RMweb Gold Steve Hewitt Posted September 30, 2013 RMweb Gold Share Posted September 30, 2013 Something Big & Something Small And something small? How about this servo; it's at least a third smaller than the SG92s I now use. This will allow me to pack more under a big signal or simply reduce the size of my baseplates where clearances are tight. When I can find me batteries I'll test one out..... P1060193.JPG More soon JF Hi Jon, Nice to be able to use real engineering methods to assemble things............. However, just a word of caution with the micro-servo: This is the model I standardised on when building the signals for Lime Street. Pictures taken during construction/testing, hence the button batteries for the lighting LEDs Very good servos when they work, but I had about a 10% failure rate with "dead on arrival". Also I've had a few fail in service. Usually the thing just spins instead of obeying the settings. My standard currently is the Tower Pro 5.5gram model, and I've not had any delivered faulty. One has just failed in service - dead! Until I can get it off the layout I can't check it out. Steve. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted September 30, 2013 Author Share Posted September 30, 2013 Ah, thanks Steve. I bought 8 so I'll check them all out. I hope only to use them when SG92s aren't suitable. Cheers, JF Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted October 3, 2013 Author Share Posted October 3, 2013 The lamp case for this 16mm scale signal is huge! The front and rear lenses have now been reduced and drilled for the bulb (yes I'm using a bulb for once) and the case mounted on the folded up bracket. It's still big and the arm spindle has to be very long to get the back blind on. The usual groove was cut into the post (nice to be able to go a little deeper into the post!) and the 2 lamp wires crammed in. Next up was the weight bar assembly A forked connection to the weight bar with a nice heavy drive rod almost balance the arm; it's all heavy stuff! A test assembly produced this.... It's all held together with 14BA bolts/nuts etc so I can strip it fully for painting. The only glue so far is helping to hold the finial on. Ladders next, they are to be soldered up from etch and rod..oh joy.. More in a while (Isle of Wight Railway Steam Gala calling!) JF 10 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted October 14, 2013 Author Share Posted October 14, 2013 (edited) Just a quick update. Got some paint on the major parts of the bigsignal. Just need to make a bigger base for it to accommodate the servo and associated electronic gubbins. As I expected, I made a bit of a b*ll*x of the ladder so it's quickly been coated with paint so you cant see how much cleaning up was required. The combination of my inability to solder neatly and a rather misaligned etch made it look rather "Colonel Stephens!" JF Edited October 14, 2013 by Jon Fitness 7 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted October 29, 2013 Author Share Posted October 29, 2013 The big signal kit has a rather weedy baseplate provided on the etch so I beefed things up a bit. The base is now soldered to a slab of copperclad big enough to accomodate both the the servo and a MERG servo4 board. The base of the post was then "blacked" and the electronic and mechanical gubbins connected up. All the fittings were bolted on with 14BA nuts and bolts and once I've completed testing, I'll nip all the long bolts back to a sensible length and apply a little matt black paint to the ends. This will hide them and also stop them working loose. I will be mounting the base on a wooden plinth to protect the servo and board and to allow the chap who's having it to take it outside and plonk it on his layout as a self contained unit. All he will need is a power supply (PP3 probably!) and a simple on off switch and away he'll go. Time to re-open the Midland Railway bits box again now! No rest in this job you know..... More soon JF 7 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium jamie92208 Posted October 29, 2013 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 29, 2013 Looking good Jon. Glad to hear the MR box is getting opened I've just spent the evening putting Green Ayre up in the chapel and will be planting signals over the next few. days. Jamie 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted October 30, 2013 Author Share Posted October 30, 2013 Looking good Jon. Glad to hear the MR box is getting opened I've just spent the evening putting Green Ayre up in the chapel and will be planting signals over the next few. days. Jamie Not making any promises but I may have the tall bracket signal with the shunt arm on done for Warley! JF 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Steve Hewitt Posted October 30, 2013 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 30, 2013 Not making any promises but I may have the tall bracket signal with the shunt arm on done for Warley! JF Hi Jon, If you get a chance at Warley, pop round to my Demo Stand E17 for a chat. Steve. