bigal10

Unlikely, as it was inside a Heljan labelled display cabinet!

I was at Wakefield Market Hall yesterday, viewing ‘Britain’s Biggest Model Railway’, which is heavily sponsored by Heljan, and I spotted a 00 Class 45 in green, hidden in a Heljan display cabinet full of 0 gauge models (as is the main layout) at the back of the room! Just saying……. Alan.

Hi Ian, To badly quote the Old Latin Motto, Nil Carborundum Ilegitemi, (Don’t let the Bast###s Grind You Down) Without people like you, how are us measly modellers supposed to carry on? Just when I was hoping Santa was going to fill my stocking with your wonderful new turntable…….. Chin up, and (hopefully) carry on. You keep designing, and I’ll keep buying, and sod the detractors! Regards, Alan.

Hi folks, sorry to but in, but this chain is the nearest to my query..... Is it possible to 'Daisy Chain' lighting effects in CV's 125 to 160? For example to have Cab Lights on F1 and F2 which extinguish on the loco moving off, but also to fade in and out as required? Or is there another way on a Zimo 644D 21-pin? Alan Richards. (Confused of Bury)

And whilst on the subject of Bachmann Class 40, can anyone suggest a speaker upgrade that would retain the PCB and not require massive canibalising of the chassis etc..... Alan

I have the same problem with my Bachmann Class 40, both cab lights are on Aux 1, and my decoder is a Zimo 644D 21 pin which has separate feeds to Aux 1 and Aux 2. The Bachmann PCB is excellent and fully connects to all lights and the speaker via contact strips. Can anyone advise which Pad Richard is referring to, I would love to be able to seperate the 2 cab lights, as I have done with all my fleet of Zimo equipped Diesels, courtesy of Paul Chetter and his help with Swiss Mapping and CV settings. Alan

Help !!! I've got as far as Step 4 on Ray's first page, and i'm struggling. I have Uno, and Adafruit Motor Shield V2.3 and wired that to 5v, Grnd, I/o 2 and I/o 3 as per Ray's diags, ... I have not wired Reset, it didn't seem neccesary? I've got the Stepper Test to work fine, and I've made the DCC Decoder board, (on BreadBoard) following the diagram and Ray's photo, and all i get on the serial monitor is four rows ending in zero.... I've double checked all the bits on my breadboard using my multi meter, and all the connections seem to be ok, all giving full responses as far as i can detect, my Sprog is sending instruction to a loco on my small length of track, which is connected to the breadboard, but all i'm getting is scrolling rows of zeros on the serial monitor. I suspect i've got the libraries and/or scripts in the wrong folders, or i'm missing bits of libraries. - for example where on earth should 'Wire.h' be? i can't find anywhere on my PC... Any suggestions, anyone? I could add a photo of this temp setup if required. Regards, Alan.

Hi Ray, Those are very encouraging answers, thanks. I’m part way through my build, I’ve got the UNO R3, Adafruit Motor Shield, and Adafruit stepper motor, and all tests run and the stepper is stepping like a gud ‘n! My next step (!) is to set up the DCC interface, as your per your original, I’ve sourced an opto coupler and diodes from RS in Stockport, and am currently fiddling with a Hall Effect Sensor, that I’ve had for quite a few years, originally purchased for the turntable, but I’ve never managed to make any sense of it. Mine were bought from that sadly missed place Maplin, and are much smaller than the Honeywell (?) one that you show in your ongoing photos. I have a lot of small but powerful magnets from Magnets 4 You, which I use under locos for switching reed sensors, (for Routes on the ECoS). Would these work OK on the TT bridge? I see that DCCInterface now sell fully made boards etc, and they show the Keyes Hall Effect board, which has the same sort of small H E Sensors as mine, - I do wonder how one would get that board to sit close enough to the Peco TT well ? I see that DCCI also sell the bellows connector for a ‘proper’ price, rather than RS or Farnell at massive prices! Do you think the small H E sensor that I have would work in your original situation? And, being really cheeky, can anyone advise me which way round to wire the Hall Effect Sensor? There are conflicting pictures and guides on t’interweb, and I’d hate to blow things up by powering the wrong legs! Regards, Alan.

