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Izzy

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Everything posted by Izzy

  1. Does the PSU you have state the 3.5amp output or is that different too? Something doesn't seem right/acceptable whatever. Bob
  2. My 14 year old Advance2 has always given 15v, well measured with my basic MM at 14.9v but close enough. Funnily enough I have just moved on to a Z21 to be able to set the voltage to what I want, 12v in my case. But here’s the rub, the specs say it can be adjusted between 12- 24v @ 3amp. However the supplied PSU in this case is 20v @2.5amp. And the specs say the output voltage will be 1v less than the input, so the range is just 12-19v @2.5amp. Hmm…. So it seems in recent times they all use whatever PSU’s they can obtain, perhaps because of the ongoing supply issues with electronic and other parts. I can understand that but it still doesn’t seem right, that they don’t highlight the changed specs when it will have a material impact for some users. Fortunately it doesn’t affect what I wanted it for, but I would be extremely annoyed if it had and would be looking for a full refund. Makes you feel kind of cheated. Bob
  3. Oh thanks for sharing that and the shot. It looks really good, just the kind of result I am hoping to end up with, something that looks real in that there is a sense of purpose to it all. Seeing it makes me even more pleased I added the extra siding as I went along. It makes it all seem 'right'. Bob
  4. Finished – basically With more chairs to hand I have now been able to complete the trackwork. They are now various shades of brown rather than black as before. I thought it might make them easier to see and handle but in practice it didn’t really make much difference. The chairs come in a sprue and must thus be cut out of it. They come in packs of 12 sprues which have 1 checkrail chair, 2 slide chairs, and eight plain chairs in each. Rather than have lots of sprues around with just odd unused chairs in them, which would also take up quite a bit of space, I have always cut all the chairs out and stored them in the plastic containers 35mm roll film used to come in, one tub for each chair type. It’s a boring job cutting them all out but saves time later on when building track. To make fitting them on the rail as easy as possible I chamfer all the edges of the foot of the rail. Hold and push the rail into them and then use tweezers to push them along the rail It’s important of course to get the chairs all the same way around, the inside jaws on the inside etc. This can often be tricky to see. The slide chairs come with an inside jaw that must be cut off, sliced off with a scalpel. This is so that if you want you can use them as plain chairs by cutting off the excess length as the number of slide chairs you might need could be far less than the number of plain chairs. Threading lots of chairs on rail is another quite tedious and repetitive job but one that brings the reward of the final look of the trackwork. You might have seen that I mark where the different chairs go on the point templates so they get threaded on in the right order and correct numbers. I have also made and fitted the bufferstops which are a mix of GC and LMS/BR designs and made from the excellent etches available from shop 1. The GC has a wooden beam the others rail built. The idea was to try and make the layout as non-region specific as far as possible so it wouldn’t matter what stock was used. Mainly it will be BR blue era diesels not generally seen around East Anglia such as class 20 & 24 although it doesn’t matter in the wider sense as it’s just a little home layout cum test track. As with the rest of the track half chairs have been glued in place where functional chairs were not used, the bufferstops being soldered to the rail first and the half chairs fitted around them. Having added in the extra siding I re-built the switch panel to suit. I’m pleased I made this alteration as it seems to make it look more like sets of sidings you often see in shots of them. There is a bit more balance to the overall scene and I am pleased with how it looks. As such the layout is finished in respect of being up and running. It has an overall length of 50” and width of 7”. The idea is that the fiddle board will sit in a recess in the layout cover for easy and simple storage in the minimum of space. The next job will be to paint the track before laying the ballast. This will be done using black poster paint to represent the creosote new timbers were given. Weathering with airbrush and by hand will be undertaken once the (grey) ballast has fully dried out to try and represent the cement and coal dust that would undoubtedly be around the area. As I’m not much good at scenery it might be a while before I finish the layout off scenic wise. At present I really don’t know how I might try and do it anyway, whether to add a low bank along the rear with a few taller bushes or just leave it at grass of different lengths with some boundary fencing alongside a few huts for various purposes. There will be a small grassy bank at the front, as you can sometimes see between main running lines and groups of sidings. I marvel at the effects others are able to achieve which mostly seem to elude me so I don’t want to rush it. That it is useable for it’s purpose of a workbench test track means it’s already serving