alphonsus

Hello all, Can anybody give me any information about this set? I asume it takes two 6-pin decoders, has directional lighting and takes the standard Dapol lighting bars (in the centre two carriages, at least) but I can't find any details on it anywhere. Best wishes, A

Hi, long time no visit - modelling has had to take a back seat for a while Before I get trigger-happy on eBay and then discover they aren't suitable, can anyone tell me the dimensions of each of the products in the (discontinued?) Lyddle End Retaining Walls product range. I think I've established each section is 88mm wide, but there are 4 different levels with transition slopes to match. Knowing the height of each level would be incredibly useful, but the Google has not been generous with information. Best wishes, Paul

Yes, it is. Pure H2O doesn't really conduct electricity at all. It is dissolved salts (of which table salt is only one) that make water (and hence water-based glues) conduct. Tap water has varying amounts of dissolved salts in it - harder water has more (this being why it's harder). Being conductive means more charge available, particularly when the croc-clip is connected to the glue, which completes a circuit.

Thinking about it, every loco I have has come from eBay. Some were listed as 'new' or 'new - other', some as 'used'. I've only had one issue, a Dapol class 153 with the bogie springs problem. I've tried stretching them, but given up and accepted I'll have to get some official spares. It's a backup unit I want to renumber once I've learnt how, so no great loss for what I paid for it. It can sit on the inspection pit in the 'yard' until working properly.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I think I'll investigate using an audio file as the random element.

Hi, I will have a row of terraced houses and want to simulate TVs using LEDs (cool white or RGB). I know there are products designed to simulate fireboxes, campfires and similar but I've not seen anything suitable to simulate a TV. Before I start mucking around with Arduino scripts (PWM pins, random intervals, random brightness, all x10 houses), is anyone aware of an existing product? Google isn't being helpful... Yours hopefully... Alph

I agree. I've put together a small fleet of Northern Rail liveried N gauge 153 and 156s but am drawing the line at 97 quid for a dummy 153 when you consider I paid 78 for a Settle-Carlisle liveried 156, 60 for a dummy 156, 90 for a full 153 and 140 for a full 156, all in excellent condition - I got lucky on that aspect. I'd like to run an occasional 153/156 triple without tying up the motorised 153 to do so, as occasionally seen on my home line of the Cumbrian Coast Line, but not enough to pay nearly 100 quid for it. Some people are wanting silly money!

That looks most impressive for such a tiny package. Worth investing in. Shall have to see if there's a UK supplier before mucking around with importing one. Thanks for the pointer

That's very impressive work, ITG. Could you tell me which Alpha switches you used, please? The array of gear on the DCC Concepts site is a bit bewildering! I was thinking of using momentary (so (ON)-OFF-(ON)) SPDT 3A switches whose bodies are 13mm long and 6 mm wide. I'm hoping (based on other forum discussions) that that current rating will be sufficient to shift points using a CDU as although briefly higher, the current falls quickly and will be low by the time the contacts separate, which is the real limiting factor in the switch design. The rubber switch covers have a diameter of about 14mm so that dictates the pitch between turnouts on the diagram (in the grey section, for example). Based on that, the diagram scales to about 36cm wide. 3mm LEDs to indicate the point is set to a siding can go on the siding, still thinking about where to mount the through line LED, unless I use dual colour LEDs. However I might not be able to source the colour combinations I want. The diagram shows (crudely) where the switches would go. The black circles represent the switch covers and the switches themselves are enclosed within that shape (apart from 0.5mm projections at the corners). I could reduce the amount of whitespace and shorten the length of the sidings which would bring the panel down to the size of a sheet of A4 paper.

Wheel-reinventing is my forte In my defence, daytime TV isn't fantastic and the dog's not a great conversationalist so I need something to occupy my mind, and thought experiments are cheaper than devising new timetables that require new locos... I'm liking the £10 decoder price point, far more justifiable for lighting a rake of coaches than something twice the price, but I also like the idea of using an Arduino for the job as I've played with them in the past. I suspect I'll go down the decoder route since the amount of space available inside an n-gauge coach ain't high and shoehorning in an Arduino, rectifier, plus a stay-alive circuit with capacitor large enough for the Arduino as well isn't likely. DCC control of model domestic and street lighting using an Arduino with a permanent power connection is another matter though... Thanks all for your thoughts!

Probably not the clearest of topic titles, but I couldn't think of anything better. Many (most?) layouts have some form of panel showing the track layout for mounting point control switches and possibly indicator LEDs. I tried creating one in Microsoft Visio, which is a pretty good all-round technical drawing application, but it just didn't want to produce a suitable diagram. I wasn't satisfied with the exported images from AnyRail either, as I wanted a more Harry Beck style diagram. Enter https://metromapmaker.com/... My AnyRail design became this and then this after a little tweaking (in Paint, of all things!). Rather recommended, and yes, I've just noticed the crossovers at the top and bottom of the diagram are the wrong way around!

Excellent, thanks. PIC programming will have to wait until September and the reopening of the school's tech dept.

As per first line of OP: "a thought experiment [to] enable dummy loco directional lighting on a DCC layout without using a decoder". I'd appreciate a link to the design you mention as finding it in your 4k+ posts might take a while. Best wishes, Alph

Thanks for the input, people. I think I'll use the cheaper Dapol decoders in the dummy cars as they only have to handle directional lighting and Zimo MX617Ns in the powered units.

I was thinking more for the dummy cars in a multi-car set (e.g. a Class 156) as a true decoder is only needed in the motorised car.