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted November 19, 2013 Author Share Posted November 19, 2013 (edited) Work's started on the final main line MR signal for Green Ayre (unless Jamie has any more plans!) It's a tall-ish stop signal with a shunt arm on a RH bracket. The main post was planed up from stripwood and a slot "machined" into the back for the lamp wires. Luckily, the piece of square tube soldered to the base provided a good interference fit to the main post so no glue was needed. The trimmers on MR signals are of a fairly heavy section which I produced by glueing and clamping 2 coffee stirrers together and cutting/profiling a couple of pieces off it. The wires for the lamps were crammed and superglued into the slots on the back of the post, across the trimmers and up the doll for the shunt signal. The whole lot was then clamped together and superglue fed into the joints. I think it's just about square! (There should be more pictures but I'll add them when it stops saying "upload skipped error 502!!) More soon (wonder if I'll finish this one for Warley?) JF Edited November 19, 2013 by Jon Fitness 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium jamie92208 Posted November 19, 2013 RMweb Premium Share Posted November 19, 2013 (edited) It looks good so far Jon. I'm looking forward to seeing it this weekend Jon. The board it goes on has just been loaded into my car so that I can take it to Dave's to put in his car ready to set off on Friday. It will look good alongside the OHLE gantries that will also be on. Jamie Edited November 20, 2013 by jamie92208 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted November 28, 2013 Author Share Posted November 28, 2013 (edited) Work progresses on the latest MR Bracket signal. The spandrel bracket has been pinned and glued in place, the filler applied to the wire slot and smoothed down, bearing plates for the arms fitted, arms assembled and the lamp case/LEDs fitted and wired up. Next was the weight bars which, if I've understood the picture I'm working from, are above head height for safety as the post is quite tight between the tracks.The location of this signal also means I've had to mount the servos vertically rather than flat like I usually do. They needed a support bracket so a bit of usefully shaped scrap etch was soldered either side of themA job my somewhat feeble brain generally struggles with is the plotting of where the angle cranks go and in which direction everything needs to pull/push. The first wire down from the shunt signal to the crank...The wire bent up and the first crank positioned with a drill...The first cross wire...The second crank in position. These are secured with pins for now..and showing which direction things move to push the arm to the off position.The cranks now get proper supports and are glued and pinned in position with short pieces of wire at the non bearing end. This leaves the axle pins removeable so the worky bits are able to be removed/replaced for painting.This is the first attempt at lampmans staging from 0.8mm ply but I think it's wrong! Needs to be moved towards the back methinks...More soonJF Edited November 28, 2013 by Jon Fitness 8 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted November 30, 2013 Author Share Posted November 30, 2013 Well there's good news and bad news....Firstly, the signal's all structurally finished now. The linkages all work and the servo action has been fully tested and found to be fine. I've sorted the main lampmans's staging and all there is to is a smaller one at the top of the main post which will be fitted after the whole thing is painted.The signal has since been stripped ready to paint (yellow again... .) The bad news...after stripping it down I tested the LEDs...no lights....I've managed to damage the concealed wiring causing a short via the spandrel bracket. Despite taking as much care as I thought necessary, it'll be one of the pins I've used to secure it or something around the trimmer