The Sunshine Report.

Another exhibition done and dusted, the Sunshine Model Railway Club by their reports had a reasonably good turn out over the weekend of the 6th & 7th of August, to myself it felt busy at times but not too crowded, with the punters easing off during the last hour or so on both days.

Plenty of natural light at Sunshine.

There were two main points of interest with the layout, trams as opposed to trains, and the use of wifi control with smartphones/tablets with  JMRI and DCC. 

The tram angle with the JMRI works as it allows tight head ways and independent operation with the ability to wander from one terminus to the other whilst in some form of control. 

The other great feedback was how detailed the layout is and also how given its compact size offered plenty of operational scope. 

The exhibition was another chance to catch up with a few familiar faces and  put faces to names on people who follow this blog. There was plenty of variety of layouts on show, ranging from Z scale to G scale live steam covering Australian, British, European and U.S. prototypes, along with the usual traders.

On the Sunday, I was assisted by my oldest daughter which eased the load of having something on the move while chatting with the public. 

As per usual, there were a few dramas, such as stalling, derailments and the odd bit of bang roading together with a complete shutdown of the JMRI when the eldest turned off the laptop, but these add character as well as a few more grey hairs. 

The other thing that dragging out the layout does is it gives you a chance to view it from different angles and from a distance.  The pack up was pretty swift, the exhibition closed at 4pm and the car was packed and the key in the ignition by 4:27 and was home by 4:45 after swinging by the bottle shop(off licence/liquor store).

Looking along Victoria St back to the Depot.

 

From the depot end.

A few photos from the weekend. 

There wouldn't be an exhibition without Lego these days.

Pondering what to do next from under the wires.

Glenn

The Sunday shakedown and a photobomb.

In preparation for the Caulfield Exhibition, testing is currently underway. So far so good, the DCC wiring bus is working, the lighting is working, and most trams are behaving.

Most of the issues are related to details, decals and advertisements, plus some scenic items.

The JMRI and decoderpro passed with flying colours, the spare wifi router did its job, and every device was employed to have a crack at driving.

 

Seven trams on the go, from the left, two on the powercab, one each on the apple devices,

then three on the android smart phone, plus the USB interface on the right, complete madness!

 

 

 

shakedown Sunday, (this will be more presentable next weekend)

  

 

 

then Sparky decided to drop in and act as starter/inspector, he will

be at home in his cage next weekend, (he is currently going through

 that awkward teenage destructive phase and learning bad language)

 

 

From under the wires and close to the exhibition.

Glenn.

Ménage à trois (no, it's not what you think!)

As one does occasionally, I decided to kill time by updating apps on the mobile, call it housekeeping if you want; however, the engine driver app on my android smart phone received its update (v2.8.2.), and now it offers a third throttle slot. Now I don't know if I am a servant to three masters or a master of three servants.

Given that I can run Victoria Street by a bog standard Powercab (v1.28) that has a two recall limit,  together with JMRI and a USB interface plus laptop I can push it a little further, then with either wi throttle/engine drive I can try to trip the current overload of the Powercab. Now with three slots per smartphone who knows what can happen.

A few photos of the new app in action, and yes there was the odd collision.

 

No good can come from this.

 

Cutting notches.

 

 

It's like herding cats plus spinning plates

at the same time.

 

 

I may not leave the house for a while.

 

 

from under the wires and irradiated by the wifi.

 

Regards Glenn.

 

 

 



 

 



What we have here is a failure to comunicate.....

While all is well and good with the physical refit of the man cave, then one thing came along and bit me on the arse. The magic that consists of a whole heap of ones and zeros failed to come to the party.

As someone who spent most of his working life beating machinery into submission, the dark arts of data transmission along a couple of pairs of wires has me stumped.

For one reason or another, I could not for the life of me get the engine driver on the smartphone to communicate with JMRI on the computer via Wi throttle on wifi. Which in theory proved that my initial set up for smartphone control of Victoria Street was pure luck, of the lottery kind.

The original setup using the antique laptop that still runs windows XP, that now requires plugging in an external monitor as so to actually see information on a screen, While I could call up a throttle on the screen and use it, therefore the JMRI was working, but the wi throttle sent out server and port information the smartphone could not pick up, even when the numbers were punched into the smartphone (REPEATIVLY!!!!). This also applied to the bride's I phone and I pad.(ARGH!!!)

The smartphone was connected to the wifi, yet neither were playing the game. I phaffed about with firewalls, tried to use set port numbers, googled inane requests for help, and nothing worked. What really sent me spare was that I could use the internet on the ancient laptop via the wifi router!

The original set up.

 

 

What went haywire

 

 

So in a moment of genius, I thought, what if I loaded up JMRI on the 'good' laptop, brilliant! The program was loaded, a few tweaks, here and there, and bingo, under a trial operation before plugging in the DCC-USB interface, the wi throttle was transmitting server/port details to all available wifi devices.  However, some clown who will remain nameless managed to stuff up the loading of the driver for the DCC/USB interface, so therefore communication between the good laptop and DCC/USB interface no did not work.

 

 

From the frying pan and into the fire

 

This is where a normally very patient man, who can drive in peak hour without an even raising an eyebrow, and follows a football team that has not won a flag since 1954, is about to lose his mind.