one of it’s main aims so there is no hurry. I can also play trains with it as the exchange sidings and try and visualise how I want to finish it. Another aim is to be able to use it as a photo backdrop for locos and stock so I want to keep it fairly open. Layout Cost While I thought about all this it occurred to me that it might be an interesting exercise to try and estimate how much this little layout has cost to make. This is an aspect not often mentioned in layout builds but could help illustrate that trying your hand at something like this in 2mm/2FS needn’t cost the earth. I say ‘has cost’ but in truth most of what I used I had to hand and only needed some more chairs to complete it. Of course all the bits were bought at some stage or were left overs from other projects so often costs are relative and hard to quantify. Therefore I’ve tried to cost it from the basis of having to buy in everything from scratch. The main basics anyway. So: The baseboard/fiddle were made using two sheets of A1 size mountboard and one of 5mm foamcore. Another A1 foamcore will probably be used in making the cover I shall give it. These sheets are currently around £3 each at the Range (mountboard) and Hobbycraft (foamcore). Add in a 250ml bottle of tacky glue, about £2.50. Total = £14.50. With the visible track I used about 800 chairs so around - £16. Easitrac was used in the fiddle, about £10. 20×500mm lengths of code 40 bullhead are £15. A guestimate for the amount of 1/32” ply I used for cutting the sleepers comes out at around the £10 mark. The cork was one roll from a pack of 5 from eBay. Say another £10, it’s not cheap these days. 4 x bufferstops are £8.80. Total = £68.80 For the Electrics the hacked servos cost around £6 to produce, £2 each servo and switch, 1 x SPDT & 1 x DPDT. The Vellmann power supply/voltage regulator kit was £8. Wiring cost around £10. Total = £42 This gives a basic total of £125.30. Not too bad is it? Building the track the way I have is very cost effective compared with using the available kits if perhaps a little more time consuming to produce and with not the same level of detail in regard to the chairs where the kits display the different types. However it was just as quick as making soldered track using etched chairplates, perhaps quicker. I’m pleased I have now found a way to build track this way in 2mm, plastic chairs on ply sleepers, that seems stable and secure when laid. While I have no plans to build another 2mm layout as it stands at the moment if I were to do so I think that this is the way the track would be made. I do wish I had discovered this method before making Priory Road. Whether I could have produced the single-slip and obtuse crossing in the same way is moot, but while PR’s soldered track looks okay I do often think it could be better, soldered track does rather look like, well, soldered track. One cost I have not taken into account is jigs. I don’t use and have never used any in track making in any scale, all forming and planing/filing of crossing V’s/point blades being done by hand. If you had to buy these, and weren’t as plastic track adverse as I am then the kits would be far easier and cheaper. It’s all swings and roundabouts isn’t it? Bob
  5. There is a newish thread here concerning DCC sound fitted locos on DC, with several remarks that their performance is generally quite poor. Very slow speeds and low sound levels. I wonder if this is not the case with LB simply because you use heavy duty O gauge DC controllers that can give these locos the current levels they need on DC which other OO specific DC systems with lower amperage rates cannot. This might explain why Hornby have gone down this route. To prevent users expressing dissatisfaction at the poor performance on DC when they are quite satisfactory on DCC. Bob
  6. Will the G6 be able to cope with the radius of set track curves and points? They look fairly tight. Zimo MX600’s are available from YouChoos @£25 atm. All you really need. As Nigel says just cut off the plug and surplus wires. Best motor control of any decoder brand and able to be tuned if needed exactly to meet coreless needs. Bob
  7. I think perhaps consideration also has to be given to how each coupling type works because this affects where the magnets need to be, and how it will all work. While it is correct to say they can use magnets some need electromagnets while how they actually achieve uncoupling varies not only between the differing types but also how each type may be configured. Different actions if they are delayed compared to non-delay. To give an example the DG’s need to be run over a magnet and are uncoupled once past it. Unless they are single ended you can’t part them over a magnet. There is no other action required. However, if you want to break a rake of wagons in a siding then they all have to be pulled out to where the magnet is, and then pushed back again. The SW’s by contrast need either to be stopped over it if they are non-delayed, (and it needs to be long enough to cover both droppers being pulled down), or for the delayed version the ‘soft shoe shuffle’ used whereby the wagons perform the stop/reverse/carry on ritual. Non of this looks particularly prototypical. A lot of faffing around. So you need to make a choice of coupling depending on how you want to operate a layout. I use both DG’s and SW’s in different scales but, and I know this may seem daft, uncouple by hand exactly where I want to part stock. This is still far easier than trying to use 3-link couplings and also avoids all the hassle with permanent or electro-magnets. Bob
