Thursday, January 22, 2015

Good progress with the 73 but with a not so good outcome

This week saw good progress with the wiring up of the 73. Using the SMD resistors certainly has improved the available real estate under the shell. I was able to get the decoder on its shelf, along with the stay alive cap and sugar cube speaker on the original circuit board shelf. The wires were all bundled up and secured. The shell was shoe-horned on (VERY tight fit). Then a roadblock was discovered. The shell was short 5-7mm of clearance to allow it to fit to the chassis. It would appear as though the amount of wiring impacted the internal clearance. You can see all of this in the photos below.
Upon having a chat with Mr Mackie and PK, several options were bandied about. I came up with my mine to see if this helps and will certainly investigate the other options proffered if mine doesn't pan out.
What I really want is to have the cabin light operating, as well as the marker, number board, and headlights. Retaining the sound would be great.
So I had a closer look at the available space. I redeveloped the shelving to be one shelf rather than a staggered shelf arrangement. I can live without the stay alive cap (for what they good they do) and might have a look at locating the speaker in the cab, with minimal damage to the cabin detail if possible. By the end of the week, I had got to a point where the speaker isn't installed but the rest has occurred. I am still about 2-3 mm short of the shell to reach the chassis, but I may just need to rethink the wiring arrangement. That will be this week's project if I get the time.
Top view of the placement of the decoder,etc

Side view showing the decoder, cap and speaker to the rear at the right. You can see the second shelf towards the middle that the decoder is on.
 
Front lightboard

Rear lightboard

View showing the 5-7mm gap between the shell and the chassis

Top view showing the spaghetti of wiring through the original circuit board access hatch.
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2 comments:

  1. BrendanJanuary 23, 2015 at 11:38 AM

    Greg,

    Instead of using a zip-tie to secure verything, try using wide waxed dental floss. It will take up less room that the zip-tie, and if you get the flavoured one, a nice minty smell.

    Cheers,
    Brendan

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    Replies
    1. Greg's ShedJanuary 23, 2015 at 11:43 AM

      Hi Brendan, thanks for the suggestion (if not one I would never have thought of!). I have replaced the zip tie with Tamiya masking tape, as well as using the tape to hold down other things. Seems to be doing the trick so far. My thought on it is it doesn't have to be permanent, only strong enough to keep things in place until the shell is on. The if the tape breaks it doesn't matter. Greg

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