Burton-on-Trent South - Adding Buildings

[ISW]

14 minutes ago, BusDriverMan said:

by designing a servo tester instead.

What's a servo tester? The only 'testing' I do is make sure they operate and more the correct distance! I might be missing something ...

 

Ian

[BusDriverMan]

Just now, ISW said:

What's a servo tester? The only 'testing' I do is make sure they operate and more the correct distance! I might be missing something ...

 

Ian

It will be a gizmo you plug a servo into, and lets you drive the servo do different angles, so I can check I've mounted the servo correctly under the baseboard (or in whatever setup I've installed a servo). Will have a 7-segment display and a rotary encoder to display and set the angle, and be powered by a USB cable.

[ISW]

1 minute ago, BusDriverMan said:

It will be a gizmo you plug a servo into, and lets you drive the servo do different angles, so I can check I've mounted the servo correctly under the baseboard (or in whatever setup I've installed a servo). Will have a 7-segment display and a rotary encoder to display and set the angle, and be powered by a USB cable.

And driven by a Raspberry Pi or Arduino I'm guessing?

 

I 'can' do something similar using the MegaPoints 12servo board. That's how I set up the operating limits of each servo, using the buttons on the MegaPoints 12servo board. Your electronics abilities are 'way over my head' ...

 

Ian

[BusDriverMan]

It will basically be an Arduino - it will have the same microcontroller that sits in an Arduino Uno and be programmed as if it was one. I'm going to write it up!

[5BarVT]

4 minutes ago, ISW said:

Your electronics abilities are 'way over my head' ...

That's why I like your wiring approach - its something I can understand and emulate!

Paul.

[ISW]

1 hour ago, 5BarVT said:

That's why I like your wiring approach - its something I can understand and emulate!

Paul.

Paul,

 

The comment is much appreciated! I hope you are enjoying the baseboard wirings, which are now about 50% complete on the Upper Level. Feels like a long way to go yet.

 

Ian

[ISW]

Upper Level Baseboards - Wiring

 

We turn yet another corner with the wiring of Baseboard H, which leads us onto the side of the layout next to the door and that contains the Leicester Line Junction. However, before we get ahead of ourselves, there is the wiring of Baseboard H to complete.

 

Being another 'corner' baseboard with no turnouts, it was always going to be fairly simple. And so it proved to be. It's certainly not the prettiest baseboard on the underside, but that's due to the close proximity (vertically) of the 2-track Ramp curving underneath to its connection onto Baseboard I. You can clearly see the route of the 2-track Ramp from the cut-out on the righthand side curving down to the bottom-left. Indeed, space was so tight I had to thin down the baseboard in the grey painted area just to get enough clearance.

 

Even though the wiring is simple, this Baseboard has 3 Power Districts on it; Northbound, Southbound, and Brewery. You can see these more clearly below (NB & SB Tracks to the right, Brewery vertically down):

 

But there are still 6 Power Bus cables to cater for on the Plan; Brewery, 2-track Ramp, Northbound, Southbound, MegaPoints, and Lighting. These are visible below, together with the plugs / sockets for the 3 Power Districts being served on this Baseboard. At least there is no need for a MegaPoints network cable as the baseboards either side will be controlled from separate MegaPoints Multipanels.

 

Ian

Edited March 31, 2022 by ISW
photos re-uploaded

[young37215]

On 24/01/2021 at 14:53, ISW said:

I 'can' do something similar using the MegaPoints 12servo board. That's how I set up the operating limits of each servo, using the buttons on the MegaPoints 12servo board.

 

Occassionally I find that I have to re-set the servo limits which means I have to access the relevant servo controller. The link below takes you to a Megapoints piece of kit that has proved to be a godsend, rather than performing like a circus acrobat in attempting to get to the controllers under baseboards and view the movement of the servo at the same time, once connected to the servo controller the extension allows you to adjust whilst viewing servos with ease.  

 

https://megapointscontrollers.co.uk/product/servocontrollerremotebuttons/?v=79cba1185463

[ISW]

2 hours ago, young37215 said:

 

Occassionally I find that I have to re-set the servo limits which means I have to access the relevant servo controller. The link below takes you to a Megapoints piece of kit that has proved to be a godsend, rather than performing like a circus acrobat in attempting to get to the controllers under baseboards and view the movement of the servo at the same time, once connected to the servo controller the extension allows you to adjust whilst viewing servos with ease.  

