Tomix series 225-0 camera car set

[beakaboy]

Hi everyone , I have recently received the new Tomix 225-0 Camera car set and was wondering about how to fit a DCC decoder. I have a Kato EM 13 decoder as well as a Digitrax Z scale decoder to choose from. Any help appreciated. 

[chadbag]

What is the part number for this set?

 

being Tomix the wired decoder is more likely to be what you need 

[beakaboy]

part number is 5595 . Hoping someone has done a dcc chip fitting on same or similar chassis and can post some pics.thanks 

[chadbag]

Thanks for the model number.

 

Hopefully you can find someone who has done t or a similar unit.

 

It shouldn't be too hard to figure out, but HS does say this on their website about it

 

Quote

- About powered vehicles
· The power unit is a dedicated one with the board corresponding to the camera system mounted.
· When you add the power unit by the condition of the layout etc., when installing long, please be sure to incorporate an optional <0644> power unit.
* Similarly when using <92421> basic set B, be sure to replace it with an optional <0644> power unit and use it.

 

which would make me think a bit about what I was doing with it and why.   It sounds like the existing motor car has circuitry to support the camera in some fashion.

 

Good luck!

 

[gavino200]

Here you go. It took me ages to find it. It was buried in the "what did you do on your layout today?" thread. It's been a while but if anything doesn't make sense I may still be able to clarify.

 

Cut/paste:

 

I didn't take any pictures but I can describe what I can remember.

 

Open shell

Remove grey plastic cover 

Remove light board

Remove motor

 

Four wires to solder - two for pick up, two for the motor.

 

Pick up first

There are two springs to take current from the wheel trucks to the light board. There are two small metal dots on the other side of the light board that connect with the spring contacts on the other side. Solder a red an black wire, one to each of the metal dots on the topside of the light board.

 

Motor now

Remove motor. Remove the motor pick up springs.  Carefully solder a grey and orange wire to the motor pick up tabs. Replace motor. Use a tiny drill bit to make holes in the light board to pass these two wires through.

 

Dont forget to replace the drive shafts into the motor now.

 

Replace lightboard.

 

Using a tiny drill, make four tiny holes in the grey plastic cover and pass all four wires directly up from below. 

 

Replace grey plastic cover.

 

You will now have a motor chassis with four wires (red, black, orange, grey) exiting the topside.

 

Choose any decoder. I think I used a Digitrax. 

Fix the decoder to the chassis (tape or blue tac)

Cut the unnecessary wires (white, yellow, brown?, blue) at slightly different lengths ( so they won't short)

Cut the four remaining wires and corresponding wires from the chassis at a suitable length.

Connect corresponding wires by soldering. Make sure there's no shorting. You can used liquid wire to insulate the soldered section. Instead I cut the wire lenghts to ensure the joints would be in different locations. 

Tape the wires down to the chassis floor.

 

Optional: paint the wires and decoder the same grey as the chassis. Otherwise they'll be quite obvious through the window.

 

Replace shell

 

Enjoy.

[beakaboy]

sounds straight forward enough.Many thanks for your help. I'll get back to you if reqd. cheers 

[gavino200]

FWIW I also made a short guide to using the japanese text only iphone app. 

 

Here it is:

 

I played with the Camera Train today. I still remembered the controls somewhat, so I wasn't able to get as lost as the first time I set it up. As far as I remember I used a combination of google translate on screen and google translate "photo" on my phone to read the characters displayed as part of graphics. I roamed around all the options today and jotted down the structure of the program. 

 

These are the instructions for iphone use.

The grey shaded text (mostly at the bottom) describes buttons/functions that are unnecessary. You can ignore them.

 

Search app at the App store

Download and install

 

Place the train on the track

It needs to be either a CL (constant lighting) DC setup or a DCC setup

 

Go to your phone's settings

Go to "wifi"

Look for a "wifi" sources called "Tomix_Camera_Car_(then alpha numeric giberish)

Select it - there's no password

 

Now open the app

 

The home screen has two large buttons and two small buttons

I'll name these as below.

 

Large Left button

large Right button

small upper button

small lower button

 

Left large button is to access camera 

press it.

Then a new screen with two buttons appears

a blue button and a red button

 

Pres red to change the name of the camera device

It comes labeled by default as "Tomix_Camera_Train"

I didn't change it. Basically I don't use this funtion

 

Press blue to start the train camera

 

Another screen comes up that has a single red button

press the red button

Camera starts - Screen becomes cab view

 

There is a button on the top right of the screen  to record video

Press once to start 

Press once to stop

 

The first time you use record it you get asked permission to access the phones camera/storage

Press the button on the left for yes

 

Tap the screen to stop the camera

a screen opens with two buttons

Press the right button to cancel and continue watching train video.

Press the left button to stop camera

 

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Large right button is the video file management area

Scroll up and down to  select a video

 

The video plays when you press on it

The button on the right of the file name is to delete

You must answer an "are you sure" question before it deletes.

