7mm Heybridge Basin

[Richard Gawler]

In terms of tech, it's really simple, a Raspberry Pi model W drives the screen, a wireless PowerPoint pen type clicker advances the screens manually. The slides are a PDF.

Advancing the slides tells the layout operator what to do too, so the PDF drives the operator.

I have bought myself an ancient (Android 4) tablet and a budget presentation clicker. The clicker works fine with my Win10 PC, but not with the tablet. No great surprises there.

The tablet is too old to work with the Google Play Store, but I have managed to install "APK Pure" and this may lead me to useful applications for it. If I find a way to scroll the screen remotely, a sheet of Perspex across the screen would stop unwanted user interactions.

My gut feeling is, the Pi tied onto the back of a TV or perhaps a small CCTV monitor is a better way to go. I may just stumble upon some useful display hardware e.g. charity shop and then I can take things on from there.

 

[76043]

Richard,
My clicker does work with Android 4, but is a keyboard spoofer type, which basically says to the device I am a usb keyboard and I don't need drivers. If yours requires a driver then it won't work I believe.

This is my one.

KKmoon 2.4GHz Wireless PPT Presenter Flip Pen Powerpoint Clicker Remoter | eBay

Perfect choice for conference goers, teachers, orators, trainers, etc. to present PPT. 1 Transmitter. Wave length: 650nm. Radio frequency: 2.4GHz. Don't allow minors to use the pen unsupervised. Item weight: Approx.

www.ebay.co.uk

Tony

 

[Richard Gawler]

My clicker does work with Android 4, but is a keyboard spoofer type, which basically says to the device I am a usb keyboard and I don't need drivers. If yours requires a driver then it won't work I believe.

Tony thanks for this. My 'Vicloon' clicker looks just the same as your KKmoon one except it doesn't have the pocket clip. It is also a keyboard spoofing type, and it works fine with my Win10 PC. My tablet doesn't have any built-in support for an external USB keyboard, so I'll put these things aside for a while.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

I've just been reading over the last half dozen or so posts.

Rather than have manual clickers and flickers why not have a train occupancy detector at the end of the fiddle yard and when you run over it a the end of a move it advances the screen?

Or alternatively have a foot switch which leaves both hand free and avoids the potential need to play 'hunt the clicker'.

Or even mount the clicker/switch at the end of the fiddleyard and use the train/loco buffer to activate it at the end of a move.

 

[Richard Gawler]

I need to devise an operating sequence so I know what a display might show. On such a small layout, a deck of punched cards hung on a pair of rings might be just right.

 

[Osgood]

Hang on - if the viewers have to look at a screen to see what's coming up next, and the operator has to flick a bunch of punched cards to see what to do next (which should be the same as on the screen), wouldn't a better solution be a tannoy that all can hear?

"The next train to depart will be the......"

 

[timbowales]

Hang on - if the viewers have to look at a screen to see what's coming up next, and the operator has to flick a bunch of punched cards to see what to do next (which should be the same as on the screen), wouldn't a better solution be a tannoy that all can hear?

"The next train to depart will be the......"

Oh dear no! There's enough noise at exhibitions these days what with all the DCC Sound fitted layouts trying to compete with the crowd noise........
Grumpy Old Man mode off

 

[Richard Gawler]

I thoroughly dislike DCC sound - I have only one model with this feature and I need to turn it off within a minute or two. So no worries about this appearing.

The punched cards would be instead of a screen. There might be ten or twenty, depending on how much detail is worth displaying. No tannoy.

A part of me is thinking, all of the technology on show should be of the period - anyone for a steam punk display?

 

[Richard Gawler]

The colour of the water in the basin needs to reflect the colour of the imaginary sky above. Water is by far the more difficult of the two for me, so I really must have a go. Painting the backscene to tone with the water has got to be easier than the other way round.

My experience of modelling water comprises some solvent-encrusted string for an N gauge waterfall (not very convincing) and a modest pond in H0 (better). I have never tackled anything like this basin in my life.

Local knowledge tells me, the water here always has tiny ripples on its surface; it is never completely calm. I have done some experiments with a large offcut of rippled PVC sheet over intense blue-printed photo paper kindly supplied by Clyde Humphries of Magnorail Oz.


Experiments with different spray adhesives pointed me towards a light application of Gorilla brand glue onto the photo paper, a one-minute wait and then assembly.


Sadly the "real thing" did not work out - the joins in the photo paper and in the pvc sheet stick out like a sore thumb.


I know, used too much glue but I can correct this next time. I am sure this PVC sheet is a good idea but at the moment I am seeking a large sheet able to cover the area in one piece.


In the meantime, I have build a "cover assembly" to raise the basin to its proper height.


This is simply a sheet of black foam board braced with stripwood.


The foam board tucks underneath the edge of the basin. I will fix up the gap in the bracing if I think it is really necessary but a little flexing helps installation and removal.


The result looks so good, I might not bother with any water at all!

I mean, whilst the cover assembly gives me a space to install a Magnorail mechanism to drive some swans, I could equally well cut out the foam board to install a display panel, nicely angled for viewing.

The cover assembly leaves me about 1.5 mm to install a "water" layer of card and PVC sheet; but without these, a few shims will raise the cover tight underneath the basin edge. My options remain open.

 

[oldravendale]

Richard - you are not alone in struggling with this. Even the great Pendon is let down by the water surfaces, installed many years ago, being dead flat. The more recent installations are much better in this regard. In fact the water surfaces are about the only thing there that I can criticise! In reality I shouldn't do that either as the modelling is of a standard I could never achieve.

