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  • RMweb Gold
On 23/06/2020 at 15:54, Mick Bonwick said:

There is no way I'm going to fix that, so a replacement was the plan. That was when I found that there are none to be had. All the big guys had no stock, nor did the manufacturers. What I should have done was to call my 'local' model shop first, because that would have saved some time and not  a few samples of Anglo Saxon. I was able to reserve one replacement and one spare, to be collected soon, because the shop has been open for visitors since 15th June.

 

On Thursday I took delivery of my replacement DCC Concepts Cobalt IP Analogue point motors from the Alton Model Centre. They were obtained to replace two old and electrically failed original (Classic) Cobalts.

 

Everything was made ready today to install the new ones and continue train testing. I removed the temporary Tortoise that I had been using and installed the new Cobalt, sticking it permanently in place with screws and their supplied sticky pad. The sticky pads are very sticky and work very well. So well that it takes quite a bit of force to remove them when you need to. I know about this! Once stuck firmly in place I wired it up in the same way as its failed predecessor and sat down to test it. Nothing happened. No response at all to the commands sent from the DCC system through the DCC Concepts decoder. "That's funny", I thought.

 

All wiring connections were tested. Fine.

Other point motors tested. Fine.

Other point motors tested with the same decoder. Fine.

Old point motors connected back up, but not installed on the baseboard. Fine.

Tortoise motor tested with the same wiring as the new Cobalt. Fine.

Second new Cobalt IP Analogue removed from packaging and connected up. Nothing.

Installation instructions checked. Fine.

Wiring compared with existing Cobalt IP Analogue point motor that has been in place for some time and is still working. Fine.

 

What are the chances of getting two brand new DCC Concepts Cobalt IP Analogue point motors that don't work?

 

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  • RMweb Gold
22 minutes ago, Gilbert said:

Hi Mick

What DC are you using - the current crop of Cobalts need a very clean supply?

Chris

 

Hi Chris,

 

Whatever the DCC Concepts decoder is supplying. Surely that should be OK?

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  • RMweb Gold

Sorry - I should have realised you were using DCC - analogue cobalts not via a decoder need a clean supply - I blew a few by using normal 12dc from a Gaugemaster Train supply. I now have the correct analogue DC supply. I think its a WM2

I've now tried their IP Digital PMs and so far so good using the NCE supply - pure luck I bought of 6 analogues on ebay and digitals turned up instead so I got used to them...

Chris

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  • RMweb Gold

The solution has been announced!

 

Mick Bryford @newbryford has quite correctly pointed me to the DCC Concepts website where the Advice page quite clearly states that the DCD-AD4 is not suitable for a Cobalt iP series point motor. Silly me for making assumptions or, rather, not thinking about that possibility.

 

I have a DCD-ADfx2 that drives a pair of Cobalt iP Analogue point motors elsewhere on the layout, but had not thought to check out that combination with all my testing done yesterday. All I need to do is remove all the boxes from underneath the layout, make up some new cable and rewire 4 point motors. Simple.

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  • RMweb Gold

This is more rock and hard-place stuff. Should a manufacturer stop product evolution to maintain compatibility? DCC Concepts has chosen to make better versions of its products, and backwards-compatibility is expensive and limiting, maybe. But a pain for users trying to keep costs down. 

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  • RMweb Gold
1 hour ago, Oldddudders said:

This is more rock and hard-place stuff. Should a manufacturer stop product evolution to maintain compatibility? DCC Concepts has chosen to make better versions of its products, and backwards-compatibility is expensive and limiting, maybe. But a pain for users trying to keep costs down. 

 

DCC Concepts have been evolving products ever since the beginning. Their MasterSwitches were excellent products and I used them extensively, but they kept improving them, changing the format. This in itself is not a problem, but I was working on long-term projects. My final plan centred around 16 of the final iteration of MasterSwitches, at the same time as they stopped manufacturing them. I know of three layouts that utilise these devices and they are still functioning. I also know of 12 unused MasterSwitches that could be for sale if anybody is interested!

 

In this day and age, where electronics play such an integral part in many modellers' plans, it is essential for manufacturers to incorporate technological advances wherever they can, as long as they're relevant to the modellers' needs. My feeling is that the manufacturers should also pay attention to the modeller who wants to maintain a level of technology that doesn't cost the earth to keep up with, but I do realise that that is going to be increasingly difficult to achieve.

