phil.c Posted July 10, 2020 Share Posted July 10, 2020 On 27/06/2020 at 09:11, gordon s said: Thought it was too good to last. B*gger returned again this morning with a vengeance. Protective screens are a work in progress, but the b*gger found a gap no more than 6" wide through the plants and air pump to get in under the wires. This one is X rated as one swallow and it's gone, whole..... That was bad enough, but he came back again to dive in through the wires at the deep end to help himself to another.....I'd always thought things were secure at the deep end as herons tend to walk in. Electrification of the wires that end may be on the cards, but until then some more plastic netting is called for. This last week or so, has made me wonder just how many fish we have lost before the camera was installed as we had no idea this was such an issue. Control panel is out now until additional defences are installed. They may not be pretty, but something has to be done. I've been through all of this, lost all our fish including large Koi. It started with a garden centre guy recommending one of those plastic herons, "herons are territorial and won't go on another herons patch"...exept, one morning we saw a real heron talking to the plastic one! The next step was to fit 18" rods around the pool and fishing gut so that the heron couldn't walk into the pool, the next attempt was to fit sensors and a loud bell, only to find one morning that the bell was ringing and the heron was in the pool. Criss cross nylon was tried like yours...no good, the best method is mesh, this works a treat except, there was a tiny hole where the mesh wasn't pulled right at one end of the pond and under some bushes, the sod got in there and took all the fish! Today, the pond is no more, it's a lawn 1 9 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post gordon s Posted July 10, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted July 10, 2020 Morning all...It's been a tough week as sadly we had to say goodbye to one of our dogs. Archie was the elder of the two at 16, which is the equivalent of 87 in human years and his systems just decided they had had enough. We had hoped to say goodbye in the garden at home, but Covid rules put a stop to that, so in the end we sat on the grass in the garden behind the vets house. My wife has taken it particularly hard as he was her mate for 16 years and they walked together every day for miles. I know they say time is a healer, but the early days are really hard... Thanks for your note Phil. It's an ongoing battle, but one I'm determined to win. The early morning forays are still happening, but thankfully fewer in number. I moved the water spray jet to attack anything that lands on the patio and the mesh netting has stopped access all down the open side. The planting and fishing wire protects the other side, so hopefully things will improve. Welcome to ET, Mogman. It's not all waffle, I assure you....Occasionally we talk about railways... The scenic side is ticking away in my head and will probably be a combination of earlier ET versions with urban scenes/retaining walls and general grot of the 60's. I still have several of Allan Downes buildings to plonk somewhere and I'm sure it will all come together eventually. I really don't want to go too far into the scenic side until I have the track running perfectly from an operational standpoint. For instance I have already realised an additional crossover would be a great help and I'd rather sort out the track issues first as it would be a pain to rip up scenic work to make later track track changes. Motivation has gone out the window right now with the loss of Archie, but it will return. I have the mimic mock up panel to complete and here I have had some ideas. I'm going to limit the main mimic panel to the four running lines and ET station itself. I will split the station into two and will set up routes in the ECoS which will be easy to use. The split will be vertically across the station right through the midway point and each side will have two incoming and two outgoing lines. In essence the main station area is simply four running lines and some platforms, so it shouldn't be difficult to set up the correct lines and allow trains to run. Each platform on each side of the split will have four route buttons corresponding to each of the main lines, so you will be able to select an incoming or outgoing route on the ECoS which will then be displayed on the mimic panel above the operator. Where more complex operation is required, such as the diesel shed, the main steam shed or the storage area, then that can be done under local control. These smaller panels can then be located centrally for one operator or locally when there are additional operators running each section. There I will have toggle switches and led's as there will be no need for route setting. 2020 is a certainly going to be a memorable year for all the wrong reasons.... Stay safe. 28 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Enterprisingwestern Posted July 10, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 10, 2020 Why don't your expensive fish have the same rights as the bloody bodysnatchers? Mike. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold john dew Posted July 10, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 10, 2020 Hi Gordon So sorry to hear about Archie. We can quite understand how you and your wife feel about his loss. I guess with the age multiplier, as a dog lover, Its bound to happen more than once in ones lifetime.....certainly the case with us......nevertheless and even though its often expected, on each and every occasion it leaves a large hole in ones life. Over time you do get over it and there is pleasure rather than pain when you recall those happy moments together......but right now its just sadness. I do sympathise with you. Best wishes John 1 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gordon s Posted July 10, 2020 Author Share Posted July 10, 2020 (edited) Thanks John, much appreciated. We haven't even talked about looking for another one or two dogs, but it's not like Amazon where you can order on line and a new one turns up tomorrow. Chinese Crested breeders are few and far between and in each litter you will will have mostly the hairless variety and perhaps one or two 'powderpuffs' which our boys are. Most breeders tend to focus on the hairless as they are ones you will see at