2 level car carrier in progress

One side and the other of an undecorated Walthers, after painting. Waiting for the muse to deliver the iconic image and script to decal onto the panels.

Electrical Measurements part 3 - later that same day

Regulated power supplies deliver a flat voltage :) Hooked in line with a rheostat (as in a fan speed control) should adjust the voltage from Lo 0 .. 10..15 volts

GSC 10 amp regulated 14+ volts multimeter about 10 volts on an oscilloscope.

Pyramid 2.5 amp delivers about 10 volts on an oscilloscope.

Electrical Measurements part 2

Hooked up some other train transformers. Makes me wonder how they pass electrical inspection to get the stamp of approval. Will hook up some motor controllers some day.. just reading the information on them though: they seem to all output PWM :( Maybe just use a large rheostat on a 12 or 24 volt power supply as they seem to output a clean flat voltage.

Bachman at about 6 volts

Model Power at about 10 volts

Electrical measurements

Servo amperage:
Name (amps) [torque]
Hitec HS 50 (0.2) [8.3oz] {smaller than HS55}
Hitec HS 55 (0.19) [15.3oz]
Hitec Digital 5045 (0.28) [13.4oz]
Parallax Futaba S148 (0.56) [?oz uhm, more than those- a standard size servo]

a multimeter hooked in line using a modified servo wire ( red wire cut so the meter could be in line). The servos were operated in their functional duty : Lifting a rocket tube or moving a 4 unit-train of cars. None were 'stalled' so these measurements have only a relative context.


Locomotive Power
an RC ESC only works with a radio, Never mind- it outputs a Voltage Clipped Down from the 7.2 V input battery to whatever level is set for the motor speed.


MRC 9500 (HO train transformer) at about 2 volts
has a voltage spike twice the normal voltage : ? to 'bump' the locomotive? i dunno, it was a SHOCK to see it :(

MRC done again (17 feb) to check various voltage levels. They all have a 'bump' decreasing as the voltage rises to 9 volts... above 9 volts the signal is the same ... a multimeter reads increasing voltages... i dunno what that spike was in the previous view... it looks to be a different time and or voltage amount per grid...

PWM servo signal was of course just spikes of voltage and varying in voltage level, the variation due to the length of the signal variation 'adding' up to different levels i guess

Motor controllers : ? TBD ? investigate the output waveform ... hopefully a level voltage that will change IAW the desired voltage.

HO train action ideas

A collection of thoughts on things that go bump in the night on the train set.


HO Action - Interaction . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 1 of 3
Loading - Unloading . . . . . . . . . . . Page 1 of 3
Granular [Coal, gravel, Wood chips, grain]Page 1 of 3
Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 1 of 3
Liquid. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 1 of 3
Ships: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 1 of 3
Coal-Ore-Grain. . . . . . . . . . . . Page 1 of 3
Container ship . . . . . . . . . . . Page 1 of 3
Oil tanker. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 1 of 3
Barge. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 1 of 3
Aircraft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 2 of 3
Train - Automobile (RR crossing gates) - Page 2 of 3
Landscape action . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 2 of 3
Switches - Signals - Railroad Yard - Block direction of travelPage 2 of 3
On train . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 2 of 3
Locomotive. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 2 of 3
Rolling stock action. . . . . . . . . Page 2 of 3
Paper Mill cars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 2 of 3
Inbound. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 2 of 3
Outbound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 3 of 3
Ethanol cars. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 3 of 3
Inbound. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 3 of 3
Outbound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 3 of 3
Steel Mill. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 3 of 3
Inbound. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 3 of 3
Outbound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 3 of 3
_____ Factory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 3 of 3
Inbound. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 3 of 3
Outbound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 3 of 3



HO Action - Interaction
[] Loading - Unloading
Granular [Coal, gravel, Wood chips, Ore-Taconite, Corn-grain] into Hoppers-Gondolas,
Life-Like Gravel-Coal loader : dump into car - Life-Like Gravel-Coal dump from car into bin
Walthers Rotary dumper : rotate car to dump load into bin
Rotary dumper: lazy susan ends, geared hold downs, chain drive rotation, gear drive or pulley pulled positioner, ‘dummy' locomotive in front-actually pushed by one in rear until past the dumper- then rear loco uncouples and positioner moves the train cars... a positioner on both sides of the dumper - take turns actually moving the cars - they return while the other one is moving train and dumper is dumping. (Oops too complicated -unless multiple controllers are used .. Might be possible using a C-AVR controller)

Wood chips: Sawdust: Rotary dumper -into conveyor -to pile beside Plant building- sucked - falls down into pile on next level- crane loads into train cars... Sawdust-pencil shavings are VERY light, maybe use ?____? dyed a light color...

