Coffee Shop XXXVI-2/4/2013


Well the visit to the doc went off well this morning. He checked out the usual things on the general exam plus I told him about something that's happened just with the last couple of weeks. I've been having nerve pain, quite severe nerve pain developing in my right arm and going all the way to the fingertips, making them very sensitive, so much so that just touching the fingertips together is painful. It feels like needles going into them. He's put me on gabapentin which is used for treating partial epileptic seizures. My mother would have been very familiar with this drug. It's also used to treat certain types of nerve pain. I'm not liking the list of possible side effects but they're no worse that those of other meds I already take.

allergic reactions like skin rash, itching or hives, swelling of the face, lips, or tongue
worsening of mood, thoughts or actions of suicide or dying.
constipation.
difficulty walking or controlling muscle movements.
nausea.
slurred speech.
tremors.
weight gain.

I'll just have to wait and see if it makes things better or worse. It may not work for me at all. The worsening of mood could be a real attention grabber! I'm not sure my native American temper can get any worse. It's gotten me in plenty of trouble in the past and has been known to clear out more than a few bars in my younger days.

No layout work today as I've been busy with some other things. Be back later.
 
Well, it's time for me to call it a night. See y'all tomorrow.

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jeffrey-wimberly said:
Well the visit to the doc went off well this morning. He checked out the usual things on the general exam plus I told him about something that's happened just with the last couple of weeks. I've been having nerve pain, quite severe nerve pain developing in my right arm and going all the way to the fingertips, making them very sensitive, so much so that just touching the fingertips together is painful. It feels like needles going into them. He's put me on gabapentin which is used for treating partial epileptic seizures. My mother would have been very familiar with this drug. It's also used to treat certain types of nerve pain. I'm not liking the list of possible side effects but they're no worse that those of other meds I already take.

allergic reactions like skin rash, itching or hives, swelling of the face, lips, or tongue
worsening of mood, thoughts or actions of suicide or dying.
constipation.
difficulty walking or controlling muscle movements.
nausea.
slurred speech.
tremors.
weight gain.

I'll just have to wait and see if it makes things better or worse. It may not work for me at all. The worsening of mood could be a real attention grabber! I'm not sure my native American temper can get any worse. It's gotten me in plenty of trouble in the past and has been known to clear out more than a few bars in my younger days.

No layout work today as I've been busy with some other things. Be back later.
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I don't know 'bout that med, but ya got to do what's best for you. Hope you get some relief without any bad side effects.
 
The RTR GP35 I spent all day yesterday on, started to do what sounded like something was seizing up or binding. Since I already figured out it was the motor, That's the next step. Tricky part is finding one with the hex drive fly wheels, as Athearn is notorious for difficult flywheel removal. Replacement from Athearn - with the correct fly wheel is $29.98 plus S&H. Risk is that it might not be any better than current one.

Have a good evening.

Joe
 
G'mornin'..

Gonna be a sunny and mild day here...high of 62F....

Welb..I had a wonderful day, yes't'day. Had the Oncologist happy..ever't'in' looks good, he arranged to have full bod MRI/PET scan thing done as well, for next week. Bloodwork was done before I went to Oncologist's...and a fine appointment with the Cardiologist went well as it should....so I be here to pester you guys ...still.
 
Good morning.

Well I had a productive evening yesterday, learned how to decoderize a Stewart F7A. Being totally ignorant I proceeded to disassemble the top plastic board, looking for what turned out to be a non-existent light board. Anyhoo I muddled my way thru it, and after 3 hours I had an F7A with a decoder and YeloGlo LED installed.

Having learned what mistakes to avoid, I went into the workshop early this morning to tackle the next one. Made pretty good headway, but I had to set it aside in order to address an annoyance several of us have to deal with: a daytime job!:rolleyes:
 
Good morning folks

It was a chilly 43 F this morning as I dropped the kids off at school. Our high today will be 75 F.

Off night last night. It was pretty quiet. I spent a little time helping my daughter respond to a couple of college coaches’ emails. Also my wife and she worked on a scholarship application. My son is still recovering from an intestinal problem he had. He went to school yesterday and came home exhausted so he did not make it to Boy Scouts.

Nothing planned for tonight at the moment. Of course once I get home that could change.

I hope everybody has a good day.
 
