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Aw man, Geocities is shutting down later this year!
The replacement remote arrived and works brilliantly. I will use it to program the universal remote.
The Graham Farish Class 108 2 Car DMU arrived. It looks excellent and I had it on the Unitrack test track for ½ an hour in one direction and 10 minutes in the other as the running in exercise. The accompanying instructions say ½ an hour each way on 1 page and 1 hour each way on another.
Interestingly, recent searches on the internet have most of the suppliers of the NCE Start Set and the TCS EUN651 Decoder as 'out of stock'.
I have been assembling the Ratio Cattle Dock. It is a bit of a fiddly thing. However, it has enamored me to kit building. I think I will get some Bilteezi kits from the NGS Society and have a play.
I am thinking about using a Zener diode to provide a ~5V DC supply from a 9V battery, so that projects can be displayed. It might be more effort than it is worth, but more to follow.
I have ordered the replacement remote from remotes4u.
Over the Easter weekend, tasks 2 to 5 were completed. Task 4, the 'bad ballasting', may need to be revisited. Task 1, painting the track points is 50% done. Task 6, affix the passing loop, needs the final patches to the missing sleepers and painting. Task 7 wasn't even attempted.
I might admit defeat with the universal remote control and instead source a replacement from remotes4u.
Work continues on the Consolidate Program. It is almost complete; I need to develop the installer for it and iron out the last remaining bugs. It is being used albeit at a debug level with real consolidations.
The latest toy to catch my eye is the Scroll Saw. This is basically a table mounted reciprocating saw.
Yipee! The Kato Unitrack V6 Variation Track Pack that I won the eBay auction for, arrived yesterday. I quickly set it up without a problem. It seems 'to do exactly what it says on the tin'. I like the track system a lot.
The next stage is to get the Graham Farish Class 108 2 Car DMU.
This coming weekend is Easter weekend and I intend to achieve 7 tasks:
After careful consideration, the decoder I will get for the DMU will be a TCS EUN651. I am not sure what the other decoder that is required by the DMU is for, yet.
The universal remote control is not easy to set up, but I will get there in the end.
The MG Sharp Models web site has the Kato Unitrack V6 Variation Track Pack as not in stock, so I have won an auction for it on eBay.
The replacement credit card has arrived and I have ordered a learning universal remote control from Amazon as the Freeview remote is not working anymore. Consolidating 4 remotes into 1 sounds good to me.
I tried to set up an Linux Ubuntu virtual machine, but the installation keeps freezing up. I have a 'spare' machine that I will try this on and see if I have more luck!
The replacement IC holder has been soldered into place, and all the ICs fitted. The circuit appears to work now. The sequence needs to be adjusted slightly which is a modification to the µcontroller code and then a reprogram. There is still an outstanding issue where the circuit seems to 'speed up', but this is intermittant and not part of the code.
My credit card appears to be compromised again, which is is a pain but it is stopped now.
Work on the Consolidate Program is progressing as is work on the Track Planner Program. The temptation has been to implement it "bottom-up" but I am trying to think "top-down". I think the problem with both approaches is that the end point needs to be completely defined, as they both rely on each other.
The TechoCard kits have been providing a lot of activity for the children and we are 2/3 of the way through assembling both kits.
I have drafted a plan for migration to DCC. After I receive the Kato Unitrack V6 Variation Track Pack, I will buy a Graham Farish Class 108 2 Car DMU from Hattons. I will then get a 6 pin DCC decoder and an NCE Starter Set, both from DCC Supplies. This should be a painless way into DCC using the test oval of Kato track. The layout has been designed and constructed using 3 completely isolated electrical sections, and switchable between 2 DC controllers. By replacing one of the controllers with the DCC controller, it will be possible to run both DC and DCC stock.
Beyond that I plan to get a Peco NL-27 DCC equipped BR black Collett locomotive as they seem to be better value at the moment (about £115 + P&P), together with a rake of wagons (the question now is kit or RTR), also from Hattons.
I wasn't feeling my best, and the Model Rail Scotland 2009 exhibition was a bit too crowded. Didn't stay for as long as I had intended and had left by mid-afternoon. Didn't open my fat wallet, which causes a separate problem because I do not like have so much money on me!
MG Sharp Models are expecting the Kato Unitrack V6 Variation Track Pack to be back in stock next month so that will be good.
The design-logic for the Consolidate Program has been defined. The algorithms will be implemented shortly.
Apparently Catwoman is on a production break, so all that remains is for the web pages to be tidied up.
Unfortunately the Kato Unitrack V6 Variation Track Pack is out of stock and awaiting fresh delivery. Oh well, as long as it arrives before April I suppose I cannot complain. It might affect my purchasing pattern at Model Rail Scotland 2009; I intend to show up with a fat wallet.
Woot! Added the hide / show links to the blog help to eliminate irrelevant blog!
I have ordered some Kato Unitrack from MG Sharp Models. It is intended to form the test track and as such it only needs to be an oval. The track pack ordered is the V6 Variation Track Pack which is a large radius oval. It represents a step towards switching to DCC.
This coming weekend is Model Rail Scotland 2009, yippee! I plan to attend on the Satutrday.
The IC holder has been removed (isn't a desolder pump useful and fun). A short was also discovered, which has been corrected.
There have been a couple of withdrawl symptons over the weekend, but generally I have been weaned off of Marcroland and Opus Deaorum.
The modifications have been made to the stripboard and the ICs have been transferred. The sequence of lights now works for one set of lights. It does not work for the other set of lights. The problem may be with the IC holder, as it is 'falling to bits' and its conductivity may be questionable.
I have decided to STOP PLAYING Marcroland and Opus Deaorum! No more, no longer! Opus Deaorum does not seem to provide a 'Delete Account' feature (that I could find), but Marcroland does. What am I going to do with all of this reclaimed time?
I have bought a desolder pump from Rapid. It will need some practice to use but I have plenty to work on.
The schematic diagram for the Traffic Light Junction Simulator has been updated. The stripboard layout has also been modified. All that needs to be done now is for the changes to be implemented.
The ICs for the Traffic Light Junction Simulator have been transferred back to the breadboard. The problem has been found (pin 8 and pin 9 of the 74'04 were swapped). The schematic diagram will need to be updated.
The re-laid passing loop still needs fixing down properly.
Fiddling with the point motors, has helped understand what is going on.
A lot of spare time has been spent playing Marcroland and Opus Deaorum, as much as two hours a day! This is a habit that needs to be broken!
Instead of seperate blogs for each area of interest, the plan is to have a single amalgamated blog. This made some sense as the individual blogs were not getting updated as often as originally intended. See the previous PIC blog, Electronics blog, and Model Railway blog.
Some progress has been made with the layout. The passing loop has been re-laid so that should eliminate the de-railing problem. It still needs to be painted and ballasted. I have also tried to get the point motors installed, but this has not proved successful yet.
