7mm On Heather's Workbench - Prairie ago-go

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Ressaldar

Ressaldar

Western Thunderer
Hi Heather,

Glad to see that you are still among us and that hopefully, your lighting dilemma will be resolved pdq and that it will also light up your enthusiasm for modelling once more. Looking forward to seeing the little yellow flickering lamp on the prairie soon.

Stay safe and well.

regards

Mike
 
Phil O

Phil O

Western Thunderer
Hi Heather,

Glad to hear that you're still amongst us and struggling on.

Not sure if you have mentioned it, but is this a DC or DCC powered loco? This will impact on the way the LED needs to be powered.
 
Phil O

Phil O

Western Thunderer
Not being totally au faux with decoders, I would assume that the auxiliary outputs from the chip would be of constant polarity, if this is the case you only need to add a resistor to the + positive side of the LED, this is the longer wire. You may need to adjust the size of the resistor to dim the amount of light.

I see that you say eventually, the LED will only light with the current flowing in the right direction.
 
Heather Kay

Heather Kay

Western Thunderer
Thanks Phil.

That whooshing noise was what you wrote zooming right over my head. :oops:

I’m not installing the DCC. That’s way over my pay grade. All I want to do at present is rig up the light pipe, fit a light box with LED, and my electronic guru will do the magical bit.
 
Phil O

Phil O

Western Thunderer
Hi Heather,

I'm by no means any sort of electronics guru, but I will try my best. Normal 12 volt dc supply will blow the sort of LEDs we use, to obviate that a resistor needs to be attached to the positive leg of the LED, the longer leg, the usual size is about 800 to 100 ohms. But at that resistance the LED will probably be to bright to represent an oil lamp. To reduce the brightness you will need a larger resistor.

Because an LED is a diode the electric will only pass through it in one direction, thus if it's wired to the loco pick ups it will glow in one direction, but not the other. To work in both directions further wizardry is needed, but that is beyond my basic knowledge. For a wider response, from more knowledgeable persons than I, I would suggest you ask the question in other parts of the forum, to gain a wider audience.
 
simond

simond

Western Thunderer
Wot ‘e said...

the decoder will output a constant polarity, the blue wire is a common positive, and the other wires provide switched returns. You get automatic directional switching by using yellow (rear) and white (front) for headlights.

and you will need a resistor to limit the current. I’d start at about one thousand ohms, a kilohm. Maybe a bit more, but 1k is safe, your diode won’t die in a flash...

you asked earlier about suitable leds. The easy approach is a standard axial leaded thing that looks like a baby test tube with two wires coming out of the flat end, but they’re quite big. A surface mount led could be soldered over the gap between two tracks on a small fragment of Veroboard. You could mount the resistor likewise, so a bit of Vero about 6mm square would do both, and you could mount it with a bit of double sided tape.

This might do though it’s amber, yellow may be better

https://docs.rs-online.com/384c/0900766b816479d5.pdf

You’ll want about 10 mA - assuming 15V you’d want a 1500 ohm resistor (aka 1k5)

hth
Simon
 
Heather Kay

Heather Kay

Western Thunderer
I know it’s been a while, but I had to go into rehab after all that electronickery fused my braincell. :confused:

Stuff has slowly, as ever, been progressing. I’ve mainly been applying some weathering to the loco frames, and setting about detail painting here and there.

Oh, and Wilfred and Percy have had their session with make-up.

I would show you a picture, but the forum server's most recent update doesn’t like them for some reason. That rather kills - temporarily, one hopes - Western Thunder's main form of currency.
 
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Heather Kay

Heather Kay

Western Thunderer
Hello. Remember me?

Life. Don’t talk to me about life. It keeps getting in the way. Add to that a general unhappiness about my railway modelling, the loads of work backed up, and wondering whether now would be the best time to just throw in the towel…

Anyway, promises are promises. I need to try and concentrate - SQUIRREL!

;)

B4B79D05-C185-4B98-B006-91A02EFD98AB.jpeg

Most of the underframe and chassis parts have been painted and dry-brush weathered with some grime. This may possibly be "unified" with a light blow over of grot-coloured paint, though I think I will reassemble the thing to see how it looks before making that decision.

5145974B-3084-488A-B774-F512E3F651C8.jpeg

3B31D9D9-2D79-4D99-B7B3-52EF651C90DA.jpeg

While Narrow Planet wait on their etchers to get their act together again in this time of plague, the loco has received its identity in the form of these numbers from Fox Transfers. The tank side company titles are waiting for my mojo to decide it can handle it. The GREAT WESTERN bits will come from a Methfix sheet. Previous experience of waterslides on prominent areas like the tank sides have not been good, with significant carrier film evident.

Just a few more gentle shoves and this model will be ready for electronic magic to be applied. Quite when that might happen remains in the laps of whatever deities you may subscribe to.

I hope the next update won’t be too long, but you never know.
 
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Pencarrow

Pencarrow

Western Thunderer
Heather Kay said:
Hello. Remember me?

Life. Don’t talk to me about life. It keeps getting in the way. Add to that a general unhappiness about my railway modelling, the loads of work backed up, and wondering whether now would be the best time to just throw in the towel…

Anyway, promises are promises. I need to try and concentrate - SQUIRREL!

;)

View attachment 133318

Most of the underframe and chassis parts have been painted and dry-brush weathered with some grime. This may possibly be "unified" with a light blow over of grot-coloured paint, though I think I will reassemble the thing to see how it looks before making that decision.

View attachment 133319

View attachment 133320

While Narrow Planet wait on their etchers to get their act together again in this time of plague, the loco has received its identity in the form of these numbers from Fox Transfers. The tank side company titles are waiting for my mojo to decide it can handle it. The GREAT WESTERN bits will come from a Methfix sheet. Previous experience of waterslides on prominent areas like the tank sides have not been good, with significant carrier film evident.

Just a few more gentle shoves and this model will be ready for electronic magic to be applied. Quite when that might happen remains in the laps of whatever deities you may subscribe to.

I hope the next update won’t be too long, but you never know.
Click to expand...

I can save you a job Heather. If you add 2 to the number, make it 4569, and add a late BR crest, that will save you having to add Great Western etc to the tanks. Oh and you'll then need my address...
 
Heather Kay

Heather Kay

Western Thunderer
You’ll not be at all surprised to learn I still haven’t done the tank transfers.

AD03E01D-2B92-4E6D-8E93-6D44BC7B919B.jpeg

I noticed a few areas where paintwork needed retouching. So, some careful work with brush and enamels has filled in the little areas of primer still showing through. It tells me my paint booth needs much better all round lighting so I can spot areas of shadow as I airbrush. Now I have to wait for the enamel to dry properly, so that’s another day where I need to find something else to do.

Lucky I have such a lot on my plate, then.
 
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