Simond

Oh dear, it seems I completely forgot, I do apologise. general overview of tt. Close-up of position sensor. There’s a piece of white plasticard under the bridge deck at the end where a careless loco man left one of his lamps. This is used to initialise the position, and resets the counter on every revolution. Control panel, still work-in -progress, witness the elastic bands, where did I put the screws? The six buttons correspond to the six positions of the t/t, again, where the loco lamp is. There’s an Arduino Mega and a CAN module in there. The table only rotates one way. I got fed up with trying to eliminate backlash, and it’s not operationally a disadvantage, so I took the easy way out. this is the tt controller, Arduino nano clone, an MCP2515 CAN transceiver, and the Stepper driver. Sorry it’s really difficult to make out, the 12v supply for the stepper is at the bottom left - red & black twisted pair, the CAN board is hiding the stepper controller, which is one of those little red numbers with the sticky-heat-sink on top. the connections to the tt are the four stepper wires, +5V and ground to the deck polarity relay and the sensor, the relay signal and the sensor output, total 8. And they go… sorry, this is a lousy photo, it’s dark under there! You can see the stepper and it’s gearbox to the left, the red light is the deck relay and between them are the connections to the sensor. This is a a photo transistor and an infrared led, in the tiny package in the second photo. and for some reason, it’s not working. The tt currently fails to initialise, so it just goes round and round…. I haven’t got around to plugging in the laptop to see what’s not doing what it ought. It’s worked pretty well to date, so I’ll be surprised if a component has failed, but it’ll likely be an easy fix. I’ll post up some more when I find out what’s awry. atb Simon

I feel sure that a replacement UNO (or a clone) would still work with the sketch you have, but that’s not the same as saying “it will work” :) I suspect we are in the “damaged component” territory. I recommend trying a generic USB wall wart to power the Arduino, if it works, it means you could leave it in place and switch it on and off with the layout. And likely cost about five quid. Cheers Simon

Well, I suggested, or at least meant to suggest, there must be power to everything, and a common ground. Your usb connection will provide power, but not necessarily a common ground, so I would not hang too much on that.

So, it works correctly with the laptop plugged in, but not if it isn’t. have you tried using a usb charger in place of the laptop? If it still works properly like that, you could perhaps live with it, they’re only a fiver, but I’d still want to know why the power supply that it used to function with isn’t powering everything now. Have you perhaps blown a component?

Geoff, the USB lead is supplying +5V and ground to something that isn’t getting powered when you don’t have the lapotop connected, I’m now 99.99% sure if this! You now need to find out what!

Geoff, mare’s nest…. Or snake pit! I have no experience of the Adafruit shield, or the DCC interface, so I’m not going to be a huge help here, I fear. the key things are that you must have are power to all boards, and a common ground. that, and the signals getting from the DCC to the Arduino to the stepper. My suspicion is that somehow, when you power the Arduino up using the Mac, it is somehow powering something else, which is not being powered when you use the power Jack. it’s initialising, so the Arduino and stepper driver must be powered up, so I reckon you need to look to check that the DCC interface is doing what it ought. hth Simon

Geoff, when you say it works as it has over the last few years, am I right to think that with the Mac connected, the DCC works, via your normal ESU DCC controller, but, if you disconnect only the computer, and put in the power jumper, it does not function? Are you sure there is a ground connection for both signal and power to the Arduino? I presume the Arduino on-board power led is lit in both cases?

Anthony, sorry to hear of your loss. Hopefully the Castle & layout background will be a fitting memorial - I have a Clyde puffer model named "Olive" for similar reasons - it's pictured in my PD thread I think atb Simon

Mike, your van is lovely, you might be dissatisfied with some aspects of the finish, but I can assure you the rest of us are well impressed. I’m very pleased that you’re not planning to bin it! At least with weathering and powders, you can scrub a bit off here, and add a bit more there, until you’re happier. Then leave it, review it later, repeat if desired… atb Simon

Cheers Mike, I’ll have you know that I’ll be 65 in a couple of weeks :( still about 14 in my head though!

Mike, photo? atb Simon

My dad always said “Guests are like fish, fine & fresh for the first day, start to smell a bit after three…”

Varifocals are not ideal for modelling.

Chin height when seated. reasonable to work on when standing.

This will help for cyanoacrylates. Not sure about acrylic paint. Make sure the acrylics don’t freeze - they don’t like it - whilst fridges should be around 4C, ours has a habit of getting an icy lump at the back, which could cause freezing by contact. I’m not sure why it helps with cyanos, possibly it’s drier in the fridge, possibly it’s the reduced rate of reaction because it’s colder (though 15 degrees in 280 or so is 5% or thereabouts, so not much), and possibly it’s both.

this is crucial, it’s why I put it first!!!

