Hello Railfans! Welcome to the new thread concerning "Working HO Couplers".
NOTE - For those of you already familiar with this project and want to skip the intro, please skip down to " ALL COUGHT UP! ".
For those that are new, please read on.....
This thread originally started in the "General Discussion" section of the forum.
Being that it somewhat revolved around some DCC particulars, the MR staff moved the thread to the "Electronics and DCC" section of the forum.
After many posts, and the answer been found to the original post, the subject drifted off onto the reason for needing DCC answers in the first place.... to control a working set of couplers.
So where are we today? We have the couplers, but no DCC to control them. In its place, a magic wand. To further bring you up to speed, here is a list of video links (in order of production) marking each step in the coupler process.
1) This video shows the first two test cars (boxcars) being tested. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkQjlLqgATs
2) Ofcourse, what is a good project without some sinicism? To wit - one of our galant readers was curious as to how the 'flatcar' version would be made. That led to - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uV5yKGxATw4
3) With two types now working, lets try them together. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mv36TN2P9wA
4) After some deliberation amongst the thread readers and myself, the best version of the design finally arrived. Simple 'over the roof' activated uncoupling. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRkOt_TiPpY
5) Still working on a better flatcar/gondola version, I had an old car from childhood that never got Kadees. Time to see if the coupler idea is gonna work, from the start line to finish, with a non knuckle type car as the baseline. It took thirty minutes to produce this, and is totally unpowered! Radically different than the first design. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwCMWwYklHI
6) Time to have a little fun. The next three videos finish bringing the new reader up to speed as to where the project is today (2/2/2015).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGEWhRLt01U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SILl5v-6YtQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXVE8kqjvl4
In the last video you can see I made one of Kadee's coupler gauge work as well. All the couplers used are Kadee #5's.
ALL COUGHT UP!
This thread now concerns the couplers, either the powered OR non powered versions. The cars I use are DC battery powered. But easily can be adapted to work on track power. DC or DCC.
Suggestions, ideas, comments, opinions, are all welcome. Or if you want to know more in depth about the project I prefer standard email over the private messaging system MR currently uses. My email is in my profile.
Next up: Now that i am pretty much finished with the flat cars for a while, i wanted to get back to finishing the 2nd boxcar. After that, it definately has to be making the wand.
Cheers!
PM Railfan
Here are 3 more video links.
Two videos i didnt have time to post earlier. Coupler work makes you sleepy....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_liWaveRnI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRfmMjmh3oE
And a link I forgot to put in the opening post....
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCO_5kkhEiUXdOx_YHJHU6FQ
This link takes you to a page where you can select which individual coupler video you want to see instead of wading through the links above searching.
As you will notice in the two former videos above, it IS INDEED POSSIBLE to uncouple Kadees from each other by only activating one.
This beyond a shadow changes the belief that two couplers would be needed for uncoupling. However, by reducing the amount of mechanical action of the uncoupling process, your rate of success for each uncoupling drops.
Slack now re-enters the equation of uncoupling cars. You operational hounds should love the implications of this!
While the Gen II has demonstrated it can actually open the face far enough to slide past the opposing face, the 'fingertips' will grab depending on your slack. Whereas before, with both activated, this wasnt a problem except in extreme stressed situations.
Can one coupler be activated only and uncouple the cars? YES.
But at a slightly less success rate. The fix? Radio the engineer to 'jostle' the slack out of the couplers. Try to pull the pin again. Just like the real thing!
More to come - Stay Tuned!
Douglas