Servoed

 Replacing all the old NJ International Snap Turnout Machines with Servos.

Lit! Turnouts installed and wired to the control panel.

    Last time I had just finished fabricating a disconnect cable between the layout and control panel. Next came installing this connector connection. This was much more difficult since each wire is a custom length between the connector and the servo. 

    Adding a disconnect cable between the layout and the control panel really created a lot of extra work for me. But I've gotten quite good at making a Lineman Splice!

The servos were mounted simply with a piece of Double Sided Mounting Tape. We'll see how that works out. If its a problem I'll use some sort of mounting bracket. 

    Spaghetti Bowl 2021. Servos only require 3 wires each for control and feedback compared to the NJ Internationals each needing 9 wires!  I thought the servos replacing the switch machines would clear up some of those wires, but those block occupancy detectors and street lamps have added quite a bit more wires.

    As each servo was installed and wired it was connected to the OctoIII for centering and alignment. I had to move the OctoIII from its original position since the plugs on some of the pushbuttons were resting on it.  But its still not right- its time to build yet another control center! 

I also added a steel ring as an anchor for the cable wires so should the cable get yanked it doesn't tear out the OctoIII.  I hope that doesn't happen, but should it, I hope it works!

I'm still fine tuning and working out some bugs with all this. But once that's done the turnouts will then be programed for DCC control. 

Yes Sir! Programed for DCC control!

Dandy

Control Panel ~ Cable Provider

 Constructing a Cable to Connect the Control Panel to the Layout.

A quick disconnect cable will allow the control panel to be removed from the layout to ease the transporting of the layout.

Recently I have installed the Octocoder and Singlet servo decoder and controllers to the control panel. Now I need to wire the controllers to the turnout servos on the layout. This is what this cable will be for.

This is the 37 pin twist-on cable connector that I'll be using for the cable. I'll only be using 24 of the pins for the turnout control. The remaining pins will be used for anything else on the layout that needs to connect to the control panel such as the on/off switch for the streetlights.

But first- I need to mount the connector to the layout. So I fabricated this wooden mount that will mount under the layout. The small part of the connector (center) fits into the hole in the mount and screws on. Wires from the servos (and anything else) connect to those pins. The larger part of the connector (right) twists on to it.

Now comes the fun part:

Soldering on the servo wires. But here's the problem. Whoever originally bought this connector installed the pins before the wires were soldered on (I got this connector second or third hand). So I have to solder the wires on in very tight quarters.

Dense. My first try I started with pin #1. But after the first row of wires were installed I wasn't able to access the second row. So I de-soldered the wires and started again. This time I started with the last pin and worked backwards. Which worked just fine. But keeping track of what wires are where is now a challenge!

Gold pins. According to the NASA tutorial I watched on soldering connector pins, the gold from the pins need to be removed first. Which I tried but failed at. But I'm not building a rocket ship- my layout isn't going to be exposed to the extreme conditions of avionics, so I decided to just leave the gold. A stripe of melted gold can be seen in the solder in the photo on the left. Hopefully this won't come back to bite me. If one of those wires detach from the center of the wire bundle there isn't room to solder it back on. Unless maybe I can fit my resistance soldering electrodes in there like this cool "old school" video demonstrates.

A Pin Designation Chart to help keep track of what wires go where. The turnouts are named (e.g. 1AR = 1st turnout, Block "A", Right turn) that coincide with their names with the Railroad & Co program. And where on the Octocoder the wires plug in to.:

And we got a cable! It's kind of messy, so....

Tucking the wires into this Split Wire Loom should make it all neat.

Much better. Let's plug it in...

Under the layout shot. Success- It's in there! But the cable is only half of it. Now comes wiring the receptacle. The servo wires will radiate out from here to the turnouts as they are installed. A lot of work that will never be seen. But it will be felt. Each trolley navigating its own route should be very cool to see.

Yes sir! 

Very cool to see.

Dandy

№ 9 ~ Guiding Light

 Adding Headlights

The prototype didn't have headlights but on models the headlights are a great way to determine if the car is communicating with the DCC command station without having to run the car out of the carhouse. And since this model has a headlight casting on it, I might as well add headlights.

I should have done this before I painted the car. But the decoder has all these features for directional headlights, so I might as well use them.

Tiny LEDs. I picked up these 1.8mm/2mm LEDs online. I had to trim the leads very short to get it to fit on the car. The body of the LED is painted black so that only the "bulb" lit up.

Black Blob. Soldering the wires to the short leads proved to be tricky. I burnt one LED attempting this. But using a needle nose pliers as a heat sink helped. Then I slathered the whole thing with Liquid Electrical Tape to prevent shorting.  Yes sir! "Slathered"!

Routing the wires from the LEDs down through holes drilled in the floor, superglued along the bottom of the floor, then routed up inside the car to where the decoder will be.

A blop of Micro Kristal Klear for the headlight lens.

