Andy Rossiter asking the questions.
In your “adding extra pickups to model locomotives” workbench article I assume that the picture you show is of a ‘OO gauge” chassis and not ‘O gauge’.
I am currently building a K’s pannier tank white metal kit and using their chassis kit with a new motor. (second full loco kit construction since teenage years, now 59, first was an old Wills pannier kit partially built and bought for a £5 and I’m currently trying to marry a Hornby 0-6-0 chassis to it).
The K’s kit has gone ok and electrical pick up and motor mounting have been achieved but not very well so I am starting again in this area, once I’ve got it running as a DC chassis I want to convert it to DCC.
Do white metal kits present more short-circuiting problems than plastic kits or ready to run when dealing with DCC control?
In your “adding extra pickups to model locomotives” workbench article I assume that the picture you show is of a ‘OO gauge” chassis and not ‘O gauge’.
I am currently building a K’s pannier tank white metal kit and using their chassis kit with a new motor. (second full loco kit construction since teenage years, now 59, first was an old Wills pannier kit partially built and bought for a £5 and I’m currently trying to marry a Hornby 0-6-0 chassis to it).
The K’s kit has gone ok and electrical pick up and motor mounting have been achieved but not very well so I am starting again in this area, once I’ve got it running as a DC chassis I want to convert it to DCC.
Do white metal kits present more short-circuiting problems than plastic kits or ready to run when dealing with DCC control?
I can't see that DCC would be impossible, but there are some challenges along the way.
First, you'll need to hard wire the chip in. I think that means you need to identify the two wires in to the chip from the pickups (or pickup and chassis is this is live) and two wires out of the chip to the motor. Presumably there are some instructions somewhere to cover this sort of thing.
The scond problem is that everything is conductive so the DCC chip will need to be insulated from everything. Wrap it in insulating tape or even clingfilm to be on the safe side. I'm tempted even to suggest heat-shrink wrap but it would need to be shrunk by something like a hairdryer to avoid damaging the circuitry.
Good luck with the project.
First, you'll need to hard wire the chip in. I think that means you need to identify the two wires in to the chip from the pickups (or pickup and chassis is this is live) and two wires out of the chip to the motor. Presumably there are some instructions somewhere to cover this sort of thing.
The scond problem is that everything is conductive so the DCC chip will need to be insulated from everything. Wrap it in insulating tape or even clingfilm to be on the safe side. I'm tempted even to suggest heat-shrink wrap but it would need to be shrunk by something like a hairdryer to avoid damaging the circuitry.
Good luck with the project.
Key rule is 'Red & Black to the track, orange and grey the other way' which if the decoder conforms to NMRA standards should work.
ReplyDeleteYou can get harnesses that you hardwire to the chassis and which then give you a standard 8pin socket. You can get 21pin versions too but found them much harder to source.
ReplyDeleteAs for insulation, a coating of filler on the inside of the white metal should provide insulation, and/or lining with plastic somehow. Wrapping the chip in heat shrink shouldn't be too difficult to achieve either.