7mm Heljan Class 128

Ressaldar

Western Thunderer
Just taken delivery of the latest Heljan offering, the first of the DMU series announced a couple of years ago

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First impressions are that it looks the business and once weathered, it will look even better! The interesting news is that it is fitted with a 21 pin socket, so just a question of removing the blanking plate and plugging in your prefered 21 pin decoder. space has been allowed in the chassis for an ESU 23mm dia speaker.

The headcode boxes are lit and directional and there is a slide switch underneath for cab the cab lights.

It will have a good blow at the Club this evening and I will report back as to how that went tomorrow.

regards

Mike
 

Ressaldar

Western Thunderer
herewith the 'works'

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it appears to be similar to the double ended Mashima motor with the brass work acting directly onto an 18T nylon pinion. Pick up is from all eight wheels.

I will get the body off this afternoon.

regards

Mike
 

Ressaldar

Western Thunderer
Herewith the 'innards' - it took quite a while to take the body off after removing the retaining screws, the fit of the bulkheads is much on the tight side and there are a number of studs, (used to transfer power to the lights) that could have been a better fit, that got in the way - even more so when replacing the body! Also discovered that one of the pickup wires had come adrift so the bogie side was prised off (typical Heljan 'fixing') so that was re-soldered.

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The chassis is die-cast and the bogies are held on via 'circlips'. The loudspeaker will need to have a plug and socket in the line as the speaker housing is in the piece that is removed when the body fixing screws come out.

regards

Mike
 

Ressaldar

Western Thunderer
Hi John,

I have a double speaker on order, to mount it on the chassis and therefore keep the wiring withing the 'innards' is the plan - but that involves milling a hole is the chassis, which could be a fun job!:eek::eek::eek:

cheers

Mike
 

richard carr

Western Thunderer
Mike

It looks great, I went for the double speed whiskers and it should be waiting for me when I get back next week.

It does look there is room for an enormous speaker in there I bought a couple at Telford I think both might fit.

Richard
 

Scale7JB

Western Thunderer
I'm actually quite jealous.

I'd love one of these, though I can't quite warrant one. Doubt they would have made it way over east..

JB.
 

Ressaldar

Western Thunderer
Mike

It does look there is room for an enormous speaker in there I bought a couple at Telford I think both might fit.

Richard

Hi Richard,

I think that the speaker installation as designed is the Achilles heal of the model in as much as the provided speaker housing is in the part that has to be removed to enable the release of the body from the chassis and therefore you have a pair of wires holding everything 'together' as it were.

I have a Zimo double speaker unit coming from Digitrains and I shall have to form an aperture in the cast chassis around the provided location hole and fit the speaker above that, as there is only a 6mm dia hole for sound to transmit through! This will also overcome the problem of the wires as they will all be in the one chassis unit. Photos to follow early next week.

regards

Mike
 

Ressaldar

Western Thunderer
The decoder - Zimo MX644D and speaker were collected from the sorting office this morning and I have now removed the body from the chassis and then the blanking plate from the PCB - and guess what, no indication on the PCB nor in the 'instructions' as to which terminals/pads are for the speaker wires:headbang::headbang::headbang::headbang:. This and the fact that my comments above regarding the wires from the decoder to the loudspeaker,have been born out, in as much as the two holes already through the chassis are too small even for a mini two wire plug and socket to pass through. Headscratching of the first order is needed before I proceed any further.

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This is the Heljan PCB with the blanking plate removed. The Zimo instruction sheet shows the loudspeaker pins as No 2 & 3 from the top of the right hand line (adjacent to the left of CN5. CN1 & 7 are for the route indicator boxes and CN3 & 9 are for the cab lights and the two black leads (between CN2 & 3) go to the micro switch that controls the cab lights.

Perhaps CN5 is the connector for the loudspeaker, I have emailed Tower to see if they are any the wiser, I will report back when I have the solution.

regards

Mike
 

richard carr

Western Thunderer
Mike

That is frustrating to say the least, I assume that all the wires are black and red.

Is there any particular reason you chose that decoder ?

Richard
 

Ressaldar

Western Thunderer
Hi Richard,

yes, black is +.

I just prefer Zimo decoders and I this MX644D has a 1.2 Amp (2.5 Amp peak) rating which makes it suitable for a large number of O Gauge locos. I had the 128 running on the Club layout on Thursday night and at maximum power, it was drawing no more than 0.2 Amps.

