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jpendle

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Posts posted by jpendle

  1. 1 hour ago, CFL said:

    I don't think it is that simple. I was led to believe that just putting two or more locos (double or triple headed for the UK, a lash up for the US) requires careful matching of the locos, especially regarding their speeds. Basically if one loco is slower than the other then then the quicker loco will drag the slow one putting mechanical strain on it. I think that the locos had to be timed over a set distance to find their speeds and adjust to compensate but I may be wrong as usual.

    That's what I've done with my double headers and top and tail consists.

     

    I either measure the speed using iTrain, iTrain then controls both locos and compensates for differences, or I do the same in the Z21 app and the Z21 app then does the compensation.

    It especially important if you want to run two different locos in the consist, say a CL37 and a 47 or a Pacer and a CL150.

     

    Regards,

     

    John P

    • Informative/Useful 1
  2. 7 hours ago, steve1 said:

    It doesn’t look like it to me.

    Does it matter?

     

    The article is about track work and the picture shows some track.

     

    The journalist clearly does not build her own track but neither do 99.999% of the people for whom this article is intended.

     

    Regards,

     

    John P

    • Like 2
    • Round of applause 3
    • Funny 1
  3. Hi,

     

    I have around 80 Peco N Gauge Electrofrog turnouts on my layout and the only change that I have made electrically is to solder a dropper wire onto the frog, or an adjacent piece of track, so that I am not relying on blade contact to switch polarity.

     

    There's absolutely no need to make the changes recommended for OO points because the flangeways on N Gauge points are proportionately much wider than those on OO Gauge points so there is no real risk of wheels causing shorts when running through points.

     

    Regards,

     

    John P

    • Agree 2
  4. Bear in mind that most sound projects have very high values for CV3 and CV4, i.e acceleration and deceleration. 

    This means that locos take a long time to get up to speed and just as long to slow down again, while this may be prototypically accurate, a loco hauling a heavy train may well take minutes to get up to line speed, it can cause problems on a model railway as we typically don't have long enough layouts. It also makes stopping a train accurately very difficult, unless the sound project designer has incorporated an active brake function.

     

    Every time you do a factory reset then the sound project will set the values for CV's 3&4 so you'll need to change back to what you prefer.

     

    Regards,

     

    John P

  5. 4 hours ago, Trainnoob said:

    I don't need fancy bells and whistles I just want a DCC system that control trains with Sound

    I think that's an oxymoron 🤔

     

    Surely you do want bells and whistles on your sound equipped loco's? 🙂

     

    But seriously, sound equipped loco's from Bachmann, Dapol, Accurascale, et al, frequently use function keys up to F28, so a simpler 'cheap' controller might not support that.

     

    As @Steven B said, it's a very good idea to visit a specialist DCC retailer and try out different systems, they can also advise on which systems would meet your needs.

     

    Regards,

     

    John P

  6. On 09/02/2024 at 14:45, TomE said:

    Finally got my Northern 158 today. Fully lives up to expectations and no motor noise on this one. I think they've absolutely nailed it.


    Will do a full review for NGN at some point in the next week if I can squeeze it in around moving house!

     

    farish158a.jpg.db0a75a41000984143ec9673f0bcfdbc.jpg

    Tom. 

    I’ve been biding my time on these, but this post got me looking online again. Rails seem to have sold out of the Northern ones and Kernow had fewer than 4 of each type in stock. So out came the credit card for a bit of panic buying and 2 sound fitted ones will be winging their way to Colorado very soon.

     

    Regards,

     

    John P

    • Like 1
  7.  

    On 21/03/2024 at 03:44, AndrueC said:

    It's not that they default to 'off' but rather that they don't set their outputs correctly on power up.

    What do you mean, I'd have thought that the headlights on an HST are either on or off, in what (other) way are the outputs not correct?

     

    Regards,

     

    John P

  8. 2 hours ago, KeithMacdonald said:

    By a strange coincidence, thanks to a life outside of RMWeb (shocking I know) and an interest in old droving roads, we have a Cunning Plan to visit one of the ancient Scottish droving routes. It might be with a Retriever or two.

    Or even a Reiver or two, perhaps.

     

    But back to pubs, the Strawberry Duck is (in)famously best accessed from Entwhistle station on the Bolton Blackburn line.

     

    John P

    • Like 1
  9. 13 minutes ago, WIMorrison said:

     

    John, the term normally used is edge case because the majority of users fall within the standard bell curve, and it is very, very few people that fall into the 'edges' with problems, hence edge cases ;)

    Ahh!

