This month has seen a very significant proportion of my time taken up with some work and family matters. Some hobby time was found and I worked on: Track Maintenance, High Capacity CD Unit, WiFi Fast Clock Slaves and Control Panels.
Troublesome Track
Last month I ripped out the problem area and after some mdf was removed by chisel and an acceptable road bed was determined I sealed the area with paint prior to relaying the track. The section functions well now.
High Capacity CD Unit
I built Rosslyn some CD Units thinking they would drive Peco solenoids. When I turned up to help install them I discovered he was trying to throw Tenshodo solenoids which are much larger and require significantly more umph!
I normally use Rob Paisley's circuit with a 3300µf or 4700µf capacitor which easily throws 3 or 4 Peco solenoids simultaneously.
I built a version with two 4700µf capacitors in parallel (9400µf) and that seems to work OK when tested on an old Tenshodo point motor I have from a previous layout. I still need to get to Rosslyn's to install and test where she has two in working together at a cross over.
Control Panels
Following introduction of more realistic operating sessions my operators have been asking for local control panels at Jimtown and Adamsville instead of having to ask the controller/tower man to set the turnouts. I have agreed to this and commenced building them.
They are made and pre-wired ready for installation
WiFi Fast Clocks
I have finished assembling the four slave units.
I have acquired a project box to mount all the base station components in. I started the component measurement process to design the layout of the 8 x 32 LED time display, LCD showing staus of slaves and the control push buttons.
Project Box Width
Project Box Length
Push Buttons
LCD Width
LCD Length
8 x 32 LED display width
8 x 32 LED display length
Now for designing the layout and then work on the project box to ready it for the components.
Ops Sessions at Chris's & Wayne's
Due to the work and family issues I missed both sessions, hopefully I can avoid this in the future.
Till the end of July.....
-ooOOOoo-
