No,
Nothing quite as spectacular as that. One of the commutators has come detached from the rotor -thus 2 of the 5 poles are U/S. It wobbles well -but of course will no longer rotate… I have also been doing some quick work with the HP51. I WILL need to step down the final drive to 1:16. The torque curve from the single motor is wrong for starting from a standstill. If I simply increase the voltage the ‘S’ motor will take off like a scalded cat -rather than smoothly accelerating to its final velocity.
I did however find my soldering iron -it was in the oven…
regards
ralph
Dude, your blown…but I like it!
Toad
Well as I sit here at the end of the wreckage of a day…
I suppose I had better tell you what I did over the weekend then… The shot below shows that some of the power and lighting wiring has been installed. The power is taken from two 6 volts SLA batteries arranged as +6 and -6 volt line feeds, (there is a reason for this!)
Above the piece of tag board there is the main power fuse (6 Amps) in the line between the two batteries on what is (nominally) the Zero Volt line. I have used the std EU colour coding for the wiring -which may look a little strange to US eyes…
Red and Black are negative and positive DC.
Blue and Yellow are DC lines of variable polarity -but always of opposite polarity.
Green and Orange are ‘0’ and ‘1’ TTL voltages.
The relays all use 12 Volts.
The Motor uses 0-6 Volts fed from a serial controller.
The serial controller is fed from a 12 Volt line.
The lighting LEDS are 5V and hence all use TTL.
When the loco reverses the relay flips the DPDT relay on the supply line to the lighting circuit and all the lighting LEDs that have been forward biased turn off and those that are reverse biased -turn on(!)
regards
ralph
Hi Ralph,
Not to be a smart alec but why did you need a relay to reverse your LED lighting? When I wired up my boxcab last year, I ran my LEDs on a single circuit and merely reversed the input for the reverse lights since the LEDs will only light up in the proper power orientation. It works just great for battery or track power though I notice on track power the “off” light may flicker a bit from the PWM.
-Brian
No -it is not a “Smart Alec” question!
The reason I am using a relay is the fact that the LEDs are all running from a 5Volt TTL line and if I simply connected them to the 12Volt line the voltage would swamp the diode effect, and they would conduct, (for a “short” while…) The ditch lights/stop light LEDs are a dual red/yellow LED with three legs and a common anode.
I also prefer to isolate and test individual circuits -which I can do very easily with a relay. You can feel a relay “clunk” something you cannot do with bistable flip flop chip!
regards
ralph
The morning post has delivered all the wheels required for the ‘S’ Motor. So on the kitchen work top there are eight 42mm wheels and eight 32mm wheels (2-D0-2). All have been supplied as seperate wheels and axles, (as requested).
The next job is the drill the axles on the 42mm wheels to take the 3mm bolt that will act as the “pin” to the pairs of 16 tooth sprockets that will be assembled around it. The 32mm wheels will be the wheels for the front and rear bogies. These will be of the “compensated” type with the compensation springing being a torsion bar and there will be no vertical springing. This will force all the weight of the loco onto the eight driving wheels.
This is the time that I really have to decide wether I want to fit an English type “instanter” coupling or a US style “knuckle”. There are pluses and minuses to both answers… If I fit an “instanter” then it is in keeping with the period and premise of a Colonial Railway and all my wagons and carriages will couple to it! If I fit a “knuckle” then I would have to build a converter wagon -but I would know that it was correct!!!
regards
ralph
Hi cabbage
That’s a tough choice make it real or make it so it can haul your exixting stock.
If it was me I would put the couplings the rest of my stock use so it can go into service after the shake down trial’s it’s that, or use a paper clip coupling untill you build a converter wagon.
They have the problem that 1/2 the time they are unsuitable for the train to be hauled and if painted a high vis colour so you can find it quick stand out like the preverbial sore thumb.
regards John Busby
Maybe a compromise - a knuckle coupler on the front end for show and a instant coupler on the back side for pulling your cars.
-Brian
At the end of a feverish bout of activity on a wet and windy Sunday Afternoon -don’t you just love the “English Summer”… The ‘S’ Motor now sports four completed drive axles and sproket assemblies. The axles were drilled by the usual trick of placing a scrap of plywood on top and drilling through that -to prevent the drill from “wandering” as it bit into the curved top of the axle.
The sprockets were step drilled up the required bore of 6mm and then fastened around the 3mm bolt with cross 3mm bolts. This gives a “cage” assembly that will rock slightly. The “take up” of the cage is damped by it having rubber grommets bear on the pin -sort of a “silent block” set up!!!
