I didn't get a chance this week to do something different as the LEDs I've been waiting for arrived Tuesday in the mail. 300 wee SMD LEDs (0603 package size) in various colours, but mostly Signal Red and Pure White, so plenty of spares in case I stuff up the 73's lightboards! On that subject I persisted with the rejigging of these. One end tested perfectly. The other end I had trouble with one of the white marker lights not coming on with its twin. I tried turning it 180 degrees with no effect. I put it back the way I found it. I tested the LEDs individually with a 9v battery test power source directly to the LED pads. Worked fine. I persisted with this for two nights trying to think what was wrong. I tried following the traces from one side to the other to make sure everything appeared correctly. Still nothing. Then last night just before calling it quits again without an answer I was tracing the circuits with the 9v source when all of a sudden along part of the trace one of the marker lights lit. Moving a bee's d!ck in distance lit the other marker light but turned off the one just lit. Hmmm, onto something! So I flipped down the 3rd magnifier lens on the headband to an even closer resolution for a looksy. Even at this resolution it was difficult but I could just make out that there was a cut in the trace. Then I realised what the culprit was that caused this. The 'helping hands' alligator clips 'teeth' had been able to just break the surface at a particular point and cut the trace. I tried to bridge the gap with some solder but all this did was to melt some of the PCB material over the cut. The only thing I can think of is to join the two relevant ends of the marker light LEDs together with some fine decoder wire. I'll try this week to sort this out.
When I mentioned the arrival of the LEDs to Mr Mackie he was quick to ask how much as he needed some spares for similar reasons. About 10c each! So he took two Pure White and two Red. Thursday night I tested one of the Pure Whites not knowing if these equated to Warm or Cool White, and wow, note to self - remove magnifier lens before firing these little beauties up as I had spots before my eyes! Very bright Cool White. So I will have to reduce the brightness with a suitable resistor and match the original lightboard Warm White LEDs with a smear of Tamiya Clear Orange. I tested this on the working lightboard mentioned in the first paragraph and it seems to work OK.
As for the Zimo decoder, I emailed Orient Express Model Train in South Oz explaining what happened and the use of another decoder to prove not loco related. They were happy to exchange it and I mailed off the dodgy decoder to them. So hopefully the replacement will arrive this week. Three cheers for the guys.
So this week will see me sorting out the lightboard mentioned above, and if the new decoder arrives, at least doing an initial test of motor control!
More on the post title shortly. However m'thinks I've cooked the Zimo decoder but no idea what caused it. I decided to connect up the decoder to the track pickups and the motor control for basic testing. I then placed it on the test track and connected the SB3a. Immediately the SB3a was constantly resetting itself after a short somewhere. Meanwhile the decoder began overheating so much that the heatshrink started burning off. Never seen this before! So not sure if there was a fault with the decoder, or something else. So I had a chat with Mr Mackie on Friday and he suggested a few things to test. Direct DC to the motor to check for bindings. No, the motor rotated fine as did the gearbox and wheels. Then wire in the DCC and check for DC operation. Zip. Therefore no point going back to do more DCC operations. I had a spare new NCE motor only decoder so decided to wire this in to do the same tests to see if it was the Zimo decoder or not. DCC detect of DC worked. Tick. DCC only started to work, apart from a bit of a whine from the gearbox in reverse direction (odd!). Tick. So it was looking like the Zimo decoder. However just as I was about to stop the tests, FLASH, FIRE and SMOKE came from the NCE decoder. WTF! Then I saw what had occurred. I had failed to insulate the soldered joints as this was only meant to be a temporary test. But a track pickup and one of the motor wires touched and obviously caused a bit of mayhem on the decoder. I effectively "crossed the streams" (reference to Ghostbusters movie). Damn I didn't want that to occur! So now I'm down two decoders.
So where to from here? I still want to see if I can get the 73 decodered correctly. I will check with the retailer and see if they know of any possible reason. If 'user error' do I go for another Zimo or try another brand with less functions? Not really sure but I have invested too much so far, and intend to invest more, to just throw it all away for the sake of experience!
So while I am sorting this out and waiting for the LEDs to arrive from Germany, I might do something else.
On a happier note, it was Fathers' Day today and the boys got me a few things for the layout which was very nice of them.
Hi all, I have incorporated the suggested changes from the JMRI yahoo forum reviewers who took the time to go through the instructions, and I have now published the PDF under my 'Articles that I have written' section in the right side-panel.
Please feel free to drop me a line if you have questions.
Well the LEDs from Germany didn't arrive this week unfortunately. It would have been god if they had as I had started converting the lightboards as per the AMRM instructions, however as mentioned previously I stuffed up a couple along the way. I may have also stuffed up another but I will need to investigate further. Planning ahead I looked at the placement of the speaker and the decoder. Using the existing plastic shelf that the original circuit board was one, I placed the 'sugar cube' speaker at the very end. Then cutting down a piece of 0.5mm thick styrene I made another shelf going the other way over the motor. This was held in place by the same screw/bolts that the original was bolted in. The spacing looks good and I might even have enough space between the speaker and the bolt posts to place the stay alive capacitor but I'll look at this later on.
