rynd2it

22 minutes ago, RAF96 said:

If using 3-pin bi-colour leds on DCC they must be common anode.

The blue wire of an 8-pin decoder connects to the anodes and the colour legs (cathodes) are connected via suitable value resistors to the directional white and yellow wires which are switched negatives.

I have used 3-pin red/white and red/yellow leds. Easy enough to find in various sizes.

That's very helpful, thank you

2 minutes ago, WIMorrison said:

 

I don't understand why the French supplier is overcharging on the item and the postage, and why none have any in stock, look at the German suppliers as their postage around EU tends by reasonable

Stuff in France is usually more expensive than the UK, its not just on modelling, clothes are really expensive as well. Just comparing the same item on Amazon UK to Amazon.fr shows up some outrageous over charging. I will start on the German ones soon

Thanks for all the help with this

Thanks Andi, that does help indeed

11 minutes ago, WIMorrison said:

Check this page for stockists

 

http://www.zimo.at/web2010/sales/bql.htm

 

 

Thanks Ian, There's a load there however, I just went through all the French ones - only 1 had it in stock at €37 + €22 postage!!!!  This is going to take a while

I would have thought so too - but searching for them is only turning up a couple and the prices are outrageous or the postage is. And another problem common to many EU on-line retailers is that they don't tell you what the postage is until you have created an account.  I'll keep looking though

18 hours ago, WIMorrison said:

Zimo MX617F from CoastalDCC -  it is 6 pin with the 7th blue wire floating, Cut off the 6 pin interface to wire it into the loco, you will also need to add in resistors to stop the LEDs blowing up

 

£20 - £21.50 inc postage.

Is there an alternative to this such as a LaisDcc version? The postage to France is horrific and the only supplier in France I can find wants €40 inc postage.

14 hours ago, trevora said:

 

Those won't work in the loco I am working on

13 hours ago, DCB said:

If they are two pin then they must rely on reversing polarity to change colour so it looks like they are  fundamentally incompatible with the wring diagram.   Three wire ones should be OK as they have one common connection but I have never seen a red / white, all mine have been Red/Green with a yellow available by lighting red and green simultaneously.

These might work but I'm noticing they have a positive common - is that a problem?

https://www.dccconcepts.com/product/led-tower-type-dual-colour-6x-2mm-wresistors-prototype-whitered/

I'm looking for a DCC decoder that will fit in my 009 Roco shunter (see other thread) and will provide motor and front/rear light functions. There isn't much room so it will need to be hard wired, no space for a socket.

This loco has space to put a head light and a tail light so I was thinking of a dual colour LED of red/white and wiring it so the head light is white and the tail light red when going forward, the opposite in reverse. However my research into bi-colour LEDs shows them with only two pins - how does this work or integrate into this diagram taken from the Laisdcc manual?

9 minutes ago, WIMorrison said:

Those are chokes and I would also remove them

Thank you, now for the tricky bit.

I finally bit the bullet on converting this loco but as I'm a total novice at this I thought I would check before starting work. In this photo of the workings, I see a capacitor and two resistors. I know you said remove the capacitor but what about the resistors- do I remove them as well before adding the chip? Also, where did you put the chip, I'm thinking right at the front or maybe the cab roof?

Thanks

All the stock is now sorted but I need some new wheels and everyone seems to be out of stock. I need:  

4 sets (8 axles) 6.1mm plain disc

2 sets (4 axles) 8mm 6-hole

Anyone know of a reputable stockist, Dundas are out of greenwich wheels it seems.

I'm using a B2B gauge, seems to work fine

More news - successfully removed all the wheels I needed to and checked gauge. The Peco moulded wheels are definitely too narrow and not adjustable so I need a few sets of those plus a couple of other sets where the tyres came off and, despite my best efforts, went back on a bit wonky - I'm a total novice at this

Thanks, I'm actually making some progress and have managed to remove and check a few wheel sets. They were all too narrow in gauge! 

I have a Watts wheel puller and have reset them, apart from one set which are fixed (moulded), they will need replacing.

Thank you all for the input - much appreciated. I do know that at least two sets of wheels are coarse scale with deep flanges so they will need replacing. I will check the rest for B2B.

Back to my original question - is there some cunning way to remove the wheel sets without damaging the frames?

I have an 009 layout which has 11 Peco 009 live frog points. I also have an assortment of kit-built wagons and coaches (bought as a cheap job lot) and I've discovered that several of them seem to have flanges which are too deep for the points. I also have a Roco shunter (new) which runs great but I also suspect is almost too deep for these points - it seems to lift very slightly on some of them.

So first question, I need to re-wheel the wagons & coaches but the axles are in plastic frames and I don't want to break anything. Is there a secret to getting them out safely? If so then what wheel sets should I obtain and fit so they will run over the points?

