Beverage holders

i have 4 of those beverage holders around my layout. Got them at West Marine, a good boat supply place. They help us observe rule 19.5, "no throttle and bottle in the same hand." 

Yep

Being ambidextrous, I have no trouble following that rule. Throttle in one hand, bottle in the other!

Panel Design

Have you got any step-by-step or detailed photos of how you built the panel. I have a Zephyr as the main power on my point-to-point railroad as well and am not happy with how it is currently mounted. Looking for ideas. Thanks.

Dave Calhoun

"The Greater Nickel Plate"

Build History

Dave,

Thanks for asking. I have tons of pictures and notes over the years that I have been working on this thing. Key issue I found with the Zephyr was the need for ventilation to keep it from overheating in the enclosure. You cannot see it in the pictures, but the hood containing the RRampmeters and elevator controls has a large vent area. The plywood the throttle is sitting on also has large holes drilled below and behind the unit -- so plenty of airflow. The Zephr is now just a throttle on a DCS100 system -- I needed much more power for my sound locos.

The displayed unit is my fourth or fifth remake of the concept. The cover sheet is a piece of lexan drilled for the switches -- I would have preferred the classic rotaries but no room. Working within my available space has been a major element of the design. The leds are mounted on a large piece of prototype circuitboard. The actual wiring is wirewrap and soldered connections. The logic is a pair of CML Industries DTM30 display controllers. The track diagram and labels are on a sheet of styrene drilled at the locations of the LEDs. Dymo labels and chart tape form the diagram.

If you look back through this blog you will see images from various stages in the development. One key aspect is that I had ideas of how I wanted it to work and what I wanted to display. But the actual implementation was very much of a cut/fit/try/discard loop. And many sketches and models over the years.

If I were to do it over again, and I still might, I would have used some software and gotten a custom circuitboard etched. I like wirewrap as a technique but it requires patience and attention to detail beyond what solder connections require. And it is harder to troubleshoot.

greg