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Gazbo

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  1. I bought a new PWM unit from Ama-zonk yesterday. (Not yet arrived - fingers crossed !) digital readout panel at front, with adjustment knob built into the front right hand side Encoder control, as opposed to a pot. ie: turn to adjust, With a short press for on and off. long press to access menus. I also intend to post -insert a crossed DPDT, (either on/off/on, or on/on) into the output lines, for the usual directional control. Its programmable for soft start/stop, from zero - up to around 9.9 seconds. The output max/min endpoints are also settable, which will be handy. The frequency is adjustable between (I think) - 1 to 100 Khz. Not completely sure there, because in the pigeon English blurb -it actually states 1kHz - 00kHz, with the factory preset being at 20kHz. that's the bit I'm unsure of. I'm running DC only, predominantly Xo3/Xo4's, which ran fine on my last PWM unit. Does anyone have any idea, roughly what kHz I ought to be running in (Ballpark)? (Can't find a CV9 for these motors.) I think I read somewhere - it wants to be around 20 to 25. (Before adjustment, Factory default is set at 20kHz) Thanks guys.
  2. Hi again Guys. After much head scratching - a light came on ! (pardon the pun). I have now removed the plastic wheels from the rear (Dead) bogie, and replaced them with Peco metal (Axles fully insulated) items and brass pin bearings. They are ever so slightly smaller than original, but it's not noticeable. I then fashioned twin pickup whiskers, from 0.6mm brass sheet, and soldered a wire to each, which then fed up through the central rivet. Being the caveman I am, I have glued a 3mm plastic plate to the long flat chassis top, and stuck Mini Chocolate blocks to it, for ease of connect / disconnect. feed in from pickups, with inline 1k resistor - to 1st twin chock block. out of there to the twin, +ve linked diodes, and forward to 3 seperate chock blocks, mounted vertically (Held steady by the diode legs). the leds are a good push fit into the original lamp hollow rivets in the body, so it was just a case of bending the legs to follow the inside contour of the walls. another 1k soldered to each red negative leg, has balanced the brightness nicely. (If you recall, attempting to light a red along with a white, one of them always saps all the juice and the other one dies out ! the inline 1k on the red leg has balanced things, forcing them to share, and has cured that issue completely !) All that remained was to run a 3 core (RC aircraft Servo wire), with centre core to +ve chock-block from linked +ve of diodes, and one each negative, to the other two neg chock blocks. If it worked backwards, simply switch these two around. WELL !!!! It seems if I pick power up directly from the track this way, as opposed to piggybacking off the motor pickups at the other end - as was originally suggested with the circuit , the motor interference issues are now completely negated. She works perfectly, and bidirectionally now, totally separated from all the motor shenanigans ! Who would have thought it could cause so much grief !!! Cheered My old fella up no end though. He says they haven't lit, since 1966 ! But that's another story.... So - just wanted to say thanks for all your help guys. Got there in the end. Attaching a rather garbage schematic/ wiring / hybrid sketch here, so you might follow the thinking. Coz I ain't taking that top off again !
  3. Forgot to mention. Hornby finally got back to me, but they don't have details for any of the older box-art colours. I had finished the box before the reply anyway !
  4. Well - job done ! Photo's aren't tip top, it's nigh on impossible to get the lighting right ! (Don't read that as job well done though! haha) I covered almost the whole printed A4 sheet with that sticky back clear book covering sheet stuff (I think it's clear vinyl). Thankyou Wilco's school stationary section ! Tip: once fully applied (With a ruler as a squeegee, keeping air bubbles out) If you then gently rub it in with the back of your fingernail, it seems to rid it of the slight haze present, which I assume has made a slightly better bond to the printed surface. Not applying this however, I found the ink easily scrapes away from the photo paper/card. (I didn't cover the extra flap that was left on the new box- ends though, as these were made to glue to just inside the box. The joint was then covered with a 1" wide strip of the aforementioned vinyl, lapped half onto the glue-flap, and half onto the box internal, which has strengthened the joint further, but also provides a very slight ramp effect, for the polystyrene insert to slide across a bit easier. \the rough and colour chipped edges were carefully touched in with sharpies, then they were also covered with vinyl, which was folded down, and inside the box, also to stiffen the floppy box ends up, and hopefully provide some protection. Colour Match isn't quite perfect I'll admit, but I think it looks pretty fair for a DIY 1st attempt. Mainly though, the insert no longer slips out of the box of it's own accord, and the box's survivability factor has increased 10 fold. Never intended to be a forgery, merely a cosmetic repair for my own collection, and in propper steam parlance - I'm well Chuffed with it. Thanks for your help guys, between us we got there !(I think). Gaz.
