Took several hours but I made the train 'talk' to the motor in the rock. Sounds like a good title for a song! This is a quick sketch of the circuit I have used in the past to do the same thing between a Lego train and external Lego motor - it was much easier because they were significantly bigger. The voltage and resistor values were quite different too. Basically, when the train closes the switch, the pilot light turns on and the motor starts. The motor is very quiet so the pilot light is important.
Hot pastrami sandwich??? I thought it was a cowpie!
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
Another beautiful spring morning, definitely back to the Bay of Fundy while the rock falls are fresh and the tide cycle is just right! Another few days and the tides will not allow me access to the beaches during the day for a few weeks. Headed to Baxters Harbour this time and my wife is coming along because there are two antique stores along the way. She will help me gather scenic material at my favourite hobby shop - the Bay of Fundy.
Very different cliff compositions here. Picture from my field trip there 3 years ago at high tide.
OldSchoolScratchbuilder Field trip to the Bay of Fundy today to search for near HO-scale sedimentary cliffs with layered rock faces. This is the best time of year because there are many new rock falls after the winter season. Found many great samples that will not require any additional work like the one in this picture.
Field trip to the Bay of Fundy today to search for near HO-scale sedimentary cliffs with layered rock faces. This is the best time of year because there are many new rock falls after the winter season. Found many great samples that will not require any additional work like the one in this picture.
Alton Junction
The optimum series resistance required for longlife operation of an LED depends on the source voltage and the LED colour. I am using a red LED for the pilot light on this demonstrator and only a few volts are needed for the motor in the rock so it's an easy calulation to find the closest standard resistor value.
Second layer of shale railbed is dry and fixed in place. Before the tracks and ballast are installed on this hopper loader demonstrator, every track (2 in this case) will be wired using mill-max contact probes. These spring-loaded contacts were designed to maintain electrical contact in vibration environments. You can see four of them next to my favourite HO scale seagull.
In 1995 I was invited to write a review article on piezoelectric materials for sensors and actuators with the CEO of Sensor Technology Ltd. and one of his engineers. We were chosen as world leaders in this field. The reference is as follows if you are interested in piezo materials:
"Piezoelectric Materials and their Applications," D.F. Jones, S.E. Prasad, and J.B. Wallace, in Advanced Ceramic Materials: Applications of Advanced Materials in a High-Tech Society I, Key Engineering Materials Volumes 122-124, Ed. Hamid Mostaghaci, Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland, 1996, pp. 71-143.
My layout will appear old school on the outside, but hidden inside will be many high tech solutions.
The Code 100 is for the small demo hopper loader and layout planning. Haven't made a choice yet. I get as much Atlas code 100 track as I want for free so I use it to waste permanently on demonstrators like this metal scrapyard. Have piles of the old brass track as well, which I cut up for the brass metal. Can't use code 70 with my spring-loaded solderless contacts. Code 70 is not an option. Using salty West Jeddore driftwood was suggested - that's asking for electrical trouble. The inside and underside of the rails, and the ties, will have embedded sensors and actuators in them for many unique special effects and animations (eg. sparks). My final track selection will depend on the results from all of my demonstrators. Sensors include Hall effect, acoustic, electromagnetic, optical, and IR to name some examples. I developed sensors and actuators for the Canadian Navy and our allies during my career as a defence physicist.
I'm having a hard time reconciling the fact that you would go to so much effort to put down rocks and ballast and groundcover, and yet use sectional track - and code 100 to boot!
To be consistent with your ground cover efforts, I would suggest handlaid code 70 track, which of course means putting in individual ties and rails and spikes. Of course using a rock base (most MRs use cork or homosote or manufactured rubber type roadbeds) is going to give you a heck of a challenge in getting the trackage aligned and level and solidly in place.
I'm not saying it can't be done, or even shouldn't be done, but the fact is, "the wheel has already been invented and improved upon many times over".
Railbed is ready for a second layer of particulate Walton shale. Getting ready for a field trip to Cape Blomidon area to take photos, and collect scenery materials. Later ...
The course shale track bed that I installed yesterday is now firmly in place. I applied Scenic Cement from Woodland Scenics and as you can see in the picture, nothing falls off the foam when I hold it vertical or upsidedown. Will apply a finer shale particle size today and do the same spray down.
richhotrain Since you are an old school scratch builder, have you considered handlaying your own track? You could use that West Jeddore driftwood for the ties. Rich
Since you are an old school scratch builder, have you considered handlaying your own track? You could use that West Jeddore driftwood for the ties.
Rich
As a professed scratch builder, how difficult would it be to master the basic skills required to build your own track? With West Jeddore driftwood quite plentiful, it could be used to make the ties. For all of the other projects on our retired physicist friend's list, I think that this would be the coolest part of the layout.
Here is a link to the Fast Tracks web site:
http://www.handlaidtrack.com/
I have built miniature radio transmitters in the past. Going to try and use pyrite particles to make an operational HO-scale ground plane antenna for a high frequency radio transmitter. If successful, I'll build a small radio station on the layout and receive on one of my antique radios. Broadcast news will be about the mines/quarries and train yards/stations in the layout.
