August has seen a little time in the train room and I did get to work on my upper level signal control stuff, hosted a TrainmastersTV night, completed the U50 modifications, purchased a Bachrus Speedometer, attended another running session at Wayne's with the Monday crew, programmed a Paragon AC6000, modified a power supply for use with CD units, worked on Control Panels for Chris's layout and attended the funeral of the owner's one of my Local Hobby Shops.
I have wired the 45 3LSM's and the final testing remains.
I have commenced trial arrangements for the control side and have been incorporation at least on spare of each module type to ensure I have additional capacity should I have a shortfall in my design.
There is a significant amount of work to mount the modules, wire and test - this will take a month or three I think...
My guests were offered the following drinks from the in-house Candy Bar along with a range of nibbles.
We had a great night...
Below are a few pics
Take a look at the outcome.
To Nigel G - sorry it took so long to complete.
On Thursday 27th August we had our fourth monthly Ops sessions at Wayne's layout we were again the "guinea pigs" for the remaining part of his "session 2".
Top Level Signal Controls
Last month I outlined that there are two sides to this control board, the "3 Light Signal Module side" (3LSM) and the "Control side" which includes the Input isolation modules, direction sensing (DBDS), Passing siding (SSCM) & Junction (JCTM) modules.3 Light Signal Modules Board
I have wired the 45 3LSM's and the final testing remains.
Control side
I have commenced trial arrangements for the control side and have been incorporation at least on spare of each module type to ensure I have additional capacity should I have a shortfall in my design.
The additional rolls of wire have arrived.
TrainmastersTV night
On 10th August I hosted a TrainmastersTV night and we watched a selection of six videos.
My guests were offered the following drinks from the in-house Candy Bar along with a range of nibbles.
We had a great night...
U50 Modifications
Finally after no progress since September 2013 I finished the modifications. I previously removed the factory boards and did a total rewire and fitted a Tsunami sound decoder and have replaced the bulbs with LEDs - it has been my first go at 0603 smd LEDs. I learnt that 0.25 mm wire is too strong and when bending inside the loco the tension can destroy the smd LED. I should have used the 0.010 wire from the outset. Do NOT fix the smd's with ACC - use Krystal Klear so when it all goes wrong it can be undone easily...
Below are a few pics
Take a look at the outcome.
To Nigel G - sorry it took so long to complete.
The Monday Crew has fourth running sessions at Wayne's
On Thursday 27th August we had our fourth monthly Ops sessions at Wayne's layout we were again the "guinea pigs" for the remaining part of his "session 2".
Our Host
3 train meet at Lowood Crossing
"Murphy" was at work a few times....
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| Why did the loco have to stall there? |
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| Derailment at the back in hidden trackage.... |
The debrief
Bachrus Speedometer
After listening to Part Two of the search for JMRI on A Modelers Life Podcast and  Mike Deverell's post on 20 July I watched his video....
I thought it was pretty good so I ordered one..
I got it going....
Now to learn about exporting to Excel and speed matching to see if my existing method can be improved upon...
Peter's Paragon AC6000
Peter is a "N scaler" but sometime back he purchased a BLI HO Paragon AC6000 in BHP Iron in blue livery which reminded him of his time working in Northwest Western Australia which has long BHP ore trains.
It was pleasing when DecoderPro accurately selected the correct decoder so we set about configuring, start voltage, speed tables and sound levels to a pint where Peter was happy.
Prior to being allowed to pull my ore train the original couplers were changed out to Kadee 148's but the rear coupler did not match the height gauge so it was changed for a 142 and a satisfactory outcome was achieved.
Apart from having to clean track Peter had a few hours of fun running his loco over my layout.
Chris's CD units Power Supply
After looking through all the available power sources there was nothing in the AC 18-24V output range so one of the existing units became a candidate for a new multi-tap 60VA transformer as it had an in-line fuse and neon. The new transformer was acquired and I did the modifications.
Chris's Control Panels
Work has commenced...
Switches mounted but still a long way to go......
RIP Browny...
Our Local Hobby Shop Owner Anthony (Tony) Edison Brown known to local modelers as "Browny" will be a sad loss. I attended the funeral service along with many other modelers, family and friends. The service saw people standing outside the entrance to the chapel which was full.
I can remember regularly dropping in to his first store at St Marys "a few nights a week" on the way home from work to check out what new blue box's had arrived. We all remember hundreds of items in his shop all with the little white rectangular sticker each having a reference number and cost duly completed. Every sale was written in a small spiral bound note book line by line number and price. I often wondered how his accounting system worked....
After another recess he opened his third shop at Christies Beach before his final shop at Morphett Vale. He remembered all our names throughout the years and we will miss him....
Till the end of September 2015.
-ooOOOoo-