"Happiness can be found

even in the darkest of times,

if one only remembers to

turn on the light."

Albus Dumbledore

Yes sir! Remember to turn on the light!

Dandy

Boulevard Streetlamp / Line Poles

Attempting To Build A Working Combination Streetlamp / Linepole!

 Well here it is, a fresh 3D print from i.Materialize. But this is only the beginning. This print can't be used on the layout because one: I believe the "Prime Gray" material would be too brittle for the tensions of the overhead, and two: I want these lamps to light up. So this fella will be the "master". A rubber mold will be made from this print that all the other lamps will be cast from. But I digress...

As detailed in a previous post, each of the 6 streets feature distinct line poles. The 1920s era street pictured above is to have Boulevard streetlamps that double as line poles. Right now I have temporary wooden poles that are planted beyond the sidewalks until the streetlamp locations and hole size to be drilled in the sidewalks are determined. But for now, the temp poles are fouling where the building are going to be placed. So these lamps have become the priority project.

 San Diego didn't have these kind of poles but our neighbor to the North was kind of fond of them. The Pacific Electric sported these kind of poles in a few cities. This one was in Long Beach.

The San Diego Electric Railway attached their overhead directly to the adjacent buildings, thus clearing the streets of unsightly linepoles. But I don't want to attempt to deal with attaching the overhead of my layout to model buildings. So I thought I would try modeling these Boulevard Lamp Post / Line Poles (I really wish I knew what these were called!) instead. Besides, they look cool! 

Years ago I fabricated a couple of these lampposts out of brass. But they were very difficult to build and highly time consuming. There are so many small parts that trying to solder one part melts the joints of the other parts. Frustrating. So the project languished until either my soldering skills improved, or I thought of a better way of building these, or some sort of miracle happened.

Well wouldn't you know? A miracle happened! In the form of 3D Printing! Building this lamp with a 3D program is WAY easier than building it with brass. And a lot faster. I modeled this with 3DS Max.

My lamp design is a hybrid of San Diego style Boulevard steetlamps and the Los Angeles linepole streetlamps.

I'm pleased with how the print turned out. The lamp had to be designed with the 1mm minimum thicknesses required for 3D Printing. But I believe the level of detail is just right for HO scale.

Now comes making a silicone mold from this lamp. This will be a new adventure for me. Yes sir! This will be a new adventure!

Dandy

#426 Project~ Energizing the Diablo

With the Diablo Mechanism firmly installed, its time to wire it all together.

I find soldering the wire to the trolley pole base a little tricky. The wire attaches to the brass bushing which inserts into a plastic insulator. The wire can't be soldered on ahead of time because then the bushing would be too fat to fit through the plastic insulator. The only solution I've come up with so far is soldering it in place fast before the plastic has time to melt.

The bushing is prepared ahead of time. First by roughing it up with a Bright Boy so that its clean and etched, ready to accept solder.

Then the bushing is tinned (hot solder flowed on). I had to keep it thin so it could still be slid through the plastic insulator. 

Then the wire is shaped and tinned as well.

Then I line everything up, add some flux and then hit it with the hot iron. Hopefully the wire and bushing will melt together before the plastic gets too hot. Remember to clean off the flux residue with some alcohol. Give the wire a tug to make sure a good connection has been made.

Each wire from the two bushings (double pole car) connect to one end of a Micro-Mini Connector plug from Miniatronics (50-001). The other plug of the connector connects to each pole of the motor. To help keep wires organized and out of the way of moving parts, one of the plugs is glued to the top of the motor (above), and the wires are bent accordion style. A rubber band secures the plug in place while the glue dries.

Testing the electrical connections is a simple matter of stuffing one power pack lead into the hole of one of  the bushings and the other lead into the other bushing. Give it some juice and (if all goes well) the car should roll across the work bench (which it did!). So now were ready for the test track. Yes sir! We are ready for the test track!

Dandy

Every Good Hero has a Side Frame

Installing Side Frames onto the Diablo Mechanism

Hollywood Foundry suggests a couple of ways to mount the side frames to the Diablo, but I'm going to go with soldering them on. Solder is good, I trust solder.

Ooh look at that texturing on those tabs! All that extra surface area will really help the side frames stick. I further cleaned and roughed it up with a Bright Boy.

Hot solder will really stick to this kind of surface. Flowing solder onto the surfaces to be joined ahead of time (tinning) helps make soldering easier and more reliable. I removed the cover plate from the Diablo and then tinned the surfaces of the tab and the side frame itself with a soldering iron.

 

After determining where exactly the side frame sits so that the journal boxes will line up with the axles, all I had to do was hold the two pieces together with tweezers and then heat the joint with a small torch. I could feel when the two pieces melt together.

 These side frames are on there solid. I never have to worry about them ever falling off. I cleaned the solder joints with some alcohol so that the flux residue won't corrode the joint.

Reattach to the Diablo and were all solid man. Yes sir! Solid man!

Dandy