Crosland

You get the option to increase your maximum bid regardless of wether you are outbid with your initial offering. Andrew

Still wouldn't be worth that money. I had a Crownline "complete kit" once. I could probably have taken them to court, and I'm not just referring to the usual lack of motor or wheels. Andrew

You paid more than he was prepared to pay. That's how it works :-) If he was happy to pay more he could have bid more and your bid would have been unsuccessful, That's how it works :-) Andrew

Why? Are you saying there's something missing or that you don't like Perseverence kits? Andrew

That how idiots that don't understand proxy bidding do it Neither would have paid a penny more had they just bid what they were willing to pay from the outset. Andrew

Sounds like an electronic equivalent of an old electromechanical programmer on a washing machine (the bit that would click and whir and move round as the wash program progressed). Hardly a computer, even in the 1980s. Andrew

The ash from which is surprisingly radioactive! Coal and all the mining and processing involved has been and is far more dangerous than nuclear power. Andrew

Yeah, I'm waiting for one of them to ask why i haven't left feedback - because I can't ! Andrew

As a MERG member myself, that is disappointing. Probably a misuse or misunderstanding of terminology somewhere but the answer is, quite simply, no. Was it someone on a MERG stand? As others have said there is a limit to the amount of information that can be carried on a DCC bus but accessory control packets are infrequent and unlikely to be the straw to break the camels back. Andrew

I am looking for ideas for fixing a Nigel Lawton mini motor in place. I seem to recall a piece of tube being suggested as a motor mount. Does it need gluing in? Any other ideas? Andrew

Well, the two latest paid up promptly after I opened a non-payment case with ebay :-) Andrew

I have been using ebay for years and never had a problem. Now I have had three non-payers in a month. Andrew

Well, it was for charity. I had a similar experience with a White Swan book in an Oxfam book shop. The manager dropped the price so much that I then felt guilty and put half the difference in the charity box on the counter. Andrew

You can buy with a ring of confidence. Andrew

Thanks. It would be good if the shop website description were clear on this being a plain muff. Andrew

So which bit is Graham Farish? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GRAHAM-FARISH-KIT-BUILT-LANGLEY-SOUTHERN-SR-4-6-0-KING-ARTHUR-CLASS-SOLD-AS-SEEN-/281345056232?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item418178dde8 Andrew

Here's an example. This was addressed (in the salutation, not the e-mail sense) to the seller but I also received a copy. I was the only recipient on the e-mail, so it's either sent individually to both parties or sent as bcc rather than cc. That would explain why buyers do not see the seller as a cc on their copy. Andrew

The 3-102b that I was supplied with do not have the rim for pressing the gear against. Is this correct? Andrew

Well, they are certainly being copied to me, as a seller. I was quite surpised at the amount one person was prepared to pay. They got a real bargain :-) Andrew

Alan Gibson OO back to back gauge new price £5.90. I just sold mine for nearly £12 plus postage. Defies all logic, but I'm happy :-) Andrew

I've only just notice that the "you won" e-mail to the buyer that is copied to the seler includes the buyers maximum bid. Is this a new feature? Andrew

If you plug an 8-pin decoder in the wrong way round then nothing bad will happen, but the motor drive will still work. The track pickup and motor connections aredeliberately placed on the diagonal corners so that a reversed decoder will still be connected to the track and motor (although both connections will be reversed). The lights will not function as expected. Andrew

No need to "convert" anything, nor open the box. The command station can be used as a booster by connecting the DCC signal from your command station to the 4-way "booster out" connector. From memory I think it's the outer pair of wires. Beware that Roco boosters have no overload protection when used this way. Andrew

BEMF control of a motor involves a PI or PID control loop with feedback from the motor. It can only be 100% truly effective if tuned for every individual motor (or at least motor type). This is quite a technical process and would be beyond most modellers. Anything else is just a varying degree of compromise. The better decoder manufacturers give you CVs to allow you to tune the control loop. Lenz just have "motor type" with little explanation. I don't know exactly what CV10 does on the DCC concepts decoders. At the other end of the scale you should be able to adjust the P, I and D constants. The Zimo decoder manuals give an idea how much adjustment there can be. At high speed the time taken to perform the BEMF sampling can adversely affect control and there should be a CV to set the speed at which BEMF is reduced or turned off altogether, so "partially disabling" BEMF may be exactly the right thing to do, depending what CV10 is actually doing. Zimo decoders adjust the BEMF sampling automatically. I don't think any of the issues described are down to faulty decoders, just that they need to be setup for the loco they are used in. Andrew

Inductors (chokes) for suppression. They pass DC but block AC (so the opposite to suppression capacitors) and are wired in line with the feeds from the track. They would block the DCC signal, hence they are on the blanking plug to be removed when you fit a decoder. If they were not on the blanking plate then you would need to replace them with wire links Andrew