Lineside Signals: B&M Eastern Route

[Philip]

I'm a wiring hack. If this were mine it would be on fire. I love those signals especially this one. Great work sir!

[ACL1504]

James,

Way way over my head but still very impressive signal system.

Tom 

[jbvb]

Thanks, Philip and Tom. I think you overestimate the difficulty of this.  But if you model RRs that never had any signals, the question is moot.

[deemery]

Thanks, Philip and Tom. I think you overestimate the difficulty of this.  But if you model RRs that never had any signals, the question is moot.

That works for me :-)  I have one planned signal, the ball signal controlling the SG/NG crossing, and I built that ball signal last year...

dave

[jbvb]

Ralph's an accountant. But his 1970s Lehigh Valley needs signals, so he's done what was necessary (except learn to program in Basic AFAIK).

[jbvb]

Illustrating two ways to attach wires to the pin connectors the used Chubb DCODs came with:



The plastic connector body isn't super heat-resistant; note soldering tip scar by the left pin.



The DCOD's connector appears to be designed for wire-wrap.  At least it worked very nicely before my wire-wrap tool disappeared. It's been gone 10 years; clearly the only way I can make it turn up is to buy a new one.  Have to order online, wire-wrap is uncommon enough today that nobody I know can think of an in-person store which would sell me a wire-wrap tool.

[KentuckySouthern]

[deemery]

...

The DCOD's connector appears to be designed for wire-wrap.  At least it worked very nicely before my wire-wrap tool disappeared. It's been gone 10 years; clearly the only way I can make it turn up is to buy a new one.  Have to order online, wire-wrap is uncommon enough today that nobody I know can think of an in-person store which would sell me a wire-wrap tool.

Micro-Center in Cambridge?  (We had one close to us when I lived in Virginia, kinda Nerdvana.  Almost as good as Fry's Electronics in California...)

dave

[jbvb]

Micro-Center in Cambridge?  (We had one close to us when I lived in Virginia, kinda Nerdvana.  Almost as good as Fry's Electronics in California...

Maybe? I may be there for other reasons this Spring, but I should call them before I buy online.

[jbvb]

Spent the afternoon working on the short circuit I was getting when the Spring Switch at the Newburyport depot was in the reversed (eastbound) position.  Turned out to be a mechanical issue: the NJ International twin-coil switch machine is more than 50 years old and was getting balky.  A few puffs of Kadee Greas-Em graphite powder fixed that (graphite lock lube would have worked too, my bottle was just farther away).

But while getting to that point, I documented the wiring I'd done by color, made the fascia bipolar LED indicator power feed independent of the Azatrax D2T power feed, switched the D2T from the +/- 12vDC bus to the 16 vAC power bus and generally organized things down there.

On the To-Do list goes: Apply graphite lube to the rest of the layout's switch machine solenoids; all are over the minimum age required to serve as President.

[deemery]

Is this what you're looking for?  https://www.amazon.com/Wire-Wrap-Gauge-ELECTRONIX-EXPRESS/dp/B00BFYE0CY

dave

[jbvb]

Close; 28-30 GA is thin for HO track current. But I could have already re-bought what I lost, for 22-24 GA, if I wanted to further enrich Mr. Bezos.
So I found one on FleaBay, due Friday (I like that billionaire a bit better).

[jbvb]

The transient short associated with my Azatrax Spring Switch controller throwing to the "spring" position is found and fixed.

My design uses one 4 pole double-throw relay per power turnout (or crossover in one case). I installed protective diodes across the relays' coil terminals. A voltage spike is generated when you switch off a relay coil. It can eventually erode the contacts controlling the coil.  I don't bother with cheapo control panel pushbuttons in panels, they're easy to diagnose & replace. But I put diode protection where I'd have to crawl under the layout to diagnose and fix.

This one diode failed in "short circuit" mode. Usually a burned up diode just stops conducting, but not here. I may have contributed to it by connecting the +/- 12VDC power backwards. Regardless, the dead diode was shorting one side of the power supply the whole time the switch was in the "spring" position, which somehow (not worth figuring out details) was making a PSX power district controller unhappy.  Sometimes as many as three at once.  Diode replaced at the bench, "interlocking board" reattached to the benchwork, wires put back in the screw terminals, signals do as they;re supposed to without FEEEPing.