My Layout - Brynderwyn part 1

Chris Hall Feb 13, 2021

  1. Chris Hall

    Chris Hall TrainBoard Member

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    Wow, 15k! I was upset when my $100 second hand chopper spudded in.

    A mate of mine back in NZ was an avid jet man, even built his own engines in the early 2000's (when they were supper expensive). He had a 1/4 scale De Havilland Vampire in Swiss colours. It looked fantastic. At an open day at the local club, he proudly got his model out for its first public flight. Just after firing up the engine some guy asked if it was as hot as a real one then promptly stuck his hand behind the exhaust. Needless to say he learnt quickly that it still fires out hot gas at over 600C and was treated for some pretty nasty burns. Unfortunately he didn't get to fly that day while they dealt with the idiot.

    After a career in aviation, first fixing Navy Harriers and then 10 years as a Chopper Pilot for the RNZAF (loved flying that Huey) one day I might get into it, but with the way regulations around unmanned aerial vehicles are heading it could almost become impossible to start. Plus I think the CFO may have something unpleasant to say about starting yet another expensive hobby......
     
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  2. Massey

    Massey TrainBoard Member

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    This was back in 2004, so the turbines were really expensive, and not as user friendly as they are today. He had to start it with compressed air and propane. Once it got to a certain temp he could switch the fuel to I believe kerosene.

    I was lucky enough in my time with the US Navy to be able to get to work on the radar of the F14D. Those were great birds, I really miss seeing them in the sky.
     
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  3. Chris Hall

    Chris Hall TrainBoard Member

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    Printed off a second take on the panel for the R-pi. Gave it a good coat of black paint then a nice matt varnish. Now I'm wondering whether to paint in the images or not.
    IMG_4515.jpg
    IMG_4516.jpg IMG_4517.jpg

    What do you guys think? The one on the left or the one on the right (but better painted)?
     
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  4. Massey

    Massey TrainBoard Member

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    Let the black dry a few days then fill in the images with water based acrylics so if you mess up they wont attack the black, and will wipe off easily.

    Or you could send it to me and I will paint it for ya ;)
     
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  5. logging loco

    logging loco TrainBoard Supporter

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    Not a pilot but I did get a lot of peace time hours in the back of Marine Corps UH1Ns, doors pinned back, low level and nape of the earth type flying in the South Western US. I almost always enjoyed it.

    I did get to fly left front seat once.
     
  6. logging loco

    logging loco TrainBoard Supporter

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    I'd go with white fill.
     
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  7. MK

    MK TrainBoard Member

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    (Chris, sorry to hijack your thread.)

    Massey, he was probably a sponsored pilot so that's why he might have gotten some money from the radio manufacturer even though it wasn't their fault. My guess is either Futaba or Spektrum. :whistle:

    Turbine RC jets now a day run about $20k of which $5k is just for the turbine. I've been to large events where I've seen some spectacular crashes. One straight into the ground erupting in a ball of flame - very scale! :D Another, full speed into a bunch of dense trees resulting an immediate stripping off of the wings. The best was a fly away. The plane responded to nothing. It just kept going and going and going. It went so far that nobody saw it went down.

    Trains are definitely cheaper but I bet they don't get your adrenaline as high as flying RC, especially jets. :LOL: Sometimes I have to change underwear when I used to fly helicopters or now when I fly prop planes at higher speeds and trying to do some 3D shenanigans! :eek:
     
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  8. Massey

    Massey TrainBoard Member

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    He wasn’t sponsored, but he did own a whole mess of equipment from them. He said he had been buying radios from them for 30 years (you can prolly figure out which brand now, and only one that you listed has been around that long). I think they wanted to keep his business.
     
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  9. Chris Hall

    Chris Hall TrainBoard Member

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    Best flying I ever had was down the river valleys NOE with my hair on fire.

