the base board and is wired to the layout via screw terminals.

 Each controller has two channels, which means it can independently control two actuators – i.e. two points. Each channel on the controller has 2 double-pole switches. One of these is of course used for polarity switching on the frog, and the other is available to be used as you wish (e.g. signalling / controlling other points). We will also be selling additional switch banks that can be plugged into the controller.

 The analogue controller has a built-in independent power which can be supplied with 8 ~ 24v AC or DC.

A version for garden use operating from 2 x 1.5 volt batteries will also be developed in 2011. It will operate as a self-contained unit, the batteries lasting over 6 months.

We will be attending the Reading show on December 4th, Stand H3, where the both the actuator and controller will be demonstrated.

Best wishes from the Minx team.

Email:        Phone: 01932 225568

Development update 9th September 2010.

Many thanks to all of you who came to Stand 82 at the Gauge O Guild exhibition at Telford International Centre, 4 - 5th September 2010.

We had a fantastic response from over 1000 visitors and many made very positive, helpful comments about the specifications of both the actuator and controller.

If you left your details and have not received an e-mail within a week of the Telford exhibition, please send us you details again - we may have had difficulty reading your writing!

Email:        Phone: 01932 225568

We are incorporating a number of minor upgrades before production commences. These will inevitably slightly delay the first production run, but we feel are well worth doing; we want to get the product completely right. They will include:

• Modifying the drive rod from the actuator to allow both surface and under baseboard installation 
• The controller will be able to operate up to 4 actuators for crossovers and junctions
• A DCC compatible version will be available in 2011
• A garden version operating on 3 volts from batteries will be developed
• A further reduction in size of both actuator and controller might be possible
• The actuator and controller will be sold separately

If, reflecting on what you saw at the Telford exhibition, any other useful features come to mind, please e-mail us within the next month.

Our next trade show will be at Reading in December 2010, at which we will take pre-orders for delivery in early 2011.

Best wishes from John, Tom, Naomi and Minx