RETIRED GUY PROJECTS

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Thanks guys! I don't like sitting on me arse too long as my back starts to hurt. Sometimes I bite off too much and let the project sit on the bench until I figure out a better method. My crane car is in a box languishing until I figure out how to glue acrylic better than it is going. That cement just goes all over the place and ruins the finish.

I watch Sam's Trains and Jenny Kirk's reviews since they take stuff apart. I take screen shots so I can study the amount of space and what I might be able to do.

I am tinkering with the idea of a battery powered O-scale loco. Hornby offers a bluetooth DCC decoder, which would make it easy. If the loco is too small to carry the battery, I am thinking a wired magnetic coupling and a freight car/van to hold the battery.

Then it'll be kick the kids out, lay the track and run the loco... haha
 
Got the tender wiring completed with a 10K resistor on the F0F side and the blue vcc. Used a blank n18 plug and ran the meter over all pads to check for shorts.
TEST BLANK.jpeg


While all checked out clear, I did find that the F0F pad isn't connected to anything on the n18 socket. Did some probing and found that the R1 and C1 pads are there to make that connection.
RESISTOR PAD FOR FOF.jpeg

MAPPING.jpeg


So, I need to move that 10K resistor off the wire and onto the board. I probably won't be using the C1.
 
Tested with a non-sound decoder and all went well, so in went the buku bucks sound decoder, assigned the F0F to F3 where the coal shoveling sounds are and gave it a go. Sorry, pic is a bit out of focus and will take another later tonight when it is time to run trains.
FUNCTION TEST.JPG

FIREBOX ON.JPG


Will be adding some crew as well and may lower the intensity of the light.
 


Thanks! I put some dudes in and will see how it lights them up.

Unfortunately, I'm getting used to sound locos, at least steamers. That'll add at least $100 to the cost of the locos. Am finding that buying a sound decoder later is an issue with getting the sound files.
 
Battery power ! My old dream. I'd love to run my Blunami equiped locos with onboard batteries. I hated so much wiring and soldering while building the layout. Also the endless burden of track cleaning, yerk...
But it will take long lasting very small and safe batteries.
 
Yeah, I'm not going to even try it with HO. I've seen the use of 3.7vdc batteries and a voltage converter to 12vdc. One guy used LI-ION batteries to get 8.4 volts and then convert up to 12vdc. He also used a Hornby HM7000 BT decoder and the 12vdc was enough.

Two 4.2 volt lithium batteries at 3000mAh (3Ah) should last about 5 hours with a .5A draw (which is a lot), which should be enough time. I have a few of these batteries that I've ripped out of laptops.

Dapol, the maker of the O-scale loco that I'm considering, told me that I may see .5a draw at startup, but should go down once moving. I'm not sure how much the decoder requires.
 


Kusojiji: I quit taking pix of screens - do a grab instead. If Windoz box, hold [windows key], then [Shift] then the S key. Screen will gray out and you can create a box with your mouse of the wanted stuff. Open Paint, then Paste - File: Save As -> JPG
Kusojiji.jpg

Have fun!

L8r
 
Last edited:
ctclibby said:
Kusojiji: I quit taking pix of screens - do a grab instead. If Windoz box, hold [windows key], then [Shift] then the S key. Screen will gray out and you can create a box with your mouse of the wanted stuff. Open Paint, then Paste - File: Save As -> JPG
View attachment 268000
Have fun!

L8r
Click to expand...
Actually, that's what I normally do. I just happened to have my camera in hand to take a pic of the loco. One track mind!! haha
 
P1K RDC-2

Got this thing in finally, from fleabay. It went slowboat and got here in 6 weeks. Must've been a rowboat.
RDC BAGGAGE END.jpeg


Anyway, the power bogie rattles like crazy around corners. I took it apart, cleaned it out, refreshed the grease and it runs like it has a dry bearing. I thought it was the drive shaft coming out of the motor end, but after moving the worm gear ujoint cup, it seemed to not help, but I did find a sweet spot. I even swapped out the bearings from the wheel set that I have.
BEARINGS.jpeg


I noticed excessive play with the worm gear moving fwd and bkwd, so I made a nylon shim for it. I had to drill out the hole and reduce the width by half. I didn't need fingerprints on my index finger after all.
NYLON SHIM.jpeg


Got all to fit, cleaned it out again, adjusted the ujoint and it'll have to do. Don't have a pic of the results as I was knee deep in the stuff.

So, while the body was off, decided to put the cabin lights in. Warm white light strip, rectifier, 4.7K resistor, 470uf cap.

Of course, I get 100% wrong in a 50% chance situation. I wondered why the light didn't come on, red is positive btw.
WRONG.jpeg


After correcting it, the body wouldn't close as I had missed placing the cap in the fan hump... So, fixed that as well and it looks good.
CABIN LIGHTED.jpeg


Next up will be tail lights and LED headlights. That'll entail drilling out the holes and inserting fiber optics. Definitely need to paint the seats.

