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.
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