Found it… Frames in green, equalising beams in blue, bushes in brass colour. Obviously cut the beams as a pair, and do the frame mods with them fixed together too. hth Simon

The Springside 14/48 is a dogs breakfast, it’ll never run well, with rigid bearings for the drivers and a sprung trailing axle. I compensated mine by creating a pair of rocking beams to which I soldered the main axle bearings, and a rigid third point, centred over the trailing axle. ( there’s a drawing somewhere, I redid it recently, I’ll post if I can find it) Obviously I needed a gearbox that didn’t depend on the chassis, can’t recall what I used. Certainly fixed it, and it runs sweetly, or did til I blew the chip with a careless short.:(

Morning John, Happy New Year to you too! worm soldered to motor shaft…. That’s not the end of the world. #1 Turn one of the wheels one way and then the other whilst watching the worm. It’ll move towards, and away, from the motor. Does it touch the motor or anything else? If not, don’t worry about that aspect. #2 Remove the motor screws (doing it over a clean duster on a tray prevents the carpet monster being fed) and slip the motor out. Place loco on track, hold the motor delicately in one hand and set your controller to minimum speed. You’ll hopefully be able to see the worm turning slowly, you need to look for the outside diameter, and ignore the “thread” - you’re trying to see if it’s concentric, if it’s wobbling, that’s an issue. If the motor vibrates horribly when you turn up the voltage, that’s also an issue. Otherwise, you can assume motor and worm are ok. Whilst the motor is out, does the chassis roll sweetly both ways, with no binding or snags? Given that it looks like a Premier, or more likely, Springside chassis, both of which are from the “brick outhouse” school of engineering, I’d expect it to be perfect. ok, elephant in the room, sideplay. you don’t need much, if any, sideplay on any of the axles on an 0 gauge finescale loco, unless the curve radius Is under 6’. Less than a millimetre is perfectly acceptable on a non-driven axle, but 2mm on the driven one is never going to work well, as the worm and wheel will normally run-in together, and eventually work-harden, and this won’t happen if the mesh is inconsistent, and both gears will wear. I generally use ready-made gearboxes but in any case, I ensure “almost zero” sideplay by shimming as required. Really, the minimum clearance to rotate freely, and no more. how to do this on an assembled loco? Slaters’ wheels, get a really good 50 thou Allen key (not a metric one!) and hope the screws come out, I guess. If they don’t, you have the choice of making “C” washers from brass or plasticard, and slipping them onto the axle between wheel and bearing, or between gear and bearing, which might work reasonably well at least for a while, or drilling the screws out. You can buy replacement screws (and axles if you’re really unlucky) from Slaters. Slaters also sell packs of etches of washers in three thicknesses, which are handy shims. 7mm ready-made gearboxes? Speak to Bill at Premier Components, he does single stage and two stage, or Brian at ABC, who does two-stage only, I think. Otherwise Ron Caplin, or MSC Models. hope this helps you sort it out. does it really need more weight? And your 14/48xx. Don’t rely on a sprung pony truck… Do let us know how you get on, goid luck Simon

Diagnosis at a distance is challenging, however, I’d suggest looking at the following: that it runs well in one direction and noisily in the other makes me think that the worm is rubbing on the motor front bearing (or something), and moving the worm a millimetre or so away from the motor might cure it. If it doesn’t, and always assuming a plastic worm that you can get off the shaft, put a couple of washers between the worm and the motor, and ensure there is just a little free play for the shaft in/out of the motor. check the gear mesh. You might need to file the slots in the motor mounting plate to get it sweet. I’d put an oiled green Rizla cigarette paper between the gears whilst tightening the screws. Make sure that the motor is not cocked over during this process. Best if you can assemble the motor with the gears almost out of mesh, then put the Rizla in, then snug the gears into mesh, then tighten the screws, then take out the Rizla, and only then, run it! just in case, take the motor off the chassis and check that it runs sweetly when not engaged with the gears. Ditto, make sure the chassis runs nicely without the motor gear meshed. These must be good for it to stand any chance when assembled! HTH HNY! Simon

Same to you all! Simon

well, maybe for Mr Holmes, but not for this investigator… the sticker is modern, it’s presumably the MRC’s record of to whom to pass on the £25 that I paid for it. I can see no other clues, not even when I removed the sticker! Seasons Greetings to all, have a great Christmas and a Happy & Healthy 23! Simon

The wagon is wooden, but not, I suspect, a kit. It’s a little bit crude, but the lettering is rather nice. I think it’s a DIY, as noted, it’s wooden, the buffers are solid metal, the coupling hook slots are not quite vertical, and the solebars are not quite long enough to reach the headstocks… I’m just printing a new set of running gear, hopefully it’ll be a happy marriage of old and new!

Hi Annie sorry, not a clue! No markings whatsoever, but they do look nicely made. I’ve just had a request from t’other channel, so they’re “gone”. thanks for looking in Simon

Abject apologies, the photo should have been there. I’d not seen this before, but the wheels are not fixed to one another and appear to be able to rotate independently. Good and solid, though!