shows. I wish I could have a £1 for very time we were asked 'what breed are they' and few believed there was such a breed as a Chinese Crested Powderpuff..... I suspect once we make the decision we will be travelling up and down the country to find a genuine breeder and even then it depends on the temperament of each dog. I can see a lot of miles ahead of me..... Edited July 10, 2020 by gordon s 8 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gordon s Posted July 11, 2020 Author Share Posted July 11, 2020 (edited) Evening all..... Finally got my backside into gear and made some progress on the mimic diagram for ET station. Still a few areas that may need a tidy up, but overall I'm happy with the result. Templot is an amazing program and two or three weeks ago when I was working on this panel most days, it was all second nature and click, click, click without reference to anything. This afternoon I sat down in front of the screen and could not recall anything...... Thankfully Martin's notes and videos are invaluable, so it was back to school for the first hour or so. I have no idea if this in an age thing or simply everyday use makes software simpler, but it all comes back to you eventually... Here we go.... I'd love a proper totem rather than the plain rectangle, but couldn't find anything on the web. The nearest I could get visually to Gill Sans was Tahoma, but it look OK. This panel will be 1m wide x 300mm deep, so should be visible even for me.... This panel covers all the main running lines. 5 & 6 are station goods sidings, 7 goes to the main shed and 8 is to the traverser storage. 9 is a few carriage sidings plus a possible diesel shed. Each of these areas (7, 8, 9) will be done via a local control panel with their own switches and led’s for local control. I'm hoping to paste up some prints onto 2mm pdf sheet and then build a mock up before finalising the design for professional printing on laminated paper. Edited July 11, 2020 by gordon s 9 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Ray H Posted July 11, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 11, 2020 Gordon Have you thought of creating a PDF of the diagram and taking it to a vinyl printer? We've done this with a couple of our club layout boards with some more to come. We've then used sheet aluminium onto which the vinyls are stuck. They seem very hard wearing. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gordon s Posted July 11, 2020 Author Share Posted July 11, 2020 (edited) Apologies if that wasn't clear, Ray, that's what I will be doing, but didn't want to waste time and money professionally printing something until I was 100% sure what I have is both visually and functionally correct. I realise I said laminated paper, but I meant a plasticised sheet along the lines of vinyl or similar. I want to build a 'mock up' to test how it all hangs together in practice and also to verify the whole question of route selection via the ECoS control. I know this may seem like overkill, but if previous versions of ET are anything to go by, sometimes unforeseen issues arise as things develop. Edited July 11, 2020 by gordon s 2 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gordon s Posted July 11, 2020 Author Share Posted July 11, 2020 Just thinking about vinyl sheet, Ray, that sound a great idea. I got my wires crossed over between plastic laminated paper and pure vinyl sheet..... Does it come in various thicknesses? How did you glue the sheet to the aluminium substrate? I was thinking originally about some 3m spray adhesive, but I'm not sure if that would cover vinyl. Did you leave it without a protective top layer? Loads of possibilities, so thanks for the suggestion. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Ray H Posted July 11, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 11, 2020 We use an adhesive backed vinyl. There's no protective layer on it but the good old (clear) "sticky back plastic" might be sufficient if you want some added protection. The aluminium is reasonably sturdy on smaller panels and hasn't required any support other than around the outer edge - ours are no more than 2ft in width and about 1ft deep. We will be building a wider one in due course but that's not at the top of the priority list when meetings start up again otherwise I'd be able to give you some feed back on the larger size. One of our members found the aluminium sheet supplier on line. I recall there was a choice of thickness as well but can't remember what we've used, sorry. 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold martin_wynne Posted July 11, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 11, 2020 41 minutes ago, gordon s said: I'd love a proper totem rather than the plain rectangle, but couldn't find anything Hi Gordon, I don't know what you mean by a totem, but you can create whatever you want on the sketchboard in Templot: That's 3 items -- a rounded rectangle with the corners set to 50%, a circle, and a formatted text block. Use the align functions to centralize them all both ways, and then the combine function to create a single item which you can copy and paste, rotate, etc. cheers, Martin. 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gordon s Posted July 11, 2020 Author Share Posted July 11, 2020 Something like this....similar to your outline, but with additional lining. https://www.collectors-club-of-great-britain.co.uk/articles/totem-special-looking-at-enamel-station-signs/ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold martin_wynne Posted July 11, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 11, 2020 Hi Gordon, Something like this? Is the border too thick? Is it the wrong blue? Should the sausage be longer? On the sketchboard the formatted text is a metafile, so you can stretch it and distort it to fit -- I tried to get the Os to be perfect circles. cheers, Martin. 2 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gordon s Posted July 11, 2020 Author Share Posted July 11, 2020 Thanks Martin......I wasn’t dropping a hint.... I’ve shut down my Windows machine now, so will play around with it over the next few days. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buhar Posted July 11, 2020 Share Posted July 11, 2020 This might help http://homepages.enterprise.net/iainlogan/modelrail/free.html Alan 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sixoh8sixoh Posted July 11, 2020 Share Posted July 11, 2020 Gordon, sorry to hear about Archie. Now's definitely not the time to get a new one, though - from what I've heard, pedigree dog (or designer dog, like Cockapoo etc) prices have sky-rocketed during lockdown - some are selling at three times the pre-Covid19 prices. My Mac has Gill Sans included in its software as standard (Pages etc) - worth checking your Mac out (I seem to remember you had a Mac too?) 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