Hi folks, I also, have been reading this thread with interest for several months, and following a few Utube videos by Massimo, so I decided to do the decent thing, and buy my 1st Arduino, as last Saturday was World Arduino Day, - or was that just in Massimo’s head or just in Milan ? I have a few questions, and knowing this is not a question thread, perhaps someone will direct me to the right path if this is not allowed here, but I’ll continue anyway.... I currently have a Peco 00 turntable, driven from ECoS as a loco, through the usual plastic gearbox Jobbie, with worm drive, and using a basic Hornby loco decoder. I have a loop changeover which takes care of the polarity change as the bridge passes the dead spot, and it all works well, if you don’t mind aligning by eye, with an iPhone running Touchncab! The turntable is some distance from ECoS, hence the thoughts about Ray’s lovely scheme here. Q1. Will this project work ok with my ESU ECoS 50200 ? - presume, as I have 4/5 roads off my Peco 00 TT, that I make the necessary 4/5 accessories on the ECoS, with say, 200, as the dead-spot / reference, then, say 201,202,203,204,205,and 206 as the outgoing roads. Q2. Once all the programs have been edited, tweaked, and are working to one’s satisfaction, does one still need a PC connected to the arduino? I suspect the answer is yes, as subtle tweaks seem to an overriding theme on this thread! As I don’t (yet) own a laptop, and my PC is a floor below my layout, can the arduino be manipulated with something like a Windows tablet, with USB port? (I understand that separate power is required for the motor, and / or adafruit motor-shield.) Q3. Does the Arduino Uno r3 have a large enough memory to hold all the coding, libraries, etc., and still perform the tasks, or does one require additional memory, eg: SD card or similar? Great thread so far, and I’d love to get my kit up to scratch and join in, not to mention, make my Turntable work properly, Regards, Alan.

With a little help and a sketch from Fraser at GFB Designs, plus the use of their add on twin relay adapter to plug into their IMP servo decoder, I got a pair of DCC Concepts’ Ground signals to work, and they look great! As Fraser says, the trick is, that the twin relays work together, and there is a microsecond dip in the centre point as the 2 relays switch, so that you get the 2 colour signals to appear to swap midway between the point throwing. I now just need ESU and Zimo to follow suit....... Regards, Alan.

Come on now, Pauliebanger, here’s a challenge! This looks so much like the Janus, (which I am in the process of replicating from your Hornby Mag article), I think you need to go the whole way and get a smoke generator (or 2) in there Alan.

Cheers, Iain, I’ve also got a complete Alpha pack lying about, but I’m going to try and make this work my way, and hopefully not with routes on my ECoS, there must be a neater way, Watch this space ? Alan.

Can anyone suggest how to use DCC Concepts’ lovely Ground signals with other Servo Decoders, other than their Alpha? Nothing wrong with the Alpha Mimic, it works perfectly, but I’d like to try and use A N Other’s Servo Decoder, say, Zimo, ESU, or GFB’s IMP. They all have 3 wire outputs to drive LED signals, and they all work fine, but spurred on by DCC C’s recent announcement about smaller packs of signals,, and specifically as their advert shows the pack with instructions for “cutting off the plug” and YOU MUST USE A RESISTOR, (as if we didn’t know). Edit, Alan, stop using Emojis, I’ve just lost the second half of this post,, AGAIN ! Can anyone help me to connect 3 wires output from the lighting side of any Servo Decoder, to a 2 wire, 2 lamp LED signal by DCC Concepts, which requires the polarity changing for the opposite colour? I’ve tested the Alpha signal with a battery, and it works fine, so how can I operate it from an ESU / Zimo / GFB Imp / Digikiejs servo decoder? Thanks in advance, chaps. Regards, Alan.

I have now resolved my TouchCab to ECoS problem, and the solution was a simple setup setting. ECoS, Setup, Tab 3, PC settings. . Thanks to Mike Sutherland of KMS (TouchCab) for the info, - as well as selecting the second button, “PC Legacy Mode”, you also need to Deselect the first button, “Enable Warnings”. It appears that in 2014, in the ECoS firmware update release notes, ESU made considerable changes to the PC connection coding specifically for mobile apps like TouchCab. Regards, Alan.

