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TheKeg

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Posts posted by TheKeg

  1. 1 hour ago, Pandora said:

    From your image, a 4-band colour code,  Brown Black Gold Silver which is 10 x 0.1 ohms   ie 1 Ohm with 10% tolerance.

    HOWEVER, double check band 3,   is it gold or a discoloured / burnt  yellow? If a discoloured yellow, then 100000 which is 100Kohms  same tolerance

     

    https://www.wellpcb.com/resistor-color-codes.html

    The colours seem to be as follows -

    red - black - gold - silver

    That would mean 2 ohm?

     

    2 hours ago, Dagworth said:

    They are not resistors at all, they are chokes (small coils) 

     

    replace with plain wire links, the loco will work perfectly. 
     

    Andi

     

    Ive never seen, coils with colour coded bands before, but if that’s all they are then I will try that solution.

  2. On 13/06/2020 at 23:26, Ron Ron Ron said:

     

    NCE haven't released this board Simon.

    It's a third party product from Australian company, WiFiTrax, not from NCE.

     

    http://www.wifitrax.com

     

     

    .


    fair play, I was just going off the product being listed under NCE on a retailers website. None of us are infallible. 
    The main point is, such a product is available.

    • Friendly/supportive 1
  3. Hi there,

     

    Thats a very impressive looking track plan. If your happy with NCE, but need more power, then you could always add the NCE Powerpro base station or booster to your system. That would give you 5 amps for your layout. This isn’t a very cheap option though, I believe the booster is about £180.

    NCE have released a WiFi board just recently which allows control of your layout through your powercab with a phone or tablet.

    https://www.digitrains.co.uk/shop-by-brand/nce/nce-cab-bus-wifi-interface.html

    There are plenty of other systems that could be suitable. The ROCO Z21 is very popular, and certainly fulfils your desire to operate with a phone or tablet.

    We use an ESU ECoS, and have done so for 10+ years. This would definitely fall into the bracket of a high end system. With the addition of a small WiFi router, plugged straight into the back, and an appropriate app, tether free control is very nice. We’ve been using this setup for many years on multiple exhibition layouts, and it’s been supremely reliable. 
    The apps for the ECoS are:

    TouchCab (Apple devices only. Compatible with ESU ECoS and Lenz systems)

    ECoS Cab (Apple, Android and Windows. Only compatible with ECoS)

     

    I hope this helps a little bit, and I’m sure there will be others with suggestions also.
     

    Regards,

     

    Simon

    • Like 1
  4. 28 minutes ago, dragosmp said:

     

    Would you say ebay is a good place to buy them from? For more or less 20£:

    Lenz

    Zimo


    I would try and deal with a U.K. based retailer. Then if there are any problems with the decoders you buy it’s a lot easier to get support.

    Digitrains, Costal Dcc, etc there’s plenty of good retailers out there.

    • Agree 2
  5. I have never used the Gaugemaster dcc30 decoders but I was under the impression they already had a CDU built in. There certainly looks to be capacitors on them in the picture I looked at. If that is the case, it seems odd that it’s not firing the peco motors correctly. 
    I would always go for decoders with CDU built in. I have used the digitrax ds52 extensively, and they have always been reliable. There’s lots of choice out there though.

  6. We’ve been using the Tam Valley frog juicers on three of our exhibition layouts, for the last seven years, in a variety of gauges. We have yet to have a failure on any of them (touch wood :-) ). We have also never seen any evidence of arcing, and any damage caused by arcing, on any of our track and stock. We have also used the gauge-master ones as well, and so far have had no issues with them either. 
    in the past, we used all kinds of switches for controlling frog polarity and unfortunately at some point they have all failed; usually during an exhibition. Since changing to frog juicers we have had no problems with operation and reliability of our frog polarity control.

    The other bonus on the dual frog juicers is they can be used to control the polarity on return loops and turntables. I believe two outputs on the hex frog juicer can also be paired to perform this task.

     

    I for one would always thoroughly recommend them to anyone for any type of dcc controlled layout, but each to their own.

    • Thanks 1
  7. 4 hours ago, gordon s said:

    The Powerline adaptors turned up today and I have plugged one into the mains downstairs with a cable into my BT router. The second one is plugged into the mains upstairs with another cable into the back of my ECoS. I've paired them and now have three lights on both adaptors. At the back of my ECoS I have a blinking green light and a red light continually on.

