Going Japanese!!!

[Pauljag900]

They ll be here soon enough!! Ha ha

[Pauljag900]

Few bits arrived for the lake area,unfortunately I forgot to order the people to row the dam things

Edited August 24, 2016 by Pauljag900

[serotta1972]

You got a nice recreational area there Paul and it looks like a nice short walk for the town's people.  But it looks like they haven't arrived yet huh.  :)

[Pauljag900]

You got a nice recreational area there Paul and it looks like a nice short walk for the town's people. But it looks like they haven't arrived yet huh. :)

Well it s a new facility and word has nt got out yet,hopefully people will realise and start arriving later today!

Edited August 25, 2016 by Pauljag900

[Pauljag900]

That did nt take long!

 

[Pauljag900]

Hi everyone,last week I gave the whole layout a thorough clean,dusted,hoovered and cleaned the track with fluid etc.

There were a couple of places I had difficulty in reaching,the two far corners basically.Also I m having trouble wiring underneath due to bad knees and old age!!

Edited August 27, 2016 by Pauljag900

[serotta1972]

Hey Paul, so it sounds like you got the room. Good for you, you must've been really good to the Mrs. eh. You know what this means, you going to need more trains. We'll do some negotiations off line. Looking forward to your new documentary, I mean thread.

[Pauljag900]

Hi Junior,I think I may have misled you there buddy,no I did nt get the room but I adjusted the plan so it would fit in my shed.

I ll do my best not to make it a documentary !Ha ha.

Need a whole load of track first so it wo nt happen for a while,just planning ahead a bit I guess.

[serotta1972]

Ah, I wasn't misled Paul - I misread your post. I think that's a great idea, if and when I build a layout it will be very similar to what you are planning and be more modular.

[Pauljag900]

So after two weeks of messing about on anyrail trying to come up with a new track plan,I ve given up.

I just can t come up with a plan that I like better than what I ve got,so I've decided to leave it as it is and suffer the difficulty of cleaning it.

However,after seeing the harbour buildings on eBay my grandson has been moaning at me to make a seaside layout..so I ve come up with the idea of making a small layout using 183/150 radius curves to run the tomytec two car units on.It will be completely seperate from the main layout but will sit on rails in the middle of the two sides of the main layout.This one will be all hills/ mountains with very few buildings except for the harbour area.To remove it I ll just unplug the connections and slide it off for cleaning the main layout,also means I can bring it inside for the grandkids to play with at the table.It measures 136x70cm so will be very easily transported.

 

[cteno4]

You are mad Paul, utterly mad! Great little layout to suit a number of needs. Test the cars on those tight radiuses though to make sure they perform ok.

 

The little seaside scene is really fun and can get detailed up a lot!

 

Jeff

[Pauljag900]

Hi Jeff,

Ha ha,I hope you mean in a nice way Jeff

Edited September 4, 2016 by Pauljag900

[cteno4]

Of course, I was happy having company walking out in the mid day sun! Love how your layout has evolved over the last couple of years! You are mad of course as you now will be on a whole cycle of new layouts that will eventually fill the shed,mthen the yard,mthen the house!

 

These are great connectors to do up removable wiring. Can get them up to 12 pin. They are Hearty and very inexpensive compared to most connectors. The crimps are very solid without soldering but a dab of solder and thes are super tough. Not hard to pull apart and have a locking clip which you can always snip off if you don't want it.

 

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Sample-5set-2-8mm-2-3-4-6-9-Way-pin-electrical-wire-auto-car-Connector/32268760534.html?spm=2114.01010208.3.1.WuOriI&ws_ab_test=searchweb201556_0,searchweb201602_5_10057_10056_10065_10055_10054_10067_10069_10059_10058_10017_10070_10060_10061_10052_10062_10053_10050_10051,searchweb201603_9&btsid=62b4ca9a-3563-43c9-9448-49dd89670586

 

Cheers,

 

Jeff

[Pauljag900]

Hi Jeff,

Cheers buddy,appreciate the comments.

I need to get some connectors and these look ideal for the job.I need to be able to unplug the wiring to move the controller unit when I need to clean or access the main layout.Need to get some ordered as I m hoping the controller unit will be sorted this week and the wire should be here by wed or Thursday.

Cheers mate,

Paul

[cteno4]

Paul,

 

Mine took about a week to get here last time. Aliexpress stuff comes a bit faster than the ebay stuff from China usually. You can get these locally at times at auto supply places, but usually much more expensive. Electronics stores carry similar ones like molex but these can be a bit harder to pull apart and are mostly lower amperage (but enough for a controller).

 

Jeff

[Pauljag900]

Hi Jeff,

Cheers mate,I m just going to check out eBay now and also we have a car part outlet locally so will look in there and also an electronics shop a few miles away so will check them out too.I was thinking something like a pcb type multi connector? They come with about twelve connections on them,I ll see what's out there,

Cheers Jeff,

Paul

[cteno4]

Paul,

 

Yes the PCB connectors will work, but some don't have good contact area for an amp or two of current. Some are not meant to come apart a lot and can get loose after a dozen or so uncouples. Longer ones can be a fiddle to pull off.

