Nice!!!

Hmmmmmmm........

( :> ) )

Nick

That's a good start

That's a good start. Now all you need to do is tie it into the layout control system and teach it to recognize train orders!

< smile>

JimW

Maybe get HAL 9000 to operate

Maybe get HAL 9000 to operate it; well, we all know how that went!  

HAL 9000: Look Dave, I can see you're really upset about this. I honestly think you ought to sit down calmly, take a stress pill, and think things over.

Cool!

Cool!

Yep, another good example of letting technology work for you!

Joe

Hmmmm...interesting idea. I

Hmmmm...interesting idea. I have an alexa and smart plug that I got free from a phone upgrade .wasen't sure what to do with them. 

I was actually thinking of starting a thread on different ideas for them. 

Not to go too low tech about this, but...

Faced with pretty much the same problem, and having a background in electronics tech starting back to the 70s, I opted for a heavy duty extension cord so I could move the on/off switch on my power strip to the front leg of one of my benchwork modules.

It has a significantly less cool factor going for it, but then again, I've always been somewhat uncomfortable talking back to appliances around the house.  Has too much of the "crazy cat lady" vibe going for it, and I'm allergic to cats.

Nice solution, though.

Janet N.

Luddites, unite!

I don't have an Alexa, or Siri, or any other corporate spy gadget in my house.  I barely tolerate the smart phone.

What I would use is something like this toy from Amazon: a remote switched power strip.  I had one for quite some time that had a wired remote switch, Trippe-Lite has one, but the $90 retail price is a bit spicy.

Tim B.

That is a good idea...

maybe you can get Alexa to help out in operating sessions during the pandemic,,,,"Alexa the Tempe local to Flagstaff"
Great idea, Peace Bill

Remote power switch - without the internet

I bought, practically before Alexa and her friends were available, a set of remotely controlled outlets. 

https://www.amazon.com/Etekcity-Control-Wireless-Household-Appliances/dp/B00DQ2KGNK

Pretty cheap (less than $20 for the set I got, which was similar, but not identical, to this one) and if the internet goes out, I can still play with trains. Although if the internet goes out at my house, I'll be involved in fixing it.... 

Expensive Dice

I have a few industry spots on my layout where the delivered car will stay for a randomly generated number of op sessions before being picked up.  

Back in the ancient old days a person might roll dice.  Now in our modern world, I just say "Hey Google, pick a number between x and y. " 

Google can also flip a coin, saving me the exhausting work of reaching into my pocket and actually physically flipping that heavy piece of metal.

gs

Ideas

Neat use of an Alexa enabled outlet, I use mine to turn on my Christmas Village lights, but always good to have options.

You actually still carry change in your pocket? I can not remember the last time I had change.

Pocket change?

I like pocket change.  Have about 4 peanut butter jars filled with pennies that I use to add weight to rolling stock.  Handier than having to remember to buy hex nuts or washers at the hardware store. And fairly cheap - less than 25 cents per car usually.

Although there was an article in the news last month about how the government is asking people to take their jars of coins back to banks so they can be recirculated to stores, which seem to be running out since so many of us are using credit cards, debit cards, or smartphone apps to pay for stuff that the coin supply is running thin.

I also remember a few times way back when I lived in Vermont (early 70s) that a couple of the crustier Vermonters would use "Lincoln Fuses" (pennies) instead of replacing those button fuses that always seemed to blow out.  Of course, these were the same old guys that would test for voltage on exposed post-and-tube wiring by wetting their fingers and touching the wires.

It always amazed me that those guys lived long enough to be "old crusty Vermonters".  Neither practice was actually likely to promote longevity.

Janet N.

re: Pocket change?

I have used pennies for weights on occasion, but the lead weights you can buy with the adhesive on the back are better since you can stick them over the trucks and not worry about them shifting, You can glue the pennies down, but have to wait for the glue to dry, I would not super glue pennies together as it makes it hard to adjust the amount of weight.

Not to get too far off track, the reason for the coin "shortage" is not from everyone using their cards and phones for payment. It is from those who don't have access to those forms of payment staying home and not putting their change back into circulation. Also the U.S. mint did have reduced staffing so was producing less coins than normal.

RTV vs. Super Glue

Another reason I wouldn't use super glue to hold pennies (or any other kind of weight) in a car is that it has lousy shear strength. Silicone RTV caulk is much better in that respect, and is much easier to clean up if it gets away from you.

