jpendle

That's a heck of a lot to build from scratch! How many people are involved in this project? 🤔😀 John P

If you consider a 1930's aircraft factory with the main door open to the elements a "proper" facility then yes. I've been there when SpaceX engineers were attaching a rocket engine to a Falcon 9 booster stage. Men, and a couple of women, in jeans and T-shirts listening to extremely loud music while they worked! Regards, John P

Why? Cape Canaveral is just as exposed. They are both on the coast, and I think Boca Chica is about as far south as you can get and still be in the continental US, Miami and the Florida Keys are further south but not as suitable, too many people getting in the way. Regards, John P

From my personal point of view the world has very definitely improved for the better. In 1968 my dad passed away with kidney failure caused by Polycystic Kidney Disease, he was a railway modeller and enthusiast, but as he spent most of the last years of his life in and out of hospital I never got the chance to enjoy those hobbies with him. He was 45 and I was 6 years old. PKD is hereditary and I had a kidney transplant 4 years ago and haven't felt this well in years, I'm now 60 BTW, my daughter has had 2 kidney transplants, and we both lead full and rewarding lives. So while I'd have loved to have been able to experience steam and the railways in all their glory, I'm happy to trade that for being born in the 60's rather than the 20's. 🤔😁 Regards, John P

Retrospectively I think the best idea would be to copy the DRS liveried CL68's. Paint a 1 or a 2 at either end on the doors 😁 John P

Hi, Echoing James' sentiments. don't panic! I think it might be best if you were to concentrate on just the Next18 decoders for now, and try them in the CL153 as you will be able to test all the light functions at the same time. So first of all reset the decoder. In the screen shown in James' post select CV Programming and then Manual, writing 4 to CV8 will reset the decoder. Next you will need to remap the function outputs so that function key F0 controls the head and tailights. To do this set CV33 to 9 and CV34 to 6, this will map function outputs 1 and 2 to F0. But there will still be an issue because Function outputs 1 & 2 don't have directional wiring, unlike Function Outputs F0f & F0r. So you need to program another couple of CV's to get function outputs 1 & 2 to behave in a directional manner. Now the Lais manual is clear as mud, but I think that you will need to set CV51 to 16 which will make the headlights at the number 2 end come on when you are running in reverse and CV52 to 0 which will make the taillights at the number 2 end come on when running forwards. Please try this out and get back to us, I am assuming that Dapol have wired the Next18 sockets in these units just like they have in their CL66 and CL68 locos, so we shall see. Regards, John P

Hi, Yes that's a DCC decoder. If you happen to know someone with a DCC system they can program the decoder to run on DC. Otherwise you'll need a 21 pin blanking plate. BTW are there any speakers in the bodies of the two coaches? Regards, John P

For item 1, you might have the decoders in upside down. For item 2, I don't have a Next18 fitted CL156 but probably Dapol have wired the non motorised unit so that F1 and F2 control the head and tail lights on the non-motorised unit. On their Next18 locos F1 and F2 control the head and tail lights at the Number 2 (rear) end. Haven't got a clue about the light bar stuff though. Regards, John P

Not as much as you might think. Lego takes pride in the quality of its product and most of the clones / copies (the Lego patent on their interlocking bricks expired some time back) are simply not as good. Also the Lego group is actually quite a philanthropic company reflecting its origins as a family owned Danish firm (the family stilly own 50% IIRC. And don't forget their superb quality control. We must have bought hundreds of sets for our kids and grandchildren over the years and there have never been any missing pieces! Also they still make everything themselves, they tried outsourcing the manufacture of the bricks and it didn't go well. Regards, John P

Hi By default on a Dapol N Gauge loco F0 controls the lights at the front or number 1 end of the loco. F1 controls the headlights at the back or number 2 end and F2 controls the taillights at the back. So first you need to set CV33 to 9 and CV34 to 6. You'll now get both sets of lights on at the back of the loco whenever you press F0. Next set CV51 to 16 and CV52 to 0 this will make the headlights at the back of the loco only come on in the reverse direction and the taillights to only come on in the forward direction. That should give you what you want, but if you decide that you want independent control of the lights at the front and back you’d need to change the function mapping again, its not very hard. To set F1 to control the lights at the back of the loco set CV35 to 12, CV33 to 1, and CV34 to 2. Regards, John P

CV36 controls function output 2, CV35 controls F1, CV’s 33 & 34 control F0f and F0r. Regards, John P

You can’t be sure that a newly purchased Zimo decoder will come with the latest firmware. I ran into an issue double heading where the decoder with the older firmware ran 40% slower than a decoder with the newer firmware, in the same loco! I updated both decoders to the latest firmware and the problem was solved. I always make sure that my Zimo decoders are up to date before I put them in a loco. Regards, John P

They don't need to be FSA/FTA's. The FCA's haven't been done in any scale. I'd like a rake of FCA's to make up a Knowsley - Wilton Binliner. Regards, John P

We'll be back in the North West on Tuesday for 2 weeks holiday. Various pies will be consumed during that time 😁 We're off to a wedding as well, so hopefully the buffet will be done proper, and whist pies will be served! John P

It's just been pointed out to me on another forum that the Anglia locos have modified light clusters and air horn grill. I wonder if Farish have allowed for that in their tooling? Regards, John P

Yeah, blame my fat fingers for that 😀 It won't work the same way on a Lais decoder, or any other decoder come to that. However, a Lais decoder probably doesn't support SUSI so it will probably work straight out of the box. Regards, John P

Hi, y default on the MX618N18 function outputs 3 & 4 are set as SUSI outputs rather than logic level. You need to set CV124 to 8 instead of 0, this sets FO3 and FO4 to logic level outputs and your light bar should work as expected. Regards, John P

Agreed. If they are Electrofrog then isolation is needed where you have marked it in red. John P

I have ~80 points on my layout controlled by NCE Switch 8 decoders, Railcom is switched off on the accessory bus, and the Z21 controls them without any issues. So I doubt that you have reached some maximum number. I use Wago Levernuts, no soldering required. One last thought, can you disconnect everything from the DCC bus apart from the DS51K1's and then try them as an isolated group? If you would need to disconnect and re-connect wires then the Wago Levernuts would come in handy. Regards, John P

Have you tried opening the demo layout, just in case? John P

Well, me for a start. But two of them don’t work. 😀 Regards, John P

Hi, The first thing I can see is that the loco does not 'judder' or move slightly when you are programming it, this should ALWAYS happen as it is the result of acknowledgement pulses sent back to the z21. You also get an error message when reading CV2. I suspect that the decoder is faulty. Regards, John P

Hi, It's unlikely that a Kato Japanese outline EMU even supports DCC. The Digitrax decoder will probably only work with Kato US outline models. DCC is not very popular in Japan. Regards, John P

Hi, Speak to YouChoos or DCKits (Legoman biffo). They can probably provide a suitable sound file blown onto a Next 18 suitable decoder plus all the other gubbins that you will need. Regards, John P