Electrical
More Wires
10 April 2012 01:35
After saying I was going to finish up the DCC electronics several times, I’ve finally made a start. There are two parts to this. The first is finishing up the remaining DCC power protection and occupancy detector panels. I did the first three tables last year, starting around January. The third was the first I’d done as a removable panel, which I wired up back in November. At the same time I’d begun the work of setting up a third accessory power bus, adding a switch and meter to the main panel. However at that point I’d stalled, with my attention off the layout over the holidays, and when I returned it was to work on buildings.
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Bus Wiring and November 2011 Status
03 December 2011 22:48
DCC is often said to simplify a model railroad because it requires “only two wires”. While that’s true to an extent, most real model railroads will require quite a bit more. Or maybe I just like to over-complicate things.
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Wiring Without Solder
11 July 2011 22:21
Well, I’m not moving the site just yet. Conversion of pages is going more slowly than expected, and there are more pages that I consider necessary than I first thought there would be. So I’ll probably have a few more posts over the next couple of weeks before switching over to the new software and hosting provider. However, for the curious I’ve included some jpegs of the new main page and one of the subordinate pages showing the new layout and navigation links in the Diagrams album (these are reduced somewhat by iWeb; the type used for text on the page is about the same or slightly larger than the type used today).
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DC Signals I: Kato
27 June 2011 22:22
This is the first of what will probably be two postings about simple trackside signals for DC layouts. This one will discuss the basics common to the Kato and Tomix signal systems, and then provide details about Kato. Since I’m partly looking at the Kato to see if it’s a good candidate for modification for my DCC layout, I’ll have a few comments on that as well. A future posting will cover Tomix’s richer offering, which I’m looking at for use on my DC Urban Tram Layout (which will probably use the Tomix signals), although the four-color signal heads might be something I could use for my DCC layout (nobody in the U.S. makes a four-lamp signal of this kind).
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How I learned to stop worrying and love the BDL168
08 March 2011 00:39
Well, perhaps that’s a bit strong, but I’m coming to terms with its design flaws and the poor state of the documentation surrounding it and the PM42. I now have the first set of PM42 circuit breakers and BDL168 occupancy detectors (with two sets of RX4 “transponding receivers”) installed, and have done a bit more reading over the weekend. I’ve discovered a few things and come to a few conclusions as a result of that work, and that’s making me feel that I have a handle on this now. But I had to work through a number of issues to get to this point.
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February 2011 Status - Occupancy Detection Revisited
03 March 2011 23:43
Work has progressed slowly this month, partly from distractions, and partly because I’ve been reluctant to finish up the block occupancy detector wiring. I finally realized that the reason for this was that I wasn’t happy with my hybrid approach to occupancy detection and transponding.
To recap, my Subway and Commuter loop tracks were to be divided into blocks, with Digitrax BDL168 occupancy detectors and PM42 circuit breakers (circuit breakers are typically one per track per table, whereas there may be two, three or even four detectable track sections on a single track on one table, and more in a couple of cases). The PM42 provides for four circuit breakers, which is a nice fit for the four tracks, and the BDL168 is divided into four independent quadrants (so each can be wired to a separate circuit breaker), each with four block detectors. I’d originally planned one PM42/BDL168 per scene, meaning that wires would have to cross a table boundary in the Urban and Riverside Station scenes.
And that was a problem, for several reasons. First, running wires between tables violates my “keep all wires except bus wires local” design goal (it makes the layout harder to disassemble), second while the BDL168 can support 16 occupancy detectors, in some places I needed more than four on one track, which broke the association of the PM42 circuit breaker element to a single track, meaning a short would shut down a second line. And finally, I wanted to do Transponding, and the BDL168 only supports 8 transponding sensors (using a pair of RX4 sets), meaning some blocks would be able to report which train was in them, and some would only be able to report that some train was present, but not which. None of these were fatal flaws, but they were eating at me. And I finally realized that I only needed two more sets (seven instead of five) to fix these problems.
