A Beginner's Journey Pt 2

[Marlin39]

This is from their website about paragon 4. I would give them a call if a paragon 3 is having no problems.

For HO, we built our GoPack! power continuity capacitors into the decoder. They are enough to provide several seconds of run time to get past dead spots on the track, but unlike external keep-alive type products, we can control the capacitors with software.

 

[Jacob Z]

This is from their website about paragon 4. I would give them a call if a paragon 3 is having no problems.

For HO, we built our GoPack! power continuity capacitors into the decoder. They are enough to provide several seconds of run time to get past dead spots on the track, but unlike external keep-alive type products, we can control the capacitors with software.

Thanks, that is good to know. I checked the website and for N it says "For N scale diesel and steam locomotives, there is not enough space to fit an entire GoPack! capacitor pack, but we have increased the amount of capacitance on our Paragon4 circuit board for noticeably more reliable electrical pick-up. This can be especially helpful through switches." So while it's not the full GoPack! it sounds like it should do better than it does currently.

ETA: I've had to repeatedly clean stretches of track that my paragon 3 navigated without a hiccup to finally get the NW2 to run smoothly. I suspect that if I can get a cleaner into the tunnel, it might solve that immediate problem. But I'm worried about what's going to happen when I lay turnouts and crossovers in my freight yard. I'll give them a call on Monday.

 

[Marlin39]

Thanks, that is good to know. I checked the website and for N it says "For N scale diesel and steam locomotives, there is not enough space to fit an entire GoPack! capacitor pack, but we have increased the amount of capacitance on our Paragon4 circuit board for noticeably more reliable electrical pick-up. This can be especially helpful through switches." So while it's not the full GoPack! it sounds like it should do better than it does currently.

ETA: I've had to repeatedly clean stretches of track that my paragon 3 navigated without a hiccup to finally get the NW2 to run smoothly. I suspect that if I can get a cleaner into the tunnel, it might solve that immediate problem. But I'm worried about what's going to happen when I lay turnouts and crossovers in my freight yard. I'll give them a call on Monday.

make sure the wheels are clean too

 

[Guilford Railman]

The area in question is in the back left corner where one track goes through a tunnel and the other passes over the top. Here's a shot from the rear and another from the left side, the best I could do given the lighting conditions. I hope it gives some idea. The gap is about 1.5". My thought is to hack out some of the frame there (with a hacksaw), which would gain me about another inch, so I can get my hand further in, and maybe I'll be able to reach with a track cleaner.

Plan B is to invest in a Bachmann track cleaning car. Also, this might be the perfect excuse to get a scope. Any excuse to get a new toy...

View attachment 232789View attachment 232790

I would say that making the gap bigger and allowing more space to reach inside is key. Trains seem to always derail in the most inconvenient places lol. Not to mention, if you need to clean the rails inside the tunnel, more space will make it easier.

On a different note, it looks like you ballasted the tracks inside the tunnel? I would say next time to skip doing this as there is really no need and it decreases the chances that glue or debris will get on the tracks in the hard to reach tunnel areas.

 

[Jacob Z]

Yep, ballasting those tracks in the tunnel was the first mistake I made way back on page 1 of this thread

I realized it as soon as I did it, experience being the thing you get just after you needed it (as I often remark).

 

[Jacob Z]

So I bought myself a flexible 'scope over the weekend that attaches to my phone (any excuse to buy a new toy...) and I was able to take a couple of shots of the problem area. Looks like some substantial chunks of ballast attached themselves to the inner track.

So now I wondering if I can Mcgyver something together to get in there with a rail cleaner, maybe attached to a stick, or if I need to buy a track-cleaning car.

Heck, I probably deserve a track cleaning car.

After that I have a couple of other problem areas to fix. One of them just needs track pins, I hope...

ETA: Guided by the scope, I was able to get in there with a needle file and dislodge the worst "boulders". See 3rd photo. Running better now, but not yet perfect. Still needs a run with the track cleaner car, I think. I was able to inspect the rest of the tunnel track, and it looks OK. I'm really liking this scope, if anybody is interested I got this one - I advise getting the dual lens model, which has both a forward-facing lens and one at 90 degrees - much easier to inspect the track with the latter. It comes with a 5m (16.4ft) lead, way more than I need but might be useful in other projects.