    Had a crack at painting the panel tonight. Good thing about Swiss weather, the humidity here hovers around 30-40% at the moment and it takes bugger all time for stuff to dry (paint will even dry on the brush between strokes.) Decided to go with @logging loco idea of the white paint and gotta admit, looks pretty good. IMG_4519.jpg
    Will paint the buffers later on and add them onto the programming track and lastly wire up the buttons and LED's, just in time for some weekend action down stairs.

    @MK and @Massey - no worries! nothing like talking war stories about anything aviation!
     
  10. MK

    MK TrainBoard Member

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    THAT looks very cool! Of course now we want a picture of it all lit up! :)
     
  11. Chris Hall

    Chris Hall TrainBoard Member

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    Today was a great day. I managed to get the control panel on the layout and fired up!



    Still a couple of kinks to iron out. The LCD is not registering anything (might be a simple SDA/SCL miswiring) and the turnout panel needs to be programmed again in JMRI (forgot to export the file before I wiped the SD card last night) but the basics do its thing.

    The button starts the Pi, which loads up JMRI. A pretty simple python script checks if JMRI is running and when it is, it turns on a relay that "starts" the pc power supply and the blue LED comes on. Once I've sorted out a few things I'll upload a script that JMRI will run, firstly aligning all the turnouts and then start looking at the turnouts. Fingers crossed my servo's will arrive this week.

    Overall I'm super happy with the result, although I may make a new keypad housing - the blue colour is a bit off with everything else - plus I will add some numbers above each group of buttons so I can identify what button does what.
     
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  12. mtntrainman

    mtntrainman TrainBoard Supporter

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    Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh...pretty lights !! (y)
     
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  13. MK

    MK TrainBoard Member

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    Very nice!!!! (y) (But hey, what happen to the bumpers???? :D)
     
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  14. Chris Hall

    Chris Hall TrainBoard Member

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    The art department has them at the moment :)
     
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  15. Chris Hall

    Chris Hall TrainBoard Member

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    Another busy day down in the basement. Started working on replacing all the turnout motors ready for the micro servo's. Had to fill in the holes I had made to fit the Fleishmann motors, so out came the balsa wood. Hopefully the motors will turn up this week and I can get the ready for installation, although I have discovered it is not quite as simple as I thought. Need to work out what each servo motors PWM setting is for the angles, add that into the Arduino code and then test each one to make sure it all works before I can fit them. Plus need to print out all the servo mounts, thankfully most should be standard, just a couple I will need to tweak.

    IMG_4528.jpg IMG_4527.jpg

    The Art department handed over some bumpers as well, so they were fitted to the control panel. Was quite pleased than my guestimate measurements worked and the longest railcar I have fitted, just!
    IMG_4526.jpg
    IMG_4525.jpg IMG_4524.jpg IMG_4523.jpg IMG_4522.jpg

    Have also been working on a little side project as well, testing the limits of the 3D printer - more to follow on that!
     
  16. MK

    MK TrainBoard Member

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    Oh, I see those bumpers! :) Is that a Fleishman curved turnout?
     
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  17. Chris Hall

    Chris Hall TrainBoard Member

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    They came out really good.

    Yes, the whole layout is Fleishmann Piccolo track. Not my first choice but it came with the layout.
     
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  18. Chris Hall

    Chris Hall TrainBoard Member

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    Its been a quiet few weeks down in the bunker so not much work done on the layout. Between the wife hogging my laptop to convert video files (it renders it useless for anything else) and a new mountain bike to play with I haven't progressed at all.

    Was a little happier today when my servo motors finally turned up from China. Started the tedious process of fitting the servo's to their brackets, checking each one works and then finding out what each servo's PWM setting is to throw the turnout. Finished 6 before the laptop was commandeered again so will have to finish them off tomorrow.

    IMG_4553.jpg
     
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  19. MK

    MK TrainBoard Member

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    Those are the same servos that I use in my RC airplanes. Very popular for planes up to 6 foot wing span.
     
  20. Chris Hall

    Chris Hall TrainBoard Member

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    They are good little servo's - and super cheap too
     

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