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To recap, my Subway and Commuter loop tracks were to be divided into blocks, with Digitrax BDL168 occupancy detectors and PM42 circuit breakers (circuit breakers are typically one per track per table, whereas there may be two, three or even four detectable track sections on a single track on one table, and more in a couple of cases). The PM42 provides for four circuit breakers, which is a nice fit for the four tracks, and the BDL168 is divided into four independent quadrants (so each can be wired to a separate circuit breaker), each with four block detectors. I’d originally planned one PM42/BDL168 per scene, meaning that wires would have to cross a table boundary in the Urban and Riverside Station scenes.
And that was a problem, for several reasons. First, running wires between tables violates my “keep all wires except bus wires local” design goal (it makes the layout harder to disassemble), second while the BDL168 can support 16 occupancy detectors, in some places I needed more than four on one track, which broke the association of the PM42 circuit breaker element to a single track, meaning a short would shut down a second line. And finally, I wanted to do Transponding, and the BDL168 only supports 8 transponding sensors (using a pair of RX4 sets), meaning some blocks would be able to report which train was in them, and some would only be able to report that some train was present, but not which. None of these were fatal flaws, but they were eating at me. And I finally realized that I only needed two more sets (seven instead of five) to fix these problems.
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Almost There - January 2011 Status
04 February 2011 22:38
January went primarily to the backdrops and the risers/inclines of the Riverside Station scene commuter loop, and now the Riverside Station scene begins to come together. The tables themselves are not yet connected to each other or anything else, as I’m taking the opportunity to work on the wiring with them stood on edge, which is much easier than working on it from below.
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Building A DCC Booster
25 January 2011 01:45
It’s been longer than usual between updates. That’s partly because other things kept me away from working on the layout or this website (the layout is still apart awaiting final assembly of the backdrops), but mostly it’s because I’ve been spending evenings the last couple of weeks building and testing a DCC booster kit. I didn’t actually need another booster, but Don offered me one and it seemed like a good way to gain some soldering experience (which it was, although I had a bit of a scare when it didn’t work).
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Freight Trains, Electronics and October 2010 Status
01 November 2010 23:27
Not much got done on the layout itself in October, mostly I’ve been running trains (as documented in an earlier post with a video) and doing a bit of electrical work (mostly the previously noted update to the power panel). I’ve spent a good bit of time on a couple of other things though.
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Adding a DCC Meter, And Related Topics
22 October 2010 00:54
Although I wrote about the power panel previously, there were a couple of things left undone. I was missing one of the ammeters for the lighting power (the store I get them from had run out), and I’d misplaced one of my LNRP LocoNet Repeater panels, so I’d substituted a UP5 panel I took off the old HO layout. Also, I’d realized that my portable RRampMeter DCC volt/amp meter was useful, but wiring it into the system when I wanted to check something was a real nuisance. Over the summer I bought or found the missing bits, and finally decided to order a new RRampMeter (the version without the nice case) to mount as a permanent part of the circuitry (I’m keeping my other meter--the one with the case--for workbench and other testing uses). So it’s a good time to summarize what the panel does, and talk about the new meter a bit.
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Track Voltage, Motor Voltage, and DCC
22 August 2010 19:38
As I’m finishing up the wiring for the two upper-level loops (one of which will be DCC-only, the other will be the switchable DC/DCC line), I’m also getting my DCC electronics set up and ready for use. There are several aspects to this, and I’ll cover others in future musings. But today I’m going to write about track and motor voltage. I could have just used the command station as it came, and it probably would have worked fine. But I like understanding exactly what’s going on under the hood, and so I ran a number of tests and spent some time researching what the track voltage should be, and why, and what that meant for the motor on a train. And if I ever add a booster, it will be important for it and the command station to be set to output the same voltage (this avoids problems when a train bridges between two power districts), so I may as well pick a voltage now.