 

https://megapointscontrollers.co.uk/product/servocontrollerremotebuttons/?v=79cba1185463

Rob,

 

Thanks for the reminder about that piece of MegaPoint kit. I was thinking of making one myself using a few push buttons, a bit of veroboard and a cable with plug. Something I should get on with really.

 

Can you clear up one thing though. Does the MegaPoints kit have any LEDs on it? Yes, I know the page in the link says not, but the photo seems to show 2 LEDs top-left. If it doesn't have any LEDs, how do know which servo is currently being programmed? I sort of imagine a small mirror on a stick to actually 'see' the servo12 board.

 

Ian

[young37215]

21 hours ago, ISW said:

Can you clear up one thing though. Does the MegaPoints kit have any LEDs on it? Yes, I know the page in the link says not, but the photo seems to show 2 LEDs top-left. If it doesn't have any LEDs, how do know which servo is currently being programmed? I sort of imagine a small mirror on a stick to actually 'see' the servo12 board.

 

There are no lights, just 4 butons mimicing those on the Servo Controller. I have never thought about lights which would be a useful addition, when I use the tool I count the number of button presses to determine which number servo I want to adjust. A combination of this and the visual movement of a servo centreing on activation works for me. 

 

[ISW]

2 hours ago, young37215 said:

There are no lights, just 4 butons mimicing those on the Servo Controller.

Rob,

 

Thanks for clearing that up. I can see how 'button counting' would also work for me in that respect.

 

However, for that to work the Servo12 needs to be in 'Master' mode (doesn't it?) whereas I'd have it in 'Slave' mode for operation by a MultiPanel. Setting the mode from/to 'Slave' would also need under-board access to hold down the appropriate button(s) while powering on. Or am I missing a trick here?

 

Ian

[young37215]

49 minutes ago, ISW said:

However, for that to work the Servo12 needs to be in 'Master' mode (doesn't it?) whereas I'd have it in 'Slave' mode for operation by a MultiPanel. Setting the mode from/to 'Slave' would also need under-board access to hold down the appropriate button(s) while powering on. Or am I missing a trick here?

 

Hi Ian

 

I think you will find that the Master/Slave setting is irrelevant when you are programming a Servo Controller. You programme the same way in either condition, the existence of a Multi Panel has no effect. Put another way, the Multi Panel drives the Servo Controller, it does'nt programme it. 

 

Rob

[ISW]

21 minutes ago, young37215 said:

I think you will find that the Master/Slave setting is irrelevant when you are programming a Servo Controller.

Rob,

 

Thanks for the clarification. That's great news. All I need to do now is make my own 4-button 'fly lead' for the Servo12 ...

 

Ian

[ISW]

Wiring - Little Veroboards

 

While I've been describing the wiring of the underside of the Upper Level baseboards, you will have noticed me making reference to 'little veroboards' for distributing the power to the various tracks and turnouts. These follow a design that I've been using throughout the layout construction, and were drawn up in a very old posting of 28/10/18:

 

I'm still making these little veroboards, and the following photo shows the ones that will eventually occupy a position on the underside of Upper Level baseboard I. I've annotated the photo to describe the various parts, and hopefully it helps understand 'how' they work.

 

Yes yes, I could have done the wiring without the little veroboards, but it would have been a total 'rats nest' of wires going all over the place, using more wire, and I would never be able to understand it later. And forget easy troubleshooting! The little veroboards keep everything logical; cue the Supertramp music ....

 

Whilst I've not seen anyone else using such a 'system', I find it hard to believe that I've invented something new. There's hardly anything 'new' these days.

 

Ian

 

Edited March 31, 2022 by ISW
photos re-uploaded

[ISW]

Upper Level Baseboards - Wiring

 

Yep, it's back to wiring once again this time on the underside of Baseboard I. I know, exciting isn't it.

 

This baseboard contains the northern 'half' of the Leicester Line Junction comprising 6 point ends (1x crossover + 2x single-slips). Despite being one of the smaller baseboards, it still manages to encompass 4 Power Districts; Brewery, NB, SB, & 2-Track Ramp. At least the wiring for the Bus Cables is actually quite simple due to this baseboard being in the 'open end' of the U-shaped Bus Cables running round the layout. I hope that last bit makes sense.

 

One 'complication' is that the MegaPoints 12Servo board on this baseboard has to control 3 servos on the adjacent Baseboard J.