Just had an email back from Tower Models and they have no idea which terminals are for the loudspeaker connections.

regards

Mike
 

Ressaldar

Western Thunderer
Mike

The PCB looks suspiciously likle the one in the Heljan Railbus.
See halfway down post #34 here.

I bet there is a socket, but I defy you to find a plug to fit!

I would guess you will need to solder to the pins as I did.

Hopefully Paul (@SoundsLoco) may pop along to confirm....

Tim

Hi Tim,

many thanks for your reply. I think that I may have an old Heljan PCB with plugs in the sockets, if I can find it and there is a two pin plug, I might be able to use the leads as fly leads and be 'away with the mixer' - watch this space! Especially as there are no pin bases to solder wires to:eek::eek::eek::eek:

Hi Simon,

many thanks for your info, but as I said in post 12 above, I prefer and have used in this instance, a Zimo decoder.

regards

Mike
 

Ressaldar

Western Thunderer
Mike

I bet there is a socket, but I defy you to find a plug to fit!

Tim

Hi Tim,

I had a response from Klaus on RMweb regarding the plugs and he suggests these:

http://uk.farnell.com/jst-japan-sol...ey=http:en-GB/Element14_United_Kingdom/search

I think I will venture some of the railway funds in Farnell's direction, worth a punt. An alternative is for me to cut short the lead to the roof fan on my 37 as I do not connect that up when I install a decoder and use that. I'll keep you posted.

As I said earlier, the interesting problem is really to do with the speaker wires - especially if the speaker is fitted in the space that Heljan 'provide', as you will end up with the plate that has to be removed to enable the body to be parted from the chassis is always connected to the chassis and you left with the problem of suitable access to slide a plasticard strip between the body and the chassis while the 'engine casting' is in the way! The best answer is to mill/stitch drill an aperture in the die cast chassis - again not a straight forward task, as the plasticard 'ceiling' (see first photo in post#3 above) that carries the wiring is in the way and you will have to invert the chassis and then support it by the 'floor' while you form the aperture. I have a Zimo LS40x22x09 double speaker to install, face down over the aperture on a carrier to ensure that it is isolated from the diecast chassis - Monday in the workshop could be interesting.

regards

Mike
 

richard carr

Western Thunderer
Mike

Simon's point about the ESU adaptor board is a good one as looking at it on the SWD website that board will work with any make of decoder so long as its a 21 pin one.

Richard
 

richard carr

Western Thunderer
Mike

I'm still confused as to where the speaker goes, do you have a picture of where it goes.

Although that adaptor board will work I think it means wiring everything to t and binning the heljan pcb.

Richard
 

simond

Western Thunderer
Hi Tim,

many thanks for your reply. I think that I may have an old Heljan PCB with plugs in the sockets, if I can find it and there is a two pin plug, I might be able to use the leads as fly leads and be 'away with the mixer' - watch this space! Especially as there are no pin bases to solder wires to:eek::eek::eek::eek:

Hi Simon,

many thanks for your info, but as I said in post 12 above, I prefer and have used in this instance, a Zimo decoder.

regards

Mike

Mike,

I too use Zimo decoders, but the pin-out is the same, so the instructions show the pin numbers (and positions).

(Zimo don’t supply adaptor plates, afaik)

Best
Simon
 

Ressaldar

Western Thunderer
Mike

I'm still confused as to where the speaker goes, do you have a picture of where it goes.

Although that adaptor board will work I think it means wiring everything to t and binning the heljan pcb.

Richard

Hi Richard,

The internal plan dimensions are 33.5mm long x 22.0mm wide

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it is all plastic and the columns are for fixing the ESU 23mm dia speaker, although neither Heljan nor ESU supply the screws to achieve the fixing!

The double Zimo speaker that I have would just fit lengthways if I remove the two end walls and that is the prefered option (A) but it is how the wires are connected in such a way as to enable the whole of this unit to be detached in order that you can gain access to remove the body. The circular hole is for the 'shipping screw' to pass through to hold the baseplate onto the chassis via a threaded hole. I will need to enlarge both holes to 6.5mm dia. to allow a two way mini connector to pass through - (widest dimension is 5.5mm) and just rest on the unit floor, having poked the wire - long enough to allow initial separation of this unit from the chassis, back through. here not being any space or recesses between the top of this unit and the underside of the chassis. I assume that the angled rectangular hole - there is a corresponding hole in the chassis, is for wire to pass through, but in my mind does nothing to overcome the problem.

All very difficult to put into words and a video of the operation would take longer to set up than execute!

I will keep you informed of any progress made.

regards

Mike
 
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