 

[diesel]

You need a Sperry track inspection car.

 

[Jacob Z]

You need a Sperry track inspection car.

I'm disappointed that Bachmann doesn't make its track cleaning cars look like one, rather than a regular box car.

And now I'm wondering if I can get a spy camera small enough that I can attach it to the bottom of a car...

 

[Jacob Z]

Looking the opposite way from the barn (pic somewhere above), I finished up the last corner outside the loop with horses and a wind-powered water pump. I got a new static grass thingy that works so much better than the old one that I want to go back and redo all the grass I did previously...

Now all I have to do is fill in the gaping blank space in the middle...

 

[Jacob Z]

I finally laid out the yard (and now need to ballast it). I also managed to figure out and fix the stalling problem at the entrance to the yard. (When I connected two of the turnouts, I somehow managed to miss the connector on one rail so that the rail ran over the top of it instead of inside it, if that makes sense. That created both a small bump and a poor connection, enough to cause the yard engine to stall at low speed. Fortunately I was able to lift up the two turnouts in question at the connecting point, slip the rail into the connector, and glue it back down without too much disruption. Lesson learned from earlier: thoroughly test the track before ballasting!)

Apart from the freight depot and a machine shop, I have an oil depot kit to assemble, and probably room for one more building to go somewhere in that large space to the lower left of the yard area. It will need to be something that makes sense as being near the tracks, but not directly served by a spur of its own. Maybe a lumber mill?

From right to left:

• Upper and lower lines of main loop
• A/D track
• Yard lead to the bottom
• Two sidings at the top, with a crossover to serve as a runaround
• Spur off to the top left where the freight depot will sit

 

[Jacob Z]

Just a small thing from the weekend. I had a couple of basic Kato gondola cars so I created loads for them from fine talus. I will probably dirty them up later to take the shine off.

 

[Jacob Z]

Soldering is an art. The more you do, the better it will be and the more you will enjoy it. There are a ton of 'how to' things on the web. #1 thing to remember - materials and solder tip are hospital clean. #2 is proper heat. Play around with the heat for awhile. You will get better.

L8r

I just soldered headers to a board (servo hat for an Arduino) and it went remarkably well, so I'm very pleased with that. A while back I bought myself a new soldering iron with much better heat control, which I'm sure was a big help. Net result, I won't have nearly so much trepidation the next time I need to solder something.

 

[insomniville]

I just soldered headers to a board (servo hat for an Arduino) and it went remarkably well, so I'm very pleased with that. A while back I bought myself a new soldering iron with much better heat control, which I'm sure was a big help. Net result, I won't have nearly so much trepidation the next time I need to solder something.

Heat is key. I was beyond terrible with the cheapo hardware store soldering irons. Then I bought a (still fairly cheap) temp-controlled station, and the difference was night and day. A good soldering iron is a must if you're going to do any kind of soldering; not something to skimp on.

I'm thinking of picking up a Pinecil and seeing how well those work. The concept of a nice temp-controlled wireless soldering iron is... tempting.

 

[Jacob Z]

Heat is key. I was beyond terrible with the cheapo hardware store soldering irons. Then I bought a (still fairly cheap) temp-controlled station, and the difference was night and day. A good soldering iron is a must if you're going to do any kind of soldering; not something to skimp on.

I'm thinking of picking up a Pinecil and seeing how well those work. The concept of a nice temp-controlled wireless soldering iron is... tempting.

I see it has an onboard RISC-V processor and embedded OS (why???), but no info about its power rating unless I missed it? Still, at that price it might be worth a punt.

 

[Jacob Z]

I made a control panel for my freight yard. It's far from perfect, but making it any better would require starting over, and I've made so many mistakes and prototypes getting this far, I'm pretty much over the whole project! (The blank squares on the right are for possible future expansion. The top two switches control lights and sounds from two of my buildings, and I might add more things that need similar control.)

