Burton-on-Trent South - Adding Buildings

[ISW]

Lower Level - Power Upgrade

 

As previously mentioned, the Upper Level trackwork has been split into 6 Power Districts, each with its own short-circuit detection (SCD) board. However, when I built the Lower Level, although it was split into 2 Power Districts, all tracks were powered from a single source and relied on the built-in SCD of my NCE PowerCAB controller.

 

To alleviate that 'oversight' the plan was to retrofit a pair of SCDs to the Lower Level. At the same time the track power and power to the MegaPoints boards, which currently only serve the Lower Level, needed to be amended to take into account the Upper Level trackwork.

 

This has all been addressed in the Lower Level retrofit plywood board below. The 2 inputs lower-right, for DCC and 12v for MegaPoints, incorporate sockets for feeding to the Upper Level, and the 2 SCDs for the Lower Level have been wired in. The gap on the left is deliberate, and provides sufficient space for a MERG kit #59 5amp power booster board at a future date.

 

The whole plywood board screws to the underside of a Lower Level baseboard (Baseboard E if you are interested) and the socketed fly-leads simply plug into the existing DCC and 12v MegaPoints bus cables. Yes, I 'could' have installed it directly to the underside of the Lower Level baseboard, but I didn't fancy working on my back fighting gravity. I also could have lifted Lower Level Baseboard E out, but that would have entailed quite a bit of disassembly. Using a plywood board with 4 screws was much easier.

 

Ian

 

Edited March 31, 2022 by ISW
photos re-uploaded

[ISW]

On 07/02/2021 at 16:52, ISW said:

I think a few 'beautifications' are required together with a few labels!

Servo Remote

 

The 'required' beautifications have been applied. Looks quite acceptable now. It even works as it should, and I can now really see the benefits of remotely operating the MegaPoints 12Servo board.

 

Ian

Edited March 31, 2022 by ISW
photos re-uploaded

[ISW]

Upper Level Baseboards - Wiring Basically Complete

 

It's taken some time, but now Baseboard B has been wired. Not the 'most' complicated but still includes 6 point ends and two sets of Power Bus cables (5 to Baseboard A and 4 to Baseboard C Lower). There's also a MegaPoints 12Servo board controlling these 6 point ends, plus 3 on Baseboard C (lower) and 1 on Baseboard A ,so quite a few jumper cables required.

 

The DIY 'servo remote' really came in handy setting up the 10 servos as they were distributed over quite a large area.

 

Here is Baseboard B wiring completed:

 

I started the Upper Level baseboard wiring on 22 December 2020, so that's just over 7-weeks to install all the wiring under the Upper Level baseboards. 

 

Now I get to bolt the baseboards back together, install the jumpers, test for continuity & short circuits, and, hopefully, run a few trains. I've not run any trains since around May 2020 when the building of the Upper Level commenced.

 

Ian

Edited March 31, 2022 by ISW
photos re-uploaded

[Matt]

your wiring is an art form in itself!!  i wish i had the discipline to be so tidy with mine - too late now I'm not going back!  Look forward to seeing how the layout progresses once reassembled.

M

[ISW]

5 hours ago, Matt said:

your wiring is an art form in itself!!  i wish i had the discipline to be so tidy with mine - too late now I'm not going back!  Look forward to seeing how the layout progresses once reassembled.

M

Matt,

Wiring can be as simple or complicated as you want to make it. It can be neat or untidy. Each to his own, as they say.

 

The important part is to make sure you have 'Rules' and that you follow them fully and consistently. You'll never remember your own wiring, let alone understand someone else's, but you should be able to remember the Rules. It's the Rules that help with troubleshooting and untangling the wiring in a few years time. In theory ...

 

I have my wiring Rules, but I also have a wiring Methodology (yep, those little veroboards) that keeps it neat and tidy. I also use a lot of plugs / sockets instead of soldered / screwed connections.

 

Those Rules & Methodology are currently coming in very handy to troubleshoot some minor problems.

 

Ian

 

[ISW]

Wiring Sizes

 

I watched a 'Chadwick Model Railway' video on YouTube recently where the host, Charlie, explained his preferences for wiring sizes. I thought, therefore, I should explain what wiring I used on my Layout.

 

For all track and turnout droppers I used 7/0.2 wire (7 strands of 0.2mm wire). Mind you, none of the track lengths are longer than ~1.5m so the small size wire seems perfectly acceptable to me. All droppers are soldered to the base of the rail. Yes, some of those track lengths include fishplates, but generally no more than one pair. I don't solder the fishplates.