MTF.
 
P1K RDC-2

Got this thing in finally, from fleabay. It went slowboat and got here in 6 weeks. Must've been a rowboat.
View attachment 268420

Anyway, the power bogie rattles like crazy around corners. I took it apart, cleaned it out, refreshed the grease and it runs like it has a dry bearing. I thought it was the drive shaft coming out of the motor end, but after moving the worm gear ujoint cup, it seemed to not help, but I did find a sweet spot. I even swapped out the bearings from the wheel set that I have.
View attachment 268421

I noticed excessive play with the worm gear moving fwd and bkwd, so I made a nylon shim for it. I had to drill out the hole and reduce the width by half. I didn't need fingerprints on my index finger after all.
View attachment 268422

Got all to fit, cleaned it out again, adjusted the ujoint and it'll have to do. Don't have a pic of the results as I was knee deep in the stuff.

So, while the body was off, decided to put the cabin lights in. Warm white light strip, rectifier, 4.7K resistor, 470uf cap.

Of course, I get 100% wrong in a 50% chance situation. I wondered why the light didn't come on, red is positive btw.
View attachment 268423

After correcting it, the body wouldn't close as I had missed placing the cap in the fan hump... So, fixed that as well and it looks good.
View attachment 268424

Next up will be tail lights and LED headlights. That'll entail drilling out the holes and inserting fiber optics. Definitely need to paint the seats.

MTF.
 
Well, after running it a bit last night, the noise is just as horrendous as before. Will be taking the power truck apart again and try running it on its own and an external motor. I put it back in its box last night before I got to the point where it would have become part of the wall.
 
Ok, finally fixed it. I had noticed that the axle gears were not fully seated on the idler gears, which were closer to one side of the truck chassis. The gears are not centered on the shaft with it being 5mm on one side and 6mm on the other. This photo is before I did anything and the way it was assembled with the gap that they left on the wheel to shaft, that would have put the gears in the center of the housing, allowing for about 20% contact.
MOTOR BOGEY GEARS.jpeg


So I took everything apart again, scrubbed it all and assembled with the correct spacing to get the axle gears to have 100% contact with the idlers.
Ha, I didn't take a picture of it. Oh well.

Anyway, put it back on the track and cr@p! Still noisy with a dry bearing sound. It made the noise on a straight portion of track and coasting to a stop, so I knew that it was 100% the issue this time. I had oiled the motor, or at least I thought I did. This time, under magnification, I put a drop on the motor bearings as well as the worm bearings. And, noise issue finally abated.

Now, I will move fwd with mods. Was about to give up. She'll get a good run in later.

Edit: that was short lived. 1 hour of nice, quiet running. Then the noise came back. I upped the viscosity of the oil to 85 and that ran good for another hour. Upped to labelle grease on the worm bearings and left the motor alone. Noise was back soon. So, motor it is. Will take this thing all the way down to bare frame, take the motor apart and clean it out.

MTF.
 
Last edited:
Kusojiji said:
Ok, finally fixed it. I had noticed that the axle gears were not fully seated on the idler gears, which were closer to one side of the truck chassis. The gears are not centered on the shaft with it being 5mm on one side and 6mm on the other. This photo is before I did anything and the way it was assembled with the gap that they left on the wheel to shaft, that would have put the gears in the center of the housing, allowing for about 20% contact.
View attachment 268529

So I took everything apart again, scrubbed it all and assembled with the correct spacing to get the axle gears to have 100% contact with the idlers.
Ha, I didn't take a picture of it. Oh well.

Anyway, put it back on the track and cr@p! Still noisy with a dry bearing sound. It made the noise on a straight portion of track and coasting to a stop, so I knew that it was 100% the issue this time. I had oiled the motor, or at least I thought I did. This time, under magnification, I put a drop on the motor bearings as well as the worm bearings. And, noise issue finally abated.

Now, I will move fwd with mods. Was about to give up. She'll get a good run in later.

Edit: that was short lived. 1 hour of nice, quiet running. Then the noise came back. I upped the viscosity of the oil to 85 and that ran good for another hour. Upped to labelle grease on the worm bearings and left the motor alone. Noise was back soon. So, motor it is. Will take this thing all the way down to bare frame, take the motor apart and clean it out.

MTF.
Click to expand...
Its never easy, eh? ;)
 


migalyto said:
Its never easy, eh? ;)
Click to expand...
Nope. I wrote to the seller and he said that he'd still take it back for refund. He even told me that if I wanted to continue to try to fix it, he'd still honor that. I thanked him and told him he was generous for that. I'm on the fence on whether to take him up on that after this next attempt. I hope it works. If not, I may try to remotor as I have two Kato HM5 motors lying around.

While I was thinking in my thinking room (guess where that is), I figured that I may as well continue to work on this. What else would I be doing? Looking to buy more stuff. I don't have any more room and this thing was cheap enough.
 
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