 

Having now done quite a few underboard wirings, it's becoming a little easier to comprehend, but is still equally hard work and tiring. At least I do seem to be getting 'tidier' with my wiring as the layout progresses:

 

Ian

 

 

Edited March 31, 2022 by ISW
photos re-uploaded

[61656]

Wow! Your wiring is looking super neat. I can’t tell you how good it is to finally turn the boards over and run a train!

 

Interesting comment that there’s nothing new these days - I think the converse and wonder if any two layouts are wired the same? It’s like a form of encryption where you need both owner and layout to be able to decode the logic!

[ISW]

25 minutes ago, 61656 said:

Wow! Your wiring is looking super neat. I can’t tell you how good it is to finally turn the boards over and run a train!

 

Interesting comment that there’s nothing new these days - I think the converse and wonder if any two layouts are wired the same? It’s like a form of encryption where you need both owner and layout to be able to decode the logic!

The compliment is much appreciated. Thanks.

 

In reality all layout wiring is actually very simple; a bus wire to take the power in, and wires out to each track to distribute the power. Adding more bus wires is just 'duplication' of the same thing. Beyond that, there are a limited number of methods to join and/or split wire(s); soldering, plugs & sockets, clamps, and twisted wires. Then it's just a case of repeating the same method all over the layout. Don't change 'system'. Keeping it all neat & tidy just makes it easier to troubleshoot and/or modify now or at a later date. Labelling can really help with that!

 

As to the running of trains, that's a bit more complicated in my case as I need to re-connect several baseboards together before I can run a train. Even then operating turnouts is 'difficult' until I can get the MultiPanel(s) up and running.

 

Ian

[ISW]

Upper Level Baseboards - Wiring Preparations

 

Having completed Baseboard I, with the northern 'half' of the Leicester Line Junction, it was time to tackle Baseboard J with the southern 'half' of the junction. I say 'half' but in reality Baseboard J is way more complex with 15 point ends (aka servos) compared to the 6 on Baseboard I. Hence, it's taking a tad longer.

 

I've done my preparations for the servo installations, which can be seen below. The microswitches are assembled onto their 'carrier', and the main aluminium channel has been drilled ready for fitment of the servo itself. The wiring to/from the microswitch has been preassembled to the correct length, ready for soldering to the microswitches (just about the only soldering I do in the wiring).

 

The 2 undrilled lengths of aluminium channel are for the 3-way turnout. Because the 2 switch toes are only ~20mm apart, I'll have to modify my usual servo assembly to make them fit.

 

Why is there only 14 in the photo? Looks like I've missed one somewhere! Grrr.

 

Ian

Edited March 31, 2022 by ISW
photos re-uploaded

[young37215]

On 29/01/2021 at 21:17, ISW said:

Upper Level Baseboards - Wiring

 

Yep, it's back to wiring once again this time on the underside of Baseboard I. I know, exciting isn't it.

 

This baseboard contains the northern 'half' of the Leicester Line Junction comprising 6 point ends (1x crossover + 2x single-slips). Despite being one of the smaller baseboards, it still manages to encompass 4 Power Districts; Brewery, NB, SB, & 2-Track Ramp. At least the wiring for the Bus Cables is actually quite simple due to this baseboard being in the 'open end' of the U-shaped Bus Cables running round the layout. I hope that last bit makes sense.

 

One 'complication' is that the MegaPoints 12Servo board on this baseboard has to control 3 servos on the adjacent Baseboard J.

 

Having now done quite a few underboard wirings, it's becoming a little easier to comprehend, but is still equally hard work and tiring. At least I do seem to be getting 'tidier' with my wiring as the layout progresses:

 

Ian

 

 

 

Hi Ian

 

Your neat cabling is giving me an inferiority complex! I only have clips with nails where hammering them into place does nothing for what is on the top of the baseboard. I particularly like the screw based securing clips you use and feel compelled to get some. Nothing obvious showed up on Ebay, please advise where I can get them.

 

Thanks 

 

Rob

[ISW]

1 hour ago, young37215 said:

I only have clips with nails where hammering them into place does nothing for what is on the top of the baseboard. I particularly like the screw based securing clips you use and feel compelled to get some. Nothing obvious showed up on Ebay, please advise where I can get them.

Rob,

 

I discounted hammering in nails exactly for the reasons you give. It was just too 'likely' to damage the track I'd just spent ages carefully gluing down.

 

As far as I can tell, you can't buy cable clips with screws. I buy the normal cable clips with nails and then remove the nails one-by-one. Really tedious and necessitates a good music / radio distraction. Some people might call it therapeutic ... I then buy the screws separately and install them in the clips as required.

