York1The kitchen issues are not important
Hi John,
Actually our son's kitchen is probably the most important thing happening in my life right now. Certain parts of it have been stressful but overall I'm really enjoying it. I look forward to sitting down each night and doing research to help them make decisions. I'm also enjoying addressing all the little details so that there hopefully won't be too many surprises once the kitchen is done.
Cheers!!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
I had some spare time tonight so I went to work on the headlight problem. As Mark P. suggested, the LED was burned out.
Replacing the LED required a bit of surgery. The LED is buried in the back of the smoke box behind part of the weight. I was able to remove just enough of the weight to get the LED, and the circuit board it is mounted on, out to the front of the smoke box. Somebody at the factory must have made a mistake because there was actually some slack in the wiring!
I clipped off the old leads just below the LED. It will be easy to solder the new LED to the old leads. I still have to figure out polarity and what resistor to use.
The new LED is a warm white 0402, and it will fit right into the back of the headlight now that the light pipe is gone. Bonus!
hon30critter I'm going to take a little break from the snow train project so I can concentrate on a couple of other things that are going on in my life. On the positive side I have been spending hours on my son and daughter-in-law's new kitchen. We are at the point where we have to make a myriad of decisions about all the little details, and we have to finalize some big decisions as well. I am enjoying helping them make those choices but I am spending several hours almost every day do the research and find examples for them to consider. On the negative side, the cost of the kitchen has far exceeded our original budget. We were rather naive when we first set out what we thought we could do the kitchen for. To add to my stress, my recent knee replacement has gone sour and I am once again feeling a great deal of pain in my right knee. This has put me into a bit of a slump mentally to the point where, when I sit down at my workbench, I just don't feel like doing anything. It is also preventing me from working on the garage improvements or constructing the benchwork for the yard. I am really unhappy about that. We are also waiting for an inheritance. It is being held up by the Canada Revenue Agency. It is a sizable amount of money and the longer the CRA delays the process, the more stressed I become. I will resume the snow train project once the other things have settled and I have been able to calm down a bit. I apologise if my sabatical will disappoint anyone. Cheers!! Dave
I'm going to take a little break from the snow train project so I can concentrate on a couple of other things that are going on in my life.
On the positive side I have been spending hours on my son and daughter-in-law's new kitchen. We are at the point where we have to make a myriad of decisions about all the little details, and we have to finalize some big decisions as well. I am enjoying helping them make those choices but I am spending several hours almost every day do the research and find examples for them to consider.
On the negative side, the cost of the kitchen has far exceeded our original budget. We were rather naive when we first set out what we thought we could do the kitchen for.
To add to my stress, my recent knee replacement has gone sour and I am once again feeling a great deal of pain in my right knee. This has put me into a bit of a slump mentally to the point where, when I sit down at my workbench, I just don't feel like doing anything. It is also preventing me from working on the garage improvements or constructing the benchwork for the yard. I am really unhappy about that.
We are also waiting for an inheritance. It is being held up by the Canada Revenue Agency. It is a sizable amount of money and the longer the CRA delays the process, the more stressed I become.
I will resume the snow train project once the other things have settled and I have been able to calm down a bit.
I apologise if my sabatical will disappoint anyone.
rrebellIf you are getting someone else to do the kitchen install, yeah they can run those prices up. I did oner a few years ago for my neice, cabs cost only arround $5,000 as we went with a very nice one from China (their are very bad ones from there too). The counter top cost more than the cabinets and I did the install and most of the design. For designing make sure they have enough room for what they want, you would be surprised at how many cliets over the year tried to put in an island that just did not fit, also try to get usable corner cabs, some have very bad access
Hi rrebell,
After mulling over doing most of the work ourselves, we decided that wasn't an option. Cole is far too busy at work and they have a new baby so finding the time to work on the kitchen would be very difficult. The job would take forever.
