Jordan
Mid-Western Thunderer
CV8 decoder reset?
Mickoo's American Modelling Empire
- Thread starter mickoo
- Start date
richard carr
Western Thunderer
I've done that several times, its not doing any good.
I have a CP one as well that seems to be OK so I'm going to load that in next.
I have a CP one as well that seems to be OK so I'm going to load that in next.
mickoo
Western Thunderer
I've had that happen several times, the uploading seems a bit flaky at best and sometimes it'll upload only part of it and the rest gets stuffed, I usually have a default ESU file that I drop in and then start again with that, so make a note of any changes as you go along in case you need to do that.
mickoo
Western Thunderer
Handy having a model shop with a good DCC section just down the road, expensive too, second chip purchased and installed, rather than chopping off the NMRA plug I grabbed some sockets, makes it all so much easier and I fold the cables back along the chip and tape up, I've found just the flexing during install can sometimes break the thin wires right next to the solder pad on the chip.
Loaded a new base file in, uploaded sounds and known good motor mapping and off we went, sounds fine, runs well but again the LEDs are always on. Decided to take everything out of the mapping and
the LEDs are on as soon as you select the engine, lights on/off, direction, nothing changes, they're just on, if I add them back in the mapping then they get brighter with lights on and direction, but never go off.
For reference and a cross check, LED wiring, the middle (power) is from the U+ (blue) cable and feeds two 1K resistors in parallel, originally only one per leg, in fact adding the second seems to make them stay on even brighter, sometimes they will flicker and occasionally go off but then flicker back on when mapping applied.
Resistors are added to the + leg of the LED but I'm wondering if they might work better on the - side and help drag down the transistor to turn it off. I can understand why ESU switch the neutral (less current, smaller components) but as I often found on container cranes, sometimes it never switches off cleanly and I'm guessing something like that is happening here....twice.
The other odd thing I've noted is that they flicker when uploading the program, but one is brighter than the other
Loaded a new base file in, uploaded sounds and known good motor mapping and off we went, sounds fine, runs well but again the LEDs are always on. Decided to take everything out of the mapping and
the LEDs are on as soon as you select the engine, lights on/off, direction, nothing changes, they're just on, if I add them back in the mapping then they get brighter with lights on and direction, but never go off.For reference and a cross check, LED wiring, the middle (power) is from the U+ (blue) cable and feeds two 1K resistors in parallel, originally only one per leg, in fact adding the second seems to make them stay on even brighter, sometimes they will flicker and occasionally go off but then flicker back on when mapping applied.
Resistors are added to the + leg of the LED but I'm wondering if they might work better on the - side and help drag down the transistor to turn it off. I can understand why ESU switch the neutral (less current, smaller components) but as I often found on container cranes, sometimes it never switches off cleanly and I'm guessing something like that is happening here....twice.
The other odd thing I've noted is that they flicker when uploading the program, but one is brighter than the other
Last edited:
richard carr
Western Thunderer
Well problem solved, I pulled off the dynamic break blister to look inside and all the lights came on and stayed on so no idea what I have done, maybe there is a lose wire in there ? The blister is back in place too.
Mick, if you put 2 resistors in parallel doesn't that reduce the resistance, you need to put them in series to increase it ?
or have I got V=IR wrong.
Richard
Mick, if you put 2 resistors in parallel doesn't that reduce the resistance, you need to put them in series to increase it ?
or have I got V=IR wrong.
Richard
richard carr
Western Thunderer
The other question I have is are marker lights on in the direction of travel or on at the opposite end to the direction if travel ?
Thanks
Thanks
mickoo
Western Thunderer
Yes it does, but those are not in parallel, look again and you'll see they're in series, the feed is in the top middle so it passes through two resistors to get to each LED, you could actually save another resistor and have both LEDs + leg attached to two resistors in series and take one of the paired legs away.
What we have here is two 1K resistors in series so total 2K, if I left it as is and then joined the two lower ends of each resistor leg (croc clip) then I would have one in series and then these two in parallel, which was the plan when doing it this way. If I hold the lower ends together then I get 500 Ohms so total 1.5K, it's a quick and dirty way of changing values quickly.
mickoo
Western Thunderer
I'm not sure on that one, I would have said in the direction of travel but beware some markers were classification lights and had three colours or lenses (white /red/green) but that sort of died out in later years and many modern engines no longer have marker/classification lights fitted.
mickoo
Western Thunderer
Well some success this afternoon, in desperation I changed from headlight and rearlight outputs to Aux3/4 and boom, perfect, lights on, lights off and change of direction to boot.