Objects onto flatcars, into boxcars, into gondolas,
Crane log loader-unloader
Steel recycler crane unloads train cars (scrap steel / old flattened cars) into the ‘crusher'
Container loading-unloading

Liquid into tank cars-from ship-to refinery [Valves, pumps, visible liquid, ___ made by____ ]


[] Ships:
Coal-Ore-Grain ship : funnel-dumped into - craned out
Container ship - loader-unloader (Walthers: $800) magnet crane
Oil tanker - derricks - moving level tank

[] Barge
Barge MUST be *secured* to keep from making waves and sinking when loaded-unloaded.

I Could not figure out how to make a FUNCTIONAL coal flood loader so ... : Crane scoop-lifts coal from barge straight into funnel coal loader into train cars, tug pushes barge around-under lift bridge, around to be loaded from rotary dumper dumping coal down slide.

Grain barge - hopper - conveyor - to train cars - to Ethanol plant - to liquid fuel in train cars to valve operation loading-unloading.

‘Faller' Vehicles load onto dock - onto barge.
Train cars load onto dock - onto barge.


[] Aircraft
-HO aircraft -helicopters fly around
-Hover craft - flying saucer: 4 gyro-stabilized turbines for lift- 1 in enter for guidance
-Rockets on train- on ground-target train cars that explode (USB camera guided)

[] Train - Automobile (RR crossing gates) -
HO scale slot cars roadway and train track that can drive over each other by Lifelike as of Nov 2009. Faller vehicles: wire-cars

[] Landscape action : continually or signaled on/off by train or by movement detection sensors. Landscape lights, Hotel Elevators going up and down, houses burning, Factories fuming, Carnival rides, Wind mill, wind turbine, water flowing... -Water comes in from a water fall, goes around {barge canal} {Shipyard docks} and out and down a drain- to be pumped up to the waterfall.
Camera on train displayed on a 'Drive-in' theatre screen.
People move: magnets on a glass sidewalk.

[] Switches - Signals - Railroad Yard - Block direction of travel .. DCC / computer controlled trains, switches, signals... -Locomotive round-table

[] On train
. Locomotive: Lights, Sound, Smoke
. Rolling stock action: Lights in cars, Searchlights, Helicopter takes off, Missiles raise and fire... uhm all military macho things, huh. Doors swing open. Ammo box explodes apart when hit by missile launched from other train car or land based launcher.



[] Paper Mill cars (Info combined from various web pages...)
Actual cars depend on type of plant and paper produced.
Inbound: (logs, sawdust, wood pulp, cotton)
logs on flatcars
Wood Chip gondolas ... Require Netting over them to keep the chips from blowing off-away.
Athearn older small 40'? wood sided?
Walthers HO Scale "Gold Line" Ready-to-Run 61' Wood Chip Gondola Car (flat bottom box)
"Freight Car America" Wood Chip tub gondola:16' tall, 67.5 inside 72' coupler ends [2.2 x 9.93]
Rotary Wood chip gondola looks like a Coal gondola except it is 19' longer and 3' taller
Baled pulp-Boxcar (various)
Recycled Paper or Cardboard-Boxcar (various)
Bales of cotton on flatcars (various)
baled cotton pulp-Boxcar (various)

Machinery-Boxcar or flatcar (various)

