STEP 1 – TAKE A PICTURE OF YOUR LAYOUT

Take a photo of your layout an note the location of your points. There are 4 here.

STEP 2 – SKETCH A TOPOLOGICAL MAP

This is basically a tube station like map (ref https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Beck)

but applied to the point locations. We’re not concerned with the absolute geographic location of the points but their relative positions.

STEP 3 – PRINT SWITCH TEMPLATES

Print out the template for the points switch PCBs and cut out as many as required.

STEP 4 – OVERLAY TEMPLATES ONTO YOUR MIMIC

On your final layout the PCBs will be positioned underneath the layout, it’s important to work out the overall spacing of the points switches on your mimic. Stick them in place.

STEP 5 – MAKE DESIGN

Now you’ve got the overall dimensions you can produce your mimic. This can be done either by:

• Laser-cuting using a CAD file – this can be done on plywood or acrylic, the above design is translated to a package such as inkscape and sent off to a 3rd party for manufacture (as in this example).
• Manually drilling holes into a box, enclosure or panel then overlaying the track information with a pen or tape.

Once the mimic is produced the PCBs mount into the holes you’ve drilled and just need wiring up to the point motors and the power supply PCB.

Note – aim for 2-3mm material thicknes. For the LED clips. You can probably mount them with thicker / thinner materials but it’s more work. The leds are mounted such as to mount into 2mm ideally.

Note – it’s really up to you if you do it old school using a ruler and pencil or a computer you can get great results both ways. Old school in many ways is cheaper, easier and faster though!

STEP 6 – DESIGN TRANSLATION – INKSCAPE

For this example I’ve translated the design to inkscape which is a free CAD tool. To check my drill hole positions I made a template in inkscape to base my dimensions on. I made a box, the best way to do this is to use a box maker web page such as http://boxmaker.connectionlab.org/ then translate your design on top of it. Once you’re happy with it print it off to check it.

Double check your drill colors, once you’re happy wend it off to an online laser cutting service such as razorlab. You’ll be charged per line cut so try and make it simple, the box I did here was about £20 (10x10x4 cm. This can easily get out of hand if you you add too much stuff.

STEP 7 – ASSEMBLE DESIGN

Once the design comes through you can start to assemble your mimic. I’ve done a box here so quickly check everything fits. To fit LEDs, place LED clips through the mimic, open up the tabs with a pen so the LEDs clip into place and mount the switch.

The next step is to glue the box.

Then mount all the remaining points switches then mount the power supply board in a convenient location. Check it doesn’t clash with the switches.

STEP 8 – WIRE EVERYTHING UP

Now finish wiring everything up.