I also noted that when the LEDS were on front and rear outputs the chip was warm, not hot but warmer than it really should be, since moving to Aux3/4 it's stone cold and my gut feeling is that front/rear light output is not a power output, it maybe a command signal to another board or sub board to control the lights. This might be why the first chip smoked as the LEDs were drawing too much power, the book of words also notes Aux outputs with the added text (power) which also leads me to believe they best for switching loads.
I couldn't get rule 17 to work or the opposing end to remain on dim and after nearly three days, have given up caring. What I did do was make the lamps dimable (F12) so that when stood in a siding you need to manually press that and then the lit one (depending on travel) will dim, a sort of manual rule 17 and much like the real world where the driver has to configure dimmed lights by selecting a switch.
The other thing I did was add fade in and out at a max 1.04 seconds, that better reflects large filament lamps turning on and off (except modern LED ones that are now coming on stream these past few years) and then I set a off delay of 0.8 seconds. As it stands now when you switch on they fade in nicely to full brightness, when you change direction the second fades in but a fraction if a second later the other fades out, thus for a short while, both are on during change over. It's a nice effect and reflects manual changing over in the cab and how big lamps work.
I also noted that when the LEDS were on front and rear outputs the chip was warm, not hot but warmer than it really should be, since moving to Aux3/4 it's stone cold and my gut feeling is that front/rear light output is not a power output, it maybe a command signal to another board or sub board to control the lights. This might be why the first chip smoked as the LEDs were drawing too much power, the book of words also notes Aux outputs with the added text (power) which also leads me to believe they best for switching loads.
I couldn't get rule 17 to work or the opposing end to remain on dim and after nearly three days, have given up caring. What I did do was make the lamps dimable (F12) so that when stood in a siding you need to manually press that and then the lit one (depending on travel) will dim, a sort of manual rule 17 and much like the real world where the driver has to configure dimmed lights by selecting a switch.
The other thing I did was add fade in and out at a max 1.04 seconds, that better reflects large filament lamps turning on and off (except modern LED ones that are now coming on stream these past few years) and then I set a off delay of 0.8 seconds. As it stands now when you switch on they fade in nicely to full brightness, when you change direction the second fades in but a fraction if a second later the other fades out, thus for a short while, both are on during change over. It's a nice effect and reflects manual changing over in the cab and how big lamps work.
mickoo
Western Thunderer
Loosing so much time to the SW1 lights curtailed the weekend planned structural works on the HO layout, but this evening I've reached the next stage point, basically all the baseboards from the river section up to the depot (defunct and now a simple building with possibly one spur for a wood processing plant (an excuse to run 4 axle local power for a short run), a long passing siding for the main trains and perhaps a helper station spur.
I had planned to have a longer flat section here but the long river bridge means that the grade up from that is hellish steep to get clearance over the level below the depot (planned 14" but now forced down to 10"). I wanted to try and keep a ruling 2.2% but this section is a stiffer 3.5%, I don't mind grade variations as the real railroad does the same but 3.5% is steep for a class 1 main line.
Once the line levels out for the depot it'll then begin to climb at a steady 2.2-2.5% and loop around over the river bridge, then back over the depot to the summit which is going to be high at around 72-76", thus the scenery will be more like viewing the railroad from part way down the valley slope.
If the grade works out then level three will pass though the lower 30% of the small windows on the right, the scenery will drop away and a bridge will span across each window to maintain daylight and back light the models; I'm still not sure how to span the big main window on the LH side as yet, probably one big long trestle but no ground underneath sort of thing, a compromise but it might pull off.
Level 1 is on the RH side and will consist of 5-6 sidings to hold trains and will be basic scenery to simulate a freight yard, less is more. Level 1.5 is on the LH side and consists of the long flat river bridge, level 2 is on the RH side where the defunct depot is/was, level 2.5 is back over above the river bridge and level 3 is above the depot. Level 3.5 is back on the LH side but basically a high level plain return loop close to the ceiling.