  5. Not sure about that with the Silhouette Program Phil. I think the print function is seen as secondary, however, for cut line accuracy, it's bang on, so even if only printing, the scaling is superb. Anyway, I printed 2 box end flaps, and a spare red panel, for any patching that's required. When I printed, on Saturday, the colour was virtually indistinguishable to the box, but today (Tuesday) it appears, now that it is fully de-gassed, to have settled down to a very slightly brighter shade than it was. But it's near enough, and I'm going with it. As I say - it was an experiment in what is possible, given the mediocre programs etc , I have to work with, but at the end of the day, I just want some flaps on my boxes. You could go on forever ! haha Cheers Mate.
  6. Hi Phil. Thankyou so much for your time and effort. More and More fascinated by this subject as time goes on. Learning on the fly ! I don't own anything calibrated ! That was my original worry. But then the penny dropped ! My silhouette studio designer edition program (Supposedly used for the vinyl cutter) and which I also use to layout and scale my card designs also has ability to set colours in Hex AND RGB and HSL Format ! Well - I never knew that ! haha. I only discovered this function this week ! (Basically, you drag/draw a shape, (rectangle in this case),click on that shape to select it, then open the colours palate. You can then type the Hex or RGB etc code in, at the bottom of the palate, and your selection changes to that colour! Anyway, before your reply, I decided to convert some "Near to required" colours from the pantone chart, to Hex values (via Google). from there I drew a dozen or so small rectangles, coloured and labelled each of them with their relevant HEX values to suit, so I knew which was which later, then printed en-masse onto a sheet of photo paper. My idea was to use these paint chip samples, (method used in automotive industry (by My dad) back in the day) to try to colour-match my box. Because the printer may also screw around with the colours, and also the non- calibrated on-screen view could be light years off, I figured that hard copies would tell me the actual printed shades I could print, regardless of other mismatches. This way, once I found a near match, I could slowly tweak and zero in the shade I could output and use. After much "Buttocking about" or words to that effect ! I think I have finally found one ! (So close to the box shade it's not noticeable). But then you uploaded your input. So I've promptly converted your 194,0,0 to Hex code, which comes out as #c20000, and put that into the studio program, alongside my drawn "Box Lids" to compare the two. Oo-err missus ! quite a difference. (I'll upload a screendump to show you the comparison) My diy method is a bit more old school in principal, by messing with shades until I have a useable one. Really could waste a lot of ink to begin with, but once sorted, I only need to save the single code (Or paint chip -for my "paint mix" , which should then replicate to the same printer, with the same cartridges etc - and the same paper. feel like I might have answered my own question ! haha. but to be fair, the replies were actually what gave me the idea. So thanks all. I think I'm cookin' wi gas" - now. I'll post a before and after in here (once done) Best regards as always. gaz.
  7. Hi Smokebox. Many thanks for the reply. Aha ! Pantone ! I'd completely forgotten about that. Brilliant ! I understand about fading, and it's a well known fact that reds in ultraviolet(Sunlight) are substantially more prone to fading.(Dad used to be a car sprayer !) My boxes are pretty fairly un- faded, having being predominantly kept in a large dark storage box for many years. If I can match pretty close to the existing colour shade, that will be fine. (I'm really not trying to create forgeries - just trying to improve on what I have, mainly for safe storage, and secondarily - to simply look better.) I've zero intention of selling any - as they are classed here - as family heirlooms. Thanks again. Saved the Pantone page. After a bit of thought, and with my un- calibrated monitor not displaying accurately (Along with the always present backlight vs. print comparison issues), I could test print some of the more likely shades from the chart, then offer those up to the boxes in question. (A-la car - paint chip books of old). As long as I note the colour numbers I've printed, then I can then reproduce the nearest one to suit ! Why didn't I think of that before. The acorn is sewn !