area as the spandrel showed up as connected to both wires on test and a dead short ensued. (_______________) insert expletive of choice.JF 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium jamie92208 Posted November 30, 2013 RMweb Premium Share Posted November 30, 2013 Nice to see that Jon sorry to hear about the LED's hope you get them sorted. Jamie Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LNERGE Posted November 30, 2013 Share Posted November 30, 2013 (edited) Well there's good news and bad news.... Firstly, the signal's all structurally finished now. The linkages all work and the servo action has been fully tested and found to be fine. I've sorted the main lampmans's staging and all there is to is a smaller one at the top of the main post which will be fitted after the whole thing is painted. The signal has since been stripped ready to paint (yellow again... .) P1060465 (768x1024).jpg P1060466 (768x1024).jpg The bad news...after stripping it down I tested the LEDs...no lights....I've managed to damage the concealed wiring causing a short via the spandrel bracket. Despite taking as much care as I thought necessary, it'll be one of the pins I've used to secure it or something around the trimmer area as the spandrel showed up as connected to both wires on test and a dead short ensued. (_______________) insert expletive of choice. JF Rather than dig it all out again could you not model a circuit controller on the arm with a cable leading to it that can somehow be used to supply the lamp? How about claiming the lamps have pyrometers and running a cable to the lamp that way? Here's something a bit more new fangled than your Midland signal and the cables are clearly lashed anywhichway.. edit to add this... http://www.flickr.com/photos/25443598@N06/6903040321/in/photolist-bvZToz-7EXXki-djjix5-8TJ18o-9mbJpB-bhqfVM-9UaewH-9UaewM-8yjrzp-7SUmWY-aaXDTE-9cAExQ-9cAEku-8yni4V-b6izTp-bWbjUy-9pwFQa-9Dk2Vm-aPCfy4-9pYdWJ-7SR5Ba-bx3JbE-bvZZv8-bvZXzB-7K28Md-7Qpdya-8FVGiT-7Go2w7-eeUpeq-dne8n4-7Gj6je-cjmb1S-9QjwHu-eqNDfQ-eqQL8s-eNTSKS-eNGuXF-9pzHp1-bvF1nX-9hC1dc-bvF4u8-bvEVg6-bvEXKt-bvF6tx-7Gdvgu-7Go2rw-7G9xUe-eeUq7J-7xZauP-eavS4v-eavRJx We couldn't built a model like this it would look awful.. Edited November 30, 2013 by LNERGE 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted December 1, 2013 Author Share Posted December 1, 2013 Nice to see that Jon sorry to hear about the LED's hope you get them sorted. Jamie Rather than dig it all out again could you not model a circuit controller on the arm with a cable leading to it that can somehow be used to supply the lamp? How about claiming the lamps have pyrometers and running a cable to the lamp that way? Here's something a bit more new fangled than your Midland signal and the cables are clearly lashed anywhichway.. Camera 109a.jpg edit to add this... http://www.flickr.com/photos/25443598@N06/6903040321/in/photolist-bvZToz-7EXXki-djjix5-8TJ18o-9mbJpB-bhqfVM-9UaewH-9UaewM-8yjrzp-7SUmWY-aaXDTE-9cAExQ-9cAEku-8yni4V-b6izTp-bWbjUy-9pwFQa-9Dk2Vm-aPCfy4-9pYdWJ-7SR5Ba-bx3JbE-bvZZv8-bvZXzB-7K28Md-7Qpdya-8FVGiT-7Go2w7-eeUpeq-dne8n4-7Gj6je-cjmb1S-9QjwHu-eqNDfQ-eqQL8s-eNTSKS-eNGuXF-9pzHp1-bvF1nX-9hC1dc-bvF4u8-bvEVg6-bvEXKt-bvF6tx-7Gdvgu-7Go2rw-7G9xUe-eeUq7J-7xZauP-eavS4v-eavRJx We couldn't built a model like this it would look awful.. Thanks both! Further tesing and a bit of dismantling has shown that the problem is roughly where I had a joint in the live wire. This is where I deviated from my normal method of seperate wires for each LED as the main post is quite thin and I needed to save a bit of space. The live wire to the shunt signal is ok from the trimmers area and the negative is OK all the way through so....(intake of breath) a new live wire has been run up the back of the main post, hidden mostly by the ladder and jointed behind the trimmers. I'll look at it for a day or 2, maybe spray the yellow primer over it and if it looks too c**p I'll peel it off and try some fine enamelled wire (which I don't like due to difficulty in soldering and general fragility). If that don't work the whole thing will be binned and I'll start again... Fingers and legs crossed! JF PS that ER bracket looks like my early attempts at wiring lights for signals!! 