Careful hand-crushing yield for pyrite/shale was nearly 100%. Four grades by particle sizes were separated. Five pieces were crushed, the rest this long holiday weekend.
Lots of pyrites were collected this morning. These samples will be crushed, separated from the shale, then used to make conductive ground cover for special effects. They have been cleaned and are drying in the heat of the day.
View from another angle.
Also took lots of photos and measurements of the amazing rock face under the lighthouse to model as scenery.
Took detailed measurements of the inside and outside of the Walton lighthouse this morning. It will be scratchbuilt using West Jeddore driftwood and will appear in the prototype forum after I have my new bandsaw delivered and installed at the end of the month.
Field trip to Walton this morning to take photos, measure cliff heights, and more, for scenic development on my layout Panel 3. My field equipment for this work includes a very accurate topographical map, a hand-held laser rangefinder with a 230' range, a hand-held Garmin GPS, my LowePro backpack filled with geology equipment, high-end waterproof Bushnell 7x50 binoculars with built in bearing readout (I used one of these at sea for many years), and a sketchbook. High tide is right about now, so receeding water when I arrive will be perfect for many hours on the coastline. Weather is ideal.
All trackbeds in my layout begin with a Cheverie clay base. On top of the base I install large slabs of Walton shale and form it with sloping sides and flat top. This is shown in the picture. The shale is fixed in place with Scenic Cement by Woodland Scenics. Note that the motor is resting on a wooden platform made from West Jeddore driftwood. I buy the motors on Amazon.
By wiring every piece of track, I can use the connections for diagnostics or I can change my driving point to any piece of track on the entire layout. All electrical connections to each track will be solderless using spring-loaded micro contacts (about 3 mm length when not compressed). They are called contact probes and I buy them online from Mouser Electronics.
My electronics laboratory has everything I need to create unique wiring solutions for my entire layout. I have been designing electronic circuits since 1976 when I joined the Canadian military. Electronics was my job.
I use a very precise Kato Power Pack for the testbed tracks (DC), a top of the line switching mode DC power supply for auxilliary devices, for example, this motor-in-the-rock only needs 2 volts max. The motor is a low-voltage, low-rpm and high-torque design owing in part to it's gearbox. On the layout, every piece of track is wired so for the demo I will have two electric lines and one electromechanical line. I am working with a live load of gypsum from Windsor, NS from my real layout area.
Sun and heat of the day solidified the clay in 2 hours! Ready to make the train talk to the rock this evening instead of tomorrow. Next stop is my electronics lab on the second floor.
zstripe richhotrain Oh well, nothing like having your questions not answered. Good luck with whatever it is you are doing. Rich I remain...''The Shadow''. heh, heh! Frankie
richhotrain Oh well, nothing like having your questions not answered. Good luck with whatever it is you are doing. Rich
I remain...''The Shadow''. heh, heh!
Frankie
richhotrainOh well, nothing like having your questions not answered. Good luck with whatever it is you are doing. Rich
Did You get the ''brush-off'' there ''grasshopper"?
OldSchoolScratchbuilder So far, this is mostly about rock collecting expeditions and little else about actually building a model railroad layout. In one of your earlier threads, you made reference to "lifetime testing" and when I asked what that meant, I never got a response from you. Now, you make a statement like "build an HO rock face, and pass electricity right through it to run an electromechanical system for animation". What does this mean? You suggest that interest may be low because no one has built a live layout before. What does that mean? What is a live layout? My only point is that the all of this could be more meaningful to other modelers if we had a better sense of what all of this means and how you plan to operate this layout. Rich You lack patience grasshopper.
So far, this is mostly about rock collecting expeditions and little else about actually building a model railroad layout. In one of your earlier threads, you made reference to "lifetime testing" and when I asked what that meant, I never got a response from you. Now, you make a statement like "build an HO rock face, and pass electricity right through it to run an electromechanical system for animation". What does this mean? You suggest that interest may be low because no one has built a live layout before. What does that mean? What is a live layout? My only point is that the all of this could be more meaningful to other modelers if we had a better sense of what all of this means and how you plan to operate this layout. Rich
So far, this is mostly about rock collecting expeditions and little else about actually building a model railroad layout. In one of your earlier threads, you made reference to "lifetime testing" and when I asked what that meant, I never got a response from you.
Now, you make a statement like "build an HO rock face, and pass electricity right through it to run an electromechanical system for animation". What does this mean?
You suggest that interest may be low because no one has built a live layout before. What does that mean? What is a live layout?
My only point is that the all of this could be more meaningful to other modelers if we had a better sense of what all of this means and how you plan to operate this layout.
You lack patience grasshopper.
Good luck with whatever it is you are doing.
Concealing sensors and surveillance equipment inside beach rocks and driftwood is technology that my company developed - I owned the company. This is also one of the reasons I bought 14.5 acres of prime land on the Bay of Fundy with deeded access to the rocky beach with huge cliffs, caves, and lots more. Details on how the hopper communicates with the rock are proprietary to my company and cannot be disclosed. That being said, you will see it work.
If you Google Access Nova Scotia's Registry of Joint Stocks and search for Intrinsic Defence and Intelligence Enterprises you will find my company. Once I developed successful products, I requested the company be revoked.