M3ti

So after a few days of successful running: disaster!!! The centre crank pin unscrewed and the coupling rod and connecting rod fell off. But the real problem was the extension rod and small crank parted company. This is a press fit brass pin that has a small flange on the inside. After much gnashing of teeth, I looked at how to fix the problem. The crank pin is easy use loctite to hold the pins in. I loctited all the crank pins. The extension rod and small crank pin, however are a much bigger problem. I found if I place the model with that rod on the bottom and forced the crank back on the rod pin, it would come off again with any movement. In the end I put the crank back on the pin and then used a small screwdriver to force the flange over a bit more. This worked and the crank now stays on the pin. Did the same to the extension rod pin on the other side. Finally the crank is only held in place by pressure of the crank pin against the brass bearing. I am going to use some loctite 638 retaining compound to secure the crank and set the right angle. LOCTITE® 638 is designed for the bonding of cylindrical fitting parts. A bit of time on the rolling road and The White Knight rides again.

So the garden railway has the spur into the garage built, it is a 1in 50 slope and incorporates a 2m radius 90 degree curve at the start of the climb. The A3 did it effortlessly pulling 6 Dapol Mk1 coaches. cheers Brian

I have finally got my garden railway to a phase where I can run trains, of a decent length. So a bit of testing of the A3 was in order. The track consists of a return loop in 2.0m radius and 1.8m radius (6ft) and a 5m straight with a 1 in 40 slope. Good test bed for the A3. Now my A3 is battery powered and to start with in has 12 AAA 900mAh batteries giving 10-18Volts. Once charged the voltage would quickly drop back to 15-16 Volts. So to start with with the voltage at around 15-16 volts it would pull 3 Mk1 up the slope and around the curves. When the voltage was back to 11v it would pull only 1 Mk1. . If overloaded it would stall and you could hear gears spinning and not meshing. I was not happy!! So pulled the body off and ran it like that. The characteristics changed, no longer would it stall and have gear mesh issues. It would actually spin the wheels. Never done that before. I could, with a full battery 16V, pull 4 Mk1 up the hill and around the curves. So put the body back on and made sure it was really well seated. Now performed the same as with the body off. between 4 and 1 Mk1 dependant on the voltage. Still not happy. So back to the drawing board. Installed 3 x 18650 Li-Ion batteries and a voltage ramp up board. Input voltage is between 9 and 12ish and output voltage is 17.5. After going through my WifiTrax board it becomes 18.5V DCC. I also noticed that when struggling for grip a light touch above the firebox would improve the pulling power. So back to the garden. Started with 5 Dapol Mk1 with a standing start up the grade. No problem. Only have enough track length to put 7 Mk1s on the slope. Standing start with 6 Dapol and 1 Heljan Mk1s. Round the curves not a problem. Standing start with the train on the curves, no problem. Much improved and good enough for my purposes. So it likes at least 16V and performs really well at 18V DCC. Worth considering a battery conversion even on a DCC layout. The garden railway will have one 2m curve that will be going up a 1 in 40 grade. That will be a big test, will be building that bit of the garden in a couple of weeks (weather and heat dependant). So future test results to come. While I was at it I had another go at the trailing arm, to see if I could eliminate the derailing on the double slips. I had already shortened the spring. So added travel limiters to the axle. Better but still didn't like the double slips. So then added 5g of lead to the trailing arm. Now will go through double slips no problem.

No the A3 was preordered and was part of the first shipment. The A4 I bought in November 2020 when they had a sale. The bits that fell off were the seats, windows, front tread area (A4), and of course the smoke deflectors (A3). They look good, but I think more should have gone into the design of the model as the operation of the loco is not good. I just wonder when these two will break. Brian

You can have both, on my Traverser I have a physical interface, and DCC input so I have the Arduino to look for both inputs. With DCC you can then setup any of the table/phone/computer apps to call the track. It is also locked out whilst it is moving. cheers Brian

