StuartM

Excellent work

Sorry Stuart, I missed your post.

 

Im making a rather poor example of some point rodding.

 

29-09-13.jpg

 

Its been a total pain and the reason why Highclere is taking so long to complete at the moment.

 

M

Might be taking a long time to make, but then things of beauty usually do, inspirational stuff

Forgive my ignorance, but are the items your making?

I'm away from the workbench for a week or so after tomorrow, so don't have the time to try this out right now,

but I think the etch could be improved by adding an additional set of wings with holes that fold down, and instead of the slot for the latch going across the width of the coupling, it will go along the length of the coupling. The latch is to be made out of 0.45 nickel silver rod in two parts, The horizontal part fits through the holes in the new wings and the vertical part (the latch part) fits through the slot in the top of the coupling and is soldered to the horizontal part.

The slot acts as a stop, so the vertical latch can't go beyond 90 degrees upright, and the whole latch assembly can be offset from centre slightly, so as to miss any buffer beam detail such as hooks etc.

The idea being that the latch would be a whole lot simpler to install and set up

That's the plan anyway.

If anyone wants to have a go while I'm away, please feel free and share your results on here

Rgds,

Stuart

PS: the red bar is the additional 0.45 nickel silver rod used fit the coupling to an NEM socket

Neat idea Stuart,  but did you deliberately bend the DG upside down ?   Usually the etch fold lines go to the inside of a corner. 

 

If this works in a few more cases, then it suggests a revised etch should be put together, slightly shorter rear tongue, and some etched marks for aligning the cross-rod. 

 

 

- Nigel

Well spotted Wilson,

No, I folded the etch the wrong way round.

Having added the loop and latch, I've found the coupling hook on the loco impedes the latch rising enough to allow the loop to be released, so I simply removed the hook.

The other way to overcome this would be, not to shorten the DG coupling, either way would doubtless be unacceptable to some, personally I don't mind a hook free loco as long as the auto coupling works.

I have to say the latch is the worst part of the whole coupling system, as it is a right pain to fit and set up, I might have a think about how the latch could be replaced, if anyone else has any ideas, jump in

Great idea. What's stops it from pitching up and down about the axis of the rod?

Photos not great but hopefully show the coupling in action

The width of the DG coupling is wider than the NEM socket, so the brass slides into the socket and has no vertical movement, the nickel rod pops into the indentations of the socket and holds the DG coupling in place

I like the fact that this is post no:24001, sad or what

Nice idea. How does it come out in terms of height 

 

Jerry

Perfect!

I've yet to add the loop, but buffer to buffer with one of my mineral wagons is spot on,

I'm rather happy with it

While waiting for something to dry, I thought I'd try out an idea I had for nem DG couplings

I took a DG coupling, cut an eighth of an inch off the back and then 2mm in from the back, soldiered a length of .45 nickel silver rod, cut it to size and filed off the surplus solder.

I now have an nem DG coupling that 'pops' in and out of the nem fitting on the loco with a satisfying 'click'

It seemed to me a sensible way of adding a coupling in a non permanent way.

Hi David and welcome to this thread.

Your model is very impressive, especially the optical feedback.

I have a couple of questions if you don't mind.

1. The pcb is looks to me, to be of a professional standard, is electronics part of the day job or are you a talented hobbyist?

2. Why not use a proper rectifier rather than the 4 diodes soldered together?

3. What language did you program the pic with?

4. Any chance of a circuit diagram

From your description and the photo, it seems to me like you've cracked it, now all it needs is for Hornby or Bachman to approach you, have you considered sending them an email with a link?, the more people who can prove to them that BP/RC is the future the more likely they are to finally take notice.

Rgds,

Stuart

Looks like even the real railway thinks Battery power is a good idea

http://www.railtechnologymagazine.com/Rail-News/battery-powered-train-to-be-developed?utm_medium=email&utm_source=Rail+Technology+Magazine&utm_campaign=3002311_thedailyrailnews+Aug+2013+Week+4&dm_i=IJS,1SCLJ,4DFP52,6DS1A,1

Here is a diagram of the basic setup.

So not really battery powered or remote control then, more wireless contol

May I share with members the system that I have been using on my outdoor 7mm DC layout for the past 10 years or so?

I use a home - built solid state inertia controller which has four basic operations: accelerate, decelerate, direction 1, direction 2. Direction can only be switched when speed is at or near zero. This controller is coupled to a radio control receiver taken out of a cheap toy r/c car, the interface being through DIL reed relays. The transmitter unit has only two two-way switches and has more than enough range to control track voltage and direction down the 20 metres or so of my garden. The receiver is battery powered and sits on the inside wall of my shed, with a wire through to an external antenna. The connection from receiver to controller is via standard multi pin D-connectors.