The following shot shows the ‘S’ Motor sat for the first time on its wheels -the chassis is not loaded with the batteries so sits slightly “up” from where it will normally stand.
Here is a, (slightly burry -sorry!), shot of the underside -showing the dual chain sprockets and the axles.
Fitting the wheels to their axles is now routine. As they are a “taper fit” you are supposed to either have to compress the wheels onto the axles with a press or a big bench vice. My method uses two reels of solder and a 5Kg sledge hammer, dropping the head onto the top reel from 1 metre height ensures a perfect fit first time!!!
regards
ralph
You know Ralph would like to buy one of those things from yeah, not that one but maybe a different model but I be shocked to see the price tag!
And my motor could never burn up either [:D]
Toad
William,
According to the spreadsheet -the cost so far is about £140 -I believe it should cost no more than a further £50 to complete. Most of what is required I would call the “frilly stuff”, as the bulk of the model is complete. I think I have done well to keep within my budget of £10 per week.
A typical Gauge 3 coach will cost you around £275 in pre built condition, a small RTR Gauge 3 loco will easily cost you around the £1,000 mark.
regards
ralph
This is sort of the “momentous” event…
The last drive chain has been wrappd around its sprocket and the motor “blipped” with a battery and it all moves -but it will need some oiling!!!
The chain is of the “self guarding” type and had a U shaped cross section. You have to bend back the wires to seperate the chain and then rebend the wires to rejoin them. This is not normally done without “words” and the "blood sacrifice’ as the ends of the chain are needle sharp…
Now that the loco sits on its rails I can measure up for the front and rear bogies. As I have said before these will be of the simple compensated type and will use torsion bars. The initial drawing is shown below.
The ends of the torsion bars will be held in “choc block” connectors, normally used for connecting cables -but the brass unions will be silver soldered to the sides of the bogies. The central “saddle” fitting is just a tube with a flat plate and the sides of the bogie pivot on M4 setscrews locked into the tube. The saddle sits “off centre” to make the springing of the leading/trailing axles lighter than that of the inner most axles.
regards
ralph
Have to say that is a smart chain to use there!
“The chain is of the “self guarding” type and had a U shaped cross section.”
Toad
The upload server at Virgin seems to have blown a fuse -so I am sorry all you have is a verbal report…
I have constructed the two bogies -as seen above -they are simply (at the moment) raw plates of brass with suitable holes in them -they have been bolted to the from Adams union and after a due amout of “twiddling” the spacing is as near as pefect as I can get it!
The LEDs have been wired up to the roof relays, the feed from the main power switch energises the fwd/rev and LEDs relay as well as the ESC. Thus there are no live circuits when the power switch is “off”. I will admit though that I have blown more than a few fuses this morning…
To counteract this I have built some balsa wood “shielding” to prevent the “whirly bits” comming into contact with the “sparky bits” -to quote my son!
The model is now ready for its paintwork, which will be “Fall Grey” and Black. The choice of the colour is not accidental, as this was the grey used for locomotive “portrait” photographs for early B&W photography. It is actually a slight pinky violet or lilac colour to balance the “blue” of normal sunlight.
regards
ralph
I would imagine that “SU” or “ROOT” have used kill -9 PID on the FTP server, because whatever the problem was -it has been removed! So, here at last are the pictures of what I have been doing over the weekend.
This is the side shot of the front bogie, you can see that the saddle has been bolted to the frame and the transverse springs provide the down force to keep the wheels in contact with the rails.
This shot is looking straight down the centre of the bogie. You can see the “nosing” springs that control the rate of shift of the bogie and the lateral pivot bar.
And finally a side shot showing the front and rear bogies and how the loco now sits as a 2-D0-2.
regards
ralph
Looks like a freakn tank now Ralph! You kill the motor again???
Toad
William,
The motor is fine, and I have returned the defective one for a refund. My son has reminded me that I have not posted the pictures of the lights in action.
This shows the white LED in its position in the top headlamp and the yellow LEDs lit i.e. the locomotive is heading towards you…
The direction is now reversed and the yellow LEDS now shine red. The other white LED can be seen reflecting off the splash tiles.
If you look at the drawing from the Henry Greenly book then the model and the drawing match. The bogies will move outwards once the batteries are loaded (i.e. it is then 2.5Kg heavier)
regards
ralph
It’s really coming along now. I wonder how much it will pull… I would bet it could pull a lot!