7mm Ressaldar's Workshop - a paintshop diversion

[lancer1027]

Another dumb question..... why 2 pin plugs (mind you i dont know what 4, 6 , & 8 pin plugs are for).

Could you take another pic showing what legs on leds go where, resistors go where etc.

Sorry for this Mike and i know im being a real pain but me being completely bamboozled with electrics , needs a pic to show everything .

Rob feeling just a little out of his depth here

 

[Jordan]

Another dumb question..... why 2 pin plugs (mind you i dont know what 4, 6 , & 8 pin plugs are for).

Depends how many wires you need to connect - it might just be two, hence two-pin plug'n'socket.

No such thing as a Stupid Question, either - if you don't know, you won't find out unless you ask! ("you" as in anyone)
I too have found this LED 'project within a Project' most interesting. The use of two-colour LEDs is inspired!

 

[lancer1027]

Cheers Jordan
Well i got as far as getting the bi-colour leds for my bubblecar but it was put on the back burner as i dont know whether to go radio controlled or not, so didnt want to put wires in until i knew where everything needed to go.

So if i have got this right, the plugs pins indicate how many wires going in/coming from 2 pin 2 wires 4 pin 4 wires etc"simples" .

Hey ive learnt summat in elecktrickery ....................not rocket science but its a start

Rob

 

[Ressaldar]

Another dumb question..... why 2 pin plugs (mind you i dont know what 4, 6 , & 8 pin plugs are for).

Could you take another pic showing what legs on leds go where, resistors go where etc.

Sorry for this Mike and i know im being a real pain but me being completely bamboozled with electrics , needs a pic to show everything .

Rob feeling just a little out of his depth here

Hi Rob,

as Jordan, says, there is no such thing as a dumb question. I am taking this trip down 'electrickery lane' very slowly as I know nothing about this lark except that wires are needed to connect something to something else to get a result.

I use a book by Nigel Burkin - DCC for Railway Modellers - ISBN 978-1-84797-020-6 published by The Crowood Press (www.crowood.com) £18.99 when I bought it as my bible, it is very easy to follow and Nigel is a modeller himself, so no bulls++t.

The 2 pin plugs and sockets are for the leads from the pick-ups to the harness leads and harness leads to the motor and also for the speaker leads to/from the chip. All to make like (I hope) easier when carrying out maintenance.

If you look back at post 300, that photo shows the LED as bought at the bottom of the picture with the centre leg being the + anode and the two outer legs being the - cathode, the longer leg is the red and the shorter leg the white. I made up a test rig using three AA batteries wired in series to give me 4.5v and hooked up leads from that to the + & in turn - red/white to check that the LEDs were ok. I then filed down the LEDs to suit the bezel and again checked the LEDs to make sure that I had not damaged the filaments during the filing process.

If you look at photos 3 & 4 in post 304, these show the rear of the Vero board and it is just a matter of measuring the centres of the bezels and then choosing the relevant set of holes best matching what you need, drilling through into the black plasticard inserting the LED from the plasticard side having decided which horizontal run to use for the red & white legs and then soldering them on. The resistor needs to go on the + anode line on the Vero board and then be soldered to the LED leg that has been pushed through - ensuring that the leg does not touch the rim of the hole as this could pick up power without going through the resistor and possibly blow the LED - best way to make sure that this cannot happen is to use a drill bit that is slightly larger that the hole - (you need to maintain the continuity of the strip) as a countersink bit and twiddle the bit in your fingers rather than using a mini-drill and boring a hole right through! The LEDs can be pushed hard against the plasticard and the red and white legs bent tight down onto the Vero board prior to soldering, this gives good support and makes fitting into the bezels a touch easier.

The top level of the Vero board may have to be lowered slightly to allow a good fit to the console top, - all to be determined once the glazing in installed.

I'll take a couple more photos later, together with today's progress.

cheers

Mike

 

[lancer1027]

Thanks Mike, much appreciated

Rob

 

[Ressaldar]

Hi Rob,

you are welcome.

This morning, I completed all of the wiring, took my time, double checked as I went, kept all of the leads long so that I could get the body on & off and also allow for the 'unknown territory' aspect. Switched on the power, placed the body on the chassis, addressed the loco - still on 03, pressed F1 and the engine started, turned up the power and we had movement in the right direction, pressed F0 followed by F1 - the engine noise stopped, but the front lights (white) came on - but NOT the back (red) ones , stopped the loco, pressed F1 again and the lights turned from white to red. Changed direction, and the white lights came on and changed to red when F1 was pressed again, no rear lights . I turned the lights off - by pressing F0 and the sound came back on.

