SE8C
Computer Support
A computer is part of my model railroad. Why, and how do I use it? Well, the answer to the last question is “not very much”, so far, but I have plans. I recently had to re-do the monitor support attached to the layout, and I thought I’d discuss the reason it’s there, as well as the work on the support itself.
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June 2012 Status - What, its not June
Yeah, this is a bit late. I’ve been distracted. I’m throwing this up so I can summarize what did get done, before moving on.
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DCC Power II
The DCC Power work continues, but it’s still not done, as I have to do the power panels for the urban scene and the unsceniced return loops, but with the panel I built and tested back in September/October finally installed under the tables of the River Crossing scene, I’m at the halfway mark (having done the Riverside Station scene back in March).
To recap, the board contains a PM42 DCC circuit breaker that provides four separate circuit breakers and a BDL168 occupancy detector that can provide up to sixteen occupancy detectors and eight transponding sensors (see my pages on occupancy detection and the BDL168 for more details). This board provides occupancy detection for six electrical blocks, two each on the commuter tracks and one on each subway track where it loops below the expressway. Although I’m also wiring up the transponding sensors, as mentioned previously I’m having doubts about them due to problems in testing and the anticipated low power draw of my trains being borderline to register on them.
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To recap, the board contains a PM42 DCC circuit breaker that provides four separate circuit breakers and a BDL168 occupancy detector that can provide up to sixteen occupancy detectors and eight transponding sensors (see my pages on occupancy detection and the BDL168 for more details). This board provides occupancy detection for six electrical blocks, two each on the commuter tracks and one on each subway track where it loops below the expressway. Although I’m also wiring up the transponding sensors, as mentioned previously I’m having doubts about them due to problems in testing and the anticipated low power draw of my trains being borderline to register on them.
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DC Signals I: Kato
27 June 2011 22:22 Filed in: Electrical,DC
This is the first of what will probably be two postings about simple trackside signals for DC layouts. This one will discuss the basics common to the Kato and Tomix signal systems, and then provide details about Kato. Since I’m partly looking at the Kato to see if it’s a good candidate for modification for my DCC layout, I’ll have a few comments on that as well. A future posting will cover Tomix’s richer offering, which I’m looking at for use on my DC Urban Tram Layout (which will probably use the Tomix signals), although the four-color signal heads might be something I could use for my DCC layout (nobody in the U.S. makes a four-lamp signal of this kind).
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Scotty I Need More Power!
25 July 2010 00:12 Filed in: Electrical,Electronics
DCC doesn’t need to be complicated. At the simplest, it’s a pair of bus wires from the command station running under the track, with feeders connecting the track to it at intervals. I can, however, make anything complicated. Probably more complicated than it needs to be. It’s a talent.
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More Electrical Work
Rather than turning my attention immediately to the Riverside Station scene, I decided to get the electrical systems ready for the eventual use of the two “ground level” loops, which will require DCC. And that meant I needed to finalize my plans. And although most of them had been worked out last year, and revised (in my head if nowhere else) over the winter, there was still a bit of planning needed before I was ready to start cutting wire. This had to encompass the DCC systems (both power and the LocoNet control bus) as well as the various power strips to supply them, and some additional power supplies for eventual LED lighting. I’d started thinking more intensely about this while I was working on the wiring recently, but needed to bring that to conclusion and write down the results.
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Kato Modular Buildings
21 May 2010 19:43 Filed in: Structures,Electronics
Today I’ll turn my attention to what goes atop the scenery: buildings. There’s going to be much more on this, and I’ve created a Structures section of the website with its own index page to contain such material, but so far it’s pretty vacant. Today’s post introduces the first page there, describing Kato’s modular multi-story buildings.
Kato makes several modern six-story buildings that are generic enough to use in any city, although they also include signs to decorate them for a Japanese one. But what really makes these buildings special is that they’re modular, and while Kato doesn’t sell the floor units separately, you can combine two or more buildings to make some reasonably tall structures. Read More...
Kato makes several modern six-story buildings that are generic enough to use in any city, although they also include signs to decorate them for a Japanese one. But what really makes these buildings special is that they’re modular, and while Kato doesn’t sell the floor units separately, you can combine two or more buildings to make some reasonably tall structures. Read More...
