7mm Mickoo's Commercial Workbench

mickoo

Western Thunderer
Sound quality, volume levels and speed control is someone else's problem :)) I just have to make it fit and be removable :thumbs:

Odd about the ESU, Dave set my Dash 8 up and it crawls along, not bad for a RTR :shit: China drive set up in reality.

I'm with you on the 'on board' sounds that can be heard (scale) 200 yds away, pointless gimmick in my mind, you get a lot of driver radio chatter on US models and as you say warning horns and bells, none of which you can hear up close to a real engine with the windows shut, the massive prime movers drown out pretty much everything else.

Steam you can sort of forgive because sat idle they can be very quiet, but once moving, all those sounds should go, I wonder if they can be speed triggered?
 

Yorkshire Dave

Western Thunderer
Another problem equally important is movement control. In this respect, Zimo gave the smoothest take off from a standing start while one of my locos with an ESU decoder just set off at about 5mph missing out the gradual taking up of the train. I stuck with Zimo thereafter.

This can be fine tuned for both ESU and Zimo decoders by adjusting motor control CVs 51, 52, 54 and 55; the Regulation Reference/Voltage CV 53 and the speed curve to suit the installed motor/gearbox combination.
 

mickoo

Western Thunderer
Hi Mick

I was only thinking out loud as the last thing you want is the loco to be returned for minor adjustments and it's obviously easier make a sturdy fixing whilst the boiler is off the model.

The diesel sounds (due their rumbling bass) at higher volumes with these speakers certainly cause the loco to vibrate and would appear to be a good test in a steam loco especially as the speaker is mounted on sheet metal. Out of curiosity did you test the other sounds on the decoder for any resonance such as the horn with its higher frequencies?

You don't really want to name the loco 'Walls of Jericho'. :) and I'd leave the Dash 8 sound on the decoder for a laugh ;).
Please catty on thinking out loud, it jogs the grey cells and forces one to think of alternatives, even if it is to later discount them.

I get the permanent speaker fixing, just being old school and making sure I can get it out if it decides to fail at some point.

The Dash 8 rumble sounded good, well to me anyway, my ears are not the best but it wasn't any worse than the Atlas set up which is the same config as your's, I also tried the bell and horns and they sounded fine, might even be better once the boiler is on, I couldn't find the coupling sound, yes I have written them down but lost the bit of paper :rolleyes: Dynamics worked as well.

I haven't programmed the V5L yet, no idea how to do that but do need to know for a future project; I just hot wired the speaker to the Dash 8, but I am tempted to do just that and scare the living daylights out of the DCC man when he fires it up :p
 

Yorkshire Dave

Western Thunderer
Steam you can sort of forgive because sat idle they can be very quiet, but once moving, all those sounds should go, I wonder if they can be speed triggered?

Random sounds can be set up to come on whilst idle such as air pumps and steam pressure release valves in the same way diesels and electrics have air compressors and air pressure release valves.

It is possible to have the random sounds speed triggered. But like yourself and Larry I'm not in favour of gimmicky sounds such as coal shovelling as these are drowned out in real life by the natural ambient sounds.
 

mickoo

Western Thunderer
Another mini MOK King Arthur update, getting nearer to the finish now.

The body is now one and the front end all plated up, couple of fittings still to go as well as the extra scratch build bits noted before. Footplate requires oil pots on splasher and reversing reach rod with slide bracket. The boiler feed pipes will come last but need to be removable as they need to be polished and fitted post paint.

The rest of the time was spent on the pipework, it's a right jungle under there but most of the big pipes are now in, there's one or two smaller ones I can see in photos that need adding in.

The two outer pipes under the footplate are the train vacuum and steam heat pipes to the front and they truncate at the cylinders. They will continue out the front on the body front frame extension section tomorrow. There's a slight kink around the bracket in the LH side water feed pipe, primarily to clear any side play, but it's beginning to niggle me already so that web will come out tomorrow first thing and new one put in with the hole further out, thus straightening that pipe run out.

It's not a kit fault, there are no holes in the webs at all in the kit so it's a drill your own type affair, this was the first and I simply forgot to allow for side play, the RH side is fine; being the second one I did it should be :D

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mickoo

Western Thunderer
It moves :eek:

Always good when you power up and it moves, better yet when it's as smooth as this all dry and not run in.

There's a slight kick in reverse at FDC, so something a little tight on the RH side, it's not there going forward so it's very very minor and will probably go once run in and oiled.

You can't knock MOK for chassis design, no jigs, no messing, throw it together and it works right out of the box, perfect every time, certain the last three and now this as a forth.


 

mickoo

Western Thunderer
How does it sound with speaker installed (with Dash 8 naturally) now the boiler is fitted?
Not tried that yet, haven't got around to putting the files into the V5, mind I could just swap the V4 into the V5 as they're the same board and pin out I think, never thought of that until just now :rolleyes::))

Sounds like its already got a decent sound set up:)).
Dave.
You have better ears than me, I know my hearing is not the best but I can't hear a thing :p
 

michael mott

Western Thunderer
Having spent a good chunk of my Sunday going through this entire thread. I must say that for someone who calls themself "a mere dabbler" I can only say that I could not hold a candle to to your level of "dabbling"
Beautifully clean workmanship and attention to detail.

Michael
 

mickoo

Western Thunderer
Having spent a good chunk of my Sunday going through this entire thread. I must say that for someone who calls themself "a mere dabbler" I can only say that I could not hold a candle to to your level of "dabbling"
Beautifully clean workmanship and attention to detail.

Michael
Much appreciated, hope the read was worth it.

You do yourself an injustice, that switch and ballasting the other day was just sublime and the air driven engine has the makings of being equally impressive as are your trees :thumbs:
 

Tim Watson

Western Thunderer
Good call re: condition and livery. I much prefer them without smoke plates and certainly without the Urie stovepipe. This engine out as a film:
The Green Knight (film) - Wikipedia

I am sorely tempted by the 3.5” version, which would make into a Scotch Arthur. That being the case it would be 772, Sir Percivale, again in original condition.

With all the gubbinery in the boiler, if traction were a problem, then you could weight the tender onto the back of the engine, allowing the front tender bogie a bit more vertical movement. That is what I did on the Baldwin 2-6-0 many moons ago.

Tim
 
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MarkR

Western Thunderer
Sir Percivale was my old school house!
I have a Gladiator 7mm kit, destined to be Sir Percivale...............one day!

Mark
 

Tim Watson

Western Thunderer
I thought the short form ‘Percy’ was quite enigmatic for a green engine. It also ties in with the MRC emblem which is nicknamed Percy. It will emphatically not have the square deflectors first fitted to this engine.

Tim
 
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