For those interested in the process, and since the main reason for this thread is to document my learnings for the benefit of other beginners, I started out trying to paint a board using very thin masking tape to mask off the lines. Despite several attempts using both MDF and plywood, it looked pretty terrible, the lines not being quite sharp enough. Lesson learned.

Next I tried printing out the design on my color printer (having prototyped in black & white first), and laminating it. (I have a small laminator.) That worked better except I discovered that the color printer has a non-printing margin of about 1/4 inch all around, and it was shrinking down my carefully-sized diagram to fit, so instead of being 6" tall, which is the size I had cut my boards to, it turned out to be about 5.5". So then I had to trim the boards to match. Again, lesson learned: print first, measure twice, cut once, curse three times.

Then it was a simple matter of gluing the laminated panel to the MDF and drilling the holes for the switches and LEDs. Except then I discovered that 1/4" MDF is actually thicker than 1/4" plywood, which is what I had used in my prototype, and as a result the barrels of the switches were just too short to go through and get the nut on the barrel. Another lesson learned. So I peeled off the laminated panel, glued it to plywood, inserted all the switches and LEDs, and tightened them up.

Finally I tested all the LEDs because when you buy a bag of cheap LEDs from China, it's a fair bet there will be some duds in the bag.

 

[insomniville]

I see it has an onboard RISC-V processor and embedded OS (why???), but no info about its power rating unless I missed it? Still, at that price it might be worth a punt.

Yeah, that's kinda how I feel about it.

The whole RISC-V thing seems like marketing to me. the maker community loves RISC-V, so it makes a nice buzzword (when the reality is probably "it's a microcontroller that manages the heating cycles. Why do you care?").

It's likely to be fairly low wattage, and I'm skeptical about how long it will last for a soldering session when wireless. But as you say, for $25 or so, it looks like it would be worth a shot.

When I finally get around to laying track I'll probably buy one. Might be a few months though; I can barely manage to get a track plan started, let alone finished; I'm far too indecisive.

 

[Jacob Z]

When I finally get around to laying track I'll probably buy one. Might be a few months though; I can barely manage to get a track plan started, let alone finished; I'm far too indecisive.

Tell me about it. It took me weeks after building benchwork to settle on a plan, weeks to get from 80% done on the main loops to 100% done, and then weeks more to lay the freight yard. There's a thing where my brain doesn't want to ruin the perfect idea in my head of how it will turn out by actually doing it...

 

[Jacob Z]

Finally I tested all the LEDs because when you buy a bag of cheap LEDs from China, it's a fair bet there will be some duds in the bag.

Damn. I started wiring, and because I have little faith in my soldering and wiring skills, I went to test the first switch I had wired up and... the toggle switch was broken, locked in place with neither pole live and neither LED lit. Something mechanical inside must have failed. Fortunately I have one (and only one) spare switch. I hope it wasn't from the heat of the soldering that caused the switch to fail, because I'm likely to break a few more...

 

[Jacob Z]

Damn. I started wiring, and because I have little faith in my soldering and wiring skills, I went to test the first switch I had wired up and... the toggle switch was broken, locked in place with neither pole live and neither LED lit. Something mechanical inside must have failed. Fortunately I have one (and only one) spare switch. I hope it wasn't from the heat of the soldering that caused the switch to fail, because I'm likely to break a few more...

I'm starting to have second thoughts about the whole turnout automation project. I went to move the prototype that I built on a scrap of insulation foam and the turnout was broken, with one of the closure rails flapping around, and not closing with the stick rail. So now I'm wondering whether that was a result of my experiments with moving it under power. Maybe it's a result of when I was calibrating the movement and was pushing too far or too little; or when I was experimenting with moving the points prototypically slowly (which looks great, by the way) but means fighting the spring the whole way. Maybe it was just an unlucky coincidence.

Or maybe it's just inherently a bad idea. Although I don't know why it would be since it's not doing anything a store-bought surface mounted turnout motor doesn't do.

If I motorize the other points the same will they also fail after after some usage? It will be an absolute pain to pull up and replace a turnout once it's in place, I suspect.

 

[diesel]

If it's like the Tortoise ones, you can adjust the spring force, in addition to the travel. I've never had one upset a set of points.