Saturday 15 June 2013

Things to learn about DCC: #38

If you notice that one wheel is wobbling sideways slightly when rotating, don't try and check it with a metal back-to-back gauge whilst it is still on the rolling road.

Because you will then remember that even though the power is off at the controller, the track is still live with 16V AC. And you will get a little crack and a spark when the circuit is shorted by the introduction of said gauge...

Ho hum, live and learn, etc.

Cheers
Flymo

Thursday 13 June 2013

Tap, tap. Is this thing on?


Well, it's been a while!  It's not that I haven't been doing any modelling at all.  It's merely that I've had a couple of other big things on the go, and the very little free time that I've had has not been devoted to posting about my own modelling.

However I'm now seeing light at the end of the metaphorical tunnel, and there will be more updates soon on progress on various modelling projects.

As a taster, here's a quick snap of my tram locomotive being run in on the rolling road. 


I set it up to start programming the various CV values (or finding out what the default values are) on the chip inside it.

In a surprising piece of pre-planning, I've actually set up a simple spreadsheet to record these.  Of course this will not just help with this locomotive, but others in future.  Now if only I'd made a note of what size motor it was *before* I put the top back on the locomotive...

Cheers
Flymo