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July 2010 Status - Behind the Scenes
02 August 2010 01:05
Much of July went to more electrical work, partly planning, but mostly just crimping spade lugs to wires. Around 200 of them this month. There are now a total of six bus wire pairs beneath the tables: two for DCC (command station and future booster), two for the two tracks of the outer (Rapid/Shinkansen) loop, which will be switchable from DC to DCC, and one each for DCC accessory power and the Occupancy Detector & Signaling systems. I also wired up the control panel for the power.
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Scotty I Need More Power!
25 July 2010 00:12
DCC doesn’t need to be complicated. At the simplest, it’s a pair of bus wires from the command station running under the track, with feeders connecting the track to it at intervals. I can, however, make anything complicated. Probably more complicated than it needs to be. It’s a talent.
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More Electrical Work
20 June 2010 23:16
Rather than turning my attention immediately to the Riverside Station scene, I decided to get the electrical systems ready for the eventual use of the two “ground level” loops, which will require DCC. And that meant I needed to finalize my plans. And although most of them had been worked out last year, and revised (in my head if nowhere else) over the winter, there was still a bit of planning needed before I was ready to start cutting wire. This had to encompass the DCC systems (both power and the LocoNet control bus) as well as the various power strips to supply them, and some additional power supplies for eventual LED lighting. I’d started thinking more intensely about this while I was working on the wiring recently, but needed to bring that to conclusion and write down the results.
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Subway Track Cleanup, Etc.
07 June 2010 00:32
This weekend went largely to the beginning of the final (I hope) laying of the subway track, which has been in place, in whole or in part, through more than six months of construction. As a result, it has gotten a bit dirty. All track was pulled up, cleaned with isopropyl alcohol on a cotton pad, and relaid. At the same time, insulated unijoiners (black, in the photo above) were inserted to divide the track into electrical blocks (for power feeds and future occupancy detectors) and power feeds were wired up to terminal strips under the table. I didn’t get it all done, perhaps a bit more than half, but I should be able to finish it during the week and run trains by next weekend.
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May 2010 Status - Carving Foam
31 May 2010 23:31
Time marches on, but it seems to be crawling on the banks of the Sumida. The hillside covering the subway has made little apparent progress over the last month, going from squarish blocks of pink foam to carved, but still pink, sections, which only just received a first coat of primer (and have yet to be glued in place).
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March 2010 Status - An Urban Station, almost
04 April 2010 01:01
Another month, and it seems like there isn’t much to show for it. That’s somewhat deceptive as many things have been accomplished, but nothing has been finished, and that makes it seem like less was done. I’ve covered most of this already, so I’ll quickly summarize the work. Read More...
January 2010 Status - Planning the Upper Level
30 January 2010 22:34
This month was spent thinking about the track that will go on the upper (ground) level, above the subway. I never actually did finish wiring up the subway loop (although I can run trains on it using DC, they get a bit slow on the opposite side of the loop from the powerpack; rail is a poor conductor of electricity). Read More...
What Color Is My Light?
05 January 2010 01:02
Lighting the layout isn’t something I’d expected to spend a lot of time on. I had existing lights that worked on my old layout, and I planned to continue using them. Initial experiences, and some problems with color accuracy in photographs, led me to do more investigation, and to ultimately change my plans. Read More...
December 2009 Status - Subway Track in Place
31 December 2009 01:55
The subway level track is nearly complete, with the underlying foam and cork glued down, and the Unitrack in place. Read More...
September 2009 Status
29 September 2009 02:58
The tables (phase 1, excluding the end section with the helix) are all assembled and mounted to the legs, with scenery backdrops and paint. That’s taken more than a month (after a couple of months of planning, mostly deciding on a track plan). I’m still in the design phase for the electrical systems. After some experiments with foam height and bridges, the design of the subway (and its implications for how many foam layers I will use) is done (I hope). Read More...
