Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Standard plug


Before taking the workbench out on the road, I had to do a little upgrade to the test track that runs along the shelf in front of me.

Years ago (many, many years ago) when I fitted it out, power to the controller feed was via a 2-pin plug and socket. The idea was that a lead would run from a venerable H&M transformer sat on the floor to the side of the bench and into the Gaugemaster handheld.

The transformer probably still works although I can't find it, nor the wire.

No problem, I just needed to replace the socket with my now standard 5-pin DIN and plug in my normal, modern(ish) Gaugemaster transformer.

Leaving this to the last minute meant a scrabble around for a suitable socket and while I own many, only a 7-pin version had the correct pin spacing. I must remember to stock up again on the right ones in future. And throw away the collection of wrong versions.

Never mind, a few minutes work with a round rasp opening up the hole and the soldering was quickly sorted out. At the show, all worked well again.

I suppose I really ought to leave this rigged up at home, but a H&M Duette with connected with a couple of fly leads works nearly as well plus proves the locos running rather better than the more sophisticated controller does. That's my excuse anyway.

1 comment:

Huw Griffiths said...

If you were to get rid of all your other DIN connectors, what's the chances that you'd need some of them the very next day?

As for me, I'd quite happily do away with all DIN connectors - when I had to use the abominations in my last job, they never seemed to be very robust. They also seemed to be real **@#%#**!@#$%!!$ to wire up.

Horrible things - they must be if they've driven even this mild mannered Welshman to think about them in these terms. Ever get the impression that I don't particularly like them?