I also have an A3 and an A4. The A3 (The White Knight) arrived with a few bits in the box. All were able to be put back on. The smoke deflectors come off if even look at them. Put back on several times. Eventually drilled holes ato put the smoke deflector stays into and now seems to stay on. I have converted the A3 to battery/Wifi control. The pulling power is directly related to voltage. If the voltage is 18V she will pull 4-5 Mk1 no problem. If voltage is down to 12V she can barely pull herself along. Biggest problem is the rear pony keeps derailing, tried the remove spring/cut spring, check back to back, etc. Nothing works so I have removed the pony. I also have the Sir Nigel Gresley A4, the first one arrived with bits in the box. worked fine with no load for the first couple of times and then disaster, one of the rods came of and jammed the mechanism which cause the drive wheel to come-off. I tried a number of fixes and eventually gave up and sent it back for a replacement. Also managed to fry the speaker circuit twice on the loksound decoder. Turns out the tie-bar can short the connector and shorts the speaker channel. You need to cover the connector with shinkwrap. Second one arrived again with bits in the box. Almost the exact same bits as the first one. Bit of glue later and this one has been running fine, without sound. This loco will also be converted to battery. Cheers Brian

I got a response from Roco re the Z21app and WLANMaus with Mesh: "Unfortunately, seemlessly moving between WiFi nodes with either the Z21 app or the WLANmaus is not supported currently, because problems with leaving the WiFi range, and hence losing the WiFi signal, very rarely occur." Interestingly my Z21 app on iPad and iPhone will transition sometimes. Yet to work out why it does or doesn't. On the WLANMaus: "However, the WLANmaus is designed to automtically reconnect upon connection loss, which you do not have to wait for. In other words, if you recognize that the connectivity gets lower due to leaving the current WiFi cell, you can simply turn off the WLANmaus and turn it on again in order to force an immediate node switch. Provided that all of your routers are configured with the same network name and password and all of them are either set manually to different channels or set to automatic channel choosing for avoiding frequency overlaps, the WLANmaus will always connect to the router with the highest signal strength, i.e., the closest router sharing the same configuration. The entire reconnecting procedure of turning the WLANmaus off, on again, and waiting for an established connection lasts for about 2 to 3 seconds, which is very short compared to waiting until it shuts down the WiFi connectivity by itself and tries to reconnect." So on/off for the WLANMaus and more investigation of the Z21 app on the apple products. Cheers Brian

Thanks Iain, I am using Google Nest, unfortunately no option to rename the bands separately. Quote "Google wants the experience to be seamless" Brian

I tested this also today, but slightly different. Now that I know how to turn the WLANMaus off, I walked to end of range, turned the Maus off and then back on, it went to the nearest node. I had no problem regaining control of the loco. interesting the Z21 app on my iPhone would today work across nodes. I was sure it had previously, but the other day it wouldn’t. I am starting to suspect it may relate to what frequency the iPhone is connected to the Mesh. Unfortunately you cannot tell it to use one frequency. cheers Brian

Thanks, yes mine came from the US but only had a printed manual in German. regards Brian

Thanks Keith, Thats exactly what I was looking for on how to turn it off. My German is not that good interpreting the manual. Now I need to test if I can regain control of the loco in the next node. I hope I don’t get your issue. cheers Brian

I have a new issue with my Z21 app on both iPhone, iPad and Android tablet. I also use a WLANMAus which has the same issue. I use a Digikeijs DR5000 on a garden railway and I have a Google Nest Mesh Wifi Network in the house that has 4 nodes that gives good wifi coverage for the whole layout. I have been able to get the Z21app, WLANMaus and the DR5000 to all connect to the Mesh WiFi and they work well within each node. However when I move between nodes, ie following a train, the Z21 app and the WLANMaus drop out and don’t regain connectivity when you cross over the limit of coverage for one node. The iPhone, iPad and Android tablet all continue coverage. If I kill the Z21 app and restart it, it will then work in the next node. The WLANmaus is a bigger problem as you can’t turn it off. Is there a setting to enable the WLANMaus to be switched off? I also use a WiThrottle on the the iPhone and iPad and it crosses the nodes seamlessly. Anyone know of any settings that may help the apps cross nodes? I have raised a ticket with Roco but had no response. Probably on Xmas break. Cheers Brian

Thanks for the advice, I went out and bought a Samsung 8" Tab A. It does the job. Cheers Brian

So I have the new (2020) 37/0 and to fit the snowplow you need to remove the body. Once removed there are two holes in the chassis that the provided screws are meant to fit so you can screw the snowplough to the chassis. The hole isn't big enough, so enlarged with a drill. The hoses etc fill around the snow plough. Looks good. Cheers Brian