We have hired a custom cabinet maker and a general contractor to do almost all the work. They work together on a regular basis, and the numerous reviews of their work are extremely positive.
Of course the cost has gone up exponentially, but we can afford it (Dianne and I are paying for the new kitchen). The money would otherwise simply be sitting in investments. We would rather see it put to good use now instead of Cole and Kaitlin having to wait 20+ years to inherit it.
As far as kitchen design goes, I have done enough of it that I got offered a job by Home Depot when we were making some changes to our own kitchen a couple of years ago. I knew almost as much as their designer did. Cole and Kaitlin wanted an island but I talked them out of it. There simply wasn't enough room.
Sorry about the long pause between posts. I have been too busy with other things.
I finally forced myself to have another go at programming the snow train sounds into one of the locomotives. I had reported earlier that the sound files weren't working with the new Scale Sound Systems speakers. They sounded horrible. I discovered that it was the sound files that were corrupted. The LokProgrammer was playing the sounds at twice the proper speed. I ended up having to uninstall and reinstall the LokProgrammer software and the problem went away. The speakers are quite impressive when you feed the correct sound into them!
I still have a bunch of other programming problems so I will have to re-read the notes I was sent by Peter Ross in New Zealand last spring.
I also replaced the headlight LED. The original was a dud. I had a heck of a time getting it to work. If I applied power directly it would come on, but when I tried to turn it on using the decoder it wouldn't light. After spending (read - wasting) a couple of hours scratching my head, I finally realized that I had the locomotive set in reverse! The headlight works fine.
Cheeers!!
hon30critterAfter spending (read - wasting) a couple of hours scratching my head, I finally realized that I had the locomotive set in reverse!
Mike
I'm going nuts!!!
I have fine tuned the locomotive sound file. It sounds great, that is until I program it into the LokSound V5 decoder. The sound plays at twice the speed that it is supposed to.
I haven't got the slightest clue what is going wrong. I have posted a note on the ESU LokProgrammer forum. Hopefully someone can help me sort this out.
If it's twice the speed I'd wonder if it is somehow interpreting a mono file as stereo when it does the conversion for programming
Hi ckape,
It is definitely a stereo file.
One of the members on the ESU forums may have answered the question. He suggested that the file may not be the proper bit size. I'll see if that solves the problem.
Hi again ckape,
hon30critterIt is definitely a stereo file.
Wrong! It is a mono file.
I have the playback speed corrected but there are still a few problems:
1. When I play the sound files through the computer they are very loud, but when I play them using the locomotive speaker they are not loud enough to suit me. I am using a Scale Sound Systems square speaker 2.5 mm x 2.5 mm x 1.75 mm. The speaker sounds fantastic when a standard sound file is played through it.
2. The sound won't stop playing when I push F8 a second time.
3. The headlight won't come on even after I reset the decoder. I have tried both forward and reverse. Edit: I figured out the headlight problem. One of the wires has broken where it is soldered into the connector between the locomotive and the tender which is where the decoder is located. No amount of programming would have solved that!!