 

Like you said, Ian, it's a rock and hard place situation.

 

I'm off to crawl around under the baseboards. I may be some time . . . . . . . . . . .

Edited by Mick Bonwick
Proof reading is needed.
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  • RMweb Gold

All the way back on page 3 there was a photograph of a pair of points that were carefully positioned where access from below for point motor installation was non-existant.

 

Just after DCC Concepts introduced their Cobalt-SS I bought a crossover set with the intention of trying them out to see if they would be easy to install and robust enough for me to do it. I didn't actually get round to that at the time, but it has occurred to me that they might be suitable for page 3, even though the control board has a cover over the top.

 

 

P1010641.JPG.e9041454dbf93a1ceebe60c5d2bcf3a7.JPG

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  • RMweb Gold
2 minutes ago, Stubby47 said:

That wire over the tracks is going to get in the way.

 

Just sayin'.

 

I knew somebody would come up with that, and I should have guessed that it would be you. ;)

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  • RMweb Gold
2 minutes ago, Mick Bonwick said:

 

I knew somebody would come up with that, and I should have guessed that it would be you. ;)

 

True.

 

Also, that's nothing like the Page 3 images I remember.

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  • RMweb Gold
2 hours ago, Stubby47 said:

 

True.

 

Also, that's nothing like the Page 3 images I remember.

 

:O

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  • RMweb Gold
2 hours ago, Stubby47 said:

 

True.

 

Also, that's nothing like the Page 3 images I remember.

 

Be very careful..Andy and Phil will be keeping a close pair of eyes or two on this one........just saying...

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  • RMweb Gold
3 hours ago, Stubby47 said:

Why, did Page 3 also show cakes ?

 

:nono:

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  • RMweb Gold

Thanks to @john new on page 13, I have been wandering around the area of Easton station (not physically, you understand) and considering railway related industries that could be represented somewhere on my baseboards, or very near.

 

The possibility of a wagon repair facility is attractive and, as there have been large steam locomotives seen south of Portland, some sort of heavy engineering support is possible. I'd still like to model Park Quarry (south of the station, just before the lifting flap) as a quarry, but something else could come into being just north of the station, around Inmosthay but bringing it closer to the station - maybe just the other side of Reforne bridge.

 

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Easton,+Portland/@50.5482518,-2.4375188,472m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x4872f094a88f0877:0xa0eae304dbf7590!8m2!3d50.5457225!4d-2.4360814

 

If you want to understand what I'm going on about, you can either use the Google Maps link or go back to page 1 and look at the sketch map there. Or both.

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  • RMweb Gold
On 09/07/2020 at 09:50, Mick Bonwick said:

P1010641.JPG.e9041454dbf93a1ceebe60c5d2bcf3a7.JPG

 

Leaving the cable across the track like this was not conducive to smooth running (as predicted by others), so I thought I'd drill a hole to run the cable beneath the baseboard, and bring up all the other connections from beneath the baseboard so that the control unit could be left on the top. It does have some pretty blue LEDs on it and I'd like to be able to see them.

 

P1010650.JPG.d2071f59a3a35aa29b5fda357edade0e.JPG

 

All the wiring is now in place and the two tiny motors react to commands from the DCC system and JMRI. The motor in the photograph needs to be at the same level as the point itself, so it is now waiting for another piece of foam to be cut and stuck down before any more progress can be made. There is every chance that this will be done tomorrow, but I still have to remove the over-centre springs from the points themselves, so it might run into Monday.

 

The instructions that come with the point motors tell me that each decoder port is capable of running more than one motor at a time, but I have already set up the definitions in JMRI, so will continue to use them as two separate entities.

 

 

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  • RMweb Gold

If you ever use Copydex as an adhesive to stick down underlay and then need to drill a hole through the underlay and the baseboard, it is a good idea to cut out the underlay and dried adhesive before using the drill. If you don't do that, the dried Copydex will wrap itself around the drill bit and anything stuck to it will follow!

 

P1010645.JPG.397540fc109edacd692cace626dbb3a1.JPG

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