On a slightly related topic, I had to modify the points in situ to separate the blades from the frog (using a fine cut wheel in a Dremel) and then jumper between the blades and their adjacent stock rails - this was fiddly on already laid track but the results are great - the little shunter will crawl through the points with no hesitation even on DC.

Finally, as I'm using servos to operate the points (via MERG EzyBus modules) I wanted to remove the over-centre springs. Quite by accident I discovered that the spring sticks up very slightly from the tie bar and a gentle push with a fine bladed instrument dislodged it enough to pop out. Easily removed then with a pair of fine-nosed pliers.

16 minutes ago, Dungrange said:

 

My understanding is that the NCE PowerCab starter set is a 2 Amp system, so under a short circuit scenario your PowerCab will probably be able to supply something like 2.1 or 2.2 Amps to the track, before shutting itself down, so that is the current that you should be designing for.

 

 

The NCE PowerCab will have it's own overload protection, but you can set up a circuit breaker with a lower rating - for example, the DCCSpecialities PSX can be set to cut out at 1.27 Amps

https://www.dccconcepts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/PSX-Quick-Reference-Guide.pdf.

Thanks for that

23 minutes ago, Michael Hodgson said:

 

Yes.  If you divide your layout into zones or "power districts" and fit district cut-outs, they should be rated for a lower maximum current than the limit the command station (or booster) will apply.

The advantages of these devices, more applicable to a large layout, are that

• you don't have to examine the whole layout to locate the cause of the short
• only the relevant part of the layout stops in the event of a short, and the rest keeps going, very useful at exhibitions

It's rather like one of your upstairs lights blowing a fuse (or the modern MCB equivalent) but the rest of the house electrics are still working rather than having the 100A master fuse for the  house blowing.

It's a tiny 009 layout, one or two little locos.

Power districts is overkill

12 minutes ago, Crosland said:

 

Sorry, and I know I can be a bit of a pedant  but droppers have to be able to carry the full overload current in the case of a short circuit, especially if a single dropper feeds an isolated section of track (such as a frog). It's only the short length that allows thinner wire to be used.

 

 

How do you calculate the full overload current? Knowing, as you do, the equipment I'm using (NCE PowerCab, 009 locos) how to determine this?  

And isn't it possible to build in an overload protection?

26 minutes ago, Ron Ron Ron said:

 

By " Mains Cable" I hope you are talking about the cable used for the track bus?

As Andymsa says above, similar sized cable.

 

Here's something that's being missed.

With the PowerCab, the Power Bus (Track Bus) doesn't originate from the Power Cab Panel (PCP).

The system's Power Bus output comes from within the PowerCab handset itself, as it contains both the Command Station and the system's Booster.

As such, the Power Bus output is carried down 2 of the 6 wires in the flat handset cable, to the PCP.

That cable has thicker gauge wire cores than a normal 6-core RJ cable, hence the warnings on the NCE website, not to use substitute, non-proprietary 6-core alternatives.

The PCP is nothing but a glorified junction box or terminal block. It doesn't do anything else.

 

So, in answer to the question  "what would you run from the control panel to the mains cable track bus?

Bear in mind if the track bus wires are not connected directly to the terminals on the back of the PCP, there will be 3 sections of wiring between the output from the PowerCab, to the track feeds.

The 6-core RJ cable from the PowerCab to the PCP,

the connection from PCP to the Track Bus and

the Track Bus.

All of these sections together form the PowerCab's Power Bus.

There's a 4th element, or section, as the rails themselves are also part of the Power Bus.

 

 

.

The track bus wires cannot be directly connected to the back of the PCP unless I mount the PCP directly on one of the baseboards, even then the wire size would probably be too large for the connector supplied with the PCP. I was planning on a detachable control panel (it's a portable layout) which is no problem with the EzyBus which only needs two pairs in a CAT5e cable.

However, as you point out above, the PowerCab is connected through an RJ cable which I have just measured at 6.5 mm wide. There are 6 wires in it and therefore they cannot be bigger than 1.0 mm so why would I need anything heavier to connect the PCP to the track bus?

My track bus will only ever carry the load for one or two 009 locos, no sound or lights, so I was hoping to get away with a smaller wire size.

2 hours ago, WIMorrison said:

Single core mains cable is universally used as the accessory or track bus by most modellers and works perfectly.

Ok but what would you run from the control panel to the mains cable?

8 hours ago, Andymsa said:

you can also get multistranded mains cable, this type is used in conduit generally. I use two sizes of this 1.5 and 2.5mm sq. I don’t bother with striping cable I just buy 100 meter drums at £10.00 a drum approx the time and effort to strip cable is just not worth it. But as you point out avoid solid type.

 

as to the accessory bus wire I assume this is Dcc, it’s not about its current carrying abilities but how much volt drop and resistance that’s introduced using smaller sized wire.

As I said, accessory bus is NOT DCC, it's Ezybus by MERG and uses Cat5e cables.

Thanks again for the input, all useful stuff

Thanks that's what I needed to know ☺️