Presentation Preparation

Tuesday this week we visited Peter’s place.  We had 10 people in attendance and had good discussions on many subject items.  It was good to see Dr Peter and Grover at the meeting.

Again, I feel as though not much was accomplished this week.  I did get to the shed late on Saturday afternoon and added the last few pieces of layout fascia behind Fairy Hill Loop.  This was also painted black as well.  The other recently painted fascia areas, were also given a second coat of black paint.

On Friday I started planning for my presentation for the 2023 NMRA Rosehill Convention in September/October this year.  Yesterday I typed this into Powerpoint and mostly completed that task.  Today I spent some time adding supporting details and examples in the form of photos to the base presentation.  Tonight I will sit back to review the presentation and identify what else I need to include as examples.  This afternoon I completed my submission to the conveners of the Convention about my presentations.  Quite a few guys from our Tuesday Night Group have offered to present down there at the Convention.

I decided to take a couple of photos today and as such I have included some here. 

The new Fascia below the Cassino Meatworks section.  I must complete that building.

The recently restored to service phone system.  The call switch in on the white box on the right.  Once answered, the push to talk button is held in so both participants can talk and hear each other.

A view of the rear of the layout.  Both the lower Cassino Yard area and the upper Fairy Hill Loop section.

Meeting Day

This week I had Friday off and didn’t do much at all.  Had a late breakfast with the family down at the shops, purchased some clear plastic containers to put new projects in so I can keep everything tidy in the shed.  I also watched some new TV series in the afternoon with the family that we were catching up on.  Saturday was our local NMRA meeting.  Darren got dropped off by his boss in the AM.  We had a quick visit to the shed to show progress, and then I drove us both to the meeting at Ipswich.  We got there about 9:20am and then we walked to the local hobby shop Voglers.  Darren picked up some bargain ‘road rager cars’ among other items.  I picked up some very cheap styrene for more pallets.  Then we walked back and enjoyed a very long meeting with a huge number of people.  I recon there were about 55 people there.  There was something like 45 without the host club.  While at the meeting I picked up my Div 1 jacket and also an Onondaga Cutoff shirt that Marty brought back from the Amherst Exhibition for a few of his mates.  After the meeting I then took Darren home and then made my way back home.  We all had a quite a few laughs before, during, and after this meeting.

Today I went to the shed and cut up some more fascia material for the North Coast Control side of Cassino Meatworks.  This was installed, with the various cut-outs in the panel made for the NCE UTP, intermediate staff machine for Cassino Meatworks Siding in the section Cassino - Fairy Hill section, headset plug-in point, and level crossing cancelling switch for the Cassino Meatworks shunter to use when running around trains in the Meatworks Siding.  This new layout fascia was then painted black.

The amount of fascia to do now is very small.  It is a few small section on the rear (hidden) walkway behind Fairy Hill Loop in a seldom used and accessed area at the rear of the shed.  I think I am the only person that ever goes to that location.

I had planned to do some more Arduino testing this weekend, but I decided to do some other jobs.  There is always next week.  However, I did have to do a remedial NCE Consisting class with a well known NSW modeller plumber from south of the border who visited Brisbane quite regularly from Glen Innes, when he gave me a ring this arvo.  Happy to lend a hand, as you never know when your shitter might get blocked hey PK?

44s Dominate

So a slightly slower week this week with me being back to work.  I wonder when I can schedule my next holiday?  On Tuesday we went to Barnacle Bob’s and we had a good turn up.  It is great just wondering around his layout.  A recent addition were a number of old buoys.  One was in the creek mouth near the wharf and lighthouse, and a few others were up on the wharf, complete with a splattering of barnacles.  Our discussions on Tuesday evening turned to the Auscision 44 class models.  I was told by the Auscision guys a couple of weeks earlier that the locos were on the water.  On Wednesday we see that there was some posts showing that pallets of 44 class locos were here.  The next day I got an email advising that I was getting a delivery sometime between last Friday and Tuesday this week.  Given my luck I put my bet on Tuesday this week.  However, on Friday while I was working from home, the boss brought a package in.  It was 3 x 44 class locos!

On Saturday morning I raced over to the Club and handed out some models.  PK got 1 x 44 class loco.  Someone else got the last NOBY wagon from our 4 pack that we got.  When I got home from the Club, it was straight down to the shed and I put my 2 x 44 class locos onto the track, one at a time.  I tested that they ran on address 3.  I tested it by blowing the horn and then ran it up the track, back and forth.  I then used 'programming on the main' and set the first loco to its cab side address.  I tested that it again by blowing the horn and gave it a run up and back down the track.  One down – one to go.  I followed the same process for the second loco and all was good. 

I now need to work out what train these two new 44 class locos will be swapped into.  Nothing stands out.  I do need to move some of the layout’s newer locos (read that as recently acquired and DCC decoder installed) around the layout.  I can count about 6 that I have added since May last year.  These are mostly sitting in sidings around the layout.  I think I need to put these in loco sidings and identify where locos can be swapped, or even an extra loco could be added to an existing train.  The only issue with this is that most of the trains are currently limited by the length of the crossing loops now on the layout.

