Ouroborus

Looks like dropping the intensity of the lighting has stopped the light bleed too.

haha, don't blame you! Is there a chance you could add a resistor to the circuit to lessen the brightness. In no way am i a sparky, but some other people here might be able to offer you some guidance. If you can lower the output, then you might not need to repaint. IIRC, the lighting for these units come from Train-Tech Perhaps they could offer some suggestions?

If your feeling brave, you can purchase filler paint in a rattle can. Halford or amazon sell the stuff. Its usually a yellow shade which helps with the lighting effect. I sprayed the inside of some scaledale buildings and it works a charm. You just need to be careful with that spray....

I find it fascinating reading this thread back. It's almost as good as the infamous DJM thread. You see the initial reaction, the closures and gradually more and more of the 'we're still going'. Hindsight is such a powerful tool. How were we to know that the lockdown would actually create a boomtime for model retailers. It was predicted that we would turn into a nation of netflix couch potatoes. Instead, we're planting potatoes, baking bread, laying track and building airfix. And while all that makes me smile and think 'Good for you, Britain' there is also a part of me that feels sad for some of the high street model shops who couldn't take advantage of internet/Tele sales, completely missing the boom. I hope that perhaps eBay or some other outlet helped them lessen the damage.

Absolutely spot on Ian. The delivery drivers, whether it's Royal Mail, DPD, Amazon or Tesco are some of the less talked about heroes who've kept the country going. While some of us sat at home pondering about which rail joiners to purchase, these guys were the ones shoving them through letterboxes, perhaps not realising what was on that letterbox they'd just touched. I'm very grateful to all the delivery drivers who made the lockdown much less of a problem than it could have been. I'm grateful to the coronvirus for helping me realise what's important in life and what isn't. And waiting an extra day for rail joiners really isn't.

Good to hear you have this working. TBH, recommended values for acceleration and deceleration are like many CV's, very subjective. I nearly always turn the sound down, though I did find the valenta sound was a lot quieter than the mtu. And I check cv29 has the loco pointing in the right direction. For me, that's usually about it. Hopefully other members can give you some pointers on acc/dec settings

Perhaps Hornby should have taken a £20 non refundable deposit on these. As has been implied, it seems like there were a number of carpet baggers. Perhaps there still are. I really would hate for Hornby to get it's fingers burned on these and have some unsold seeing it seems like they're producing them at little more than cost. And how awful it would be to see them chucked into the bargain bins.

Take the body off, leave the body off, check the grey and orange wires for damage or that they might be touching something. Sometimes putting the body on nips them.

Certainly is. What a lovely and heart warming story that this loco has been so popular. Fingers crossed that demand can be fully satisfied, benefiting the NHS and pulling the rug from the carpet baggers.

Is the motor not working or is it that you have a large delay until it starts moving?

As above - some patience required waiting for the page to fully load and the whirly thing to stop whirling.

Possibly Andy, but some of those senior advisors are dry fingered clinicians who've never treated a patient since they left medical school. Those senior figures are also the same people who hid the mid staffs hospitals scandal. But they'll tell me how to care for a patient. I'll listen to what they say, but what they say changes like the wind, often to suit the prevailing politician. Never more quickly than the last two months. You'll forgive me if I treat their opinions with some scepticism. In contrast my manager who took me to one side and said - ' I trust you to do your best for the patients - do that and I'll back you whatever'. Boy is it great to be working under conditions like that - it's like a weight has been lifted. Apologies for my grumpiness and sense of humour failure, but work is difficult at times and my mood not helped by some Facebook posts of people stressing about a photo challenge and such like. I also found out a colleague died from the virus today - 33. Looking for glimmers of light in a sea of darkness is my way of getting through the days - you'll forgive me my optimism on the vaccine.

Thanks for your supportive words Stewart.

You're made my point for me. Until now, proposed vaccines were the subject of countless rounds of theoretical testing before moving onto live animal tests and years in the future, humans. Less than six months after covid was identified, here we are with human testing. It's a different world. I work for the frontline NHS. Today we received a new directive on 'disposable' ppe. Turns out it's not as disposable as it was a year ago. The risk to humans from reuse, not as bad as was thought. This follows the outlook on antibiotics changing. Two months ago, their use was discouraged, now it's encouraged to lessen patient/practitioner contact - we don't even have to see the patient. A year ago I was at a tribunal where the clinician was slammed for prescribing amoxicillin for an infection, now it's an expectation. You'll remember that a month ago, facemasks were labelled as ineffective for public use, now you're seeing suggestions that they will be mandatory. Believe me, healthcare is moving blisteringly fast, we literally don't know what we'll be doing one week to the next. But through it all, I've seen a remarkable ability for the NHS to get a shift on when it has to - things get done. Don't believe the doom merchants of the media - when the shackles are off and we're allowed to treat, a blind eye is turned to absences in admin, you'll be amazed what can be achieved. Same goes for the vaccine - in the old world, no way should it be ready for human trials. But that was then. With such a contagious virus, risk aversion has gone out of window, pressure on to stop people dying and get economies working. I can understand the attempts to downplay expectations of timeline for giving false hope is counterproductive, but mark my words, if what is happening on the frontline is replicated in r&d, it isn't going to be long

It won't be. You can forget about all the vitro, vivo and RCDB trials - that was in a different time. Expect a couple of months.

Much better service since Five Bellies Dan left.

Back up to £40 3 minutes later!

1000 ohm resistor is frequently used for the purposes you wish. alternatively, you could have a look at some of the lighting strips on amazon, e.g. Govee It's a 12v light strip that you can cut to length. It's designed for home lighting, but it's bang on for lighting coaches. Copper tabs are where you can solder to.

Ditto Lego. Adults finally realising that work isn't everything. When this all started, I thought we'd have a generation of netflix couch potatoes. Seems not. People have got into art, crafts, gardening, cooking. Every cloud really does have a silver lining. Let's hope the new creative Britain continues

Since I gave up Facebook I've felt twice as good. The end of pointless arguements with people you don't know about things you can't influence. And it's left me with more time to do the things I enjoy

Thanks for this. They also had a number of warwells in stock at keen prices.

I asked Gauge master about these. I had the part number from a previous order. They said that they didn't stock them. Seems odd. This was just after they started as the spares agent, so perhaps needs a little more time to get used to it.

I have an ECoS and use several ESU switchpilots on their own bus. Work absolutely fine, thought at around £40, not the cheapest. Manual says will control 8 outputs, but I could never work how to do this - could only manage four. 16v outputs. Some of mine run Arduinos (from outputs tuned down to 12v) which in turn control lighting circuits.

Certainly true, but once you know your 'thing' having the best glass that you can afford makes a huge difference.

As you've been advised, lots of choice, lots of cost variations. Fwiw, I use an ECoS having previously had Lenz. I felt the Lenz was of its time and having to remember cv's of locos, points and accessories became tiresome and sucked the joy out of playing trains. Lenz remains well regarded, but I can't help but think that it trades on former glory and seems desperately slow to innovate. The ECoS is graphical based, you can call up your loco by image and it has a built in track plan by which you can control points and accessories. It's not flawless, it certainly has a few odd traits, but I've been delighted with mine.