 

Some of the molex connectors are good for an amp or two and are small but can be sticky.

 

I really like these spade ones I got from aliexpress. Nice action, plenty of current, and not too big but very sturdy crimp connectors up to 18g (could have done 16g fine, perhaps even 14g with solder).

 

Some of the auto and motorcycle connectors also have moisture seals on the that can make them harder to pull apart, so I've avoided those. I've used those for trailer lights and it's fine with 16g wire and a big plug to grasp easily and pull apart, but gets bulky for a layout and smaller ones harder to grasp and not yank on wires.

 

One issue is you can't tell how well the couple/uncouple until you have installed the pins in the with wire. Molex housings fit well w.o the pins but get very sticky at times with the pins in there! Attached wires also affect how the pins sit in the housing as well. Again these Spade ones seem to do better at alignment than the round pin ones.

 

Jeff

[Pauljag900]

Thanks Jeff,I trust your judgement so will get those you pointed out earlier ,or I ll stick with the plugable terminal blocks which I ve used before.

As you ve posted to me can you answer a question please Jeff? The tram that runs on the back and forth control board has a fair way to travel and it tends to slow down as it gets the the opposite end from where the power feed is,so I m guessing I need to fit an extra feed in at the other end,will I just wire it through the control board as I did the other one? Will it work ok do you think?

Thanks Jeff.

Paul

[cteno4]

Paul,

 

That's it, just voltage loss due to all the track joints down the long run! Best to do a feeder every meter or two. You can just keep adding them to track until slow ups stop, but with longer runs even while working now with time the inevatible oxidation that can occur in the joiners w.o a lot of coupling/uncoupling to physically clean them some voltage drops can show up later. On the current JRM layout most places we have drops about every meter. Over time a couple places show some slowing after like 3-4'years with screwed down track.

 

Just run another feeder down toward the other end (best if you put them both at about 25% from the end isolated sections) and tie it into the same place the original feeder does and that will do it. If it still slows in the middle add another one in the center.

 

Cheers,

 

Jeff

[Pauljag900]

Hi Jeff,

Thanks mate,I guess it's pretty straight forward really but wanted to be sure and that I would nt damage the control board.I ll probably solder the wires straight to the tram track as I can't be bothered to wait two weeks for a feeder cable to arrive from Japan,that's all I did when I soldered the diodes from the control board,

Sorted all the mains leads out today ready for the controller unit and got 100meters each of red and black cable coming on Thursday to extend everything to the controllers,should be fun!

Cheers Jeff

Paul

[cteno4]

Paul,

 

Yep that'll do it.

 

With 22g wire you can make your own joiner feeders pretty easily. Just take a unijoiner and pull out the metal track joiner with a pair of needle nose pliers. Then slip the stripped end of your wire (nicely twisted to be tight and you can even flatten it a tad with the pliers) into the bottom of the slot in the plastic part of the unijoiner where the bottom of the metal rail joiner rests. Then carefully slide the metal rail joiner back into its slot (do this for the side the insulated wire comes out of the plastic joiner) so the wire is under the metal track joiner (and thus the stripped wire end is now trapped between the plastic jointer housing and the bottom of the metal rail joiner). This makes quick and simple feeder, but it's at the joiners so have to build them into 2 pieces of track and they can get yanked lose if pulled in well.

 

For a really robust feeder I usually just take a desired track piece and using the dremel I cut a slot about 1.5cm long thru the roadbed just under the track to expose the bottom of the rail. Then I add a tiny dap of flux to the rail and tin a bit of the bottom of the rail. I the tin the end of the feeder wire and then put it in place in the slot and a very quick hit with the iron welds it fast. If you want super robust put a dab of epoxy over the slot and over the edge of the wire insulation.

 

I find this easier than soldering to the outside of the rail and it's all hidden, but you have to tear up the track to do the underside joint!

 

Cheers,

 

Jeff

[Pauljag900]

Hi Jeff,

That's pretty much what I did to be honest mate,only I do nt have a dreamed so I simply burnt a hole With the iron in the underside of the track to expose the metal then soldered the wire to the metal tracks from underneath.Not all the tram track is fixed down Jeff so no problems there.With not being able to move the layout I ve glued very little down,this reduces damage if I need to remove anything and also helps with the heat/cold issue with things contracting and expanding.

Another job for. The weekend once the wire arrives,

Paul

[cteno4]

Paul,

 

Yep burning thru works fine, just smelly, but the dremel flings plastic grit all over, so choose your poison!

 

Yes with the shed it will do that a lot with the hot/cold at least all the track joints can take up some stress from expansion and contraction when fixed.

 

Jeff

[Pauljag900]

So with the unit built to take the controllers and point switches,and with all the power feeds and point motor cables extended it was time to see if the plan was going to work

If all goes to plan this is how it will look when complete,

There s enough slack on all the cables to swing the control unit sideways and under the main baseboard out of the way and then the Center module will simply slide forward and off for accessing the main layout.It will be wired completely seperate on one mains plug so very easy to dissconect.

[cteno4]

When will the shed expansion happen? At some point it will happen, the layouts will push the walls out!

 

Looking good. Way to pack it in and then unfold well! Good planning.

 

Jeff