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Lower Level - Mimic Panel Finally, after much work, and re-work, I have completed the mimic panel for the lower level. See below: It really is a nice little self-contained unit, with only 2 connections wires; one for power (2-core) and one for the MegaPoints network (3-core). Polarity of the power doesn't matter (thankfully) but the network cable has to be the right was round. Hence the 'sample' cable stuck above the socket for my guidance! The whole thing works very well, and really didn't cost that much to build either, as I constructed it from scratch using off-the-shelf components (except for the MegaPoints boards of course). The only problem I've noticed is that the LEDs are rather bright, much brighter than those that came from MegaPoints themselves. I'll have to see if I can introduce a suitable additional resistor into the LED cables (there is no space on the small veroboard units) by, hopefully, putting the resistor right at the plug. If anyone has a better / easier way to add the resistor I'd be please to hear as I will have to do this on ~30 cables.

Brian, Just for 'comparison', attached is a sample panorama from the Peak District that I created from 5 individual photos of mine taken from the same spot (I never use the camera's own panorama feature as it produces a single much lower resolution photo): I converted this to a PDF and printed it in Acrobat using the following settings with a 2cm overlap: The resultant (large size ...) PDF is attached below. If you browse through it you will see the 'cut marks' that allow for exact alignment prior to cutting through the overlapped elements of the printout. This is what gives a 'perfect' splice, and one that is hard to distinguish. I hope this helps you to prepare your own quality panorama printouts. P1120813stitched - poster print.pdf

Brian, Merging photos (or panoramas of previously merged photos) is relatively easy. There are many programs dedicated to this task. The one I use is called MAGIX PanoramaStudio. The difficult bit is printing such large photos out on a humble A4 printer. What I've always done is to print out A4 'windows' on the panorama, with each one overlapped on its neighbors by ~1-2cm. Then you can line up the 'overlap' (by eye) and cut through the overlap with a knife and ruler. The 2 parts then line-up perfectly with zero overlap and you simply tape up the join on the back of the print out. To easily print out the overlapping 'windows' you need Adobe Acrobat (or similar). That has a 'poster' printout setting that lets you control the page size and the overlap. It's a bit fiddly, but at least there is a preview so you can make sure it's what you want before committing to paper (or print it to a PDF file you can save for printing later ...). Saving to a PDF also has the advantage that you can print a 'draft' and if it's okay then print a 'final' version.

Mimic Panel - Schematics Another problem that has delayed my mimic panel construction was self-inflicted. Someone, err Me, didn't translate the layout into a schematic properly. I've done schematics before on 1:1 scale railways many times, but managed to get a layout that fits in a single room wrong! Here are the corrected schematics: Part 1: Part 2: While I was making the 'corrections' I took the opportunity to add a bit of colour to the schematics to help with Track recognition. I think they do look a lot better for it.

Mimic Panel This is taking me much longer than I expected ... I have assembled the veroboards I prepared earlier onto the underside of the panel and installed the MegaPoints boards. Here is what the second one looks like (I didn't photograph the first one ). Just adding the jumper cables is taking forever, not helped by the fact that I'm making each cable up as I go along (money saving ...) from the various components. With 33 point ends, that's a total of 66 cables required with each end needing a plug to be fitted. No wonder this is taking ages. Once the cables are installed it looks a bit of a mess. However, all cables are numbered by turnout, so it quite easy to debug. What isn't so easy, and something that hadn't occurred to me (or appeared on the MegaPoints videos) it that the sockets on the Processor and Expansion boards are in groups of 4 without any gaps. The Servo boards have a little gap between sockets. On the Processor and Expansion boards, this makes plugging in the cables rather difficult, and needs a fair bit of force / bending to get the 4th socket of each group installed. Now they are all in, I can leave them as I have sockets at the ends of all cables as well. I have got the 'box' assembled (5mm & 3.6mm plywood), so just need to finish off the wiring, do all the debugging (I knew I get some of the LEDs back-to-front, and this is proving to be the case), and put it all into the box. Hopefully, it will look okay when finished.

Mimic Panel Veroboards After a bit of practice, I came to the conclusion that soldering LEDs with a clear gap underneath wasn't very easy. Then I had a brainwave . Instead of soldering the LEDs to the veroboard, why not use a socket instead? As it happens I had some bits in my spares box (used for making 8-pin DCC sockets) and these fitted my LEDs perfectly. This meant the push-button was a bit 'low', so I just packed it up a bit with some styrene offcuts. The result is much neater, and easier to make. As a further advantage, socketing the LEDs means that I don't need to make both 'normal' and 'reverse' variants. I can just turn the LEDs round in their sockets and turn the cable around to suit. Excellent.

