dale159

The two paragraphs about consisting DMUS confused me. Is your question just about connecting the Dynamis to the hand set with a Cable?

Hi Colin.

Yes sorry if that's not very clear.

The talk of DMUs is just an example of why I prefer the Dynamis and continue to use it. My main question is can you improve it by connecting a cable between the two halves bypassing the Infra-Red and saving lots of AAA batteries.

Dale

Hello,

I have a Bachmann Dynamis which I have owned for about 5 years now.

I like it as I find it easy to operate and is the only DCC controller I have used that can easily consist my fleet of DMUs without having to reprogram the entire consist when I change ends.

I did look at buying an NCE and then ESU ECoS systems, however on trying both of them I found that while I could consist 2 DMUs together and switch off the head and tail lights in the intermediate cabs if I then came to drive the same train in the opposite direction I would have to start the consist again from scratch.

So I am happy with my Dynamis as it does what I want it to do very easily, however, as mentioned by numerous people on this and other forums its main drawbacks are its reliance on batteries for the handset, the need to point the handset at the base station to maintain connection and the wireless connection being susceptible to interference from things like strip lights.

So that got me thinking - would it be possible to get around these niggles by hard wiring the hand set to the base station taking both an external 6v power supply and bypassing the wireless transmitter and receiver.

Does anyone have any experience of dismantling either half of a Dynamis and know wether or not such a thing would be possible? 

I have started looking for reasonably priced second hand units but as yet I haven't managed to track one down and I don't really want to got taking my current one apart for fear of not being able to put it back together again.

Any help much appreciated.

Dale

Hello Again!

I'm still alive but I've lacking inspiration for the layout recently. In the last few weeks the layout and garage had become a bit of dumping ground while we were doing some decorating, so this weekend I set about clearing as much of it as possible.

One problem I have started experiencing was storing my rolling stock, I have two old chests of draws under the fiddle yards, featured on here before which I used to house some wagons and coaches.

The problem was the draws were about and inch too shallow to take a loco end on (yes that is a Yeoman livery you're seeing in a Bachmann box.

So the solution -

I have scrapped the top 3 draws in each chest and replaced them with 2 shelves, set at the right distance for specific types of box, the other chest is slightly different being set up to take 3 of the older type Bachmann boxes on the lower shelf and 2 on the top with the boxes standing upright on the shelves.

And so to the layout -

Having removed all the stuff that had accumulated on top I discovered there was still a layout under there.

A few weeks back I used a friends Ban-saw to cut some sheets of ply into 4 inch strips. the ply was quite bent so I left them on the floor with some paint pot on top in an effort to straighten them.

It was a big job having to take down the entire fiddle yard fitting the sides but it will be well worth it.

A cut out was required for the garage door to clear the corner.

I have also had to re-engineer the lifting section slightly.

The way it was stored on the 2 small brackets under the shelf meant it would be foul of the board below once I'd fitted the side to it. So it is now hung on a pair of hook and eyes the same as the control panel is hung under the other shelf and as such it now leans forwards and the bottom is clear of the board below with its side fitted. Edging curved due to the close proximity of the curved point on the right hand side.

Now I've recovered a little bit of modelling mojo hopefully attention will turn back to track laying on the other side.

Dale

As Ian's agent, he has no problem in doing this.....the cost is £350 per coach, plus postage             

Gulp!

Absolutely top work on the Thumper Ian.

Would you be willing to paint mine for me - Pleeeease! I'm still at the stage with 2 cars in Connex and 1 car in maroon

Much better than I could do myself.

Dale 

Long overdue Layout update.

Really not done all that much recently, mainly been lacking in time and modelling mojo.

I've sorted the issues I was having with soldering SMP fishplates by giving up and using Peco ones so I now do have 2 complete loops, don't think they're that noticeable

Purely by accident I found a convenient hidey-hole for my pair of expansion boards, there was even a hook in the timber ready and waiting, can't work out why I hadn't spotted that before!

Also I have started wiring Tortoise motors but I struggled to fit one on my own due to slightly awkward positioning and I'm reluctant to cut the track joints and separate the boards until I've laid all the track.

Hopefully some further progress to report later in the week.

Dale

From today's Metro, part of a full page advert for a housing development in Bracknell.

Dale

Sorry I've been a bit quiet lately.

No pictures to show but I do now have 2 complete loops all the way around the layout.

But today I've been having a spot of bother - All the way around the layout wherever possible I have soldered the wire droppers to the bottom of the fishplates which has all been fine with the Peco fishplates but now I'm over on the other side of the layout I'm doing the same with SMP fishplates.

Now for some reason when trying to tin the SMP fishplates I just cannot get the solder to stay on them even using a heat controlled iron cranked right up to 500 degrees.

I have put them upside down onto a 6 inch long off cut of track to help steady them, I've tried filing the bottoms of the fishplates to give them a bit of a key as one would do when painting, I'm using good old fashioned lead solder but still I can't get them to solder.