  8. For a while now, I have been making my own Container boxes, for some of the old stock I inherited from Dad a while back. Yes I know - you can pick up replacement boxes from a famous auction site ! But... I have a silhouette cameo cutting machine, and have been successfully reproducing (Or own- designing) boxes for a few of my stock, using the vinyl cutter to cut card from templates. I tend to make them "Look" Hornby, or Triang etc, although they will not be standard sized. or the correct shade of red. I print a paper cover, with all the colours,text and logos, Glue these to a Decent sheet of carefully rescued cereal Packet card, then cut the form on the cutter, fold, glue, staple to suit. (Usually as separate bases and lids). They look ok, and are strong enough for protection, but are much better still when covered with that transparent film you can buy, for covering books etc. (Also waterproofs them quite well too. ) Moving on from this, I have a few Damaged originals to repair. These are predominantly the slide out foam core type outer cartons with the flimsy flaps at the ends. Half of my flaps are missing ! I only need to know - if anyone can tell me what the actual red colour is for Hornby containers, either in RGB values, or RAL, or whatever, that I can inkjet print / replicate a "Near as possible" shade to the box, so that I can make new flaps for the ends. Please don't say it's not worth the effort though - as this is part of the fun for me. The D.I.Y. boxes I made are more for protection, although I did try to do them kind of "Spirit of Hornby", but that red will not match the Actual Hornby boxes I want to repair. Any Ideas Guys? Thanks in advance. Gaz.
  9. Hi Sam. Yes - or rather - No. if I piggyback the power straight onto the motor wires, I get zero emf issues. (Only discovered this aspect an hour ago). and the LEDS are happy with this setup. Not sure that it is the actual serrations though. it's as if it happens when one area of the wheels pass over the rollers, ie - not throughout the whole wheel- revolution. (Imagine you stuck a minute strip of insulation tape across the wheel, so one area quickly disconnects as the wheel rotates). don't know what the issue is. I had thought to buy some smooth re-profiled sets from Chambs123. but at 26 quid a set, requiring 2 sets for this switcher, my 55, and my dock shunter the they will be more than the loco's are worth. My Mini Lathe is in bits for overhaul at the minute, so a re-machining of my existing rims is out of the question just now. So annoying, but at least I'm getting to the bottom of the problem now.
  10. We since jury rigged my setup to a digital Oscilloscope, to see what is going on. At 12v feed from a lab bench psu, ( loco running on a rolling road) and the scope connected to the motor pickup wires, we were getting 12v input (with Minimum ripple) but a high reverse pulsing spike. When measuring the peak spikes, this was 478V in the wrong direction! I did see a lot of brush sparking, so we have replaced the old bridging Cap, with a new 470pf Cap. That has calmed 90% of motor arcing, so maybe the old cap was duff anyway? A new revelation. when testing again, back at home (Minus any scope) anything past 8.5v input, began to light both red and white elements in a single LED again, although not quite as fierce as before. BUT, if I apply light finger pressure to the top of the bogie, ie: just less pressure than to slow the motor, I found the Red Led would remain RED only, right up to 12v input ! I am now suspecting the serrated wheels are having a lot to do with it, as in forcing them to maintain contact with the rolling road, seems to eliminate the reverse spiking almost completely. The tyres and flanges have been cleaned and polished, checked for run-out, and any surface lumps or bumps. A re-try proved an improvement, but not enough to completely eradicate the issue. (NOTE: I'm also now rigged up with a pair of UF4007 schottkys, which are good for 1000v reverse voltage protection, and 75 Nanoseconds recovery. but the issue remains. Perhaps the old serrated wheels are the culprits ? They do spark a fair bit on the rolling road. (This was supposed to be a simple project ! wow !)
  11. AndyID - Fascinating, and fully digested ! I will be breadboarding first. But that's all great info - and explained at a level us non-sparky numpties can follow ! (I can rebuild a chemical factory, or overhaul a motorcycle engine, mechanically, but LEDS are -well - a newer, more alien and delicate subject for me. I'm Learning on the fly ! many thanks. Gaz. melmerby - thanks for the links. Interesting for future use. I'll save these to my notepad on desktop. Will persevere with these for now though, seeing as how they are here ! haha. If I seriously get the bug, I do have some ideas for later...... Cheers. Gaz.
  12. Thankyou melmerby, but as AndyIO says - I already bought the other three leg type. (I found loads of 2 leg bi colours, but couldn't see any that were red / white, most were red/green, or red/blue, which is why I opted for these 3 leggers.) The 3mm "single" unit fits perfectly into the existing Triang Rivet -lamp holes. using two seperates would mean having them inboard of the hole, and rigging up some kind of director /reflector to send the light out. I did consider that originally, before I found these leds, which solved that particular issue. Andy, thanks for your time and input too, as I thank all of you equally. I didn't know the existing resistors were causing that particular "resistors defeating the diodes" issue. After scratching my bald patch for a few minutes, The penny dropped ! Yes- you are right. (Funny how the #tube video example worked for him, but for how long ?) I will now try the simplified idea with just the 4k7 in one of the feed lines (And the existing diodes- obviously) and see how that goes. Just before I retry -Is this how you meant ? (Pic) -
  13. Aha ! Thankyou AndyID. I get the 4k7 resistor idea, but what did you mean by shorting out the other two resistors? IE - where am I shorting them to ? They are on common anode, and are already linked through to each other, and the feed out from them is via the existing diodes, so are you suggesting extra diodes in each led's other leg too, so there would be a diode before, and a diode after - in each case ? That would kind of make sense as guarding both anode and cathode. let me modify my sketch, and upload it for you to check, to see if I have understood you correctly. Fingers crossed I have understood.
