More Fisherman Islands Work

Today I went down to the shed after midday and thought I might get stuck into wiring up the NCE QSnap that I’ve had for quite some time.  The QSnap was purchased to control some of the points located at the farthest end of Fisherman Islands Yard.  These point motors at this location allow the controlling of the points at this end of the yard.  The entry end of the yard has been wired up and operable for some time.  So I connected the NCE device to the power bus and then soldered wires from the four Peco point motors (actually 5 – as 2 point motors are wired as a crossover) and ran the common from the point motors back to the common on each of the four outputs on the QSnap.  I then went on a trip to Jaycar as I had exhausted my wire supply.  Upon return I wired up all the other wires from the point motors back to the Qsnap and then gave it a bit of a test.  You could never have guessed it could you?  Two of the connections were wired back to front, so that was an easy unscrew from the terminals and swapping the wires over.  The two points wired together, threw in opposite directions, so I unsoldered one of the point motors (the one that threw in the wrong direction) and re-soldered this one up.  So after testing – I am mostly happy.  I am not happy with my dual gauge point at the end of the headshunt as it takes three hits of the accessory button on my controller to throw the point fully in each direction.  To say there is some sort of binding in this point motor and point, which also has a Peco changeover switch also connected, is an understatement.

I pulled out some of my layout documentation and found out that I had already allocated these 4 QSnap connect point motors addresses.  So I set the addresses and then found out that I had supposedly coded up my NCE Mini Panel that was located under Border Loop Crossing Loop, with all the commands to throw these points.  I have yet to connect up the wires from the control panel at Fisherman Islands back to the Mini Panel.  Maybe a job for next week. 

But I can throw the points by just entering an accessory command from my Procab throttle.  Just brilliant this NCE system.

It appears that I have two more push buttons to throw from the Fisherman Islands control panel than I have spare connections in the Mini Panel located underneath Border Loop.  So it looks like I will have to run three wires a further 25 feet, to connect two control panel button outputs and the common connection to the Loco Pilly Mini Panel.  I will then have to wire the common to these two switches and not to the common of the other mini panel.  Again another job for another time.

I have also made up a shopping list to go and buy the capacitors so I can make up another half dozen snubbers for the layout.  I have the resistors already, just need the other components.  I person who was more organised would have done this before going to Jaycar earlier today.  Oh Well, there is always next week.