Thanks Paul, It is a Generic Brand - Jinksz P10, Has all the right specs so don't know why it is incompatible. Tried both the iPad and iPhone versions on the iPad mini. Thanks Vecchio, Yes I am looking at Huawei, Samsung and Lenovo devices, the Z21 page specifies a minimum of 5GB of RAM, which is a limitation for a lot of the tablets (2 and 4 GB are common). Thanks for the help guys. Brian

Hi All, I have a DR5000 running in Z21 mode for my O gauge shelf layout and have been using the black Z21 app on a couple of old iPhones and a new iPad, which have worked great. However both old phones batteries have given up the ghost. I find using phone size devices good as throttles but use the iPad to do configuration and as a mimic panel. It is however my main iPad, so I have bought a new 10" generic brand Android tablet running Android 10, it has heaps of memory but Google Shop says the new black app is incompatible. Any ideas, I did send an email to Roco support but got no response. The Old version of the Z21 app loads but is very unstable on this device. I can use it for Engine Driver and Train Controller on my 00 layout and Engine Driver on the local club layout, so its not a total loss. The 00 layout using TC needs a couple of tablets acting as Mimic panels as I dont have any physical panels. So are there specific brand Android devices used that works well with the Black Z21 app? I also inherited my wife's old iPad mini with is also incompatible with the Black Z21 app. Have loaded the old app and it works fine. I see from above that you can't export layouts backwards but what about loco export can that be imported into the old version? Or do I just bite the bullet and manually input all my locos? I have about 7 GWR/Southern locos designed for the Shelf layout so not a bit deal to go and add them. Cheers Brian

Thanks for that done and now tracks nicely through the crossing and double slips. cheers Brian

I got mine this week, The White Knight, late BR version with smoke deflectors. Its a really good looking model, but I don’t count rivets. A few issues though: It is fragile, getting it out of and putting back in box, both smoke deflectors came off. Bith windscreens came off and one has gone walkabout. Two of the handrails popped off. All glued back on except the missing windscreen. It has an issue running through Peco crossing and double slips. The trailing arm jumps off the track. Runs fantastic as a 4-6-0. Cheers Brian

Thanks for all your help Ian. Hopefully I can get this baby rocking and rolling in O Gauge. Cheers Brian

Thanks Simon, I built the traverser over the last couple of days. Bit more work to be done. But very happy I have no droop when fully extended and the drawer runners give enough travel. Need to add walls to the traverser, and more bracing to the baseboard. After lots of discussion with Ian I have ordered 2 of these. Because the lead screw is attached to the stepper motor it looks like it will fit and I can get the travel I require. Also ordered the Nano and DCC TT shield and a few other bits from Ian. Will let everyone know how I go setting up the hardware. Cheers Brian

Thanks Ian, Yes I think good advice to steer clear of belts. Let’s see what we can find to fit in about 110mm. Cheers Brian

Simon, Thanks for the pointers to those screws, I will do some more research. It looks like I have about 110mm in which to fit the stepper motor, join and support bearing. Thanks Brian

Thanks Simon, Pauls Moor St thread was a good read, but I see he hasn’t finalised the traversers. I have applied to join Western Thunder so I can grab the sketch, awaiting the email. I don’t think I can use a screw as my layout in on a shelf and it will go one way. See below diagram of intended plan. The bridge is 250mm wide and the baseboard is 350mm. The total travel is about 240mm. I need to measure the stepper and joiner to see what is the minimum length to see if it can fit just inside the frame. Thats why I was considering two toothed belts one at each end. Open to other suggestions. Regards Brian

Ray, Ian, Simon et al, Been reading up on all the Arduino posts on RM Web and I think this is the right thread to post in. Thanks for all the work you have done. Makes life a lot easier for us late comers. I have dabbled in various computers dating back to the Commodore 64 and done a bit of programming in the past, but have spent a lot of time since then as a project manager, so pretty rusty. However with the various sketches out there I sure I can modify the TT sketch to do the Traverser. Ordered a Arduino starter kit to get up to speed. I am looking to do a Traverser but for O Gauge. It will be 1.2m long (4ft) and have 3 tracks so a fair amount of weight. I was thinking of doing two stepper motors driving two toothed belts. The traverser ser will be supported on drawer runners. I am going to buy one of Ian’s boards. However will the NEMA stepper motors be strong enough to push the weight? Looking to to start building the traverser next week. Cheers Brian