Calvin, 1974 eh. Perfect. That suits the era I'm modelling exactly. Nice one

Richard, The Cricut software is 100% web based at https://design.cricut.com/#/sign-in. You might even be able to set up an account and try it out. Personally, I draw everything on my computer in Xara Designer Pro X10, and then save the file in SVG for uploading to Cricut Design Space (CDS). There is a need for some 'tweaking' in CDS before committing to cutting, but the method suits me as I'm very familiar with my existing Xara software. The Cricut needs a bluetooth connection to connect to your computer. As to comparisons with the Silhouette machines, the Cricut has a slightly higher cutting force - it 'can' cut through the thinner styrene sheets. It also has 2 cutting 'heads', so you can use cutting and embossing at the same time if you wish. So far I've been very happy with the machine.

Calvin, I trust you are referring to a circa 1950s upgrade ... More recent ones would have been integrated circuits (ICs)

I'm in the process of building my own 'bespoke' mimic panel using off the shelf components. Maybe this will provide some useful information, designs, and/or ideas to others when they want a mimic panel. I'm planning a design using small veroboards for the push buttons & LEDs as below: This allows for both crossovers and single turnouts, in LH and RH configurations. The whole thing is made doubly complicated by the fact that I found MegaPoints Controller don't always configure the LEDs the same way round! I suppose it rather depends on the orientation of the servo. Hence the 'normal' and 'reversed' requirements. And no, you can't 'just reverse the cable'; I tried that! MegaPoints uses a 3-way cable for the 2 LEDs, and if you reverse the cable both LEDs fail to light. No surprise really, they are diodes after all. Each veroboard is then connected to the MegaPoints controller boards by short plug-n-play cables using Dupont type connectors at both ends. A typical single turnout veroboard looks like this: The LEDs are mounted ~2mm off the veroboard, such that the collar on the LED matches the height of the button assembly, to allow the unit to be screwed solidly to the underside of the mimic panel. The mimic panel for the layout had to be split into 2 parts, due to the print size limitations on my A4 printer. No bad thing really. The mimic layout took quite a while to design as it had to be schematically correct, be compact as possible, align with the buttons and LEDs, and allow for the space requirements of the underside veroboards (no 'overlapping'). The results were like this: Part -1: Part-2: The mimic panels will be screwed onto the panel assembly box, with the MegaPoints Controller boards strategically located on the base of the box in locations where they will not interfer with the veroboards. This will keep the overall height of the panel to 50mm (2-inches). The panel assembly is planned as follows: You can now see the outline of the veroboards (orange), avoiding the MegaPoints Controller boards (green). The panel is simple 5mm plywood construction, with 3.6mm plywood for the top (to give visibility to the LEDs & allow the button to protrude). 15x15mm section stripwood is used in the corners for strengthening. I've included a little more information on my layout thread, linked below in the signature block.