  8. If the lights remain on that would indicate some problem with either the motor itself, or the power getting to it from the decoder. Some Bachmann diesels have the connection between the pcb and motor tags as sprung fingers, a bit like pickups on wheel backs, and these don’t always prove reliable. I have a policy of soldering these now in my N gauge ones to overcome the issue. Bob
  9. There is no getting away from the simple fact that choosing/using DCC is overall a more expensive option than DC, indeed if you choose it can become very expensive. But that choice is up to every individual. However if you are prepared to undertake it in a series of small steps, learn and experience it at each level before moving on if you need or want to, then most people seem to find they are pleased they made the decision to adopt it. Basically I think of it as having a DC PWM controller in each loco tuned to react to my commands in the way I have told it to (via the cv settings). This helps to explain why some decoders cost a bit, the better quality ones. The big differential is with the system you choose along with the decoders. Go with the cheapest options and the results can be disappointing compared to getting the best to suit what you want, which isn't always the most expensive. When I decided to try it I had a DC layout built in the normal way with section switches, point frogs switched by micro-switch etc. So I bought a DCC system, and a few decoders (non-sound), fitted the decoders into the locos ( N gauge 6-pin decoder DCC ready models I knew ran well), un-wired the DC controller, wired in the DCC one, and left all the section switches on. I have never looked back. Yes, over the 14 years since I have had the odd duff decoder, Zimo's actually, dead right out of the packet, but apart from that no real issues with decoders. Over time with the experiences gained I moved on one step at a time to fitting decoders via 'hard-wiring', then adding stay-alive, finally sound decoders in locos in the larger scales. Bob
  10. Thanks Jim, I think I’ve got some Easitrac glue left somewhere, I’ll give that a go when I can. Always good to try different techniques to see how you get on with them. In the distant past I only ever used embossed plasticard then at some point switched to brick paper and just seem to have forgotten how I did it back then. Bob
  11. The Bridge I have now made the bridge. This took two attempts as the first was a failure. As usual I made the main carcass out of mountboard. Normally I produce brick structures using a carcass covered in brickpaper, A4 ink-jet printed label sheets. I find this far easier than trying to glue ordinary brick paper sheets onto the mountboard. However I know a lot of modellers use embossed plasticard and I thought that I would give this a go. The sheet was Slaters of which I have several sheets bought way back but never used in anger before. The thickness of the sheet made me wonder how I was going to blend the corners and disguise the joints but at first it seemed to go okay. It stuck to the carcass well but then joints started pulling apart. Deciding that perhaps this wasn’t going to work for me, or I needed to practice on something smaller to discover the best way to work with it I pulled all the sheets off the cascass. The idea I had was that I would just recover it with the brick paper but this didn’t work out. The act of pulling the plasticard off distorted it too much and broke it’s glued joints to a level that it couldn’t be saved. So, with a mornings work down the drain I started again, this time using the brickpaper. I kept the design simple. Square arches with overlays of brick to disguise where the joins are and to give relief to the flatness. The rear has been made to allow access to the pcb pads and brass wire springs for the electrical connections just in case they need adjustment at any time. For the moment the bridge just slots down into place but will be fixed permanently once all the track is laid, is working, and had been ballasted. With regard to the track I am considering adding another siding. As I built the bridge, looked at the expanse of bare board at the front of the layout, and wondered what to do to fill it, the scenery etc. it occurred to me that another point and siding would fit in and might balance things as well as providing more visible siding storage. Running through various shunting moves, how the layout will be operated, seems to confirm it could be a useful alteration to the plan. With plenty of parts to make the extra track and additional point, hacked servo, switch, the only downside is I will need to re-make the switch panel to add the extra switch. I would have liked to placed the point nearer the bridge to make the siding as long as possible but there isn’t the room for the servo to sit under the baseboard except between two others. Had I planned this from the start I could have placed them differently. But not now. Never mind. Bob