Good Morning!

It's overcast and 41° in Howell, NJ, wind chill of 34°, forecast calls for a slight chance of rain and a high of 53°. That's what they said yesterday, but the temperature never went above 46° all day. Not for nothing, it's supposed to be "Spring" :(.

I spent a good part of yesterday, disassembling a Athearn RTR RS3. Last night, I spent some time looking for solutions to the problems short of stripping it for parts.
I actually found some good suggestions, so later today I will try them. I also found a few things to try and correct the erratic performance of my RTR GP35s.

Have a great day!

Joe
 
Joe, many people have had good luck replacing the Athearn rtr motor with Kato HM5 motors. They are roughly the same price as the Athearns, but you have Kato performance when you are done.
 
Good morning. It's 73° with 77% humidity. It's cloudy and the high will be 80°.
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No particular plans for today. I may work on the layout later depending on how I'm feeling. I still have the nerve pain in my right arm and hand but it's not as intense as it has been. It's kind of funny that I don't like the sensation as for most of my life I haven't had much. I could easily do without it and I hope the sting continues to fade.

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bnsf971 said:
Joe, many people have had good luck replacing the Athearn rtr motor with Kato HM5 motors. They are roughly the same price as the Athearns, but you have Kato performance when you are done.
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Terry:

Thanks, I ordered one from MB Klein this afternoon.

From what I understand, there are two versions of the Kato HM5, with hex flywheels and without. The ones with the fly wheel are a perfect match for the Athearn RTRs with the hex drive. Unfortunately, the motors with fly wheels are currently back ordered.

Joe
 
WJLI26 said:
Unfortunately, the motors with fly wheels are currently back ordered.
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That's when I do something wild and crazy like glue together sections of different types of shafts to mate a universal joint to another type of flywheel. I usually do it so trucks with hex worms can be driven by a blue box motor with stock flywheels and I've done it the way around, that is a motor with hex flywheels driving trucks with blue box worms.
 
jeffrey-wimberly said:
That's when I do something wild and crazy like glue together sections of different types of shafts to mate a universal joint to another type of flywheel. I usually do it so trucks with hex worms can be driven by a blue box motor with stock flywheels and I've done it the way around, that is a motor with hex flywheels driving trucks with blue box worms.
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It crossed my mind to experiment with replacing the hex drive components with traditional drive and blue box motors (virtually identical). I'm gathering up all my resources (old blue box engines) to strip them of useful parts.:eek:

Joe
 
WJLI26 said:
It crossed my mind to experiment with replacing the hex drive components with traditional drive and blue box motors (virtually identical). I'm gathering up all my resources (old blue box engines) to strip them of useful parts.:eek:

Joe
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Don't be surprised if some of the brushes from the blue box motors don't fit the newer ones. Some of the old brushes have a slightly larger diameter.
 
jeffrey-wimberly said:
Don't be surprised if some of the brushes from the blue box motors don't fit the newer ones. Some of the old brushes have a slightly larger diameter.
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They are a different size - I took two out of a BB GP 35 and put then in to the RTR GP35, I was working on, the older ones in this case were smaller. Didn't matter, next is to cut off some of the brush, and see what that does.

I'm more perplexed by the RTR RS3 at the moment. I need to set up a DC test track and see what it does in DC mode. There are all sort of issues here, and probable cause including gear slop, power from track issues, mrc decoder, digitrax light board the list goes on.
 
Well I didn't get much done today. Some tools were put away. I considered whether or not to cut the grass but decided I wait until after the rain. Had dinner at my fathers place. Chili dogs. I have a pile of Atlas FP7 number boards, eight of them I think. I have no idea what I'm going to do with them. probably dump them in the junk box. I mounted inlaid number boards on the FP7's so there's no need for for surface mount boards. I also looked at some coupler height issues and I think I just about have that worked out. There on some old train set cars so it really doesn't matter one way or another.

We're expecting rain tonight and tomorrow, 60% tonight maybe 70 tomorrow, so we might actually get wet. Looks like the wind will be civilized.

Tonight I'll be taking the first full dose of the gabapentin. Had a half dose yesterday to get started. I felt all right today, still a bit of tingling but it doesn't feel like I'm trying to squeeze a pin cushion full of needles.

Time to call it a night. See y'all tomorrow.

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