Sunday, February 27, 2022

February Update

There has been some modelling activities this month but have spent more time working on the new Session 3 paperwork, I have updated part of my website, sent my NCE PH-PRO in for a warranty fix and finished the setup of the U28C. COVID has prevented any group activities. I hope we can recommence our activities in March.

Session 3 Paperwork

I have finally completed the planning, train graph and job cards leaving only the switch lists to be completed following completion of the deferred Session 2.

Session 3 now has a new schedule, Train Graph, Job Cards and Hornertown Yardmaster Tasks which can be viewed in the links below:

Train Graph Schedule Operator Job Cards Hornertown Yardmaster

Website Update

I have updated the Session 3 page in the Operations Group too, click on this link to have a look.

NCE PH-PRO Serial Port Issues

You may remember I had issues late last year (see October and November Updates) well the problem has come back. I rang the supplier and the command station has been returned for a warranty fix. I sent the cable used as well so they will be able to ensure it is all working correctly before I get it back.

So there will be no operations on the layout for a few weeks.

I was asked to send the JMRI log files which I did. The feedback is that the system is working correctly despite much testing. I am now wondering if a windows update or something else has changed my COM Port settings somehow - something I failed to double check. I have done all the BIOS and windows updates, updated Java to Version 11 and JMRI to Version 4.26.

The PH-PRO unit and my ESU cable has been posted back to me and I hope it arrives thsi week when I will be able to connect the cable to see which COM Port it is assigned to.

Thanks to Marcus A for and Dave H for thier investigation and testing.

U28C Blue Box Loco Upgrade

Back in September 2020 I fitted the new motor, decoder, speaker and keep alive but the lighting was still to be completed - see here.

It was my first attempt at using 0402 prewired LEDs (for the number boards). I had to determine the best resistor for the 0402 LEDs my tester said it was a 2.57V 2nA device. So I bench tested two in paralell and a 47Kohm resistor seemed to do the job well.

The motor I purchased seems to work well and when I speed matched the loco to my freight standards using my Bacrus speedometer I had to set the trims to 38 to keep the maximum speed to 40 mph. By doing that I still had full range control of the speed curve 0-255.

During testing the loco pulled 8 weighted cars up my ruling grade test which is a section about 5 feet long at 4.5% so it is comparable to other locos on my layout. See the video below that shows its first run - please note you cannot hear any notching as acceleration and deceleration settings are still at 0.