hon30critter rrebell If you are getting someone else to do the kitchen install, yeah they can run those prices up. I did oner a few years ago for my neice, cabs cost only arround $5,000 as we went with a very nice one from China (their are very bad ones from there too). The counter top cost more than the cabinets and I did the install and most of the design. For designing make sure they have enough room for what they want, you would be surprised at how many cliets over the year tried to put in an island that just did not fit, also try to get usable corner cabs, some have very bad access Hi rrebell, After mulling over doing most of the work ourselves, we decided that wasn't an option. Cole is far too busy at work and they have a new baby so finding the time to work on the kitchen would be very difficult. The job would take forever. We have hired a custom cabinet maker and a general contractor to do almost all the work. They work together on a regular basis, and the numerous reviews of their work are extremely positive. Of course the cost has gone up exponentially, but we can afford it (Dianne and I are paying for the new kitchen). The money would otherwise simply be sitting in investments. We would rather see it put to good use now instead of Cole and Kaitlin having to wait 20+ years to inherit it. As far as kitchen design goes, I have done enough of it that I got offered a job by Home Depot when we were making some changes to our own kitchen a couple of years ago. I knew almost as much as their designer did. Cole and Kaitlin wanted an island but I talked them out of it. There simply wasn't enough room. Cheers!! Dave
rrebell If you are getting someone else to do the kitchen install, yeah they can run those prices up. I did oner a few years ago for my neice, cabs cost only arround $5,000 as we went with a very nice one from China (their are very bad ones from there too). The counter top cost more than the cabinets and I did the install and most of the design. For designing make sure they have enough room for what they want, you would be surprised at how many cliets over the year tried to put in an island that just did not fit, also try to get usable corner cabs, some have very bad access
I learned very quickly to pay attention to all those details. The very first kitchen that I was involved with turned out to be a disaster (I didn't design it but I had to approve the design and I didn't know diddley squat about anything). It was a nasty experience which I never wanted to go through again so I studied the intricacies of kitchen design very carefully. The kitchen renovations that I have been involved in since then have not suffered any serious problems. In fact, on a couple of occasions, I have had to explain to the designers and the installers how to do what I wanted them to do, and everything turned out fine.
I figured out why the headlight won't come on. One of the wires has broken away from the connector plug between the locomotive and the tender. The decoder is in the tender. No amount of programming would solve that problem!
Once again I apologise for letting the thread lapse. I'm afraid that not being able to get the sound files to work properly as well as several recent medical issues have taken the wind out of my sails.
No worries Dave! Just keep us posted when the wind returns to your sails.
Water Level RouteNo worries Dave! Just keep us posted when the wind returns to your sails.
Thanks, I will.
I would also like to thank everyone who has been following this thread. It just went over 80,000 views!
hon30critter Water Level Route No worries Dave! Just keep us posted when the wind returns to your sails. Thanks, I will. I would also like to thank everyone who has been following this thread. It just went over 80,000 views! Cheers!! Dave
Water Level Route No worries Dave! Just keep us posted when the wind returns to your sails.
Rich
Alton Junction
richhotrainYou better get humpin', Dave. You are coming up on the two year anniversary of this thread, and we still haven't seen this little sucker moving along the rails.
I hear ya Rich, but I will make no promises as to when that will occur. Dianne and I have had a lot of unpleasant things happen to us both health wise and family wise during the last few weeks and we are just about at the end of our ropes. We can't even get up enough spirit to write Xmas cards. We haven't been able to spend nearly as much time with our new grandson because of all the disease risks that are out there, and that's only one of many factors.
We have had enough crap to last us for a long, long time!!
Sorry to be so negative.
hon30critter richhotrain You better get humpin', Dave. You are coming up on the two year anniversary of this thread, and we still haven't seen this little sucker moving along the rails. I hear ya Rich, but I will make no promises as to when that will occur. Dianne and I have had a lot of unpleasant things happen to us both health wise and family wise during the last few weeks and we are just about at the end of our ropes. We can't even get up enough spirit to write Xmas cards. We haven't been able to spend nearly as much time with our new grandson because of all the disease risks that are out there, and that's only one of many factors. We have had enough crap to last us for a long, long time!! Sorry to be so negative. Dave
richhotrain You better get humpin', Dave. You are coming up on the two year anniversary of this thread, and we still haven't seen this little sucker moving along the rails.
Even so, I will continue to encourage you to finish this project. Imagine how pleased you will be once you are finished and can move onto your next project.
I sincerely hope you and Dianne get past these issues in your lives, and can get back to some semblance of normalcy (whatever that is).
York1 John
I asked my doctor if I gave up delicious food and all alcohol, would I live longer? He said, "No, but it will seem longer."