 

The droppers, relating to the same Power District, then get 'collated' at small veroboards. For the cable from the veroboard, I used 16/0.2 wire, larger as it obviously serves several droppers. These 16/0.2 wires then get connected to the Power Bus for that Power District.

 

The Power Bus cables are 24-strand (0.75mm2) twin core 'speaker' cables I bought from Screwfix as they were readily available and cheap.

 

So, three sizes of wire, gradually increasing in size from the rail to the Power Bus. All very simply and logical.

 

Ian

[ISW]

Testing Testing 1-2-3 ...

 

The Upper Level baseboards have finally reached their 'testing' phase, which means running a few trains, hurrah, to find out all the errors / bugs / mistakes that I made with the wiring. And is has not disappointed on that count, in that it brought to light a number of little problems. Well, that was to be expected. I had the same with the Lower Level baseboards.

 

These problems have included a couple of servos not fully moving the switches one way or the other. Having removed the over-centre springs from the turnouts for more realistic operation, it's more important to get the servo position correct. This is easy to rectify, but a pain to actually enact. I just need to unscrew the servo, move it a couple of millimetres and reinstall the screw. Unfortunately, access is not great and I have to lift out the baseboard to gain access. This is where plug-in jumper cables between baseboards are really useful.

 

I had two turnouts with incorrect polarity. One was a case of swapping the soldered wires on the microswitch, and that was done without removing the baseboard. The other had the wires reversed on the little veroboard; someone had not followed the 'back to black' Rule. That one needed the baseboard to be removed to gain access to swap the wires in the PCB type plug.

 

Finally, I had a servo stop working. That's the first time that's happened out of ~85 installed servos, so I shouldn't really complain. Again, rectification was easy as I only had to remove 2 screws and unplug the servo and microswitch to remove the whole assembly, one of a benefits of sub-assemblies and plugs / sockets. However, I had to remove the baseboard to gain access.

 

I should explain that some features of the build have proved to be very worthwhile. Firstly, the under-baseboard LED lighting has been a real boon. Yes, access under baseboards that are 300mm apart is a bit awkward, but having good lighting really does improve working under the baseboard. So much nicer than using a torch. Secondly, the MERG kit #57 short circuit devices (SCD) on several Power Districts makes testing less stressful. I don't have to worry about my PowerCab continually resetting and once the fault is cleared trains restart automatically.

 

Ian

 

[ISW]

Temporary Signalling

 

In order to do some 'testing' of the Upper Level trackwork & wiring, I needed to be able to operate the turnouts (crossing polarity, etc). With the MegaPoints system I'm using I could operate the turnouts from the separate 12Servo boards, but this entails putting a switch (or jumper cable) between the ground (SC terminal) and the appropriate 'pin' for each servo. Not really very handy as I don't have a stash of switches to use. The whole Upper Level will, eventually, be controlled from 2 mimic panels (yet to be designed & built) driven by a pair of MegaPoints MultiPanels, one with Expansion Boards that will make operation a breeze.

 

So, since I already have the MultiPanels, I opted for the 'lash up' system shown in the photo below. The MultiPanel (& its Expansion Board) are connected to the Network cable and 12v power. In its final, mimic panel, configuration the turnouts will be operated by momentary push buttons connected to the pairs of pins along the bottom of the MultiPanel. In this 'lash up' configuration, turnouts are operated by shorting the pairs of pins with a "screwdriver". Hence the turnout number on the scrap of paper. Clearly, it's a pain to use, as I have to look at the layout for the turnout number, find it on the paper, short the appropriate pair of pins, and then visually check the turnout moved. But it does work, and is much easier than operating via the 12Servo boards.

 

Ian

Edited March 31, 2022 by ISW
photos re-uploaded

[ISW]

Upper Level Baseboards - Mimic Panels

 

As I've previously intimated, operation of the Upper Level is currently rather constrained by the 'lash up' method of turnout operation. In order to rectify this situation I've been working on the 2 mimic panels that will be required. These will follow the basic design and construction of the one I built for the Lower Level, but with some amendments to the 'gubbins' of the panel. I'll still be using a MegaPoints MultiPanel, but my LED and push-button affixation method will be different from before.

 

Here are the track schematics for the two proposed mimic panels.

Station & Brewery Line:

 

Leicester Line Junction & MPD:

 

Both panels fit onto A4 paper, as that's the limit of my old printer. The grey border represents the plywood frame that will fit on top of the panel to hold it down.

 

On both mimics, the MultiPanel will be screwed to the underside of the panel so that assembly and installation of the various cables is nice and easy. Yes, the track layouts had to be 'tweaked' to make sufficient space for the MultiPanel (and associated Expansion Panels on the Leicester Line Junction panel).