  14. Thanks guys. The schematic is inaccurate/misleading - sorry. it was meant more as a wiring diagram, and the values were not meant to be relevant, and which would also be corrected once the final solution was settled on. It was simply a drawing, to figure out what "went where". Originally I intended to use different resistors to the 10kohm - presently installed- which would have been 330s as per the instructions from a "popular online video channel". the problem with that resistance was the uncomfortable brightness that ensued, even at around 6V.(Note : that was still minus any loco being present at that stage.) I have actually got 10kohm resistors installed on the centre leg, per LED, and one diode per LED leg. The circuit test ran admirably, for an hour, without issue, and in both directions. I am using a proper bought Lab style Benchtop psu, where the voltage is limited to what I dial in. The 16v power rating was only selected, due to the fact that old DC controllers can exceed the stated 12v output, (I believe them being capable of a possible16v output max) although I never intended to run anything at that voltage. Regardless, the damage occurred at only around 7.4 v input, and only once the loco motor was connected in parallel with the LED circuit. We went for 10kohm resistors, after testing various Kohms, and found this resistor rating to bring the brightness down to an acceptably realistic level, (both red and white) and believing that would also allow the LEDS to run more gently, hopefully giving them a longer life. Yes the Red LED does run slightly dimmer than the white, but not really too far off to look badly out of balance. I'm not sure/don't understand about the rheostat argument. Because each LED circuit is wired as it's own circuit, and linked in parallel, to a central tapping point, each with their own resistor and pair of diodes, I didn't think they would interfere with each other. If memory serves the circuit current draw was only around 0.12mA.. Others have used this very circuit in their locos without issue. this is what I couldn't understand. I was told it was a known BEMF problem. I don't know personally, I just need to make it work, without destroying itself at the first instance. Data sheet for the red/white LEDs included here. Thanks again guys. PS. don't forget, I'm a newby to electronics !
  15. Hi all. Hope I found the right section for my question. I planned to re-lamp my R155 and R57 loco's (Purely DC), with Bi-colour / directional LEDS. I bought some 3 leg Red/white 3mm LEDS for the job. I built the circuit, and connected it to my section of test track, which also has my rolling road fitted to it. (Minus any Loco at this point.) The circuit is capable of running to 16VDC, in Both directions, 10k resisted, to protect and keep the brightness down to a reasonable level, up to that Voltage. I presently run my single road track from a standard Benchtop PSU, so that I can monitor power draw, and control the loco speed, and normally only run locos at up to 12V. I will be using an original controller once repaired, which may be able to peak at around 16VDC, hence the protection level. I am also presently using this benchtop PSU for the circuit testing. The leds performed amicably, right to 16v, maintaining around 50% of full brightness, from around 6v, up to 16v, without issue. they were successfully red/white directional, when the polarity was switched, so I was delighted ! (I'm a mechanical engineer, not a sparky !) So I crock-clipped the flying leads to the power bogie solder points, and set that up on the rolling road, with the circuit positioned down one side, away from metalwork ! Double checked for any short circuit areas. All clear. So again I slowly wound on the volts. loco usually kicks in around 7.4V anyway. LEDs came on steady at around 6v, but as soon as the motor began to spool, the red led, suddenly went bright white, and popped, before I could back off ! My mate was convinced I must have shorted something, so we changed out the bust led, and tried again. Same result. Pop ! I reckon this must be some kind of back EMF issue. Question. Have others had this issue? if so - what's the workaround? IE. does anyone have info on a circuit I could build from components, to fit between the motor, and the led circuit, to eliminate the issue ( remember - it needs to run with the loco In both forward and reverse ) ? I know there are some circuits out there, for example using a back to front P FET in the circuit to block reverse polarity, but all I can find, will only suppress back emf in one direction/polarity. I've attached my LED circuit schematic (The colour one !) and the P-fet example - for ideas. I don't want to blow any more LEDS ! any ideas please? Thanks in advance Gaz.
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