You bl@@dy bewdy!

On this National Day of ours, I am happy to report that the 73 class IS FINALLY FINISHED! Woohoo, hip hip hurray, and all that cheer!
I had to rethink a few things and make some sacrifices, but it now works to my satisfaction. I decided to remove the control boards from the cabin, but I retained the crew. My thinking on this was that you only see the crew anyway, so now the sugar cube speaker is blu-tacked to the roof near the cabin light. It unfortunately blocks the cabin light on one side of the cabin but no matter. I tidied up the wiring a bit better with the removal of the zip tie and replacement with Tamiya masking tape. This stuff is pretty good for more than masking up!
Some further 'collateral damage' occurred with some of the finer details around the buffers breaking off, but these are so small they will not be missed. The other thing is that in all of the recent handling of the shell some of the locking lugs broke off so the shell doesn't fit to the deck neatly and rise up a tad at each end. The only thing this cause is the marker lights might misalign to their lenses. Just a gentle push usually realigns them.
I also removed the stay alive capacitor as there just wasn't any space.
The sound may not be prototypical for the 73 but it is a German diesel fairly close to the general specs of the 73. Sounds OK to me, I've never heard a 73 anyway! 
So I might take it for a spin down at the Club at the next meeting day. 
The other thing I got around to today was to start on some of the other various kits I have to put together. The first was a simple MERG track tester. Done. The next project will be one of the Metcalfe kits of a signal box so that I can start progressing with Illavearf again.
Here are some photos of the newly finished 73 class.

Only thing different that went ahead was the zip tie was replaced with masking tape and the shelf on the front gear box was trimmed back a bit as it was bending down and hitting the universal.

Closer view of first photo

The temporary shelf at the rear is now permanent

 

7309 on the DCC Concepts rolling road with the cabin light on

 

Rear view showing numberboards and marker lights on. Shell slightly askew hence why the red and white markers are not lining up exactly to their lenses

Front view showing numberboards, headlight and marker lights.

One of the drivers in the cabin

The 'collateral damage' - cabin control board, stay alive cap and buffer end details

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.

On the workbench

Over the last week I went back to the 73 Class and started on the lightboards wiring again. This time I was trying SMD 0603 profile 1K resistors to connect the lightboard wires to the decoder wires to reduce 'real estate' under the shell. These seem to be doing the trick. I have also sorted out a problem I had with the 'Swiss mapping' of the additional Function Output CVs associated with the LEDs. So a couple of wins on this front. Hopefully this week I will continue wiring up the lightboard wires.
On Saturday just gone my Christmas present to myself arrived from the States (it was a late decision and thus a belated gift). A Bachmann Spectrum HO (16.5mm) Climax loco, some Tichy Trains Ore wagons and a Kadee logging caboose to make up a train. I know this isn't my usual prototype, but I have been attracted to the logging/mining articulated locos for a long time, so now I have one.
On the photo below you can see the loco on another Xmas present, the DCC Concepts rolling road, getting a run in.

My nemesis - the 73 Class!, and what did Santa bring

Let's start with Christmas and what did Santa bring, being the Festive Season.

• a handmade ply loco carry case (made by a bloke at the Club)
• a rolling-road from DCC Concepts
• a circuit board holder from Jaycar

I also was able to attend a running session at Mr Mackie's on the Saturday after Boxing Day which I was originally tentative for but circumstances changed that allowed me to attend a very enjoyable afternoon.

Now for my nemesis, the Auscision 73 class! While on holidays this week I have been able to devote some time in trying to get this sorted out. I started with the cabin light's 'Swiss Mapping' programming of CVs to a specific function button. I followed the instructions in the manual to what I thought was correct, but nothing happened when I tested it. Then I decided to tackle a headlight to see if this default function would work. After temporarily wiring it up, I turned the headlight on and 'poof' a small cloud of smoke emanated from the headlight LED. I thought this had been protected by one of the resistors on the light board. These lightboards a shockers! So now I will have to either solder in a new SMD LED (painful) along with a resistor by the looks of it and try again. The alternative may be to redesign the light boards in some bespoke manner. I am wasting too much time on this loco, so if none of these options work, I might have to concede defeat and just put a motion only decoder in it and not use the lights at all. This loco has been a disappointment from the point of DCC conversion.

On a different note, I noticed in my travels over to Mr Mackie's that a new electronics store has opened along Sandgate Rd, Virginia (in the northern suburbs of Brisbane). It is a mob from down south called Altronics. I might be able to source electronic components from them that my current store, Jaycar, doesn't stock. For example, SMD resistors in the 0603 package style. I might have to go for a look this week.