Any body have any experience of this able to give any advise?

Dale

From the Port of Dover's official Twitter page.

Route learning for Eurostar's diversionary route has started.

Dale

Dale.  Clever idea with the wiring.  I think that is the best route to go down.

Looking at that picture I might have to tidy it up a bit, but it works!

Dale

Current state of my 3H

As mentioned previously in this thread I have gone down the 4CEP trailer chassis and Replica suburban body approach.

So far I have sliced off the roof ribs and cut the doors steps off the chassis.

Electrically the 2 couplings are wired straight through and don't connect to anything.

Interior lights use the roof PCB out of the CEP powered off the pick ups in this coach via a bridge rectifier under all that tape.

Still to do are - modifying the Replica seating to fit inside by cutting a notch in the top to clear the lights, fit door step boards to the correct pattern for the body, sourcing some class 105 drawbars which are marginally shorted and give a better close coupling. Finally a lick of paint but I might have this done professionally (won't be Connex!)

Dale

More track laying this morning

First the point into the bay platform

Then the tricky bit.

But actually not as bad as was fearing it could be, the bits of sleeper that have been cut away will be saved and refitted before ballasting

And taped down.

And with that done I decided to test it out by shoving a coach down the outside track

(Sorry its landscape, didn't think about putting on YouTube for posting here at the time of filming)

Dale

The scenic SMP track, have you cut some of the sleepers to allow the track to flex?  It looks like it needs a track-setter or something to give it some flow.  Sorry it just looks like a set of short straights poorly laid end to end.  Time spent now before ballasting will produce more satisfying results.  I use a long 1metre metal ruler as a guide for straight sections.

 

Best wishes M

 

I can see where you are coming from but the two tracks do have a very gentle reverse curve in them and I think it may well be a slight opical illusion with the short lengths of tape underneath and also I have to reduce the size of the pictures down to less than 1mb for posting on here with most pictures I take being around 4mb straight off my phone so they all get reduced down to about 25% of the original in MS paint!

Dale

And back to Layout Building for today's second post.

All the track used so far has been Peco Flexitrack with Small and Medium radius points

The scenic section will use SMP track and large raduis Peco points.

Also to avoid unsightly track pins in this area all the track will be held down by double sided carpet tape.

Overview of the job so far.

Some more SMP track is now required as I've used 4 of the 5 lengths I originally bought.

Dale

Another few pictures of things that have happened since the last post 2 months ago

Two tracks from the lift out piece to the station area have been put down, I have had to push the outer track out slightly wider to prevent 2 mk3s or similar length vehicles hitting each other

Overview looking towards the platforms, originally I was going to have another scissors at the end of the electric platforms but this has changed again thanks to some input from my friend Simon.

Then I started tinkering with track plans again using peco paper cut outs.

And a Double slip was procured

And so that was all before Christmas - Cut forwards to yesterday

I decided that despite having a clear out of a few surplus items I needed a bit more storage space so I filled in the gaps between my 2 sets of shelves, With the proud brickwork behind these shelves are only 8 inches wide so I may move the A4 box files down to here.

Today's job will be fixing down those lengths of SMP track - with double sided tape so no track pins, they will be glued down eventually when the whole lot gets ballasted.

Dale

Another quick job this afternoon - more gluing I'm afraid

First up I drilled a few holes for Point motors, frog wires and power feeds and temporarily laid the five, well 4 1/2, points to make sure I'd drilled them in the right places

Then on to the next board which will be much a repeat of the process from the previous one.

Dale

A couple of days worth of work here.

First up three wooden blocks to separate the two cassettes as to ensure they wont short out on each other, since taking this picture I have turned the middle of the three blocks around and it now sits nicely in line with the cassette, initially I was worried that my cassette wasn't straight!

Then I set about making the first 5ft cassette, long enough for a class 442 when I or my friend Simon gets around to building one (he has already started one about 5 years ago and so I sent him this picture and advised him to get on with it!)

Aligned with the adjacent board, its actually a little bit lower than I was expecting so I may need to boost it up on somehow, I also forgot to allow for the thickness of the cork in my calculations.

And this morning I cut and glued the cork for this board, a lesson learned from the previous board where the glue got down into the board joint and stuck the two boards together so this time I have slackened the bolts and pulled the boards apart while the glue dries.

Back to work tomorrow so probably won't be able to do anything else until Sunday giving the glue at least 24 hours to go off.

Dale

Is it not possible to use a crank and/or wire-in-tube to move the motor away from the crossmember?

 

Regards

 

Ian

Hi Ian,

Said cross member is no longer a problem as I removed it when I cut the top surface away, I actually cut through one of the outer ones unintentionally so used the middle in its place and used the short stub in the middle under the ply.

Dale

Quick update

Today I have finished cutting and nailing down the ply for the cassettes.