Lower Level - Turnout Control Panel Having been playing trains (aka testing the layout ...) it has become obvious that I'm in desperate need of a control panel to operate the turnouts, and to readily see the routing of each turnout. A number of times I've 'trailed' a turnout, only for this to cause a short (as you would expect). To this end I've spent quite some time planning on building a mimic panel for the completed lower level. In my usual quest for cost savings, the plan was always to use a DIY approach with standard components. After a lot of trial and error (I must have tried half-a-dozen arrangements) I finalised on a design using small veroboards for the push buttons & LEDs as below: This allows for both crossovers and single turnouts, in LH and RH configurations. The whole thing is made doubly complicated by the fact that I found my MegaPoints Controller doesn't always configure the LEDs the same way round! I suppose it rather depends on the orientation of the servo ... Anyway, hence the 'normal' and 'reversed' requirements. I've made a list of which turnout needs which 'arrangement'. And no, you can't 'just reverse the cable'; I tried that! MegaPoints uses a 3-way cable for the 2 LEDs, and if you reverse the cable both LEDs fail to light. No surprise really, they are diodes after all. Each veroboard is then connected to the MegaPoints controller boards by short plug-n-play cables using Dupont type connectors at both ends. A typical single turnout veroboard looks like this: The LEDs are mounted ~2mm off the veroboard, such that the collar on the LED matches the height of the button assembly, to allow the unit to be screwed solidly to the underside of the mimic panel. The mimic panel for the lower level had to be split into 2 parts, due to the print size limitations on my A4 printer. No bad thing really. The mimic layout took quite a while to design as it had to be schematically correct, be compact as possible, align with the buttons and LEDs, and allow for the space requirements of the underside veroboards (no 'overlapping'). The final (errr, current ...) designs are like this: Part -1: Part-2: Each part of the mimic is 8½" by 7" - imperial dimensions resulting from the 0.1inch grid of veroboards. The mimic panels will be screwed onto the panel assembly box, with the MegaPoints Controller boards strategically located on the base of the box in locations where they will not (hopefully ...) interfer with the veroboards. This will keep the overall height of the panel to 50mm (2-inches), which should look acceptable. The panel assembly is planned as follows: You can now see the outline of the veroboards (orange), avoiding the MegaPoints Controller boards (green). I just hope there is enough space for all the wiring to/from the veroboards. Only time will tell. The panel is simple 5mm plywood construction, with 3.6mm plywood for the top (to give visibility to the LEDs & allow the button to protrude). 15x15mm section stripwood (actually from an old table I deconstructed) are used in the corners for strengthening. I still need to decide on the panels 'connectors' type and location to/from the layout for power and MegaPoints network.

Richard, You could also look at the Cricut machines (~£240), available at Hobbycraft (& other places?).

Most kind Sir. The workmanship is not as good as I want (photos can hide a lot of issues ...), and I had to spend quite a while 'tinkering' with the turnout microswitches, rail alignment at joints, etc. to get good running characteristics. At least all my efforts into the power distribution paid dividends, as my old Lima & Hornby locos (circa 1980s vintage) work fine even though they have very few wheel pickups. I've got a bit 'stuck' doing the mimic panel, and I'm rapidly understanding why MegaPoints provide the turnout route indicator LEDs as separate LEDs. There seems to be to rhyme or reason to which LED is 'normal' and which is 'reverse'. And you can't just turn the connector round (I tried thaty). So, if I proceed with my plan to assemble the LEDs onto a bit of veroboard, it has to be symmetrical to allow for being the wrong-way-round! Mind you, I have bought most of the bits needed (wires, connectors, LEDs, heatshrink, push-to-make buttons, etc), so I suppose I just need to bite the bullet and make a few bits to see if/where the problems will arise. Hopefully, by the summer I will be looking to build the 'ramps' that will eventually access the Upper (scenic) level. That will be a test of the viability of my plans!

Sorry, typed Larkin when it should have been Parkin.

According to Larkin's book on BR Mk1 stock, the SR did paint buffet vehicles green (with the usual red cantrail strip). See attached, and in particular the RH paragraph about halfway down the page in reference to Boat Trains.

Martyn, That little bit of silver paint on the inside of your home-made buffers makes a real difference and adds to the realism. Nice one.

Martyn, Thanks. You clearly have a very good eye (or even 2 of them!). Me thinks it will be a while before I reach such standards.

Martyn, What equipment are you using to get such accurate cutting? It does look very impressive. Is it all done with a simple sharp knife (and loads of experience), or do you use a specialist cutting board?

Brian, Yes, the MegaPoints Processor board conveniently includes a 1k resistor for each of the LED output connections. To quote from the manual: "Flexible indication You are free to hook up a single LED or pair of LEDs to each of the outputs depending on your needs. If a pair is used, one will always be on while the other is off, reversing when a button is pressed. This allows for route indication on turnouts etc. Our LED cable is available with a pair of LEDs attached. If you choose to roll your own LED cable we’ve already installed the resistors for you. Just connect the LEDs to your cables." At least that shouldn't be a problem. I'm still concerned there are 'other' problems I've missed as I've not seen anyone else do what I'm proposing.

Apologies if this is posted in the wrong section, but a quick look through the forum titles seemed to indicate this was the best place to post. If it should be elsewhere let me know. I'm building a layout (see signature) using MegaPoints Controllers and have reached the stage of building a mimic panel. In order to make it more 'plug n play', and to keep costs down , I'm thinking of using a DIY approach using off-the-shelf components and good old veroboard for each turnout / crossover. Each veroboard would be screwed to the back of the mimic panel, with holes drilled at appropriate locations for the LEDs & buttons. My current idea is as below: All dimensions in fractions of an inch as veroboard is in 0.1" strips. The DPDT would actually be a single 'button' type (as used by MegaPoints themselves). Each board would be connected to the MegaPoints processor with 2 simple fly-leads (3 leads for the crossover). With each turnout / crossover being 'standardised', drawing up the mimic track layout should be straight-forward and consistent. Is this a good idea, or am I leading myself into problems that I'm not seeing?

