The CTC Multi-I/O Board and the CTC Locomotive Module H0d come with preinstalled connections for two model servos.

Although servos are not among the most commonly used drives in model railways, they are repeatedly mentioned for the following tasks:

  • Turnout drives
  • Raising and lowering pantographs (from electric locomotives)
  • Special effects

In the CTC app, servos can appear in two ways:

  • As a function: This sets two or more servo positions that are approached at the touch of a button.
  • As a controller: This allows you to adjust the servo over its full control range using plus/minus buttons or a slider.

Turnout Drive

In the case of the turnout drive, the servo appears as a function, just like any other turnout drive.

To do this, open the configuration of the Multi-I/O Board to which your servo turnout drive is connected. There, click the plus button to the right of “Connected Products” and select “Servo-Turnout” from the product catalog “universell-weichen.xml”:

Product Catalog Servo-Turnout

After connecting it, you only need to adjust the servo values for the two positions. To do this, switch to the “Actions” tab and select the function under the servo turnout. Then choose the “pin[]” commands in the script and enter the correct values for your drive there.

Servo Turnout Adjustment Values

A servo turnout drive set up in this way does not differ in usage from a turnout with magnetic drive. That means it appears the same way on the control panel as other turnouts and can also be placed on the track plan in the same way.

Determining Servo Positions

If you need to determine the servo positions first, then additionally set up a value controller for your servo:

Configuring a Servo Value Controller

After that, you will have an additional value controller for your turnout. With its arrows, you can adjust your servo in 5-degree increments to determine the optimal position:

Control Panel Turnout with Value Controller

Once you have the correct values, you can remove your value controller from the config.

Servo in General

For all other applications of servos, you will find the entry “Servo” in the product catalog “universell-weichen.xml”. There you can choose whether to use it as a value controller or function.

In the control panel list, the servo as a value controller looks like this:

Control Panel Servo Value Controller

and as a switch (function) like this:

Control Panel Servo Switch