I finally sat down last night to re-assemble one of the pusher locomotives and I immediately ran into problems. Initially the headlight worked and it would move forwards and backwards, but then things went south. The first thing that happened was that the headlight stopped working. Then the locomotive would not stop moving. If I pushed the emergency stop button it would stop, but as soon as I released the button it started moving again. I did a decoder reset, including cycling the power off and on, and then I got nothing at all!
My next step will be to check for shorts. I was using the programming track and there were no shorts indicated. Assuming I don't find any, I will use my LokProgrammer to completely re-program the decoder.
It has occurred to me that my Power Cab may have messed up as well. I'll have to dig out the manual and do a reset on that too.
This episode is typical of what I have been through with this scratchbuild. One step forward and three steps back.
I'm sorry that it has taken me several weeks to get back to working on the snow plow train. December and January were hellish for both Dianne and I and things are just starting to settle down now. I won't go into the details.
Good to hear things are headed in the right direction.
hon30critter I finally sat down last night to re-assemble one of the pusher locomotives and I immediately ran into problems. Initially the headlight worked and it would move forwards and backwards, but then things went south. The first thing that happened was that the headlight stopped working. Then the locomotive would not stop moving. If I pushed the emergency stop button it would stop, but as soon as I released the button it started moving again. I did a decoder reset, including cycling the power off and on, and then I got nothing at all! My next step will be to check for shorts. I was using the programming track and there were no shorts indicated. Assuming I don't find any, I will use my LokProgrammer to completely re-program the decoder. It has occurred to me that my Power Cab may have messed up as well. I'll have to dig out the manual and do a reset on that too. This episode is typical of what I have been through with this scratchbuild. One step forward and three steps back. I'm sorry that it has taken me several weeks to get back to working on the snow plow train. December and January were hellish for both Dianne and I and things are just starting to settle down now. I won't go into the details. Cheers!! Dave
hon30critterThen the locomotive would not stop moving.
I had that problem with one of my Rapido Hudsons when it went onto my TT bridge. I cleaned the track and all was well. I am guessing that with dirty track it got power but no signal.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
BATMANI had that problem with one of my Rapido Hudsons when it went onto my TT bridge. I cleaned the track and all was well. I am guessing that with dirty track it got power but no signal.
Ahha!! When all else fails, look at the obvious!! You are probably right.
Thanks Brent!
I finally sat myself down and did some modelling. It wasn't much but I hope I have finally got past my procrastination.
I added another layer of Testors Clear Glue to the headlight lens and I did a bit of work on one of the locomotive tenders. I had to do a little trimming to get the shell to sit down properly on the frame. I also added the back wall of the coal bin and made the doors for the tender. I'm afraid that was all I could manage because my hands started to shake.
I still haven't gotten up the courage to go back to work on the sound files. You may recall that I was having so much trouble with transferring the custom sound files to the locomotives that I gave up trying. I'm going to spend my time finishing all the other cars in the snow train consist first.
Hopefully I'm out of the doldrums.
Hi Gang,
I did something tonight that I didn't think I could do anymore. I managed to get my hands steady enough that I could make some very small parts for one of the locomotive tenders.
I had to make a set of coal doors for the tender, which I did, but when I installed them they looked unfinished to me so I decided to make some door latches. The doors have four sections so I made a latch for each section out of 0.010" x 0.020" styrene strip. They are crude by today's RTR standards, but they will be hard to see so I'm not concerned. What is important to me is that I could make them at all!
Here are the doors and the latches. Looks messy because the markers I use bleed when the cement is applied.
Accually a very good job and I zoomed in and magnafied.
hon30critterHere are the doors and the latches. Looks messy because the markers I use bleed when the cement is applied.
Actually, Dave, I think they look great. What looks messy to you looks like actual weathered doors and latches to me!
York1 I think they look great.
Hi rrebell and John,
Thank you for the kind words!
I tried something different this time. I used Testors Clear Cement to assemble the latches. That avoided having the tiny bits of styrene melt into goo as they have done in the past when I used styrene cement.