Left is yes (as always)

right is no

The deletion process takes a long time. I don't use it

Instead I manage the video files in my phones "photo gallery"

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

small lower button

this is a "Help" or "Instruction guide" for the app

Unfortunately it's all in Japanese

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Small upper button

This is the "Settings"

There are four subsections in vertically stacked buttons

 

Top button is a link to marketing material

Second from the top is the "WIFI" tab

Press OK

No clue what the two lower buttons are

Here is a picture?

 

The second button shows you the Train's Wifi ID

I guess so you can recognize and select it in the wifi settings of your phone as above

 

[jozasa]

I also got my Tomix 5594 camera car set a few days ago and it works beautifully! (once sorted out the japanese language of the app, thanks to gavino)

I've been using only the camera car pushed by one of my other locos. Surprised that the tomix couplers are of the rapido type, by the way.

 

Now I'd like to DCC the motorised unit (central car) so I opened it up to investigate how to install a decoder. Find attached picture

Seems easy, lots of space, but I wonder what are the little circuits shown  in the photo. Maybe something prepared for the interior lights?

 

 

Edited June 21, 2019 by jozasa

[cteno4]

Looks like a bridge rectifier and resistor. This would give constant polarity power from the track power.

 

jeff

[chadbag]

What are the markings on the small chip with the 4 legs?  (And on the other pieces)

 

[jozasa]

The chip with the 4 legs is marked B1010S. Googling around it's clear it is a bridge rectifier

Next to it, bridged between the plus and minus legs, the chip is marked 1M24, maybe a capacitor?

And the other one is simply marked "J". Measuring J with an ohmeter, as if it were a resistor, it gives around 6Kohm

Examining the PCB, one pole of the trucks is directly connected to the motor. And the other one goes somehow thru the chips

So I'm not sure what the circuit is meant for (maybe filtering the "CL" signal , constant lighting, for the motor?)

 

Anyway, I think I have to wire the motor directly to the DCC decoder, getting rid of the springs and therefore bypassing the circuits

Edited June 23, 2019 by jozasa

[katoftw]

If you are worried about butchering your motor unit. AmiAmi have them in the sale section for 2160 yen.

[jozasa]

Well, I finally did it and converted to DCC the engine car, using a Doehler & Haass DH05C decoder. I also attached a light to the roof of the car, so it can illuminate the interior of my tunnels, for the camera.

It doesn't look very neat, but it works beautifully!

Pics attached

[defor]

Is converting the motor car really necessary even?

I recently bought the 5594 and from what i can tell, the entire purpose of the "special" motor is to prevent the motor from starting before the CL feature has enough voltage dialed in to power the camera board-I.E. on a 5506, you set the ring dial to the point the motor stops moving, then the camera, as it has no battery, will never be short on dc power.

The camera board appears to be a simple light board as far as connection to the track, and as such, should work fine on its own on a dcc track from what i can tell as there's always enough voltage to keep it powered- if this is the case (I'll have to try it tonight), then there's no need to even bother with the special motor car- just use a normal tomix motor wired for dcc...

 

Did I miss something?

 

 

 

P.S. on another note- for anyone running the camera system on DC- I seem to have issues with getting the camera to broadcast WiFi if to 5506 is dialed to the speed required for no motor movement- instead, i have to set the throttle high, load the camera car onto the track, then dial down the throttle to the CL stop point (outer ring setting), and load the motor car on then... am I missing something?

[defor]

So, tested it this evening, and as expected, the camera car works great along with other dcc locomotives!

The only issue I see is that both forward and reverse lights are lit, but as they're run straight off the pickups, and DCC is providing an AC signal, this makes sense.

[beakaboy]

Finally converted my Tomix Camera Train to DCC . Many thanks to Gavino 200. It works a treat and have included a short video from recent testing. I had to extend my phones screen timeout as during video recording the phone screen would go blank after about 30 seconds and the recording would stop.  

 

 

[GeorgeHInch]

It's great to see other people have explored using on of these on DCC. I'm thinking about hunting one of them down for video on my layout but I'm curious what your experiences have been in the long term.

 

Does the camera car hold up on DCC without a decoder fine?

Did any of you guys off a decoder for the lights on the front of the car or do you let them both say on under DCC?

And finally, did anyone happen to take a  picture of what the PCB for the camera car looked like?

[Wolf]

Heya,

dragging this threat out of its grave, as I got two questions myself:

Did you run the camera car unmodified on DCC track? Does it stand the usually higher voltage of DCC?

Second, did anyone find a solution how to throw the output on a TV screen? Maybe some sort of "Android TV Stick" that I can run the app on?

Cheers

Stephan

[bill937ca]

Could you mount a wireless camera on a flat car in front of the train?

[Wolf]

I could but we want to use the Tomix one for looks