Electronics in; work session
Wow! Two posts in one month! It must be winter…
Since the last post I have had help laying some track and putting in feeders for recently laid track.
An historic event- Bob is the only one working!
I have also run bus wires and got my DS64 and SE8c “boards” wired up.
Detection for part of the lower level will run through this SE8c along with control for 8 tortoises. Local turnout control via pushbuttons will eventually be wired through this as well for certain spurs and yard lead tracks. On the bottom right are the power busses coming out of the detectors. On the left side I have run wire from all of the SE8c pins out to terminals for easy connection once I start installing tortoises. I plan to eventually install signals which is why I am using this type of board.
Similarly, these DS64’s will control the turnouts in North staging as well as provide detection. These are mounted on this board with the detection blocks coming out at the top of the pic and the outputs for turnout control as well as “switches” to provide local turnout control leading out to terminals on the bottom. I plan to program these to use routes and them put up a control panel for the staging yard . That way the user will just need to push a button on the track they want to be on, and the turnouts will align properly.
Ron brought over his Trix Big Boy. While I do find it somewhat offensive to Useless Pacific power on the layout, there is no denying the coolness of this model. The wheel treads are very fine, and the sound system is impressive. This isn’t the best picture unfortunately…
Kurt brought over a few Milwaukee sound units for show and tell. Here Rich admires the FM.
Ron & Kurt
I’m now in the process of soldering and tying in leads for the remaining track in what I call “district 3″ which is the main portion of the lower level. Once those are in, I’ll start running power to North staging and installing Tortoises there. Stay tuned…