Kato Automatic Crossing Gate

[KenS]

Mine came in.  The box is marked for Kato USA and is bilingual, but the manual inside is all Japanese.  Included are examples showing it set up for as many as six tracks using the expansion set (I bought one expansion set to make mine a double-track crossing). BTW, there is on the box a very clear English statement that it's not compatible with the older model. No surprise there.

 

Can anyone who knows Japanese figure out what the four switch settings described on page 3 do?

Update: Ah, I should have watched the Kato video Westfalen posted sooner.  They select four different crossing sounds.

 

I'm going to play with it a bit and expect to do a post on my blog later in the week, but once I get some pictures taken I'll post a couple of pictures here too.

[KenS]

Some photos.

 

BTW, the crossing operated in complete darkness (I couldn't see my hand, but rolling a car over the sensor activated it).  In the dark, you can see two faint red dots at each sensor (note that there is a sensor on either side of the crossing itself, on each track, as well as the two remote sensors per track).  It also operates even without power to the track; the wall wart power supply is all it needs.

 

Per the manual, you can add up to five expansion tracks to make a six-track crossing. I added one to make a double-track crossing.

[cteno4]

ken,

 

thanks for the picts. could that be the sensor in the center and then the two guys on either side (that glow red in the dar) the ir led?

 

kind of looks like the thing in the center is recessed so that it can only see vertically, but pict is small there.

 

looks like fun, cant wait to see a video of it in action!

 

jeff

[westfalen]

Thanks Ken, I was going to do a report like yours but you beat me to it while I was at work saving me the trouble.

 

One thing I haven't figured out from the manual is the diagram at the bottom of page two showing the leads from the sensor tracks plugged into the same side of the crossing.

 

A good feature is the volume control that will allow the bells to be turned off when you get tired of them by the end of the second day of a train show. The reset button may also come in handy.

 

I'm only having one problem, the gates on one side don't go all the way up or down because the manual slide switch seems to spring back before the mechanism has finished operating, I may have to have a look inside to see what's going on.

 

I have the crossing set up as a bridge between two T-TRAK modules and have been just watching the trains go round for an hour, it's fascinating. The next thing is to build the three double modules for it, the frames are hopefully being cut out as I speak. The station next to the crossing will be called Urusai-Fumikiri if my Japanese dictionary app is correct.

[keitaro]

noisy crossing

 

or shut up crossing :p ??/

[bill937ca]

noisy crossing

 

Videos indicate Japanese train crossings are usually more penetrating than those in other places.

[westfalen]

noisy crossing

 

or shut up crossing :p ??/

A tribute to a crossing a club member had on an N-Track module that got so annoying we cut the wires in frustration during a show once. The volume control should spare this crossing a similar fate.

[keitaro]

yeah hehe bill the Urusai-Fumikiri  means noisy crossing or am i wrong

 

though if i am wrong this is all just from memory don't blame me :D

 

should be able to load differnt sounds in.

 

imagine playing some theme song or something instead :D

[westfalen]

yeah hehe bill the Urusai-Fumikiri  means noisy crossing or am i wrong

 

though if i am wrong this is all just from memory don't blame me :D

 

should be able to load differnt sounds in.

 

imagine playing some theme song or something instead :D

 

 

The theme from Thomas the tank engine, there was a layout beside us at a show once that played that nonstop for two days, it drove us crazy too.

 

Here's a quick video of the crossing. Notice how the gates at the front don't go all the way down.

 

[linkey]

 

The theme from Thomas the tank engine, there was a layout beside us at a show once that played that nonstop for two days, it drove us crazy too.

 

 

That reminds me of Hobbyco playing the theme of Thomas the Tank Engine at their QVB store. But I have heard other exhibits with even more annoying/repetive sounds. Note for me: To bring ear plugs to the next exhibition lol

[KenS]

Mine's a bit different.  The rear gates don't usually go all the way down (sometimes they do), and the front gates sometimes stop halfway up, but usually go all the way up.  On both, pushing the lever all the way by hand and holding it there will make the gates work properly.  So either there's a lubrication or mechanical problem preventing the lever from moving all the way when thrown by the solenoid, or there's enough play in the mechanism that it won't stay all the way over when thrown.

 

I'll let it work in a bit, but if it doesn't clear up I may take the mechanism apart and try lubricating it.  Not something I'm eager to try, to be honest.

 

I don't really understand what the diagram on the bottom of page two is showing either.  I used configuration #1 for my setup, but haven't tried the other.  My final config is going to have two sensors on one side and one on the other on each track (like the right side of config #2 at the bottom of page 4) so I presume the positioning of the other side won't matter, but I haven't tested this yet.

 

could that be the sensor in the center and then the two guys on either side (that glow red in the dar) the ir led?