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LNERGE Posted December 1, 2013 Share Posted December 1, 2013 PS that ER bracket looks like my early attempts at wiring lights for signals!! I knew i'd seen one with worse cabling.... I had a rummage round the net and found it.... Taken be me D'oh.. http://www.flickr.com/photos/32297024@N08/10496570165/in/photostream/ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted December 3, 2013 Author Share Posted December 3, 2013 Ok, decided to go with the "wire up the back" and spray the signal to see how it looked. Not too shabby but not ideal. I'm sure once all the various fittings and different colours are applied it'll look OK.. Made up the little lampmans staging (which has seen one or two mods since photographing! More once the signal has been painted and re-assembled.. JF 9 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted December 5, 2013 Author Share Posted December 5, 2013 Well, here we go...that's the MR bracket finished, painted, re-assembled and working OK now. The wire doesn't show up too badly but I think the rest of the fittings and the colours take your eye away from it. It's only up the back anyway. Hopefully here's a yootube vid as well... I'll leave you to comment whether you think I got away with it this time!! More soon JF 10 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
N15class Posted December 5, 2013 Share Posted December 5, 2013 Another nice signal. These bracket signals always look the business to me. Will have to see if I can get one into plan. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium jamie92208 Posted December 5, 2013 RMweb Premium Share Posted December 5, 2013 With progress like this I better get some baseboards fitted with the signals and show them in action. It looks great. Jamie Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted December 21, 2013 Author Share Posted December 21, 2013 Got a signal on the go for Saltney now. Just trying out an etch for the LMS lattice posts and seeing how they adapt to make the cantilever version. Not quite sure if it's strictly correct but it'll do for our layout! The right hand end will have a doll with a stop and distant and the little shunt signal will gain a coat of yellow and black for its new job. More soon.. JF 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted December 27, 2013 Author Share Posted December 27, 2013 (edited) Hope everyone's had a good xmas day and boxing day and didn't drink too much! (LOL) Mine started by offering to stay on at the box for an extra hour after 1400-2200 on xmas eve which turned into an 0200 finish. Everyone at home stayed up until I got home and a few jars were consumed until bedtime at about 0400 . The "LNW" style frame has now been mounted on a cheap pine shelf from Wickes and the switches mounted below. The servo driver boards I use to operate the signals need nothing more sophisticated to operate them than a simple on-off switch. For this I use micro switches with a short-ish operating arm. These are pushed by the little extension pieces on the lever tails that the catch springs hook on to. The frame painted and mounted on its plank. The lever plates will be produced by printing on the computer as only half of the original plates were still on the levers when I bought it for re-furbing. The "rack" to mount the switches under the frame was soldered up from various bits of brass section in the "bits" pile on the bench and is quite solid. The switches are soldered to the rack using the "common" terminal (very sophisticated!!). The rack then becomes a bus-bar for all the switches. The "normally open" terminals (the centre ones of the three) will be wired to a tag strip and sent off to each servo function terminal on the driver boards. Some of these will go via more microswitches mounted at the points to select various signals for each selectable route. Hopefully I won't need more than 14 levers worth... More soon... Jon F Edited December 29, 2013 by Jon Fitness 9 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
garethevans1986 Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 Nice frame Jon, which layout is it going on? Thanks Gareth Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted January 1, 2014 Author Share Posted January 1, 2014 Nice frame Jon, which layout is it going on? Thanks Gareth It'll be going on our layout at Uppermill...once I've built the signals for it!JF 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve fay Posted January 1, 2014 Share Posted January 1, 2014 Hi Jon, Well for 2014 I'm starting another diorama Old Oak approaches, So in a few months if you fancy it il need these two. Cheers & a happy new year Steve 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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