Back in the 1990s, Dr. Butler's Ann Arbor Great Northern had a working hump yard where we slowed cars using their car cards as they went down into the bowl. The way the sessions were designed, most cars that moved during a session ended up going over the hump. At one point, he decided that we needed to go through the freight car fleet and adjust the trucks, correct coupler height issues, and bring the cars up to NMRA weight standards (He was right, the cars needed it).

We typically would run trains one Tuesday night, then hold a work session the next. The first session after we started the car improvement process, something curious happened- several times when cars made hard stops after being sent down the hump (it happens...), we heard an additional "thump" coming from inside the car. Examination of the offending equipment reveled that weight that had been super-glued into the car the previous week had sheared loose and hit the end of the car.

We switched to using RTV to fix the weight in place the following week and had no further problems.

Penny weight for your off-topic thoughts!

I like the idea of RTV, or preferably the same sealant I use to bond track and roadbed, DAP Dynaflex 230.  An attempt to glue pennies into a coherent flatcar load, using Aleene's Turbo Tacky Glue,  was less than durable.

Whatever you use to tack 'em together, be it tape, glue or solder, for your own sanity, HIDE THEM!  I lost count after the first day at a meet in Raleigh, the number of times I heard that the load was neat, the GoPro mount right above coupler height was cool, but "defiling US gubbmint currency is a crime!".  Telling them the glue was water soluble fell on deaf /dumb ears...

I like Jeff's remote triggered outlets.  IoT devices, even behind firewalls, give me an uneasy feeling of late.

Tim B.

Pocket change? For Car Weights

Pinewood Derby weights come in a variety of sizes. I have found these very convenient, easy to cut with a hacksaw, and easily filed for a bit of fine-tuning for spaces between the car frame.

Wheel weights

if you have room in the car, 

https://www.harborfreight.com/1-2-half-oz-wheel-weights-67226.html

$8 with the ubiquitous 20% off Harbor Freight coupon is a great value  

The adhesive is excellent and I’ve never had one let go including on cars I’ve shipped USPS.

jeff

Melding topics

Taking a tip from "Will it Blend?", I wonder how many Alexas, properly ground up, would fit in an HO 3-bay covered hopper?

Tim B.

Well, I'm not replying to the change topic, but...

Jeff, thanks very much for that recommendation.  That sounds like the perfect answer for me, allowing me to easily locate the switch for powering up the layout right next to where I keep my ProtoThrottles.  Not a huge deal to fire up the PTs in one room and walk into the next room to flip the layout switch, but I've found that the easier I make that process, the more likely I am to operate at those times when maybe I only have 10 minutes.

I use two switches now.

I have one switch that turns on the Raspberry Pi running JMRI/WiThrottle  and another that turns on the layout and other associated electronics, such as my ProtoThrottle adapter. 

I find my ProtoThrottle is much happier if the WiThrottle program is up and running before it is.

Confused...

AZBaja et al. Sorry but I’m not tracking. The original post that is shown on the forum at this moment is below. The subject “Subject has changed to - Pocket change? For Car Weights“ sure sounds like glueing US currency into cars for adding weight. Help us out with a link or something to what you’re talking about. The first couple posters musta got it but this thread on its own makes no sense on its own.  

Dear Confused...

Well the problem is like so many threads the original topic got side tracked most likely by me, to the using change for weighting cars the actual original topic was about:

And AzBaja used an Alexa smart switch plugged into an UPS, if I recall correctly, to allow him to turn on and off his layout without crawling under the layout to reach the power switch.

The conservation ensued about different remote switch options.

Since the original idea was using Alexa to control the layout power, that generated a comment

And in my reply about that using a smart plug was a good idea to control layout power, I made the additional comment about still having pocket change, which generated the use of pocket change as weight and how to best secure them. Starts on Page 2.

This led AzBaja to change the subject to Pocket change? For Car Weights? I commented to him that someone coming along later might wonder about the first replies since he deleted his initial post when he changed the subject. I believe this led him to add to his initial post that the subject had changed. I meant for him to put the subject back to the original along with his original picture and just ignore the side conversation on pocket change.

I don't know of a way to split threads when something like this happens, i.e. start a new thread with the new subject to keep the original thread intact.