 

Yes, I think so.  It is recessed and as you can see in Westfalen's video the outer two glow while the center does not.

[westfalen]

I'm also a bit reluctant to take it apart, at least it's working at the moment so like you I'll let it break in a bit and see what happens, it'll be a while before I'm ready to start laying track on the modules.

 

I noticed when playing back the video that the glowing sensors are visible with the room lights on, they are not so obvious to the naked eye. There are screw adjustments for, I assume, the sensitivity of the sensors on the bottom of the track pieces. I haven't touched them yet because they seem to work well at the factory settings but when I lay the track I'll be drilling access holes in the baseboard just in case they need adjustment later.

 

For their next trick I'd like to see Kato do their signals with the new infrared sensors.

[keitaro]

i would be sending it back, my experience with these kind of items is you fix it once a month later it's happening again or something else goes wrong.

 

i would have expected it to work better than the previous but if it's not send an email to the store you purchased and send it back for replacement. it's not exactly cheap and the vids i have seen on mixi do not seem to shows this issue.

[westfalen]

the vids i have seen on mixi do not seem to shows this issue.

Odd that two out of the two so far reported on here do the same thing. I may send HS an email but what are the chances a replacement does the same thing.

[keitaro]

like you have said it is probably a simple mechanism piece inside loose or what not and it is possible this has happend during international shipping. no surprises there. still though you should just replace it as once it's opened up it's the begining of more issues.

 

this guy has issues too

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ip5FZnviCdY

 

though there are 3 mixi videos can't link cause you need a login to mixi that don't i'd says this issue is not mailing problem and more so bad manufacturing

[westfalen]

In the time it took you to make that post I fixed it.

 

See the photo below for a view of the insides. The spring on the shaft slows the movement of the gates to make them look more realistic. The spring on the lowering side was pushing the gates back up, I squeezed it a bit tighter and the gates now drop to horizontal with automatic operation.

[nik_n_dad]

Has anyone tried the crossing on DCC?  Does one need to do anything in particular to make it work with DCC?

[cteno4]

This new format with the ir sensors make this independent of the rails at all, so dc or dcc don't matter!

It's just the physical process of the train covering the ir emmitter and sensor to cause it to trip. Nothing to do with the power in the rails.

 

Jeff

[westfalen]

This new format with the ir sensors make this independent of the rails at all, so dc or dcc don't matter!

It's just the physical process of the train covering the ir emmitter and sensor to cause it to trip. Nothing to do with the power in the rails.

 

Jeff

I can positively confirm that. In the video I posted earlier it is running happily with DCC.

[IST]

Is it possible to use it as a station end crossing gate?

I mean if you have a two tracks station which becomes a one track line, and your gate is on the one track session, can it work somehow?

[westfalen]

Is it possible to use it as a station end crossing gate?

I mean if you have a two tracks station which becomes a one track line, and your gate is on the one track session, can it work somehow?

It should work, the diagram at the bottom right of page 5 of the instructions shows such an arrangement. You'd need a third sensor track though and it looks like you can only get extra ones with the double track expansion kit.

[IST]

It should work, the diagram at the bottom right of page 5 of the instructions shows such an arrangement. You'd need a third sensor track though and it looks like you can only get extra ones with the double track expansion kit.

 

Thanks for the info. Your reply will cost me a lot of money in the future. 

[westfalen]

Two Tomix #4033 Station on Flyover and two #4031 One Side Platform sets arrived yesterday so here is the first mockup of Urusai-Fumikiri to test how it all looks together. I may narrow the road to a single lane and have it return down the rear of the modules behind the buildings that will line the street to give the impression of the buses disappearing and coming and going from somewhere instead of turning back at each end.

[marknewton]

This new format with the ir sensors make this independent of the rails at all, so dc or dcc don't matter! It's just the physical process of the train covering the ir emmitter and sensor to cause it to trip. Nothing to do with the power in the rails.

 

So then it should be possible to use the innards of this N scale crossing to make a working HO scale crossing? Either that, or I have to find a website with recordings of the typical Japanese electronic crossing bells! 

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[KenS]

There are two LED/sensor assemblies built into the track at the gate, as well as two remote ones built into 64mm track segments and connected by wires.  There's no reason you couldn't cut those out. The middle ones connect to the sides via plugs built into the track segments, and the wires from the remote ones connect to sockets on the crossing track segments (and through the same plugs into the sides, I'd presume). So you'd need to do some work to get the wires and middle sensors all connected up beyond simply cutting the LED/sensor assemblies out of the track and putting them on HO track.  But I see no reason it wouldn't work. 

 

My assumption is that the LED/sensor assemblies have LEDs that shine up, and are reflected by a passing train.  While an HO train is higher up, waving my hand over the sensor about 2" above it was enough to be detected, so an HO train's height above the track shouldn't be an issue.