I will now check all of my connections - I have put heat shrink over every one, so there should be no shorting. then I think a call to Digitrains might be the order of the day.

cheers

Mike

 

[Ressaldar]

well I checked my efforts from this morning and all seemed ok, so it was a phone call to Digitrains. Unfortunately, the guy I needed to really speak to was not in today, I was told that the chip was not mapped for the 'switch off rear lights when hauling stock' function, - which is what I thought I had wired up. So no problem for the moment, I rewired the lights for 'direction' working - white lights at the front + red lights at the rear, and placed the unit on the track and bingo it worked.



white at the front and............................believe it or not,



this really is red at the rear + squiffy buffers all round but it is a test run after all.

I will be giving it a good blow at the Club this evening and tomorrow will quieten down the lights to a more mellow glow and perhaps the red will show up in the photos as well.

cheers

Mike

 

[Heather Kay]

perhaps the red will show up in the photos as well.

It may do if it's been dimmed a bit, but red points of light are notoriously hard to photography digitally. I believe it's a function of the chips manufacturers use in their cameras - they tend to be sensitive in the red end of the spectrum, and they're often set up with more green and blue photosites than red ones to try and compensate. I once spent ages adjusting an image to try and get the red "stop walking" figure to show on a pedestrian crossing button box, because the camera had completely failed to register the colour properly. All I ever managed was a horrid tangerine orange, because there just wasn't enough red channel to work with.

 

[Ressaldar]

Hi Heather,

sorry for the delay in responding, but first thing on Friday mornings is 'Aunty shopping trip'.

Many thanks for the heads-up on the loss of red light, you may have seen in post 304 that I managed the 'tangerine' effect, but once installed, it went off completely! I'll try dimming the lights and see what that brings.

Last nights running session was ok to begin with, although slow running was a bit jerky - wheels were cleaned before hand, so I am putting it down to dirty track, although with the 'stay-alive' capacitor, I would have thought that jerks would have been smoothed out, with the controller turned up to 45, it was smooth and the lights worked fine directionally, and all was well for about 90 minutes.

I then stopped the unit to reverse it, turned up the power the unit moved correctly but the lights flashed in a similar way to hazard lights on a car, it run for about 25 feet, stopped, the lights went out and would not re-start. After about five minutes I applied the track circuit tester and that lit. I took the unit off of the DCC track, placed it on the DC track, applied power and off it went with lights on - and as expected, no sound.

I am just going out to the workshop to try it on the DCC and see what if anything, happens - it may then be a call to Digitrains

more later

Mike

 

[Ressaldar]

well, I placed the unit on the track, turned on the lights - fine, turned on the power - fine - to the point that I slowed things down and back came the jerking

I then wired up the trailing bogie, already fitted with wiper pick-ups by Bachmann - very thoughtful, connected the wires up to the motor bogie to chip wires, placed on track and the same result. So a call was put in to Digitrains - a very helpful chap, mentioned something about EMF, controlled by CV58, turn it down to half of default, I also mentioned that I wanted to dim the lights - CV60, turn it down to half or one third of default. Having not done anything more than re-address locos before, I approached the task with caution, a mug of black coffee and the Digitrax manual. I have a separate programming track wired up to the main console, so the unit was placed on, the manual read slowly and presto - all is well, the slow running is jerk free and quite superb, the lights are dimmer, but I may take them down still further.

The next task is to tidy up the fixing of the wiring onto the floorpan and then concentrate on finishing the body, inside and out, although, some bits will not be finished until after collecting some bits at Cleckers.