 

For the 3-way turnouts in the MPD, these are simply represented as a pair of consecutive turnouts. For the single slips, these are shown and operated as if they are double-slips. I just have to make sure I don't signal the 1 route (out of 4) that is not allowed (err, will cause a short at the acute crossing) when operating, by observing the track layout on the mimic.

 

I did toy with the idea of showing the single slips, correctly, as 2 turnouts and a diamond (see previous posting), but I couldn't find a satisfactory method to operate the 2 turnouts, there being 3 possible combinations (plus 1 that isn't). That, and a lack of space, conspired me to use the, neater, method outlined above.

 

Ian

 

Edited March 31, 2022 by ISW
photos re-uploaded

[ISW]

Upper Level Baseboards - Mimic Panels Bits

 

When I designed and built the Lower Level mimic panel, the push buttons and LEDs were assembled onto little veroboards. I did a posting on that a few years back. The veroboard was of 2 sizes, one smaller for turnouts and the other larger for crossovers. This worked quite well, but I found it hard to implement for the Upper Level mimic panels due the close proximity of certain elements.

 

I therefore took a page out of the MegaPoints 'playbook' and changed to separate LEDs with small veroboards for just the push buttons. Here is the planned designs. I've done 2 designs, to cater for either a 2-pin header or a 3-pin header. This way I can use up the PCB header plugs I already have in stock:

 

And yes, I did draw each one onto the mimic panels to make sure they would fit.

 

Ian

Edited March 31, 2022 by ISW
photos re-uploaded

[ISW]

Upper Level Baseboards - Mimic Panels Bits

 

The woodwork for the 2 Upper Level mimic panels is in progress, so while that proceeds and the glue dries I've been making some of the bits required inside the panel. Specifically, I've been constructing the push button assemblies from bits of veroboard. It's a really tedious process and seems to involve an excessive amount of solder fumes ...

 

 

Ian

Edited March 31, 2022 by ISW

[ISW]

Upper Level Baseboards - Mimic Panels Bits

 

Creation of the various bits that will, eventually, become the 'Station Panel' and the 'Leicester Line Junction Panel' has been progressing, although a bit slowly. The plywood boxes have been assembled (with PVA glue) and look like the photo below. The holes in the corners are for screws to attach the front and bezel. You can also see that the top face has been drilled in readiness to accept push buttons and LEDs:

 

The interior construction is a bit basic, but I think it'll serve the desired function:

 

The little veroboards, top-centre, provide sockets to which the 12v power (2-core) and network cable (3-core) can be attached but, more importantly, allow the whole face panel and MegaPoints MultiPanel to be unplugged for any troubleshooting / maintenance. To save you 'zooming' into the above photo, here is a close up:

 

Round the back, the above sockets nicely protrude (just about) through the plywood case for external connection to the Upper Layout wiring. The colour-coding of the network cable is included on the label to ensure correct orientation:

 

Although I have already pre-made the push-button assemblies (see previous posting) there is still quite a bit of work still to do. I have to make up the 2-core cables between the MultiPanel and the push-buttons (56 of them). Yes, yes, I could buy them ready made but where's the fun in that. Plus it's cheaper to make them from lengths of cable, crimp connections, and PCB housings.

 

Then there is the small matter of 110 green LEDs to modify. I bought these as 12v LEDs with 200mm cable, which indeed they are, but when plugged into the MultiPanel they give out enough light to cause blind spots. A little investigation revealed that inserting a 22k/24k resistor in series gave about the right brightness. So, now I have to modify 55 pairs of LEDs by adding a resistor to one wire, join the other two wires together, and install a 3-pin PCB connector. That's going to get really tedious, but at least it'll be cheap. Now I know why MegaPoints sell them ready assembled.

 

Ian

Edited March 31, 2022 by ISW
photos re-uploaded

[young37215]

15 hours ago, ISW said:

Now I know why MegaPoints sell them ready assembled

 

Whilst Megapoints kit is not cheap, for the sake of my sanity I consider the money I outlaid on pre-assembled wires well spent. You have far more patience than me. 

[ISW]

On 04/03/2021 at 07:20, young37215 said:

 

Whilst Megapoints kit is not cheap, for the sake of my sanity I consider the money I outlaid on pre-assembled wires well spent. You have far more patience than me. 