Not quite the same as true on-board radio control, but provided the track is kept clean then it works just as well!

 

Graham, North Yorkshire

Just to clarify a few things......

Where you say "This controller is coupled to a radio control receiver" do you mean transmitter?

and where you say "The receiver is battery powered and sits on the inside wall of my shed" and "The connection from receiver to controller is" etc

forgive my ignorance but I'm not quite understanding the setup, is the loco powered through the rc or the track?

Hi Don,

Instead of having a run round, have you considered using two locos, the train loco and a pilot to release the train loco,

it might add more playability ?

Indeed some DCC controllers spike at 80v AC,

And some older ones from the best manufacturers (DC) go as far as 18v.

Then build your models with this in mind,

or state on the box "This locomotive must only be used with the following controllers"

Well, with the amount of problems you have had, it would seem your control system and Dapol loco's are not liking each other. Personally I would have stopped using Dapol loco's with my system after 2 or 3 failures, and had my controller & power supply checked out, if it had happened to me.  Nobody else is reporting a similar amount of failures. My 3 Dapol loco's are fine using a Bachmann Dynamis.

Take a look at the Poor Build quality thread

Just about every Dapol loco I've had has been a dud

And like others state, the locos should run perfectly with any controller

I tried a different approach on fixing the motor to the chassis:

 

 

The 1 mm motor's shaft goes into the 1 mm bore worm which has no other shaft at the other end.

 

Now it runs better and is less noisy than when I used a 1.5 mm bore worm on a 1.5 mm steel shaft with an inner diameter of (more) than 1 mm - joined to the motor's shaft via some aluminium foil and cyanoacrylate.

Which loco chassis is that you're making ?

Is there a reason why are the counter weights are in different positions to each other.

I only ask because I'm about to have ago at making my first loco

Very interesting Stuart,

 

What radio module did you use? None of the ones I have seen in my Picaxe searches have been that small.

 

What is the second chip? and which is the Picaxe?

 

I presume some of the Picaxe chips can operate at 3volts in which case a much smaller battery would do - the equivalent of one of the AAA's for instance. There are also SOIC picaxe chips which would be much smaller yet still (I think) hand solderable.

 

...R

I bought one from Maplins several years ago, but it looks like the one I bought has now been superseded by a new model

http://www.maplin.co.uk/rf-transmitter-receiver-and-transceiver-modules-267236

The picaxe is the small 8pin chip and is an 08m

The second chip is a L293D motor driver

At the time I made this model there was only a 5v version of the 08m available

now there is a 3v smt version

I don't know what a SOIC chip is

Stuart

I remember being on a college placement in the computer dept of some business that had just taken delivery of a new data storage unit, it was the size of a fridge and had the vast memory of 1meg, young people today don't know their born.

Anyhoo back on topic

Below is a photo I took when making my BPRC test train.

The picaxe and the radio circuit are sitting atop of the 6AAA battery's hidden inside a 9V PP3 battery, once removed from the can the battery's could be laid on the floor to create more space.

As you can see, the whole lot did not quite fit into the ngauge body shell, however the 00 gauge model sitting behind it for comparison would offer no such problem

The second photo shows the test train, with the circuit which includes the PIC, the L293D motor driver, the radio circuit and the voltage regulator plus on/off switch

The third photo shows the circuit laid against a GraFar Mk1 for size comparison.

I think a DIY system like this would work for gauges of 00 and above but in ngauge, then probably a professionally designed and made product like the Deltang is realistically the only option, although battery size is always going to be an issue until a chassis shaped battery is made

Well to give you a comparison, this is the program that I wrote to control my servo circuit.

The program, on start up reads the values placed in the memory and then decides if it needs to be programmed or if it needs to operate.

The program option allows the variables to be entered for the limit of servo travel and the operate option waits for an instruction from the data bus and then either carries that instruction out or ignores it if the servo is already set in that position, then the relay is set accordingly and then the code waits for another instruction, ignoring all commands not addressed to it

The program also checks continually to see if it needs to be reprogrammed.

I like the simplicity of basic as even a uninterested party like me can work out what's going on.