     

    In the electronics industry design engineers will have boards built to see if the 'corners' work, i.e fast memory/slow cpu, fast-fast, slow-slow etc. Hence my use of the term corner case.

     

    But we're talking about the same thing 😀

     

    Regards,

     

    John P

    • Like 1
  10. Hi,

     

    I have had similar issues with my Z21 and iPhone. It seems to happen most often if I have the Z21 and router switched on and then I walk out of range with my iPhone connected to the Z21, when I walk back in range the App on the iPhone won't connect to the Z21 and I get the 'network error'. If I cycle power on the router and the Z21 that sometimes fixes the issue.

     

    This happened quite often starting about 4 years ago, but happens far less frequently nowadays.

     

    What version of the App are you using and what version of Z21 firmware is loaded? Later versions may have attempted to fix this issue.

     

    Unfortunately it's what is know in the industry as a "corner case", the vast majority of uses will never see the issue but a few will, it also means that it's difficult to work out what the root cause may be. There's almost certainly nothing wrong with your settings.

     

    I wouldn't give up on the Z21 just yet.

     

    Regards,

     

    John P

  11. 7 hours ago, ianp said:

    That is an interesting point about modelling aesthetics. I see a fair few layouts where the modellers have sought to add a lot of authentic grime on tracks, ballast etc. Colliery and other industrial layouts are an obvious case in point. But I often feel they just make the layout look like a grubby mess. Maybe it is just me, but I prefer seeing a layout of any sort in a "clean" state, if I can put it that way. 

    There's definitely a balance to be struck. 

     

    There's at least one layout that I'm familiar with that looks like a dogs dinner ........

     

     

     

     

     

     

    ...... after the dog's thrown up!

     

    John P

  12. 2 hours ago, RobinofLoxley said:

     so provided the polarity of that track section is changed at the right time, and that will depend on the position of the turnouts at each end of that section, there won't be any issue.

    The polarity of the track in the reversing section has nothing to do with the position of the points at either end. The reversing section must be electrically  isolated from the rest of the layout, its polarity is controlled by the frog juicers/reverse loop module and nothing else.

    The polarity of the reverse section will change when a loco either enters or leaves the reversing section.

     

    Regards,

     

    John P

  13. 2 hours ago, Grovenor said:

    You don't want a frog juicer for this, you want a reverse loop module. You only need the one reverse loop module, any sidings connected to the reversing section will just reverse along with it, which is not a concern.

    But equally you could connect the sidings to the top section of the main oval.

    They are effectively the same thing, 2 frog juicers = 1 reverse loop module.

    Both detect short circuits as the loco enters either the reverse lop or the frog and then switch the track polarity as needed.

    Because a reverse loop module changes the polarity on 2 tracks at a time you wouldn't want to use it as a frog juicer, but because frog juicers only deal with one track there's nothing stopping you using 2 of them for a reverse loop module.

     

    I used a Tam Valley 6 way Frog Juicer on my last layout to switch polarity on the 4 frogs of 2 crossovers, I used the last 2 outputs to deal with the reverse loop.

     

    1 hour ago, TomJ said:

    Would either of these work?

    Yes the first one with the point NOT in the reverse loop.

     

    Regards,

     

    John P

    • Thanks 1
  14. 4 minutes ago, F-UnitMad said:

    Looks to me like you actually have TWO reverse loops in fact.

    No idea how to wire them though, sorry.

    The top diagram just has one reverse loop. If you remove the track crossing from bottom left tp top right you are left with a double track line running through two station areas, plus what looks like lower level storage sidings.

     

    Regards,

     

    John P

  15. Two frog juicers will work without issue for a reverse loop, that's what I did on my previous layout.

    I would recommend a solid state juicer, such as the one's from Tam Valley, rather than a relay based one, such as the Gaugemaster Autofrog. Solid state juicers are much faster.

     

    As regards the yard, it depends. Remember that the reverse section with the juicers has to be as long as your longest train, so that rolling stock with pickups don't cause problems.

     

    So IF your longest train will fit in either section from the point to the main layout then you just need one juicer in that section, if you trains won't fit then you'll need to have a re-think about how the yard is arranged.

     

    Regards,

     

    John P

    • Like 1
  16. 3 hours ago, NotofthiscenturyTim said:

    Yes, we live in a globalised world. Links to USA info please? 

     

    Which part of

     

    6 hours ago, jpendle said:

    ( I don't have any details so I'll not say more)

     

    did you not understand?

     

    I couldn't care less whether people use Lais decoders or not, but why you insist on demanding evidence rather than taking forum members at their word is beyond me.

     

    Regards,

     

    John P

    • Like 4
    • Agree 3
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