Rob,

 

Indeed yes. The process of making the required LED assembly involves inserting resisters, adding heatshrink, joining 2 wires, and installing a plug. The photo below shows a completed LED assembly at the top, with the various bits required laid out below:

 

I suppose there are only a few advantages of doing it this way, compared to purchasing the assembly from MegaPoints. Firstly it's a bit cheaper, but secondly I can make the wires as long or short as I need to suit the installation inside the plywood panel. There is also the 'fun' aspect of the assembly but I think that's up for debate after you've done 25 or so.

 

Ian

Edited March 31, 2022 by ISW
photos re-uploaded

[Signaller69]

I applaud your soldering skills and patience Ian, as I sit contemplating wiring a fairly small control panel (which only has around 60 or so joins to be soldered).

 

Very neat work.

 

Martyn.

[young37215]

On 04/03/2021 at 10:09, ISW said:

Rob,

 

Indeed yes. The process of making the required LED assembly involves inserting resisters, adding heatshrink, joining 2 wires, and installing a plug. The photo below shows a completed LED assembly at the top, with the various bits required laid out below:

 

I suppose there are only a few advantages of doing it this way, compared to purchasing the assembly from MegaPoints. Firstly it's a bit cheaper, but secondly I can make the wires as long or short as I need to suit the installation inside the plywood panel. There is also the 'fun' aspect of the assembly but I think that's up for debate after you've done 25 or so.

 

Ian

 

Hats off to you Ian, if your layout ends up being built to the same standard as your electric wiring it will be spectacular. I had the delights of extending about a dozen of the Megapoints produced cables which translated to 60 soldered joints. That was enough 'fun' for me...

 

[ISW]

3 hours ago, young37215 said:

I had the delights of extending about a dozen of the Megapoints produced cables which translated to 60 soldered joints. That was enough 'fun' for me...

Rob,

 

I always find that 'extending' a cable is more difficult than making up a new one. For those cases I just cut a new length of multi-core wire, crimp on the terminals, and assemble into a plastic housing. No need for a soldering iron! Hurrah.

 

However, for the LEDs I bought pre-wired (with built in resistor for 12v) I had no choice but to solder on some extension wires (& incorporate a 24k resistor to 'tone down' the brightness) before fitting the crimp connectors and housing. Bit of a pain really.

 

Ian

[ISW]

Upper Level Baseboards - Mimic Panel B Complete (ish)

 

After making up some more cables, both for the push-button switches and the LEDs, some of which had to be a tad longer and a even few shorter, the cabling of Mimic Panel B was completed. It's been quite a marathon to get it all done, but here it is complete:

 

The most annoying part of the build turned out to be making the holes in the perspex cover. I think my 'punches' are not sharp enough and it took far too many hammer blows to make a decent hole, let alone 22 of them. I think I might replace the plastic cover at some point in the future.

 

It all went together 'as planned', with only a couple of LED pairs installed wrong-way-round. It does all work though, and I've had a Class 25 roaming around the area testing out the routes.

 

The simplistic exterior of the panel belies the 'rats nest' of the interior, for which the underside of the front panel is shown below. If anyone has any ideas on how to make this 'tidy' I'd be pleased to hear from them:

 

Yes, underneath all those wires is actually a MegaPoints MultiPanel controlling everything. You can only see the Expansion Panels (one for switches the other for the LEDs).

 

So it's onward to Mimic Panel A. Oh goody. At least that only has 22 point ends ...

 

Ian

Edited March 31, 2022 by ISW
photos re-uploaded

[ISW]

Crimp Pins

 

As you will have noticed from my postings, I tend to use standard PCB connectors (0.1" centres) instead of soldering. It turns out I'm using quite a lot. At the beginning of January I ordered 1,200 crimp connectors, shown below. It's now the beginning of March and they've all gone. I've less than 10 left. Thankfully I've another 500 on order, but even I was surprised just how many I'd crimped on cables and installed in the wiring of the layout in the space of ~8-weeks.

 

 

Ian

Edited March 31, 2022 by ISW
photos re-uploaded

[61656]

On 05/03/2021 at 20:05, ISW said:

The simplistic exterior of the panel belies the 'rats nest' of the interior, for which the underside of the front panel is shown below. If anyone has any ideas on how to make this 'tidy' I'd be pleased to hear from them:

 

 

I have been contemplating this for a while, and decided to compare to the elegant wiring found begind a proper panel. I’ve come to the conclusion that the real ones benefit from being significantly larger whilst not having to include functions like track feeds and frog polarity. 
 

It also takes several people months to build a real panel, so practically I think settling for it working and looking good on the outside, is an agreeable compromise. 

[ISW]

10 minutes ago, 61656 said:

I’ve come to the conclusion that the real ones benefit from being significantly larger whilst not having to include functions like track feeds and frog polarity. 