simontaylor484 Posted July 11, 2020 Share Posted July 11, 2020 We had noticed the same with dachshund s we have one( a photo appears in the thread in wheeltappers ) but would love a doggy companion for him Sorry to go off topic Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
aardvark Posted July 11, 2020 Share Posted July 11, 2020 How about https://tracksidesigns.co.uk/epages/950001489.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/950001489/Categories/Custom_Printed_Totems? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium St Enodoc Posted July 12, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 12, 2020 3 hours ago, Buhar said: This might help http://homepages.enterprise.net/iainlogan/modelrail/free.html Alan I could never get those to work. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gordon s Posted July 14, 2020 Author Share Posted July 14, 2020 (edited) Hi Peeps.... At last some progress on the ECoS/Mimic panel issue. Many thanks to all those who helped out re totems etc. One of the problems is the panel background is white, as is the totem lining, so I've just plonked it on a solid background. Decided to add some text rather than numbers and I've reversed the four main lines 1-4 so that platform 1 was on line one. Of course that makes perfect sense now but when you've sat and stared at a panel for hours at a time the blindingly obvious passes you by..... That's part of the equation, but there's no point in an all singing and dancing panel if I can't work out what's happening on the ECoS. First stage was to scrap the old diagram and create something that looked like the mimic. Another flash of brilliance that went straight over my head for weeks..... Once that was done I split ET into two, left and right and set about the routes. With 12 possible locations and four main lines, you don't need to be Einstein to work out that's around 96 routes that need to be created, to cover all eventualities. I managed 14 last night as it takes a fair bit of work to cross reference each turnout by number (not shown on the plan) and then ensure they are all set correctly before adding the route button. Thankfully you only have to do this once, but once done, it's done. There is a little care needed to ensure that in setting one route, you don't screw up another through route in the process. The final route button each side will be a master switch that will set all turnouts to a default position of four completely independent and complete loops. That is certainly one of the ECoS features I do like. One touch and 60 odd turnouts all reset.... Of course the signalling will be another kettle of fish altogether..... This is the left approach with the four main lines to the left. I've yet to add the platforms etc, but you can see the route buttons on the right hand side. It's a shame you can't add text, numbers or symbols to the diagram, but even I can work out they read 1-4 left to right for each platform of access point. One touch of the correct route button and every line can access every platform. Lines 1 & 2 are outgoing and 3-4 incoming. Of course the next page of the diagram covering the right approach will simply be a reversal of incoming and outgoing descriptions. This may not be to everyones taste, but it's about as simple as I can make it and still only has two wires connecting the controller to the main bus under the layout. The mimic panel will be similar with just two wires to the panel from the main bus.. Of course this could be done in DC and I know some of our electronics experts would love the challenge, but for someone who has limited knowledge of electronics, DCC is an very simple solution. It's taken a while, but at least I feel I'm getting somewhere..... Edited July 14, 2020 by gordon s 10 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Enterprisingwestern Posted July 14, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 14, 2020 13 minutes ago, gordon s said: with just two wires to the panel from the main bus.. That is all DCC is anyway, so what's the problem?!! Mike. 1 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gordon s Posted July 14, 2020 Author Share Posted July 14, 2020 I nearly said that Mike, but thought better of it....... Joking apart it does amaze me that there really are just two wires to the bus from the ECoS and two wires from the bus to the Mimic panel. Of course there's loads more wires to the Tortoise motors and droppers etc, but they would be there in DC anyway. I cannot even begin to understand the complexity of wiring 96 routes in DC. Of course I'm sure it can be done and I'd stand in awe of those who can do it, but for the average Joe such as myself, DCC is a wonderful solution. 2 3 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold john dew Posted July 14, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 14, 2020 There are other solutions available in DCC.......ducks and runs for cover etc Seriously....having some understanding of the layout and knowing (I think) your operating requirements I believe you have developed a very elegant and effective solution. Cheers John 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold martin_wynne Posted July 14, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 14, 2020 1 hour ago, gordon s said: One of the problems is the panel background is white, as is the totem lining, so I've just plonked it on a solid background. Hi Gordon, You could create additional borderless blue rounded rectangles a bit larger all round than the ones with borders. Then send them to the back behind your totem, like this: Use the align functions to centralize everything. cheers, Martin. 2 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Barry O Posted July 14, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 14, 2020 Of course pre dcc it would have involved some big rotary switches, a capacitor discharge unit and a big heap of doodes... Baz 1 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now