I speak, by the way, as one of the "Friends" so am genuinely enthusiastic about Pendon and have taken many people there over the years.

Brian

 

[Fitzroy]

Why not use ripple glass?

 

[Fitzroy]

Or rippled acrylic sheet?

 

[daifly]

Or water glass?

Dave

 

[Fitzroy]

Oooh I like that

 

[Richard Gawler]

Richard - you are not alone in struggling with this. Even the great Pendon is let down by the water surfaces, installed many years ago, being dead flat. The more recent installations are much better in this regard. In fact the water surfaces are about the only thing there that I can criticise! In reality I shouldn't do that either as the modelling is of a standard I could never achieve.

I speak, by the way, as one of the "Friends" so am genuinely enthusiastic about Pendon and have taken many people there over the years.

Brian

Me too - I signed up as a Friend of Pendon about five years ago. I much enjoy their newsletters; the museum is a tad too far from home to let me visit as a day trip.

I know what you mean about some of their water (this would have been five years ago), but even then, everything is so good I would be perfectly happy to do the same. If it would support Magnorail swans

My black foam board is sufficiently easy to work, I can cut out channels to take a Magnorail track, and lay oiled stencil card across the whole top. Supposing the swans get soft felt undercarriages, this will give me about 2 mm total between attracting magnets; and I know (from a car installation) this will give me good traction.

 

[Richard Gawler]

Why not use ripple glass?

Or rippled acrylic sheet?

Or water glass?

The choice of water surface appears sporadically in this thread. In essence, a sheet of glass thin enough to let Magnorail work is going to be too fragile, and a sheet of acrylic will develop track marks.


The rippled PVC sheet seems to be a good compromise. It's barely 0.5 mm thick and it can lay over a sheet of coloured paper to complete the finished effect.

Another idea is sheet aluminium - this cannot warp and won't need additional bracing. Some Magnorail installations have an issue with motor noise, and my present thinking is to build the mechanism onto a second sheet of foam board suspended below the cover. Foam board ought to soak up such annoyances.

Obviously the Magnorail compromises the choice of water material, but if I pull off the working swans I think this will give me more satisfaction than a more "finescale" (?) water. There are some thoughts on a swimming horse and the less ambitious swans elsewhere in here (search Magnorail, swans, water) if this is of interest.

Hope this helps.

 

[jonte]

I’m afraid I’m in the Gordon Gravett school of thought when it comes to the subject of ‘rippled/water in motion’ effect, which is akin to the dashing passenger on a model station platform, forever caught in a sprint whilst holding onto trilby hat for grim death.

jonte

 

[Richard Gawler]

I’m afraid I’m in the Gordon Gravett school of thought when it comes to the subject of ‘rippled/water in motion’ effect, which is akin to the dashing passenger on a model station platform, forever caught in a sprint whilst holding onto trilby hat for grim death.

There is no need for anyone to be afraid to say anything useful on my layout topic. I get pi$$ed off by peole who ask questions and can't find the common courtesy to even acknowledge my replies; and by snowflakes and sarcasm - but that's about all. I wouldn't put sprinting figures on a layout of mine but I think the validity of rippled water is worth a closer look.

For my three initial objectives for this layout:

• as a test track, the water is irrelevant.
• as a photographic diorama, the ripples are worthwhile.
• as a first essay in 7 mm scale, the ripples are a challenge - and I'd rather have no ripples than badly-modelled ripples.

But as an exhibition layout, goodness knows! I could happily leave the basin area as a plain black panel, like the flower bed. Call it unfinished, call it avante garde; but if the exhibition is to show off modelmaking then I will be showing the model trains I have made.

I seem to have LCD panels on the brain at the moment, but I do wonder if a small tablet could be embedded into the landscape in a smaller scale, and show a moving water pattern. Even starting and stopping and varying with an imaginary wind. Plenty of imagination, but sometimes insufficently practically-minded.

 

[jonte]

There is no need for anyone to be afraid to say anything useful on my layout topic. I get pi$$ed off by peole who ask questions and can't find the common courtesy to even acknowledge my replies; and by snowflakes and sarcasm - but that's about all. I wouldn't put sprinting figures on a layout of mine but I think the validity of rippled water is worth a closer look.

For my three initial objectives for this layout:

• as a test track, the water is irrelevant.
• as a photographic diorama, the ripples are worthwhile.
• as a first essay in 7 mm scale, the ripples are a challenge - and I'd rather have no ripples than badly-modelled ripples.

But as an exhibition layout, goodness knows! I could happily leave the basin area as a plain black panel, like the flower bed. Call it unfinished, call it avante garde; but if the exhibition is to show off modelmaking then I will be showing the model trains I have made.

I seem to have LCD panels on the brain at the moment, but I do wonder if a small tablet could be embedded into the landscape in a smaller scale, and show a moving water pattern. Even starting and stopping and varying with an imaginary wind. Plenty of imagination, but sometimes insufficently practically-minded.

Just an opinion, Richard, and just my opinion. No more valid or invalid than anyone else’s I guess.

One man’s meat ‘n’ all that

Jon

 

[John57sharp]

Richard I'm impressed with the idea of an electronic screen to represent water, with the development of thin screens this could be really practical. I was going to say flexible but thats no help in this application.
I'm also a big fan of black… I thought hard about a long thin model with just the trackbed modelled and the remaining board black to keep the focus on the trains.

John