Agreed, in a 'perfect' World I'd have incorporated vertical and horizontal U-shaped cableways to manage/hide the cable routes, with the cables only being visible at the MultiPanel and the LEDs/push-buttons. However, that probably would have doubled the size of the panel (and made all the cables longer)!

 

12 minutes ago, 61656 said:

It also takes several people months to build a real panel, so practically I think settling for it working and looking good on the outside, is an agreeable compromise. 

Mine took less than a week to assemble, but the plywood enclosure had taken several days to assemble while the PVA glue dried at each step. I'm also pleased with the outcome of the enclosure, which is suitably small for the layout.

 

One job I do need to figure out is how to attach the panel to the baseboards such that it's convenient to use, not 'in the way' and not obstructing what will be scenic areas of the layout. At present the panel is attached to a ~1m long 5-core cable (2xpower + 3xnetwork) and plugged into the underside of the Upper Level baseboard, so I can position it over quite a wide area of the baseboards.

 

Ian

[Joner]

51 minutes ago, ISW said:

Agreed, in a 'perfect' World I'd have incorporated vertical and horizontal U-shaped cableways to manage/hide the cable routes, with the cables only being visible at the MultiPanel and the LEDs/push-buttons. However, that probably would have doubled the size of the panel (and made all the cables longer)!

 

Mine took less than a week to assemble, but the plywood enclosure had taken several days to assemble while the PVA glue dried at each step. I'm also pleased with the outcome of the enclosure, which is suitably small for the layout.

 

One job I do need to figure out is how to attach the panel to the baseboards such that it's convenient to use, not 'in the way' and not obstructing what will be scenic areas of the layout. At present the panel is attached to a ~1m long 5-core cable (2xpower + 3xnetwork) and plugged into the underside of the Upper Level baseboard, so I can position it over quite a wide area of the baseboards.

 

Ian

Could you possibly mount it on some kind of trolly so you can move it around? That way you can get to things without it being in the way and adjust it to your preferred operational interest at that time.

 

Just a thought. 

 

Paul

[ISW]

2 hours ago, Joner said:

Could you possibly mount it on some kind of trolly so you can move it around? That way you can get to things without it being in the way and adjust it to your preferred operational interest at that time.

 

Just a thought. 

 

Paul

Paul,

 

That's what I had in mind when I attached the ~1m cable to the panel. It gives me the option to locate it anywhere within 1m of the socket on the baseboard. As for needing a trolley, it weighs less than 1kg and is smaller than a sheet of A4 paper, so manual movement is really easy.

 

At present the panel is just 'plonked' on the top of the baseboard, but that'll get in the way of scenery eventually. Hence the need for some kind of 'bracket'. I don't like the idea of it being vertically mounted, as it makes pushing the buttons more difficult and it hinders either access to the track or the underside of the baseboard, depending on where it's mounted vertically. I had in mind an 'L' shaped 'shelf' at 30~45-deg, with the bottom of the 'L' acting to stop the panel falling off. No need for the panel to be attached to the 'bracket' either so, in theory, I could have a couple of 'bracket' locations and move the panel from one-to-the-other as needs suited.

 

I'll get a design drawn up and see where that takes me ...

 

Ian

[5BarVT]

How about flush mounting plates: https://www.screwfix.com/p/flush-mounts-zinc-plated-35-x-37-x-3-75mm-10-pack/11423#_=p

Two on the panel and two at each location where you might want it.

If you want it angled, just put an angled spacer at the ‘top’ edge of the panel.

Paul.

[ISW]

3 hours ago, 5BarVT said:

How about flush mounting plates: https://www.screwfix.com/p/flush-mounts-zinc-plated-35-x-37-x-3-75mm-10-pack/11423#_=p

Two on the panel and two at each location where you might want it.

If you want it angled, just put an angled spacer at the ‘top’ edge of the panel.

Paul.

Paul,

 

Thanks for that idea, it's not something I was thinking of but I can certainly see a lot of potential in the method.

 

If I'm understanding correctly, I put a pair of flush mounting plates (FMP) on the side of the baseboard, and a corresponding pair on the underside of the Mimic Panel. The ones on the Mimic Panel just need a bit of ~45-degree timber screwed to the underside to give the desired viewing angle (and provide a thickness of timber to attach the FMP).

 

And, of course, I can put 'extra' pairs on the sides of the baseboards for alternative operating locations. I like the fact that the FMPs are unobtrusive when not in use.

 

I think I'd need to 'strengthen' the plywood box of the panel, as the 5mm ply of the base and the 4 sides are only PVAed together.

 

Ian