The Flea

Dave Cone

Nutmeg Division Secretary

david.cone@yale.edu

“The Flea” is an integrated turnout, DCC decoder, and switch machine offered by Cypress Engineering of southern California.  At the time of this writing (mid-May), the current model (The Flea II) is no longer available, and the company will be rolling out The Flea III in the next month or so.  This article focuses on my experience with The Flea II, and mentions some of the promised improvements of The Flea III.

Out of the box, the Flea II looks quite simple.  I ordered one left-hand and one right-hand #5 Walthers/Shinohara Code 83 HO turnout, and each is just the turnout with a small circuit board and motor mounted under one end.  Basic installation is as easy as digging out a bit of a trench in the subroadbed (5/8” plywood in my case – this step would be easier for those who use foam insulation board), as the circuit board and motor are just a bit thicker than the cork roadbed that I use, and then installing the turnout like any other piece of track.  No wiring is needed for basic use, as the Flea receives its commands through the track.

It is very important to program the Flea’s address right away (the manufacturer recommends programming before installation), so it is no longer on the factory pre-set of 168 or 169.  If you install two Fleas on the same layout with the same address, you are in big trouble, as both will respond to all commands and programming attempts, including assigning a new address.  Programming is done “on the main” by filling in three CVs, and the instruction manual provides careful instructions for Digitrax, NCE Procab, and MRC systems, as well as general instructions that would help the user of any other DCC system.  I found programming to be quick and easy.

After assigning a new address, you next can decide which mode to use.  The “DCC” mode runs the switch off your DCC system; you send “clear” and “throw” commands to the accessory address.  In “toggle switch” mode, a standard toggle switch wired from the circuit board and mounted somewhere on your layout or fascia sets the turnout to “clear” or “thrown”.  Finally, “dual” mode allows you to use either DCC commands or a pushbutton, momentary-contact SPST switch.  I chose this mode, and I placed a small control panel on my fascia for the passing siding that I have on my layout so I can just push the buttons if the train is coming down the track and I don’t have time to correct the turnout by DCC.

You can quit here if you want, or you can do some additional wiring off the circuit board to add a bicolor LED (included with your Flea) at your panel.  I did this, so I can see at a glance whether the turnouts are clear (green) or thrown (red).  Wiring both the pushbuttons and the LEDs was pretty simple – the wiring diagram in the manual is fine, and the soldering was no big deal.  I can now throw the switches manually at the panel, or from anywhere in the room with my DCC controller.

Although I haven’t done this due to the simplicity of my passing siding, the Flea can also be programmed for routes.  This seems to be particularly useful for things like complex yards, or multi-bay roundhouses.  You could, for example, have a dozen different routes in your DCC system to guide trains to a dozen different legs of a yard through several different turnouts.  All of the turnouts in the route automatically set themselves to the correct orientation for that route when a single route command is entered at the DCC controller.  Each Flea can “remember” up to 28 routes, which seems like more than enough for most of us!

According to email discussions I have had with the tech support staff at Cypress Engineering, the following upgrades will be along for the Flea III:

- Mounted and ballasted to 1/4" high grade polyurethane cork roadbed

- Custom roadbed pieces will be available for all Walthers Code 83 switches incl. double crossover, double slip, wyes, and three way

- LED is visible from the top of the switch (can be covered with ballast if not needed)

- Provisions for two LED indicators, one local and one on the control board.

- Local LED can be mounted in a Tomar dwarf signal as an option.

- LED indicators will only come on if the points are fully closed in either position.

- On-board automatic switch control will be an option - automatically throws the switch if a train approaches an open set of points.

Cypress Engineering was not able to make photographs of the new version available for me, as they are still working on patent issues.

I paid $58.98 for each of my two Flea IIs; I do not know if the price will increase for the next version.  This is undoubtedly more than I would have paid for, say, a #5 turnout and a Tortoise slow motion switch machine, but the installation was probably easier, and the performance so far (I’ve had them on my layout for only a few months) has been fine.  The only real negative comment I can make is that ballasting the Flea II doesn’t look easy (read: I haven’t done it yet), as it’s not clear to me how to ballast over the circuit board and motor without gumming them up; the Flea III should solve this problem.  I have one on order, and once I get it and install it (no estimated shipping date yet), I will provide an update in this newsletter.  In the meantime, a PowerPoint presentation with additional information and photographs is posted on the Nutmeg Division website.