COAL:
Quad hopper and Bethgon tub same size, tub increases the capacity : 13'tall 53'long [1.8 x 7.3]

oil for the boiler and steam plant
-Chlorine-Tankcar (Atlas Walthers)
Hydrogen Peroxide, LIME,, Salt Cake
-Sulfuric Acid - Hydrochloric Acid-Tankcar (Atlas Walthers)
-Kaolin Slurry-Tankcar (Atlas Walthers)
Covered Hopper: Kaolin Clay from Saunderville in the Southern US
funnel flow tank cars from walthers or Atlas lettered for any of the kaolin producers, ECC,
HUBER, Georgia Kaolin, Engelhard
-Sodium Chlorate-40\' Alumn. Covered Hoppers (no model av.)
-Sodium Hydroxide -Tankcar (Atlas or Walthers or MDC)
-Caustic Soda-PD or airslide Covered Hoppers (Walthers, Atlas and others.)
-Calcium Carbonate Slurry-Tankcar (use the Kaolin cars by Walthers or Atlas)
-Corn Starch-Tankcar or PD covered Hoppers (no real accurate models, but Walthers or MDC will do for now)
-Titanium Dioxide-Tankcar (short cars that there are no models of currently ?8K "Staley" ‘can' cars?)
-Latex or other Plastic coatings-Tankcar (various)



Outbound:
Finished Paper-Boxcar (Various, Hi-Cubes preferred)
"Tall Oil"-Tankcars (Atlas, Walthers, and MDC tankcars)
Turpentine-Tankcars (Atlas, Walthers or MDC)
"Black Liquor"-Tankcars (Atlas, Walthers or MDC)


Ethanol cars (Info combined from various web pages... mostly Walthers)
Inbound: Covered hoppers
Outbound: Fuel-tankers

Steel Mill
Inbound: Coal, ore, coke, ...
Outbound: Coil cars, gondolas , ...

_____ Factory ...
Wood River Oil refinery
Wood River GeoDome auto carrier repair shop
Tyson meat plant
Cotton bales to a Cotton Gin
Waste recycling plant : Garbage, steel, cars, ...

Inbound: ___, ...

Outbound: ___, ...

DCC is really AC DCC (or What happened)

According to : S-91-2004-07.pdf Section C ...
The baseline method for providing the power to operate locomotives and accessories, which shall be supported by all Digital Command Stations and Digital Decoders, is by full-wave rectification of the bipolar NMRA digital signal within the Digital Decoder[7]. ...

If decoders actually did this, then DCC would actually be DC DCC, however, the problem is that footnote 7 is where they let the Devil into their Heaven.

[7] Alternate means for supplying power are acceptable, provided that Digital Command Station power units are capable of producing the baseline track signal, and Digital Decoders are capable of operation from the baseline track signal as described by this standard.

so they all can go to Hell AFAIK

... from Marcus Ammann’s DCC for Novices web page :
Pulse Width Modulation, PWM, is a cheap and easy to manufacture technique to control DC motors. Some DC power packs and most DCC decoders use this technique.
...
PWM frequency: Early “noisy” decoder - about 2 kHz. Later “quiet” decoders - above 16 kHz. Later Sound decoders - 25 kHz.
...
and they continually 'improve' in an effort to correct the initial fatal flaw of PWM on a DC motor.
...

No matter that I disagree with the AC-DCC decoder implementation, there are items of interest:

DCC code for AVR is available at Arduino Playground in the Exhibition section by Michael Blank:
a "one loco" command station and throttle . Incredible open hardware designs and open source software by Wolfgang Kufer at OpenDCC , although a lot of it is still in German... JMRI is an open source Windows-Mac-Linux Java program to run trains - interfaced with the DCC system.

and still ... i think using an RC car BEC as the speed control for a normal DC locomotive and power provider for the AVR board/servos actually provides a solution that would enable controlling the locomotive in interaction with AVR controlled loading-unloading operations. Direct control of the locomotive would be more responsive than transmitting messages to a Command station that then transmits them to the locomotive decoder. Now I need to hook up the oscilloscope to one and make sure they actually have a DC signal for the motor and not PWM as used for the servos, but servo control would be sent from the RC receiver.... or maybe a Motor controller that does not use PWM power.

Missile launcher flatcar

The black box on a flat car holds the 4.8 volt battery for the servo. The gray box holds the controller and its 7.2 volt battery, the remaining space on the flatcar allows room for the missile to extend past its own flatcar. The missile is on a bashed together 40 and 50' flatcar. The servo in the center of the car - beneath the rocket, raises-lowers the rocket. Another simple and crudely done addition to the missile fleet. Someday the fleet will fly.