     

    I've gone into the network page in the ECoS and it shows an IP address, Gateway and Network Mask numbers. In the bottom right there is a Mac Address. Does this mean it is connected?

     

    My Mac is wireless to the same router, so not plugged in directly.

     

    If it's not connected to the network, what do I need to do?

     

    If it is connected, what am I supposed to do?....;)

     

    I've downloaded JMRI Decoder Pro onto my Mac and opening that it asks for the following info. IP Address which I assume is the one I read from my ECoS, a connection prefix that is showing as 'U' and the Connection Name which shows as ECoS. I have the System connection set as ECoS via network. Clicking on Next and Finish, I'm getting this error message.

     

    'An error occurred while trying to connect to ECoS. Press the back button and check the connection details'

     

    Any ideas?

     

     

    Hi there,

     

    To check your ECoS is connected and working on the network, open up your web browser on your Mac and enter the ECoS i.p. address into the address bar, then hit enter. This should bring up your ECoS page in your web browser. 
    If this happens, it is confirmation that your ECoS is on your network and can communicate with other things.

    With regard to JMRI, unfortunately I can’t help you with that as I have never used it with ECoS. I have always used TouchCab for wireless control and an app called Mocha VNC to mirror to ECoS display on an iPad. This also allows me to operate the ECoS from my iPad.

     I hope my ramblings may be some use to you.

    98106564-F6F8-40D4-A2D5-B67228190513.jpeg

    • Agree 1
  8. Hi,

     

    your track plan should work fine. Just to clarify, the red and black wires on Kato points drive the in built point motors. If you want to change them with dcc, you can connect the two wires from the point to a suitable accessory decoder (one capable of driving two wire point motors). I have used the digitrax ds52 in the past for this, and they have worked very well.

    With regards to connecting your track to your dcc system, this can be made very simple. If you configure each of your points to constantly pass power all the time (this is done by altering one of the small screws on the bottom of each point) then the two wires from your dcc system should power every part of the track all of the time. This is one of the benefits of the Kato track system for dcc users.

  9. We have used a few systems over the years. Started with ZTC 511, moved to NCE powecab after that and still have it, but only really use it for testing at home, and one of our layouts. Our main control system now is an ESU ECoS, with the great Touchcab app on various Apple devices for easy 'walk about' operation. We use the ECoS on four of our six exhibition layouts, and I can't see us changing to anything else to be honest.

     

    Keg

  10. Thoroughly enjoyed the truly excellent show, as I always do. All credit to Perth club for what really is a stand out example of how a model railway exhibition should be organised and run. The whole weekend was a pleasure, and the exhibitors' dinner on the Saturday night was fantastic. I am very much looking forward to next years show already!

     

    Keg

  11. I do think that some of the most recent posts are starting to border on the sort of sensationalism usually associated with the tabloid press. A show getting a reputation indeed. I have been to all four events and, whilst one previous year the marquee was warm, none of the others fell on weekends as warm as this year's event. Let us keep a clear head, the GC weekend fell on the hottest weekend for quite a long time. There is nothing the organisers could do about that. In the British Summer it could just as easily have been heavy rain and thunder - wait that happened in the second year! I am sure many events suffered during that weekend. You cannot blame the show for that.

    I take heart from the fact the GC had medics available to deal with those who did fall ill. They also organised the unloading to prevent a free for all. I sympathise with the exhibitors who would have had a difficult weekend and I am glad those who were ill are ok. As a layout owner, my visit would not put me off exhibiting.

    This is the fourth year of the show and it gets better and better. The train service was much better this year and the much criticised flooring seemed much more stable. Let's keep things realistic.

    I must disagree that the posts mentioned, were in any way sensational. As someone who spent all three days at the show, I can only endorse all of the views regarding the extremely unpleasant conditions in the marquees. I do think that this could have been helped by following the example set by the organisers of the marquee at Rothley station, just up the line. There, they opened up every second or third wall panel at the top, and dropped them down to half way. This allowed some air to circulate through the tent. How's that suggestion for 'keeping it realistic'?

    Apart from the atmospheric conditions, the show itself was good, with a very good selection of traders and layouts.

     

    Keg

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