Track and electrical/DCC
LED lights go dim
I use LE flexible LED strip lights to light my layout--4 16.5 ft strips, each with its own power supply. They are split in the middle to turn the corner on my L-shaped layout and are connected with clip and wire connectors from the same vendor. I've had them in place for about a year and just noticed that one portion of one of the strips has suddenly gone to about half the brightness of all the other strips. Any idea what's up with that?
Micro wire repair - any suggestions?
I noticed a very small wire came loose from the plug on my Athearn Genesis #844 steam loco (see photos).
Does anyone have suggestions on how to repair this?
My primary concern is how to get that wire back into that tiny plug and make it stay there. It kind of looks like the metal receiver in the plug might need to come out and get re-inserted after I've inserted the wire.
Thanks!
Bridge Rectifier
I have bridge rectifiers in passenger cars for LED lighting. I am not good at designing circuits, thought I can build them. I have some cars that the LEDs blink going over a frog or dirty track. This is my question, do you put the capacitor in series or parallel? I know what voltage to get, what size capacitor would you get? Thank you for your help
Walthers 90 foot turntable gear
Has anyone come up with a way to prevent gear bind in the older Cornerstone pre built turntable? I want to sell my old one to a friend. It worked when I removed it but now seems to bind in the gearbox.
Loksound Steam & Chuff Cams
Hi everyone,
Has anyone tried the Loksound decoders with steam? It seems they have a limited variety of US sounds right now but they are getting better. I have 2 of their decoders so far for diesels and like the ability to change the sounds in the future. Does Tsunami or TCS Wow provide better sound for steam? I am open to recommendations.
Model Power code 100 flex track quality
I am about to lay a lot of hidden staging track. I have some old code 100 flex track from Model Power (guaranteed to be at least 25 years old -- probably somewhat more). It's used....old solder connections, missing ties here and there, but mechanically usable and in decent shape. Rail gauge is in spec. Out of curiosity, I bought a piece of Atlas code 100 flex to compare them. I noticed that the rail color is somewhat different. They're both "silver" colored (not yellow brass is in old Atlas Snap Track), but the Model Power flex looks different - even after cleaning.
Tooting my own horn (sound in an S100)
Just had to post... I just finished up putting a Loksound Select Micro in my son's Rivarossi S100 0-6-0T and I'm pretty damn proud of myself. This was my second sound install and my first in a factory-finished loco, and a freaking tiny one at that.
A quick rundown of everything I did (roughly in order):
Convert decoder from NMRA 8-pin to NEM 651 6-pin plug, using the dummy plug pins
Add speaker and speaker box
Download sound project file to decoder using LokProgrammer
Miniatronics RU1-1 Back and forth circuit
So,
I recently picked up a Miniatronics RU1-1, which is an automatic back and forth type circuit. I often saw these used as a display to demonstrate a crossing signal or something similar. I do not think these are DCC compatable.
Anyway, what do I do with it? Please don't tell me to throw it in the trash...
Looking for experienced USB Microscope users
Who out there has used these so called USB Microscopes for detail work? I am specifically thinking about an aid when soldering ridiculously small magnet wire to ridiculously small 0402 SMD LEDs...
Does this thing work? What is weird about using it? My gut tells me that with the screen placed properly, this is a whole lot better than an optivisor or even a magnifying light. I have seen discussions where people suggest using them, but I really want to hear from someone who has recently installed grab irons in 0.080 holes or soldered SMD 0402 or something equally as tedious.
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