I have now taken delivery of another Sidelines D2046 Inspection Saloon for painting and finishing, this time in Blue/Grey for somebody in the SouthWest. Should be picking up the Easybuild BR Swindon built Diag 1/552 Inspection Saloons at Cleckers, so that little lot + the H33 conversion, should keep me off the streets until Telford

cheers

Mike

 

[lancer1027]

Dont forget plenty of pics Mike on the Easybuild Inspection Saloon

Rob

 

[Jordan]

Stick at it Mike - I found/still find DCC is a very steep learning curve, especially when you get beyond the 'basic' CV programming.
Ref the "EMF" (or "Back-EMF" as I've seen it described), I usually turn it off completely - for me I've found it just makes the motor 'buzz' loudly and did nothing for smooth running, which ironically is what it's supposed to help with, apparently!
Re the F1 and lights and sounds, does sound like a 'mapping' issue to me, although I can't help with advice as it was an area I had trouble with & never fully resolved - I have two 'sound' locos where F3 turns the ditch lights on and also plays "coupler crash" or something like that. Funny enough they both have Digitrax chips as well.

 

[Simon]

Mike

If it is of any use to you I took lots of detailed pictures of the Class 122 at Buckfastleigh on Monday last. I appreciate that there are differences between 121/122 and that your model is pretty much finished anyway, but if there are any aspects of undergubbins that you want clearing up then I may be able to help.

Here's a snap or two from Monday, taken with the permission of the Ops manager and arranged through the good offices of Captain Kernow, thanks very much to both gentlemen





Hopefully this will get me back on to my own 122 project shortly

Simon

 

[Ressaldar]

Hi Jordan,

thanks for the encouragement, I will. As you say, a very steep learning curve - I think that the main problem, is associating a fault with the corresponding CV, finding the answer in the manual, understanding the manual and finally pressing the right buttons to achieve the result. Having said that, the Zimo manual can be followed - just, it is then a question of retailing the knowledge for the next installation.

The rear lights on/off is not a major problem as the 121s normally ran a single units anyway, although it will be a bit of a bother when used with the Inspection Saloon, perhaps the answer is to propel the Saloon, would the leading lights on the121 still be required in this instance or would there be white lights on the front of the Saloon?

cheers

Mike

 

[Ressaldar]

Hi Simon,

many thanks for the pictures and the offer. I will certainly bear it in mind for the next build - the Sandite.

The detail of the relationship between the top of the console desk and the window is very timely as the installation of the desk is one of the next moves and as I thought, the windows need to go in first.

cheers

Mike

 

[Ressaldar]

not much progress over the weekend due to family commitments, but I have managed to apply the transfers - Railtec for the numbers, the last three digits made up in-situ, the remainder from HMRS sheet 15 Pressfix, and then as always, followed by two coats of Johnston's Klear





Hopefully windows and wipers on tomorrow, but an unexpected trip to the doctors has to take preference - nothing sinister.

cheers

Mike

 

[Ressaldar]

not wishing to clutter Heather's thread up anymore, I will now start a build thread for the H33 conversion.

Having pointed out the 'lower' V hanger, I have now found another photo

http://www.flickr.com/photos/69857127@N07/7715454424/in/photolist-cKMHNh-bzpxrL-bVHsYh-bVHsYo

- the first one showing the 'brake alarm tell tale' end and guess what, it shows that the V hanger on this side is above the truss and seemingly, in the original position - the one on the dynamo side having been moved towards the bogie. Having now looked at the floor/chassis moulding, I discover that JLTRT have the dynamo housing recess on the diagonally opposite side to where it should be - unless of course BR turned the body through 180 degrees when they did the conversion in May 1961.

I'm definitely going to have to get to Bury to crawl over the original as soon as I get back to full strength.

cheers

Mike

 

[iploffy]

you all right Mike

 

[Ressaldar]

Hi Ian,

many thanks for your concerns.

I still have the pain of the nerve ends and the associated itchiness, on the plus side, the rash is on the way out. Saw the doctor on Thursday who prescribed a beta-blocker to intercept the pain 'signal' from the nerve end to the brain in order that I can get some sleep - it seems to be working as I managed the best part of a nights sleep last night. The other thing is the total lack of wanting to do anything and there is a limit to the number of times that you can watch a selection of the De Agostini DVDs that a club member had loaned me prior to the shingles erupting, although I have watched one - the Q &Q1 edition, a couple of times as there are some great shots at Tonbridge, my birthplace.

I am trying to get the enthusiasm to finish the 121 and start on the H33 conversion, but am put off by the slightest thing, hopefully, once the pain starts to ease off, the enthusiasm will return.

I hope that I will see you at Telford, again, many thanks for your enquiry.

cheers

Mike

 

[iploffy]

Sorry to hear that mate