 

I used to get the cable clips from any old local hardware store, but my last batch of cable clips came from eBay at https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ROUND-CABLE-CLIPS-CLAMPS-WHITE-BLACK-3MM-12MM-WITH-FIXING-NAIL-10-50-100-500/112284292573?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&var=412763906058&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2648

I got a bag of 500 white 3½ size for £4.99, which I thought was a fair price, free delivery.

 

The self-tapping screws I get from ModelFixings (where I buy all my small screws) at https://www.modelfixings.co.uk/self_tapping_screws.htm

For cable clips I use Size 0 Phillips Pan  BZP 9.5mm long in bags of 10 (MF-ST31/10 - £0.95) or 100 (MF-ST31/100 - £7.60), more commonly in bags of 100!

 

Yep, the screws cost ~8-times more than the plastic clips! Ah well, there doesn't seem to be suitable 'cheap' alternative.

 

Just make sure you have a suitable Size-0 / Size-1 cross-head screwdriver to install them, preferably one with a magnetic tip to aid with handling / installation of the screw.

 

I hope this helps.

 

Ian

[ISW]

Upper Level Baseboards - Wiring

 

I know, I know, you are all missing your regular 'fix' of baseboard wiring. Well, have no fear, Baseboard J has now been completed.

 

You may recall that this baseboard is contains the 'southern' half of the Leicester Line Junction. However, together with the access to the MPD, it includes 15 point ends, aka servos. 12 of the servos are operated by a single 12Servo board from MegaPoints, with the remaining 3 controlled by the 12Servo board on the adjacent Baseboard I. Hence the requirement for an extra 9-way jumper cable between baseboards I & J.

 

At least the Power Bus cabling requirement is low, with only a single cable for the 2-Track ramp, which I've just realised I've not installed.

 

Here is the wiring is all its logical simplicity complexity:

 

Ian

Edited March 31, 2022 by ISW
photos re-uploaded

[ISW]

Taking a break from Wiring

 

With the wiring of Baseboard A almost complete, I decided to to take a break from wiring to do some ..... ..... ..... ..... wiring.

 

Baseboard A wiring is essentially complete, with only a single Servo to be installed, which will be controlled from Baseboard B. That'll only leave Baseboard B, with its 6 Power Bus cables and 6 Servos to complete. I can't complete Baseboard B wiring as I'm awaiting delivery of some essential components. As a result my thoughts moved to the 'jumper cables' to be installed between the Upper Level baseboards, without which nothing will work.

 

The combination of 6 Power Bus cables, MegaPoints network, servos being controlled from adjacent baseboards, and 10 separate baseboards means that the requirements for 'jumper cables' are not exactly negligible. I've made a start on the jumper cables, which are shown below:

 

Still some more to make.

 

Ian

Edited March 31, 2022 by ISW
photos re-uploaded

[ISW]

On 26/01/2021 at 07:37, young37215 said:

The link below takes you to a Megapoints piece of kit that has proved to be a godsend, rather than performing like a circus acrobat in attempting to get to the controllers under baseboards and view the movement of the servo at the same time, once connected to the servo controller the extension allows you to adjust whilst viewing servos with ease.

Rob,

 

Being a bit of a cheapskate, I decided to make my own DIY version:

 

It hardly cost me anything as all the components are the same as those I already use for baseboard wiring. I think a few 'beautifications' are required together with a few labels!

 

Ian

Edited March 31, 2022 by ISW
photos re-uploaded

[BusDriverMan]

Talking of servos and DIY circuitry - I've completed my servo tester:

 

This will mostly assist when installing a servo, to let me confirm that the servo can move whatever it's connected to correctly (usually, point blades)

 

Mini-USB sockets are on order - meanwhile power is connected through the chip's programming header!

[ISW]

2 hours ago, BusDriverMan said:

Talking of servos and DIY circuitry - I've completed my servo tester:

Very nice, although I'm afraid your electronics abilities are way over my head. I'm sure that with a it of work I could 'understand' the circuit, but that's not the same as being able to think of it and then build it.

 

I'm just using the MegaPoints 12Servo board to set 'centre of movement' prior to installing the servo arm. That gets me 'roughly' central of the servos movement.

 

2 hours ago, BusDriverMan said:

Mini-USB sockets are on order - meanwhile power is connected through the chip's programming header!

Why bother with a mini-USB? You've already cropped the plug off so why not simply fit PCB headers / plugs, like you used for the servo connection? Cheap and simple, assuming you have the components and the crimping tool.

 

Ian