DCC - Electrical
Wire Marking
Got a major rewiring project on our club layout in my immediate future. Looking for an inexpensive, easy method for marking lots of wires under the layout. Writing on the benchwork won't cut it. I'm looking for a 'Write on a label and wrap around the wire" solution. There are several commercial products, but they seem a bit pricey. Current wires were marked with some sort of tape, but it has become gooey and the writing has bled into oblivion.
DCC Electrical Fun Part 2 - Using LED Assemblies plus a Track Plan Revision
This is an update to my previous DCC Electrical Fun post. While looking for what I could use for dwarf signals in the Union Station area (the ready made ones are kind of expensive), I found an item called an LED Assembly. They are essentially two bi-polar 3-lead LEDs in a plastic housing. They are a good size for N-scale or HO use. The first picture below shows the first one installed in the Union Station yard. The second is a diagram that shows how I wired the LED assembly.
Bachman decoder install
Has anyone had experience installing a decoder in a bachmann H-16-44. The split weight in this model really fills the shell so milling the frame is a must. It looks like the speaker will fit under the radiator screens but I like the fan detail, any suggestions?
Rivarossi, 3 pole motors and WOW Sound Decoder
I just put a TCS WOW Steam decoder in a Rivarossi 0-8-0. In short, it ran like crap. It herked and jerked down the track. Sounds nice though. It smoothed out on speed step 2 (of 28). I tried a variety of things, one of which I can't try is removing BEMF. WOW won't allow it. Suspecting the 3 pole motor, I hooked up an Atlas motor and it operates the motor as I would expect.
See a video of the motor control:
Programming Help
Hey everyone,
move been trying to program a few of my new locomotives. I'm using JMRI with a digitrax PR3 programmer. I'm using up to date software and just updated the firmware on the PR3. I have two MTH Yellowstones I'm trying to program and also two brand new BLI SD9's. The error I get is no response from locomotive. I'm wondering if anyone has any tips to get them to work. This set up has been working for every other loco, Digitrax, Bacmann, older BLI etc..
Realistic handheld diesel control stand throttle
The photo below shows the current state of progress on our ProtoThrottle, a realistic wireless control stand for diesel modelers. NOTE: we will be demonstrating the throttle at the St. Louis RPM meet June 23 & 24. Please look for the Iowa Scaled Engineering booth.
Controlling turnouts and Power needs
I am in the process of building my layout, still in bench work stage, but thought it was a good time to starting thinking about power. I currently have NCE PowerCab and the most operators will be two at any time. My layout is three levels, the bottom being the staging area. I plan on using Caboose throws here, unless someone suggests something else. The other two levels, i plan one using servos with Tam Valley Octopus to control them. There will be about 90 servos total. Initially I think I am going with push button controls mounted on the fascia, but at
How to set up the Engine Start - Up procedure in a Bachmann N Scale SD45 with Sound Value on Board
I Recently purchased an N Scale Bachmann SD 45 with sound value (factory speced Sountrax Tsunami and my first n scale sound equipped loco): The sound and effects are really very good: The info in the quick start guide is very limited as is the info on the Soundtrax website, particularly for a newbie to both DCC and Sound: I am trying to work out how to program the decoder to do the engine start up and shut down procedure as, with this model, as soon as you dial in the decoder number the motor sound starts on idle and ends with idle too : I have tried to Google help, also Bachmann, Sou
12 port prewired terminal distribution block/strip
Is there any difference in the 12 port prewired Minitronics Corp. PDB-1 terminal strip verses MTH's 50 1014 prewired 12 port terminal strip, other than price? I'll use 12 volt DC to power the strip for power to building lights, slow motion switch machines, etc.
Thanks,
Gary D
Capacitor not working. (Is it my soldering job?)
Hello all,
I installed a Soundtraxx CurrentKeeper to my locomotive the other day and everything was working fine. I could lift my loco from the track and the sound and lights would still operate for several seconds. Just as advertised.
However, last night it stopped working completely. At first I thought it might be the capacitor itself, but I swapped out the capacitor with a spare one by undoing the quick connection at the capacitor itself and plugging the new one in. The spare one isn't working either.
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