Today I have purchased a 6ft long sheet of ply and 8 2m lengths of aluminium angle so hopefully tomorrow I will be able produce another few cassettes possibly even a full 5ft one and maybe a few shorter ones.

Also today marked the permanent closure of or local B&Q store which is where most of the wood and screws that has gone into this layout have come from, meaning the nearest one is now 11 miles away in Exeter.

Dale

Further to Mondays post.

Surgery was successful, just a little bit of work required to straighten the cut as I was swapping between the hand saw and jigsaw to avoid the cross members its a little bit wonky and there is some entrails of hardboard and PVA that I will need to chisel off before the ply can go down, but all in all happy with how it went.

Dale

Another weeks holiday so I have spent some time on the layout today,

First task was to make up the first cassette, using 6mm ply and 15x15mm aluminium angle 

And a Voyager to test the length, exactly 4 feet, sitting slightly proud from the board as had yet to cut the ends of the screws off, even using 12mm screws

Having built the cassette I can now work out how much space I will need for 2 cassettes to sit side by side and how much of the current 9mm MDF top surface I will need to cut away, Having originally estimated 6 inches I have now settled on 7 inches to be cut away and replaced with 3mm ply.

I also discovered that my cassettes are narrow enough for two to fit side by side within the 6ft way, however my intended method of connecting and powering them will probably need them to be pushed apart ever so slightly.

Hopefully tomorrow the Saw will in use to remove the surplus top surface.

Dale

Further to my attempts documented in this thread back in Januray to extend a 2H to a 3H using a Bachmann 4CEP trailer -

link here - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/12317-class-205-in-conjunction-with-kernow-model-shop/?p=1736514

It was found that the interior lights in the 4CEP car only worked in the forwards direction due to the CEP model not featuring directional lighting like the Thumper does.

Last week, having not looked at the project since my last post here, I thought I'd give it another look and I believe I have reached a solution.

I'm not 100% sure how the factory set up works but I believe each coach uses the track voltage from the pick-ups as a common positive and the two wires coming in through the coupling to determine which direction the train is going to move.

The PCB in the CEP car roof with the LEDs has 4 copper contacts (2 positive and 2 negative) I have found that this board also has resistors built into it and that applying 9 volts from a battery to just 2 of those contacts (so long as 1 is positive and 1 negative and the polarity from the battery is correct way round it doesn't seem to matter which 2 are used) the LEDs all light up. So I thought I'd chance my luck and try applying straight DCC track voltage in the same fashion however this just caused a short on my Dynamis.

Then I introduced a bridge rectifier diode into the circuit and applied this to the PCB and hey presto this works.

So on that basis the bottom PCB can be removed and discarded and the 2 couplings wired straight through the coach, the top PCB can then be wired via the bridge rectifier to the pick-ups.

The only thing with this set up is that these lights will not be switch-able short of grafting a small switch into the chassis.

Hope this helps anyone looking to extend their 2H to a 3H

Dale

I'm back!

Not that I've actually been anywhere or done anything to the layout unfortunately.

Having finally obtained enough points I have today started marking out where I am going to place the track.

Overview of the plan

Also as planned this point ends up in such a position over the board joint where it can be easily cut in half.

Unfortunately the tie bar of the first curve point ends up slap bang over the central support under the board so it looks like I will have to remove or cut this away in the affected area.

For the electric fiddle yard on the right of this board I am planning to cut away the 9mm mdf top surface and replace it with some 3mm ply, using the straight board joint as the transition between track and cassette.

I have also cut out the cork to go around the corner but having been on the rolled up for so long I have had to roll it up the over way in an attempt to flatten it.

Dale

Track plan time (again!)

 

303.jpg

Drawn using good old fashioned pen and paper.

Further to yesterdays post a subtle variation

Exactly the same plan but a mirrored - putting the electric fiddle yard towards the back wall rather than the door.

Also on the original plan a home signal protecting the station would have had 2 feathers in each direction which will look a bit odd, yes I know such signals do exist in reality, whereas the mirrored version would see it have one left and 3 right feathers which I think would look much better.

Dale

Track plan time (again!)

Sorry its a week later than intended!

I had tried to draw in on the computer using XtrkCad but I'm still not that good on it.

So here goes

Drawn using good old fashioned pen and paper.

Having been working on it from the operators perspective inside the layout looking out I decided to look at it the other way up from the outside. Lines in blue ink will be 3rd rail electrified.

Top left in the box behind some sort of retaining wall is a two road cassette fiddle yard for electric trains leading into a pair of terminus platforms, electric trains can then go into a pair of carriage sidings situated in front of the wall, both electric fiddle yard roads, platforms and the inner carriage siding will be long enough for a 5 car EMU such as a 442 in the event the I decide to build one or my friend Simon finishes his as mentioned previously! The outer carriage siding will only hold 4 cars.

The towards the front of the public viewing side is a simple twin track main line with 2 through platforms and a single bay platform long enough for a 3 car DMU along with a spur giving access to the electric side.

Dale