Yesterday I also tested up an iteration of Shelton the Photographer that will run on a DC layout.  Some of our Tuesday Nighters run DC and not DCC.  I won’t call out Arthur, Bob and Peter, but if they wanted a version of Shelton which would run successfully on their layout, we have one.  With the separate camera flash for each wheel on a loco passing Shelton, or if we install an Arduino version you can get one camera flash per loco.

Still Ticking Off Tasks

Monday this week I resurrected the old phone system on my layout.  I had to look at the various wires, and worked out that I needed separate 3V and 9V power circuits.  3V was to drive the LEDs to signify a call from the other phone, and the 9V was to run the phones.  I went down to Jaycar and picked up two resistors.  I already had a 12V .3 Amp power supply.  So I put the two resistors next to each other and then had a 3V and 9V take offs from the 12V power supply.  I tested as I went to determine if what I had thought would occur electrically indeed occur.  And it did.  My grade 12 physics is a few years old now.  I tested the call lights, and they worked from both ends.  I then conscripted my son to sit at one end while we both pressed the push to talk button in the handsets and Voila, it worked like it used to do about 10 years ago.  I had to solder a few wires that had some off their solder points but it is all working now. 

After thinking about the system, I thought I might need another light at each end, reminding the caller that they are calling the other end.  So I designed this addition to the circuit on Monday night and it was tested on Tuesday.  It didn’t work.  I worked out that it might need a bit more voltage in my 3V circuit.  On Wednesday I went to the Club and picked Kevvie’s brains.  He came up with the same conclusion as me and I needed more power to power the 2 x LEDs and go through the multiple diodes.  When I got home, I went down to the shed and boosted the voltage through the LED circuit for a test, using just a 9V battery.

On Wednesday evening I found a new power supply in the shed.  This one was 9V .2 Amp.  I then cut over from the 12V .3 Amp power supply to the 9V .2 Amp.  I spent a few minutes rewiring the power supply for the phone calling lights, to 9V, instead of the 3V they were getting.  Sure enough the call circuit was now working on one of my call circuits. 

Thursday morning, I went to Jaycar and picked up some more bridge rectifiers.  One was spliced into the other call circuit on the phone system.  That worked as well.  The system still works.  

Also on Monday I also bit the bullet and removed the Old Cassino Dairy building and cut back the baseboard at this location.  A good 150mm was removed from the baseboard that protruded into the narrow aisle at this location.  I installed a fascia on the new layout edge and painted it.  I also gave some of the areas that I painted on Sunday a second coat.

Also on Wednesday while at the Club, PK helped me check out a few locos in Decoder Pro.  We tweaked a couple of settings and some ran better.  One 48 class TRAX loco is probably near the end of its life.  Another 80 Class loco is very noisy.  I gave it a bit of an oil, but it seems to almost be in that same category.  When at the Club, I picked up the last 2 x D13SRJ decoders that we had in the shop.  One will go into my AR Kits 45 class loco and the other might go into another loco that I will be building out of old bits and pieces.

Most of the afternoon, was slowly disassembling my recently purchased (previous weekend) second hand AR Kits 45 Class loco.  I worked out how everything was wired.  Luckily a 3mm LED fits straight into the position where a globe was provided by AR Kits in the end light towers.  I wired up the front and rear headlight.  I always try and fit a cab light and I wired up the NCE decoder into the loco.  It was then put on the test track and it just worked. 

Later in the day I resurrected my initial 'Shelton – The Photographer' circuit.  It flashes about 6 times (for a 6 axle loco) per loco as it passes.  Not unusual for a foamer to blast off 6 photos in quick succession.  This circuit has been sitting on a test track for a couple of years.  Next to it was an Arduino with some circuitry attached.  I think that is my Rolls Royce version of 'Shelton - The Photographer'.  I went looking and found the code as to how it was programmed.  I gave it a test.  Hmmmm!

I spent some time checking my Arduino code.  I could get the camera flash to light up.  But I could not get it to trigger properly.  I jerry rigged a test circuit and sure enough the opto-isolator was working and firing off the photographer circuit.  I sat down and checked my collection of diodes that I had soldered up to transfer the train position from the track to the opto-isolator, and I realised that I had two of them soldered in the wrong way around.  I fixed that, and you would not have guessed.  The circuit worked.  This solution only firs the photographer off once and then waits a few seconds before it allows another photograph to be taken.  So I have four options to trigger the photographer flash circuit now.  I think I might take it to show and tell at the next NMRA meeting in 2 week’s time.  I’m sure the guys will get a few laughs out of it.  A few might implement it on their layouts as well.

Unfortunately I’m back at work on Monday.  At least I will have air conditioning in the office.  I still had a few tasks not complete from my holiday 'to do' list, particular the plastering around Rocla Sleeper Siding.