I still need to work out some form of return loop at the bottom and may extend outside into the garden to do that so there may well be a 0.5 and 0 level to come as well.
I'm also now fixed on 30" minimum curve, a little tight for the Autoracks and 90' stock so I may leave them off the consist and I'm happy with that for the time being.
The next stage is to lay in the foam road bed to get a nice smooth run up from 1.5 to 2 and then look at the wood work from 2 to 2.5.
I had planned to have a longer flat section here but the long river bridge means that the grade up from that is hellish steep to get clearance over the level below the depot (planned 14" but now forced down to 10"). I wanted to try and keep a ruling 2.2% but this section is a stiffer 3.5%, I don't mind grade variations as the real railroad does the same but 3.5% is steep for a class 1 main line.
Once the line levels out for the depot it'll then begin to climb at a steady 2.2-2.5% and loop around over the river bridge, then back over the depot to the summit which is going to be high at around 72-76", thus the scenery will be more like viewing the railroad from part way down the valley slope.
If the grade works out then level three will pass though the lower 30% of the small windows on the right, the scenery will drop away and a bridge will span across each window to maintain daylight and back light the models; I'm still not sure how to span the big main window on the LH side as yet, probably one big long trestle but no ground underneath sort of thing, a compromise but it might pull off.
Level 1 is on the RH side and will consist of 5-6 sidings to hold trains and will be basic scenery to simulate a freight yard, less is more. Level 1.5 is on the LH side and consists of the long flat river bridge, level 2 is on the RH side where the defunct depot is/was, level 2.5 is back over above the river bridge and level 3 is above the depot. Level 3.5 is back on the LH side but basically a high level plain return loop close to the ceiling.
I still need to work out some form of return loop at the bottom and may extend outside into the garden to do that so there may well be a 0.5 and 0 level to come as well.
I'm also now fixed on 30" minimum curve, a little tight for the Autoracks and 90' stock so I may leave them off the consist and I'm happy with that for the time being.
The next stage is to lay in the foam road bed to get a nice smooth run up from 1.5 to 2 and then look at the wood work from 2 to 2.5.
mickoo
Western Thunderer
It's fine
as is the spirit level, 1m rule, two rolls of photo backing sheet and the 1:96 Arleigh Burke Destroyer.It'll all have to live somewhere else as level 2-3 will cut just under here, though I might just jack it all up 6" to give clearance for storage and then worry about where the Arleigh Burke will go once (if ever) completed.
To be honest the Tripod doesn't usually live up there, but the rest does and has for a long time and I do need to give it all a good clear out, most of the RTR O gauge is gone (the brass imports live inside the house) and there's a lot of empty boxes for posting/shipping stuff littering the place, mostly from Amazon who insist on shipping small items in big boxes.
mickoo
Western Thunderer
Yes it's just the one large window, the three smaller ones on the other side will have short gaps with low scenery across them.
I'll pay it by ear/sight once I get up there with the base boards.
mickoo
Western Thunderer
Little update from the St Louis show, it's large, probably Stafford size and is the usual set up akin to IPMS shows, lots of models to look and a plenty of vendors to release you from your hard earned.
There were a couple of layouts, a big N scale Freemo style layout that lopped in and around it's self, probably 300' running length I'd guess, well detailed and nice scenery but very flat......having said that Richard and I drove 200 miles one day and never saw even the slightest hillock
I've been to some flat places but man this area is pancake flat, not for 30-40 miles or even 100, but hundreds and hundreds, even out west in the high prairies or Arizona desert there's often quite a lot of elevation change.
The other layout was O gauge and a compact double oval, tight curves and short straights but it had trains moving and seemed popular.
An overall view of the show, there are a couple more rows of display benches behind me.
I came away with two stark observations, it was very 50-70's centric which surprised me, though traders advertising new projects were in truth mostly modern stock. The second was the amount of 3D in the room, several big traders and a handful of cottage industries.
I spoke with several commercial 3D guys about this and that, none of them even batted an eyelid when I mentioned material durability/longevity, it just never enters there line of sight, but all said water washables are the worst, orientation, support and resin choice were important as was correct processing and curing. The top two resins of choice were Sirayatech Fast Navy Grey and Elegoo ABS like 8K; I've used the 8K before and am now running a bigger batch through, like the US guys at the show, it has a better surface finish but not quite as razor sharp as FNG, perfect for scenery items.