I also meant to say that the Picaxe chips also come in a 3v version, which would be useful for battery power

;==============================================

;SERVO& RELAY CIRCUIT V2.2 one

;=============================================

#picaxe 08m2

start:

read 1,b2

read 2,b3

read 3,b4

read 4,b5

if b5=0 then goto program

if b5=1 then goto preoperate

goto start

;=================================================================================

;programing mode

;===============

program:

b1=150

pulsout c.4,b1 ;centre

pause 1000

do

if pinc.3=1 then gosub check

if pinc.3=1 then goto cont1

pause 35

toggle c.1

loop

check:

pause 1000

return

cont1:

do

high c.1

if pinc.3=0 then goto cont2

loop

cont2:

low c.1

pause 1000

high c.1

do

pulsout c.4,b1

pause 100

inc b1

loop until pinc.3=1

b2=b1

write 1,b2

low c.1

pause 1000

high c.1

do

pulsout c.4,b1

pause 100

dec b1

loop until pinc.3=1

b3=b1

write 2,b3

b4=0

b5=1

write 3,b4

write 4,b5

low c.1

B6=1 ;TELLS THE CONTROL PANEL WHICH SERVO IT'S WORKING ON

serout c.1,n1200_4, ("END",b6)

goto operate

;=============================================================

;normal operation

;=============================================================

preoperate:

if b4=0 then relay

if b4=1 then operate

relay:

high c.2

operate:

serin [1000,reprogram],c.1,n1200_4,("one"),b7

if b7=0 and b4=0 then goto left

if b7=0 and b4=1 then goto sendend

if b7=1 and b4=1 then goto right

if b7=1 and b4=0 then goto sendend

goto operate

reprogram:

if pinc.3=1 then goto program

goto operate

left:

b4=1

write 3,b4

low c.2

for b0 = b3 to b2

pulsout c.4,b0

pause 50

next b0

b8=1

goto sendend

right:

b4=0

write 3,b4

high c.2

for b0 = b2 to b3 step-1

pulsout c.4,b0

pause 50

next b0

b8=1

goto sendend

sendend:

b8=1

serout c.1,n1200_4, ("done",b8)

pause 50

serout c.1,n1200_4, ("done",b8)

goto operate

I bought a book on C++ but to be honest it made absolutely no sense to me at all and the compiler that was recommended, again made no sense, where as 'for me' the Picaxe system is very logical plus you get 3 free manuals from the Picaxe website.

plus there is a very active forum to help people of all levels of skill.

However, having said all that, the only really suitable Picaxe chip would be the 08m2 because of its size, and even that is probably to big, being in an 8pin dil package, although there is a surface mount option. but then you have to add 4.5v supply or a voltage regulator circuit if powering from a higher voltage and then add the radio tx/rx, all of which makes up a massive footprint of around 6sq cm's plus the battery being used to power both the loco and the circuitry.

It would be easy to make a BPRC system out of Picaxe in 00 but squeezing it into n is realistically not really practical, where as the Deltang solution has been purpose made and shrunk onto a tiny pcp with all of the various circuit parts on-board.

Your also right regards time. My main passion is model railways, the electronics side of things is a sometimes necessary evil that diverts my attention from what I'd rather be doing. Although I did designed, build and programmed a picaxe controlled servo unit which along with as many other units as you like is connected to a data-bus and controlled from one central picaxe

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/50534-an-asymetrical-double-outside-slip-in-2mm/page-5

a few posts down.

but again this was a diversion from building the layout.

Good write up Robin, thanks for sharing

I know little of Arduino (apart from what I've just read on Wikpeadia)

I prefer the pickaxe platform, because that's what I know, however I doubt that the Picaxe code could be used in the onboard chip used in the Detang products. I suppose its all down to the compiler that's used. My knowledge of things is not extensive.

Still I am impressed with your efforts

Rgds,

Stuart

That all looks really good, really scabby and run down

Keep up the good work

I was thinking today about using a lower voltage motor like Robin and seeing if I could power it from a solar panel like the ones found in calculators.

The panel could be laid atop of a shunters wagon

Hornby has a new chairman Roger Canham,

I contacted him explaining the merits of BPRC locos

This is his response.....

Thank you for getting in touch Stuart, I have passed this email across to the Hornby Brand team. They have a deeper understanding of the technology and its potential application in model rail for Hornby.

I have asked them to evaluate your ideas and contact you if they believe it is something we should pursue with you.

Thank you once again, kind regards

Roger Canham

Chairman

We live in hope,

Stuart

Hi frank,

Thanks for the info

I'm thinking about using a shunters wagon to house the battery and receiver

I was looking to use the 20mA battery from here

http://www.micronradiocontrol.co.uk/lipo_fullriver.html

Rgds,

Stuart