Oops, sorry Yes, you’re right, I’ve just been and they weren’t there, and never were due to be! But their replace / repair option is about the best I’ve ever come across. Trouble is, it has to be a Zimo original, and not hardwired into the loco! Ah well, can’t win ‘em all ? Regards, Alan.

And another tip, If you have a lot of servo driven points, like wot I have, you may wish to consider a Zimo MX821V Servo Decoder. - 8 servos, with far more CV control than the ESU SwitchPilot Servo, - Control of 16 light outputs, in sequence with the servos, all programmable with CVs (brightness, fade-in / fade out) Granted, a difficult beast to get your head around, but well worth the 90 euros all in. Regards Alan.

Oops sorry, Forgot to say that first of all, in Setup 1 you need to to set Track Signals to read RailCom Feedback. Doh, engage brain first . Alan.

Hi Nick, I had to go and check this for myself, But it’s so easy on the ECoS Just remember, the accessory’s address goes in the “POM address” field, So decoder 15 is for 4 servos, numbered 57 to 60. Easy Peasy, Regards, Alan.

You could try asking Digitrains, I don’t think they mind from whom you bought it, or how old it is. Mind you, you would loose your LocoMan sounds..... Maybe get a PaulieBanger one from DigiTrains..... They do a repair/replacement scheme, for a fixed fee of (used to be) £15.00, it looks like £18.00 now, according to their new website. They do it at their shop in Lincoln, and at the exhibitions they attend,...... Warley this weekend..... Manchester the weekend after. Regards, Alan (big Zimo fan)

I’m still having problems connecting my IPhone8 with ECoS, which I have covered on another post, with regards to TouchCab, and my new DrayTec router. I see that the Edimax nano router is not available anymore (?) so, are any of the alternatives on offer on Amazon any good, Their latest offering seems to be the HooToo pocket jobbie, at a reasonable price (and Prime-able) Anyone got any knowledge of this, or other similar offerings? Regards, Alan.

Cheers, Nigel. That’s exactly what I was looking for. If / when I get something working, I’ll post photos etc., on a new thread. Alan.

I don’t want to hijack this excellent thread, But, Nigel, I’ve been looking for some inspiration for building my own light signals, and your comment above re: 0.3mm copper clad board has got me thinking... Q1. How does one cut the boards? Q2. How does one score the board to make tracks. Q3. What base material does one choose, glass or epoxy, or is that both the same? Q4. Suppliers? Whilst not wanting to recommend anyone in particular, I’ve been searching t’interweb, and my local RS depot shows CIF boards at 200 x 300 x 0.8m, can’t find anything thinner. Any help gratefully received, Regards, Alan.

Mr Chapman, Might one inquire as to the make / model of the Micro Linear Servo? I have a number of uses for said object, if only I can find a supply, at a reasonable cost Regards, Alan

Well, after months of head-scratching, and millions of hours of reading the manual, I finally got round to asking Zimo to help, and in a roundabout way they did point me in the right direction. I have today, got the lights working in tandem with the servo movement, and with nice fade-in and fade-out. It was, as Nigel intimated above, “just” a CV setting issue, but what a trail it has been. The first reply from Zimo, suggested using the lighting outputs in the setup of frog polarity via relays, but that didn’t give effective lighting effects, and each led extinguished immediately on the servo moving, and the opposite led only lit at the very end of the servo travel. So, another suggestion from the men in Vienna, pointed me towards the right settings to get the lights to work in tandem with the servos, but with loads of settings for lighting effects. So today, only 8 months down the line, I am a very happy bunny! And the price now is very favourable for controlling 8 servos, and 8 sets of signals all on one decoder, with as many options as you would expect from Zimo. Again, as Nigel said, maybe a bit over complicated, but I would highly recommend this as a piece of kit, albeit if it takes a bit of getting one’s head around. Cheers, and thanks to all for replies, and suggestions. If anyone is interested in this decoder, please feel free reply to this , or to PM me regarding CV settings. Regards, Alan.

Hi folks, Does anyone know if there is a commercial sound for the Class 416 2EPB for a Zimo sound decoder? I know there are one or two on Loksound, but I prefer Zimo, especially now with dynamic braking available. Regards, Alan.