 

Enter the IT guru, (the Bride) with questions like, "Did you read the instructions?" and  "Have you ticked the compliance boxes?"

 

Within two minutes, the bride has done something that certain clown did not do, and as I witnessed a wry smile on her face, she pulled out her smartphone, connected to wi throttle, ask me what tram number to enter. (812) then proceeded to 'cut a notch' and 812 trundled off along Victoria Street. 

 

Yes, she is a keeper.

 

 

The improved set up

 

So now I use the ancient laptop for programming DCC, and the good laptop for the occasional  multiple running with wifi.

 

From one very happy household under the wifi,

 

Regards Glenn

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 



More lights and a moment of darkness.

Yes, I do know it has been a while, and I do believe that I am now settling in with the new gig so therefore I may have developed some sort of routine that allows some more modelling.

Back to Victoria Street, the fleet is now in the process of undergoing an update, I have purchased some 3mm warm white LEDs for directional headlights, and now I am in the business of retro fitting them, also, while individual trams are on the workbench, interior lights and fibre optic marker lights are being installed where required.

So far X1 460 is now running the new LEDs and now has interior lighting, all controlled by the NCE Z14SR DCC decoder.

X1 460 at twilight.

  

SW6 870 has also recently undergone a refit, with headlights, saloon lights and the original (1970's) layout of marker lights (white, red, white) either side of the headlight. With the left over function of the decoder, one cab end can be lit up as if the desto box lid has been left open. This open desto lid provides better illumination for the trailing cab at night time, as the red marker lights don't seem bright enough for half cut drivers to realise that there maybe a tram ahead! As per prototype, the drivers cab bulkheads are painted white. This tram still runs the 'trusty and rusty' Bachmann 'pancake' mechanism.

 

The magic (madness) inside

SW6 870 now in service with lights and the correct doors.

The trailing cabs at night, (870) with and (812) without the rear desto box lit.

 

Now for the dark side, the vintage laptop that I use for the JMRI decoder pro has decided to extinguish its backlight for the screen, thus throwing a decent sized spanner into the works, until I can get a second hand monitor, I will have to struggle along by attempting to shine a desk lamp off the screen and try to decipher the text like some demented Egyptologist reading hieroglyphs in a tomb. (there will be no chance of using the 'good' laptop in the study after sharing a 'fatal' beer with the last one, by order the minister of war and finance!)

 

So from under the wires and squinting at the screen,

 

Glenn

 



 



Cutting Notches

As I have observed with the remaining stock of W class trams in circulation, is that they have a certain characteristic when accelerating.

As these trams run a traditional series/parallel DC controller (7 series, 7 parallel notches) there are a distinct yet subtle 'kick' most times when notching from first resistance series (notch 1) into second (notch 2) and when going from full series (notch 7) into first resistance parallel (notch 8).

A typical W class set up (minus all the vigilance controls that exist on the current



 Melbourne Fleet) photo courtesy Wikipedia.

 

 

With DCC and the Decoderpro/JMRI software, I have 'tweaked' the speed curve on all trams to include this feature, it also allows for a visual speed check of the running tram without having to look at the numbers on the NCE Powercab.

 

Believe it or not the jump from one step to another in running is not as severe as it appears the speed curve.

 

 

From under the wires

 

Glenn

 



 

Stepping out of the comfort zone

Occasionally you can get a little bored of running on your own layout, so when the opportunity to give my girls a gallop in greener pastures came up, I thought why not.

The crew at Melton Model Railway Club also have dabbled into the NCE DCC/JMRI wifi caper, together with the Free-mo Au mob have had a couple of run days on their collective temporary layout.

So myself with a road case of DCC fitted trams and my NCE Powercab, hit the road and headed west to Melton.

 The city and the bush.

 Running away from home.

 Hunting in packs.

Loitering with intent.

Mixing it up.

 Even the old X1 went for a run.

 After some dramas with wifi router, everyone went retro with power/pro cabs plugged into the layout.

So all in all, a great day with a fair minded concept of a modular layout that gave the girls a good sustained run higher than half throttle over a decent length of track, thanks again to Adam and the crew at Melton for the opportunity to have a cracking run.

Not from under the wires this time.

Glenn

Computer games

Now I have finally crossed over to the DCC side, not happy with smooth running and multiple light functions, I pushed the boundaries even further, I hooked the laptop to the DCC using the NCE DCC usb interface, then to go that one step further again, I can now run the trams via wifi from my 'smartphone' all with the JMRI software and apps. I have achieved satisfaction.

The smartphone with JMRI controller.

 The NCE DCC usb interface.

(note the professional application of electrical tape)

The NCE DCC usb interface will be housed in a clear lidded zippy box so I can watch the LEDs light up as the computer and the Powercab chat to each other.

The ancient laptop which runs Windows XP with the JMRI software that allows 

myself to spend countless hours phaffing around with CVs.

Getting all this technology to work together required watching youtube vision, google searches, bad language and a few beers, best to be done when women and young children are not present.

*** SAFETY TIP*** 

When using your smartphone to run multiple trams be aware that incoming phone calls WILL result in losing control of your fleet as they will continue on with their last instruction, and you cannot stop the trams until you complete the call. 

From under the wires

Glenn