Before going on leave last week, PK lead me to the dark side. American HO steam. But not main or branchline steam, but logging/mining in the form of a Climax loco. I have always had an interest in these type of locos, and PK said these ones were pretty good and being on special, extremely good for the price. So I decided to pull period ore wagons instead of timber, and also ordered 10 Tichy Trains kits, and a Kadee caboose kit. Looks like more things to find time to make next year.

Along with those, is the continual interest in the Raspberry Pi and developments with it. 

2015 is shaping up to be another busy year, not only with my hobbies, but life in general.

Wishing all a safe and prosperous New Year.

Club Modelling Comp 2014

Before I get inot the post title, I'll share what I have been doing since the last post. The S wagon's display track was finished. I oversaw Lachlan finishing his model of Stephenson's Rocket ready for the comp. I did go back to the 73 class and discovered one of the lightboards was having a problem. Further investigation found that the headlight was not turning on when power applied when it had tested OK before. It would appear as though somewhere along this tortuous affair one of the PCB tracks may have internal damage. So I bypassed the PCB traces altogether and soldered the headlight wire directly to the LED. Presto it now works! Now I just have to wire everything up to the decoder, shoe-horn it into place, and pray that there is enough room with all those wires to have the shell engage with the chassis.

Back to the Club Modelling Competition. Well it was a reasonable turnout, with 21 entries reducing to 17 as a result of last minute withdrawals. Some very nice work done. But the best result in my opinion was from my son Lachlan. He not only won the President's Award for a mentored model, but also won the Rollingstock Minor category that was judged by three judges. He even beat me by a convincing score! That was a really big surprise for him, and he was suitably chuffed. Now he is planning out next year's options, many of which are grandiose, so I will have to be the voice of reason (as much as any Dad is to a 10 year old!)

Well done, Lachlan from Dad.

 So now heading to the Xmas-New Year period. Whether I get to finishing that 73 before the end of the year, time will tell. I would really like to.

Models progress and other things

This week I have been busy of an evening with either kid's soccer or sorting out my new PC. So not much time for modelling or mucking around with the Pi. I was able to spray DullCote onto my model S wagon over the weekend. So only thing left now is the display stand. Lachlan is progressing with his model.
Sunday I went over to Mr Mackie's place for a running session and gave his new Pi/JMRI system a workout. all went well with the Pi. Some issues with newer track sections, but all in all OK. A fellow modeller and blogger from Coffs Harbour dropped by for a visit and it was great to meet him. I have added Ian's blog to my list (Muswellbrook and Merriwa Railway). I will also add Shelton's, Darren's and Geoff's blogs, as I have been meaning to do this for ages. I will also remove some blogs that have been idle for ages.

Models progressing

Since the last posting Lachlan and I have been getting on with our respective entries for the Club modelling competition. Lachlan's Stephenson's rocket got about three coats of yellow via airbrushing and now he is onto the hand painting of the detailed bits. Coming along very well for someone who hasn't done much kit building. My model of the NSWGR S wagon is looking pretty good now. I'll post a photo once I have finalised the dullcoating of the model and have sorted out the display for it.

As for the voice chat software I am investigating for the Pi, I have sent an email to the developer re why my newer model Samsung isn't broadcasting but only receiving voice traffic over the private WLAN. Yet to get a reply. Other software like Asterix for Pi looks a possibility but is a full blown VOIP/Unified Comms program which might be too much for what I was looking at.

Last week I took leave from work to get out of Brisbane CBD for the G20 meeting. Last Sunday I took Lachlan down to have him focus on his model painting while I ran some locos that hadn't been run for awhile. Having the Pi now on the HO layout is a godsend.
I was also able to get to the Club a couple of times during the week between sorting through some home chores that needed to be done.

Wednesday at the club I invested time on the 73 class loco's decoder. I was able to solder the wires to the pads, glue in cabin crew, and install the cabin light. Only have to now sort out the wiring between the cabin lights, lightboards and the decoder itself now. Nearly there!
Friday was also at the club for a couple of hours. I took Matt my youngest down to run a couple of NSWGR DMUs (CPH/CTH and 620/720). I found that a 720 class trailer had a jammed up axle and flat spots had been 'filed' down on both wheel treads. I have subsequently sent an email off to Eureka to see if they have any spare wheel sets for this model, or advise an alternative.

Also during the week I received my MCP23017 boards from the UK in the post, so now I can potter around with how to integrate them with the Pi and JMRI (if it is possible). If it is possible to integrate with JMRI, my intention is to see how the operate as sensor &/or output/accessory control boards.