  12. I totally agree with the way DCC is often overplayed/oversold when as said it’s the simple basic aspects that for most can have the biggest benefit. And this applies as much, more really, for small/micro layouts as larger ones. Not having to have sections and being able to run one loco right up to another if required is a prime example. DCC is very flexible in that you can pick/mix how to arrange it but the seemingly constant concentration on full automation does hide the many benefits. Bob
  13. One aspect to be aware of is that no two decoder makes work in the same way as regards the basics of motor control. And some are far better than others. Zimo are pretty good whatever the motor involved while others can be very hit and miss. Will work okay with one loco/motor but not another. Using sound decoders adds yet another level and in respect to the MX648R and it's speed levels I wonder if this is connected to the particular sound project it has been loaded with. Many of these are now 'active' types in that F2 is used to brake the loco. So the loco if not braked using F2 it takes a very long time to slow down to stop. It may also be set to slowly accelerate as well. Another issue I have encountered is that, sometimes, I have needed to apply a factory re-set - Cv8 to 8 - several times before it will take properly. When I do one I always now remove the loco from the tracks/power after the re-set, and then re-rail it before trying it. A bit like re-booting a computer. Remove the power for the re-set to take properly. Bob
  14. As they are flat sided cans they can only be iron cored. Coreless, by the nature of their design parameters, are only ever cylindrical cans. Bob
  15. I've now reduced the Hunslet wheel flanges to 0.5mm. Here is a short video of the loco running on Exchange Yard sidings. The sound is at maximum which helps show how quietly it runs, virtually silently. Bob
  16. Thinking about it overnight I decided this morning to deal with the Hunslet straight away. So this morning I dropped out the wheels and reduced the flanges to 0.5mm depth. While I was testing the loco on the layout after putting it back together it occurred to me that taking a video of the running quality might be a useful illustration of how good they are. As usual the actual video quality is wanting, I'm sorry about the frequent shakes etc. Once again this is trying to hold two phones at once, one in each hand! One to take the video, my iphone, and the android used as the throttle. A point to note is the sound is set at maximum. If you can't hear anything that just helps show the loco runs virtually silently, the only real sound is that of the wheels on the rail. Bob
  17. Hunslet wheels A small update to say that I have just discovered that the wheel flanges are too deep for 2FS, or to be more correct to run on chaired track, as they hit the inside chairs. They are around 0.65-0.7mm deep while 0.5mm is the depth needed, which most present day N gauge rolling stock seems to adhere to. How/why I missed this when re-machining them I can't say but for anyone doing the same reducing them is thus advised. I shall have to now do this or perhaps try a 2FS conversion using 2mm SA wheels and other parts. Bob
  18. Testing.....testing..... The wiring is now done. It didn't seem to take too long. Perhaps because of the small nature of the layout. So yet another advantage in favour of mini layouts. I started off with cutting a section out for the switch panel. All this kind of work is quick and easy thanks to the baseboard construction. Just a few minutes work with a scalpel. Edges covered with mountboard and then the panel could be fitted. More mountboard. just four SPDT. Three for the points, one to cut track power. I will add labels later, probably. This little layout has benefits on so many levels. Really simple trackwork with no need of traps, point rodding, ground signals etc. Just a few hand levers to add scenically. An underside view of the wiring. My go-to Tamiya tape keeping the wiring in rough order with the Vellmann power supply to feed the hacked servos the just under 6 volts they need, (it's set at 5.65v according to my MM). It's set on the board by a cermet trimmer potentiometer. Trouble is these are hard to set to exactly the right voltage. The slightest twist of the screwdriver can alter the output value greatly. After 10mins I decided that figure would do. With the fiddle board I came to the conclusion the track feeds needed to be at the foot of it, but how to get it there? In the end I cut a slot on the bottom for the wires. To energise the board/tracks I have chosen to use 0.9mm brass wire fingers that press on pads of PCB on it. The wire fingers are soldered onto more pcb held down in place with both PVA and more brass wire looped through the main baseboard and then soldered into the pcb pads. So as the fiddle is pushed into place electrical connection is made. As it's all now done apart for the other tracks that are needed testing has now been taking place on the place it will mostly be used and was designed for, the workbench. The locos were those which will mainly be used, my blue era stock, which doesn't get as much use as other stock. This testing revealed a few tweaks that were needed to the crossings and blades to get smooth and reliable running. That I'm also learning how to use the 'phone throttle app with the Z21 added to the fun. But one problem with this little chap was found. Now it's the whole reason the layout has come into existence but it wasn't at all happy running on the track unlike all the other locos. Hm. Stuttering, looking like it was running over a ploughed field. Up and down, bouncing around. What the heck? Pushing it by hand along a part where it just kept stalling revealed all. The flanges were bottoming on the inside chair jaws and the wheels lifted up off the rails. Mainly on the pointwork at the crossings and throught he closure rails. Oh dear. Why? The truth is quite simple. The flanges are too deep. Between 0.65 -0.7mm. Whereas of course they should be 0.5mm. This is my fault, in the sense I should have checked this aspect when I re-machined them to thin the flanges. I thought I had, but I can't have otherwise it would have stood out. And of course running it on soldered track didn't reveal it because there are no inside chairs to catch........ Oh bother, and words to that effect.....! This means another strip down, re-machine, and re-build. However since I have toyed with the idea of trying the 2mm/2FS wheel route perhaps that will happen now, just a bit sooner than intended. But I'll get the layout up and running properly and completely first. To make sure there are no other issues that come to light that would impact this decision. So it will be bufferstops and the other track next when the chairs are to hand. In the meantime I'm going to think through the scenic bits. A bridge, perhaps a hut of some kind, a few bushes. Anything else? Oh yes, the hand levers. What is that they say, the devil in in the details.... Bob
  19. Over the years I’ve had two layouts that featured open wagon loading of aggregates, iron ore and sand. This was via hoppers. Not authentic in the main but achievable in a small scale model. These were nice aspects to have in respect of train traffic and children of all ages used to enjoy seeing them working at the odd few exhibitions the layouts went to. It worked well because the wagons were loaded on scene and emptied off, the reverse of most goods workings on layouts, so there wasn’t the conundrum of how they went from full to empty on scene. Bob
  20. Totally agree. It’s this near obsession with the ‘6 foot way’ that’s the root cause of the problem. Far too much emphasis on this nominal figure in modelling circles rather than the standard structure gauge minimum figures. Doubt it will ever change though. Bob
  21. No, a speaker can’t draw more watts than it is provided with. That figure is just an indication of how much watts the speaker can deliver/cope with. Bob
  22. Following @WIMorrison suggestion I sent an enquiry to Roco regarding the Circuit Breaker settings options in respect of N gauge. This is the reply I have just received: This setting depends on the fleet you are using (age of the locomotive and its installed decoder) and the connected system (sections without insight). Modern N-gauge locomotives and the decoders installed in them can withstand much more than the decoders from 7-10 years ago. We can only recommend our Z21-Maintenance.pdf at this point." And this is what it's says, which is what I was hoping for more clarity on: Short circuit main track and Short circuit B-BUS: These options can be used to increase the response speed of the short circuit detection on the main track (DCC Main) and on the B-BUS (Booster-Bus). This can be used for systems on track N in particular. I guess all I can do then is set the slider to 'Fast' and see what the results are. I can only think that the speed of response is based upon a lower amp rating like several separate Circuit breakers such as PSX where different value settings are available and it was this I was just hoping to get an idea of. Oh well, never mind. Bob
  23. Oh totally agree, that’s a fair wack to shell out so you want the very best for that kind of money and shouldn’t expect anything less. Bob
  24. It’s rated at 8ohm so it should be fine. Bob
  25. Hacked servos As these posts are being made in near real time, a day or so after the actual construction, comments made don’t always reflect what actually happens next, but in the case of the servos did reflect reality. When it came to making the servos up, (they had already been ‘hacked’ previously and just needed fitting into a unit with the DPDT switch), I discovered that it would be possible to make them so the servo (horn) arms – the double arm type - would sit in the hole cut for the slider switches and so could then drive brass wire/rods connected to the tie-bars in a similar manner to how I intended to do with the slider switches. Instead of ply I used thick plasticard as the unit basis. The brass wire used was 0.7mm. This I felt was small enough to be bent to give the V shaped spring form to absorb the excess movement over that of the tie-bar without being too thin and ‘bendy’ over the length of the runs. An area of concern was that being bent or flexed too much can cause such hard brass rod to fracture at the area of greatest stress, the tight bend for the V. Moved by hand they seem okay and I hope it stays this way over the long term because once wired up and tested they will be covered over and access will not exist unless the covering, the ballast/scenery, is ripped off…… At the moment then it’s a case of so far so good….and Tamiya tape has been placed over the channels to prevent any debris accidentality falling into them and causing problems down the line by jamming things up. Now it’s onto the wiring, a necessary job that I never find inviting. Bob
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