One vendor specializes in Industrial plant, in this case corn silos and very appropriate for the region, all 3D except the square building, he also does a lot of petro chemical work and I follow his FB page.
The only other vendor I photographed was the guys selling squealer units, mainly as a reminder to buy later but I ended up buying a couple anyway.
It's a little unit track side with a small sensor between the rails and basically place flange squeal as the train rolls by, it's actually quite effective and they do offer other sounds/units I believe, I've not opened the boxes yet but want to see if I can add a bigger speaker in an acoustic chamber to get as bit more base out of it and see if it has captured the grinding groaning noise you also often hear.
One other vendor caught my eye, road/street signs, very 'American', I'm not sure if these are 3D printed but I wouldn't be surprised, again another photo as a memory jogger for later.
Part two follows.
There were a couple of layouts, a big N scale Freemo style layout that lopped in and around it's self, probably 300' running length I'd guess, well detailed and nice scenery but very flat......having said that Richard and I drove 200 miles one day and never saw even the slightest hillock
I've been to some flat places but man this area is pancake flat, not for 30-40 miles or even 100, but hundreds and hundreds, even out west in the high prairies or Arizona desert there's often quite a lot of elevation change.
The other layout was O gauge and a compact double oval, tight curves and short straights but it had trains moving and seemed popular.
An overall view of the show, there are a couple more rows of display benches behind me.
I came away with two stark observations, it was very 50-70's centric which surprised me, though traders advertising new projects were in truth mostly modern stock. The second was the amount of 3D in the room, several big traders and a handful of cottage industries.
I spoke with several commercial 3D guys about this and that, none of them even batted an eyelid when I mentioned material durability/longevity, it just never enters there line of sight, but all said water washables are the worst, orientation, support and resin choice were important as was correct processing and curing. The top two resins of choice were Sirayatech Fast Navy Grey and Elegoo ABS like 8K; I've used the 8K before and am now running a bigger batch through, like the US guys at the show, it has a better surface finish but not quite as razor sharp as FNG, perfect for scenery items.
One vendor specializes in Industrial plant, in this case corn silos and very appropriate for the region, all 3D except the square building, he also does a lot of petro chemical work and I follow his FB page.
The only other vendor I photographed was the guys selling squealer units, mainly as a reminder to buy later but I ended up buying a couple anyway.
It's a little unit track side with a small sensor between the rails and basically place flange squeal as the train rolls by, it's actually quite effective and they do offer other sounds/units I believe, I've not opened the boxes yet but want to see if I can add a bigger speaker in an acoustic chamber to get as bit more base out of it and see if it has captured the grinding groaning noise you also often hear.
One other vendor caught my eye, road/street signs, very 'American', I'm not sure if these are 3D printed but I wouldn't be surprised, again another photo as a memory jogger for later.
Part two follows.
Yorkshire Dave
Western Thunderer
oldravendale
Western Thunderer
Really interesting to see what's going on across the pond, Mick. Did you get a sense of prices for those great grain silos, for example?
mickoo
Western Thunderer
Part two is focused on the display models, I basically just took photos of anything that took my eye really.
A whole bunch of Military flats, surprisingly modern in a sea of older stock.
Bulkhead flats with stanchions. I do like bulkhead flats, they're short so easily work (visually) on my layout and the loads are rarely boring.
Without stanchions.
A nice if simplistic pusher tug and barge, I'd really like to try and get one of these on the flat river section next to my bridge but might need to extend the baseboard a little....WIP
This crossing cameo was impressive, I liked the concept a lot, it's more about modeling a set scene and trains are not always needed to get the point across. Looking at the small control panel and holes for pegs to join other boards I'd guess it's part of a larger set up, but stood alone it still looked the part.
Another cameo that caught my eye, something different.
Finally some weathered RTR, nothing untoward here or ground breaking, I took the photo because it shows up the scourge of modern RTR very well, bent handrails.
Modern RTR all use scale plastic handrails and 95% of the time they just get bent in the heat or sunlight I guess, it looks shite to me, yes they are to scale but older models with slightly thicker metal handrails don't suffer the same, cursed if you do, cursed if you don't.