It seems that photos on my phone are actually quite a large filesize (~1.7mb!) so it's no wonder I reached the 10mb limit without even trying. After this I'll shrink the files before uploading. Here is a photo of the baseboard jumper cables installed:

Turnout Operations With trains now running, it was quite important to be able to operate the turnouts ... To this end I installed servos on all 33-turnouts linked to MegaPoints Controller servo boards (2x 12-servo boards and 3x 4-servo boards). Control of the whole lot is by the MegaPoints Controller Processor board, with additional Switch and LED boards to 'expand' the Processor from a limit of 24 servos to 48 servos. I cobbled together the boards on an offcut of hardboard and labelled up each turnout number: To operate a turnout you briefly 'short' the 2-pins related to the turnout you want to operate. Short them again to return the turnout to the original position. I can see why MegaPoints Controllers has just released a box to temporarily attach switches and LEDs for the operation of each turnout. However, I think I'll be building a proper bespoke mimic panel. Once that's done, operation of the layout will be so much easier.

Trains Running And 'debugging' is in progress ..... There's always some niggling problems to be overcome; slight misalignment of rails at baseboard joints, red/black wires connected backwards, solder joints missed, servos not activating the frog microswitches, frog polarity reversed. The list goes on. However, all have been relatively easy and straightforward to fix, and I can now run trains reasonably reliably. I'm glad I spent the time to label all the turnouts, tracks, and each cable connection! As you should be aware, the part that is complete is the lower level of what will be a 2-level layout. Hence the lower level has 'stub end' tracks that will eventually lead to the ramps up to the, err, upper level (really inventive titles). So, basically the lower level is the stabling sidings. However, in order to allow some early running of trains, a single track loop is incorporated into the lower level. There is also a 2 loop tracks for loco stabling. The 'window' end of the layout, with the stabling sidings to the rear: The 2 stub tracks (right-centre) will eventually connect to a ramp to the upper level. The 'wall' end of the layout: The 2-track shed with the Class 47 poking out is covering 3-tracks that will lead to the second ramp to the upper level. Stabling Sidings: It's really nice to reach a stage at which trains can run. Construction of the lower level has taken over 6-months, so this is quite a milestone. Mind you, now I can run trains, some of my time will be taken up with getting a number of my older (circa 1981/82) stock up-and-running!

Baseboard Jumper Cables As I've mentioned previously, I'm using the green plug-in PCB connectors (with 5.08mm pitch). They probably have a 'proper' name but I've not seen one, even when ordering them. I have used 2 connectors: 4-way connector. This provides for 2 power buses (busi?) for the NB and SB tracks. 5-way connector. This provides power (2 wires) and network (3-wires) for the MegaPoints Controller boards. Thus I needed to make 9 pairs of connectors for the 10 baseboards. I'm omitting one to avoid any 'loop'. 4-way connector 5-way connector I didn't have the right coloured cables for the network (should have been blue, green, yellow), but my choice of black, orange, yellow should avoid any confusion. The main trick is to avoid reversing the cables such that the power ends up on the network. Ask me how I found out about that one! Mutter. That's what happens when you are 'jerry rigging' to do some testing. In the final configuration, this should not be possible, should being the operative word. I was going to include a photo of them jumpers installed, but I've reached my 10mb allocation. Next time then. Now with everything in place, I can get on with connecting the baseboards together, powering them up, and actually run a few test trains. I wonder what will go wrong ...

Tracklaying & Wiring Complete! Its taken months, but finally the tracklaying and wiring of all 10 lower level baseboards are finished. The next job will be to make the necessary 'jumper cables' between the baseboards and commence a little 'testing' to see where I've made mistakes. I've been really careful to label everything and keep to standard 'rules', but there are sure to be some errors ... Rules: Power: Black & Red. Back to black (very common rule ...) Servos: Brown, Red, & Orange. Back to brown Network: Blue, Green, & Yellow. Back to blue Frog Power: Green As you can see I just used the colours starting with the letter 'B' towards the back of each baseboard.