Skip to main content

Carriage Lighting

 Another great session at the West of Scotland Group yesterday.

Keith Shovelin treated us to an excellent presentation and demonstration on carriage lighting for both DC and DCC layouts,

Featuring Davy Dick's original Pocket Money Kit PMP 19 created back in 2015, Keith showed how this strip-board circuit could be installed in a 00 gauge coach with reasonable modelling skills. He did give the warning to try this on some old coaches first as disassembling detailed modern coaches does present some risks to the unwary.

For those using DCC an additional diode bridge circuit can be installed so that power can be taken from the track rather than the 3 volt button cell.


An image above of Brendan Harris's Pullman Coach (WOSAG)

To make it easier to place the circuit within the carriage, a surface mount version was designed using a board designed by Fraser Smith. This might also be suitable for undermounting and even on N gauge stock.

This is unlikely to be available as a kit because of the small volumes required, but I'm sure if enough people are interested we could at least arrange for the boards to be made. Looking at the size and with a minimum order of 10 panelised PCB's (12 circuits per panel) each mini PCB would cost about 20 pence.

If you are interested drop me a line on the comment form stating how many you might need and whether you want the button cell or DCC version and I will try and provide a more accurate costing.

Removing coaches to access the on / off switch could be problematic and latching reed switches were discussed as a potential solution.

A stay alive version using a capacitor was demonstrated very effectively on a piece of dirty track.

Even when the carriage was taken off the track completely the lights stayed on for a couple of seconds.

With commercial versions available at around £20 the MERG kit provides exceptional value for money.

Thanks to Keith Shovelin for a fabulous presentation.


Andy R

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Train sequence / timetable using Arduino

                              Following discussions in a MERG Zoom meeting about potential projects for the Cumbria virtual area group I have started this blog to share my ideas for building a train sequence / timetable system based on an Arduino UNO. The trigger for this project was Andy Robb's article in the MERG journal (June 2020 edition). In it Andy describes using an UNO with a OLED display to produce an electronic station display board.  Having tried out Andy's version I started thinking about expanding the idea and have come up the following list of possibilities: 1. Replace my card index train sequence with an electronic version. 2. Have the train sequence synchronised with the on platform displays. 3. Display an analogue clock on the station display and have it display the train times. 4. Store the position reached in the sequence so that it starts where it left off on power up.  To mak...
8 comments
Read more

Safety in the workshop

 An excellent presentation by Dr. Craig Lennox on workshop safety at today's West of Scotland area group meeting. An amusing but nevertheless serious video was followed by a detailed talk on safety and first aid. I am hoping this talk will be made available on the WOSAG website in due course. The take home message is to ensure your workspace is well ventilated, tidy with no trailing cables. Plan what you are going to do using appropriate tools, avoid distractions and don't rush A clear head is essential. Use PPE where necessary for example ear protection, safety glasses and laser glasses. The risks of burns, cuts, electrical shock and inhalation of dust and fumes were all covered in some detail. Automatic External Defibrillator (AED) are now installed in most supermarkets. A short video was shown illustrating just how easy they are to be used. Excellent talk.  Keep safe everyone.
Post a Comment
Read more

Mimic Points in Visual Basic

For this project, I wanted to create a moving graphic to mimic a set of points moving from one position to the other.  This Blog shows all that is needed. The first Picture shows the 6 lines needed.                                 This Picture shows the Line Properties.    The tracks are shown with 5 lines, though only the middle ones in red are involved.  The other line shown below the others is the one that actually "moves".  It is shown below the other lines for clarity only.  At the start of the Program running, it is positioned over the lower red line. In VB, each Line has properties and these are shown above.  To get a line to appear to move, all that needs to be done is to gradually change the X2 and Y2 co-ordinates of the line. This is the code for the program. The first 6 lines create a pause Function in the program, by using the Computers internal C...
1 comment
Read more