So this week I will test the decoder firstly by wiring up the bogie pickups and the motor wiring. Just making sure the basics work first! Then when the LEDs arrive from Germany I'll finish the lightboard conversions and wire these up to test as I will have to also program the Function Outputs with the Function Key inputs. Small steps with this conversion!
Re the Pi Howto, I've replied to one of my earlier respondents asking for some information he said he was going to supply. If I don't get a reply by the end of the week, I'll just go with what I have and if I get a reply later I'll update the document there and then!
It has been one of those crazy weeks at work so I have been rather tired each evening. However I made a start on the 73's electrics and documenting what I am doing. I swapped the bogie pickups around so that they are correct as per standard. I have also labelled each of the lightboards' wires at each end so that I can document them when attaching to the decoder. I then attempted to rotate one of the red marker lights and inadvertently dropped the LED so when I picked it up to resolder I have no idea which way it was and thus which way to reposition! So I have just resoldered it and will see once decoder in place. I also had another accident with one of the red marker LEDs this time I obviously had the soldering iron on it a moment too long and the lens popped off. Aarghhhh. Well lucky I ordered a swag of different coloured 0603 SMD LEDs from LedBaron in Germany at the start of the week and hopefully these should be here this week if I am lucky. Amongst the pack are white and red LEDs. I think I will be needing them!
We had a public holiday in Brisbane one Wednesday and my initial plan was to head on down to the club for a couple of hours, however the missus had other plans. With no kids at home for most of the day (the kids' dau off was Monday), I had to do the morning school/kindy run, sort out a couple of errands, and then go out for lunch, then do the afternoon school/kindy run, then take my eldest to footy training, and then finally get home for dinner. So no chance of getting to the club! I did however take about 30 minutes just before heading out to lunch to prepare and prime the two whitemetal 'driver' figures I had chosen just in case I can use these in the 73.
I have also purchased one of the 30W temperature controllable soldering irons from Jaycar that Mr Mackie had suggested for the SMD LEDs. I'm yet to get it out of the packaging!
I also checked the JMRI forum for any further feedback for the Pi howto, but nothing new.
So this week I think I will proceed with the 73's wiring and documenting. If time permits I will look at the suggested amendments to the Pi Howto, but time and work's current follies will tell.
This week I finally took the plunge and dismantled the 73's chassis, top shell and deck. A quick look revealed possible space in the read below the decoder for the speaker but a bit more investigation required. This would be great as it is right next to the radiator grills. If this doesn't work out then perhaps in the cab. If I can get the speaker in the rear, this will allow me to place a driver and observer into the cab, along with a cabin light. So there is a part of the project.
Next were the lightboards. I had trouble at the cabin end board removing it. I hadn't yet tried the read board. I spoke to Mr Mackie during the week and he reckoned they just pulled out. So that night I tried the front end without success but the rear end pulled out easily. A closer inspection of the front board suggested it had been glued in at the factory for some reason! So out with the razor saw to remove the plastic shield holding the light board. Then clean out the slot of the styrene left behind by using a rotary tool to gouge out the plastic from the metal. During the process of doing this I have knocked off the lens of one of the marker light LEDs. So looks like I will have to place an order with LedBaron in Germany. I will also have to make up another shield, so I might have to buy some black styrene from one of the hobby shops. So during the upcoming week I will have to start looking at the decoder wiring.
My order from the UK also arrived during the week. This encompassed the Class 08 weathered diesel. and the quirky Sentinel Y1 vertical boiler steam loco.
Also another two NSWGR guards vans (FHG and GHG from memory) arrived from Coffs Harbour care of Mr Mackie. These were second hand but look hardly used.
The weekend just gone was the Club's annual Exhibition. I was only able to attend the Saturday session (due to family commitments on Sunday), but I had spent a few hours on Friday help setting up the show with some other members. I bought 8 packs of different Brawa decoder wire from Wuiske Models, and some whitemetal half bodies from John Guest (formerly Horizon Hobbies) to use in locos and passenger carriages. Probably the best layouts at the show was Splitters Swamp Creek which since its last viewing at our show two years ago has come along fantastically. Geoff is a master of detail. Darren and Brendon were also there helping Geoff out as well as doing some modelling themselves. The second layout was a new one based on an industrial British Steel works. It was small (end to end shunting) but full of detail. The Club members should all be very proud of themselves by helping out when needed and making the show a success, especially John Kennedy our Show Convenor who is giving it a rest next year. We hope to see a new convenor elected at the Club AGM next month.
I'll let the Pi reviewers go for another week, then if no further feedback, I'll make the necessary changes and publish the howto.
So some interesting things happening at the moment.
I'm receiving some good reviews of the howto notes I posted on the JMRI forum for comment. All very constructive. I'll leave it up for another week or so as some of the reviewers may take that long to go through them thoroughly.
I started going back over the various articles on how to put sound in the NSW 73 class. So maybe this week I might take the BIG step and start the install, but only after I am comfortable with what I'm about to undertake.
The weekend coming up is the Club's annual show so a busy weekend looming.