The trip was a fact finding mission as I kind of knew there was more in the US than we think, I wasn't wrong, the second was to relieve them of some of their boxes, weight and space permitting. Whilst HO is cheaper it soon adds up volume wise.
Most came from the show but a handful came from Jim who was very helpful in filling and space I had left, to be fair I still did have a bit more space but my return trip involved several train journeys and I really couldn't be arsed to drag heavy suitcases across London.
The Walters Mainline tanks are from the simpler end of the range, probably plastic wheels (though they do look metal) and moulded grabs, but being as tank car have no moulded grabs they all have to be separate, compared to the next level up I couldn't see a lot of difference....except price, you get three mainline for two in the next detail level.
The BNSF covered hoppers are for the BNSF worm and the four in the middle will be for a manifest. The containers I picked up because they were cheap and I could scale off them and perhaps 3D print some and apply simplistic decals. The Walters Bethgins do have moulded grabs but I think a pin wash and highlight with some weathering will reduce the effect from several feet away.
The two CP units I couldn't leave behind from Jim, I have zero use for them at the moment, aiming primarily at BNSF, UP and CN, but CP just merged with KCS and the new units look good, plus CP runs the rebuilt ACu and I'm all over them. I do have an old tired UP 90/43 which I'm considering converting to the CP ACu with a new 3D front end.
You can of course but CP ACu's but they're expensive, though I do so want one of the military specials, the camo with invasion stripes soon to be released later this year.
Now I just have to find space for all this, yes I know....sell more O stock.
A whole bunch of Military flats, surprisingly modern in a sea of older stock.
Bulkhead flats with stanchions. I do like bulkhead flats, they're short so easily work (visually) on my layout and the loads are rarely boring.
Without stanchions.
A nice if simplistic pusher tug and barge, I'd really like to try and get one of these on the flat river section next to my bridge but might need to extend the baseboard a little....WIP
This crossing cameo was impressive, I liked the concept a lot, it's more about modeling a set scene and trains are not always needed to get the point across. Looking at the small control panel and holes for pegs to join other boards I'd guess it's part of a larger set up, but stood alone it still looked the part.
Another cameo that caught my eye, something different.
Finally some weathered RTR, nothing untoward here or ground breaking, I took the photo because it shows up the scourge of modern RTR very well, bent handrails.
Modern RTR all use scale plastic handrails and 95% of the time they just get bent in the heat or sunlight I guess, it looks shite to me, yes they are to scale but older models with slightly thicker metal handrails don't suffer the same, cursed if you do, cursed if you don't.
The trip was a fact finding mission as I kind of knew there was more in the US than we think, I wasn't wrong, the second was to relieve them of some of their boxes, weight and space permitting. Whilst HO is cheaper it soon adds up volume wise.
Most came from the show but a handful came from Jim who was very helpful in filling and space I had left, to be fair I still did have a bit more space but my return trip involved several train journeys and I really couldn't be arsed to drag heavy suitcases across London.
The Walters Mainline tanks are from the simpler end of the range, probably plastic wheels (though they do look metal) and moulded grabs, but being as tank car have no moulded grabs they all have to be separate, compared to the next level up I couldn't see a lot of difference....except price, you get three mainline for two in the next detail level.
The BNSF covered hoppers are for the BNSF worm and the four in the middle will be for a manifest. The containers I picked up because they were cheap and I could scale off them and perhaps 3D print some and apply simplistic decals. The Walters Bethgins do have moulded grabs but I think a pin wash and highlight with some weathering will reduce the effect from several feet away.
The two CP units I couldn't leave behind from Jim, I have zero use for them at the moment, aiming primarily at BNSF, UP and CN, but CP just merged with KCS and the new units look good, plus CP runs the rebuilt ACu and I'm all over them. I do have an old tired UP 90/43 which I'm considering converting to the CP ACu with a new 3D front end.
You can of course but CP ACu's but they're expensive, though I do so want one of the military specials, the camo with invasion stripes soon to be released later this year.
Now I just have to find space for all this, yes I know....sell more O stock.
mickoo
Western Thunderer
Only you......
mickoo
Western Thunderer
The complete silo factory was $1800, not cheap but impressive. We saw dozens of these as we drove around, some larger, some smaller so you can pick and mix to make the industry that suits you best.