Heljan 0 Gauge Railbus

[TheSnapper]

I am fitting a Zimo MX644 decoder to a Heljan 0 Gauge AC Railbus for a friend. (Digitrains/Paul Chetter)

Simple job, or so I thought.

First struggle was to find a way through "the conduit" for the speaker wire . 

Now that's done & the speaker installed, the problem is, where to attach the speaker on the PCB:

 

 

No indication on the board - I know which pins they are on the decoder, but not sure that any of the sockets are for the speaker.

 

I believe Paul did an article in October 2015 Hornby magazine, if anyone has a copy, could you look it up for me?

 

Cheers

 

Tim.

 

 

[TheSnapper]

OK, no problem.

 

I downloaded a PDF copy of Hornby Magazine for October 2015 for Paul's article, and now see how it's done.

 

Not very "user friendly" though

 

Timi

[lewey13]

Hi I have just been given one of these by a friend any chance you can tell where to fit the speaker wires on the board thanks Duncan

[RAF96]

Hi I have just been given one of these by a friend any chance you can tell where to fit the speaker wires on the board thanks Duncan

The 21-MTC pinout shows the speaker pins as the two next along from the index ‘pin’, so I would guess the CN6 socket is hooked to those on that pcb.

 

Rob

[Izzy]

I've just recently fitted a Digitrains/Paul Chetter install in a 4mm Heljan W&M railbus, and from what I can tell the PCB would appear to be the same. If it is, and seems likely since the MX644D is used, then the CN6 socket is the speaker connection. The problem is that Heljan did half a job in that they provide the socket - but with no matching plug.

 

So I cut off the top of the socket and hard wired the wires. The pads for a stay-alive capacitor are located on the reverse side of the MX644D so need adding before fitting it in place if you use one. Hope these shots help.

 

 

I must say that I received first rate help and advice from Jeremy at Digitrains with the install, and Paul Chetter was fantastic in subsequently helping me make some alterations to the install to suit my personal tastes in the way it worked.

 

It sounds great using the large Zimo sugar lump speaker in the luggage space. I guess there is a bit more room in an O gauge one.

 

Izzy

[wgura]

Hi TheSnapper!

Please can you send to me the PDF of the Hornbymagazine article of Paul Chetters Heljan Railbus ?My email is werner.gura@aon.at .Iam from Austriea and therefor my english is not very good.Thank you

Best regards

Werner

[brossard]

If you get no joy with your request, you can download the magazine from Pocketmags if still available.

 

John

[brossard]

Just wondering whether the community has had similar issues to mine.  Some while ago, my railbus suffered a short on a slip.  When I tried running it, it sort of responded but wouldn't go.

 

Fast forward a few months and I got it out today.  I put it on a test track and fired it up.  To my amazement the sound came on and lights worked.  However, it refused to run reliably and my NCE wouldn't read the CVs (I was going to do a factory reset).

 

Long story short, after extensive cleaning and only minor improvements I focused on the wipers which are, TBH, rubbish.  That combined with the ridiculous play on the axles, I'm thinking that the wipers have no chance of staying in contact with the wheel backs.

 

So, where I am right now is that I removed the wheelsets and wheels from their axles.  Washers (0.6mm) were added to each side and secured.  Waiting for glue to dry.

 

Curious if others have found this and their solution(s).

 

John

[brossard]

Here's an update.  After reinstalling wheelsets, with washers, the Railbus runs much better.

 

I can't check on the actual layout because it is disassembled after a show a couple of weeks ago.  Permanent way work is on the roster.

 

I have stay alives on order from Digitrains.

 

John

Edited July 1, 2022 by brossard