New Blog Link for Soundtraxx

Everyone, I found this blog by chance the other week. The latest posting has a section on the setup of soundtraxx decoders of the tsunami kind. It goes into setting up the braking sound linked to the action. There's also a fair bit about how to setup deceleration and acceleration. In older posts there's quite a bit of handy info, well worth a look I thought, have a great weekend!

Wednesday Now

Yesterday I got home a bit earlier than usual, had a bit of time to set up the train room/garage for the evening visitors. A photo about here has them all recorded, fine looking bunch don't you think? (well except for PK) I enjoy having the guys over as it does encourage you to 'do a bit more' whether that be a modelling project or work on your layout.

I'd finished all the track work and wiring of the first module and was looking forward to some feedback from the guys. They tend to have a fairly balanced point of view which I welcome. Apart from a cable working loose, all appeared to work OK.

The test loco was not however, surging and generally running a bit poorly. Some further work required on this one. It did seem to run over the trackwork ok, but would not win any scale running competitions!

I did get out the 13 Class loco that I'm working on. I'm having a moment of indecision in regards to motor access. As the kit is built the motor is effectively built into the chassis with no way of removal once constructed. I would like to be able to remove the motor to check on binding along the way in construction, and also after completion for maintenance.

So after some discussion the idea of inserting a grub screw into a spacer was come upon. A photo now to show you what I mean. On the right hand side you can see the wide spacer that runs against the gear, this is where I intend to put in the grub screw. By doing this I won't need to have the gear fixed to the shaft thus allowing me to loosen the grub screw and remove the shaft and gears. Yes, to replace the gear, spacers and shaft will be fiddly but not impossible. Interestingly I posted a comment to the Aus Rail Yahoo group and the same suggestion was put up. I find it helpful having a wider modelling community to pose questions to.

I really would like to move forward with this project as the sound decoder is waiting patiently in the parts box. On that I've set up decoder pro on the train room computer and it does indeed make the job of programming these little buggers a lot more visual, which I like.

That's about it, have a good one. No doubt those of you with links to the RMCQ mag will have an completely different view of events of the Tuesday at Geoff's, we wait in anticipation.

OHH Bugger... Tomorrow's Tuesday!

Yep I really can't believe it myself, the guys will be over tomorrow night. They are always polite (except PK) but I'm sure they are looking for 'progress' when they arrive. I don't remember when the last time they were over, and I certainly don't have a clue where I was up to with the layout at that point. So will there be exclamation or encouraging words to do more? The basis for the group is to get over to each others homes and drink tea and coffee... no, no that's not completely right. We do, but we do alot of chatting about our progress and what we're stuck on.

So, tomorrow I'll take a photo of the bunch, and anything that I may have managed to do since their last collective visit. Then a decent post should occur.

One last parting point, I did find out that the New England club up in Armidale is planning a Modelling Convention in November, 6 & 7 I believe. This is great stuff, the last one I went to was a very informative, well organised, and well attended Convention. I'll let you know more as it comes up. This spot is really about 1/2 way to Sydney, it's about 5hours from here, so maybe some NSWelshman should think about a northerly trek later this year. If I was in Sydney I'd most certainly give it some thought, anyway that's about it for now

...Damn! Tomorrow is still Tuesday!

Not much modelling going on...

The last few weeks have been fairly hectic. Time to sit at the workbench has been very rare of late. I have found time to go to a local hobby store and pick up a USB whatsit to go with the JMRI Decoder pro that I downloaded. I've read a fair bit of late about the JMRI system, and seen alot of what can be done with the system through a few you tube postings. So here I am with all the gear to set it up, and not much time to do anything with it. Well lucky for me it was really very easy to set up, a couple of checks with the Yahoo group for JMRI users and I was away.

I have a simple two function decoder in a 48 class diesel, it's always run fairly well in DC. The biggest outing it has is a weekend of circling around 'More' at Toowoomba Show each year. The rest of the year it really serves as a 'test' loco for the trackwork I've been laying.

The Decoder pro has been really very simple to use. It's made a huge difference to how a basic loco runs. I must be a fairly simple fellow as the ability to see on a screen the changes that I've made makes it a really simple exercise, fun even. I reduced the top speed by half, and moved the midpoint setting to about 75% of the maximum speed. Works a treat! It now has much better slow running. I also changed the settings for the frequency of power hits it receives, but that would be particular to your own loco so I won't bore you with that.

I am looking forward to actually finishing my 13 class loco with the 'light steam' sound decoder installed, then playing around with the settings, to get it 'just right'.

A short update for the layout now. The trackwork is done on the first module, switches for the frogs wired up, and working with the Modratec lever frame. The guys (Toosdy Niters) are coming to my place in two weeks to see what I've been up to. Boy! does that ever spur you on to get a bit done! Although I haven't had much time of late, and I really can't see it changing anytime soon. I haven't even had time to take a photo! So it's Gidday from me, photos next time, have a good one, Geoff.