It’s the end of an era… The kids are finally all moved out of our home of 20 years in Wekiva. And even though Ann and I have been here in Mount Dora for more than a decade now, we still have more than two decades worth of memories stored there. Or rather, I still have memories stored there. Memories I have no place to store here in our two bedroom, single bath bungalow.
That all changes now that the kids moved into their own house. It’s heartbreaking when we look at what used to be our beautiful home of 20 years, only to see it totally run down, unloved all these years later. The kids never did much to make it their home. From the looks of it, they didn’t do anything. Not even basic maintenance. But enough said. The issue now is how much money our “retirement fund” is going to lose because of the state of disrepair it’s in now.
Perhaps lose isn’t as accurate as how much less money we’ll get now than we could have if it still looked as good as when it was our home. That’s not to say we couldn’t choose to hire contractors to fix her up, but we’d stand to pay as much to do that as we would get back from the boost in the sale price. Beyond that loss, add the immediate sting to our pocketbook to pay the price for someone to come do all those things the kids couldn’t be bothered to do for all those years.
Our home of 20 years – 10 years and $3500 of “deferred maintenance” later
More Distractions
Why does this seemingly never ending theme of always something else that needs done first matter? It’s really starting to wear on me. I’m ready to get things squared away in the Barkyard, but ever since my last post, I’ve literally spent every weekend over at the other house in preparation to list it for sale. Ann and Nick have spent even more time over there. Cleaning up all the trash and yard debris, but mainly getting the pool sparkling blue from thick green.
It’s a half hour trip there from Mount Dora. Multiply that by two trips, morning and night, and it adds up to two hours lost every day to nothing but travel, not to mention the fuel cost. Two hours a day that the kids spending two minutes a day could have saved us by simply checking the chemicals and cleaning the filter. But enough sour grapes. Soon it will be someone else’s treasure, ready to be transformed into their dream home.
We bought it as a “fixer upper”, with plenty of potential. When Ann first saw the view from the back yard, she said, “I don’t care what the inside looks like, we’ll take it”. We remodeled every room except for two of the bedrooms. We even remade the patio around the pool, adding a pool slide and a bar complete with a Gen-Aire grill. Now it’s someone else’s turn to take that potential and turn it into their treasure.
It would be different if my day job didn’t take every single minute I’m logged on from me, distracting me from what I’d rather be doing, working on my garden scale pike. The Barkyard has been on the back burner ever since I went back to work, more than three years ago. And for far longer than I ever imagined it would. And tragically, it shows! Plot twist, now my long lost HO scale empire is the reason it remains on the back burner.
My HO scale empire under construction in the corner room (circa 2006)
Packing Up Memories
My job now is to get the corner room cleaned out and packed up. Everything I want to keep from what I’ve accumulated over a lifetime. I lost count of the number of trash barrels I filled with old and outdated computer and electronics parts. Magazines from the ’80s and ’90s. Basically a bunch of “stuff” that had a place there, but is no longer useful to me, or anyone else for that matter.
It breaks my heart to throw away all the chips and now otherwise useless components that were meant to be used in projects for my HO scale model railroad. Projects that never materialized. Hundreds, if not thousands of TTL logic level chips, like the 7400 series. Old 8 bit microprocessors and support chips. Even spare 8Kx8 replacement dynamic RAM chips from when I repaired my Commodore 64 after our home in Palm Bay was struck by lightning and zapped it.
Hopelessly Useless Discrete Integrated Circuits
With things today measured in gigabytes and terabytes, it seems comical to even think about something in the kilobytes. Parts with top speeds of ten or twenty megahertz can’t compete with today’s multiple gigahertz clock speeds. The really sad part is I can buy something off the shelf that’s already fully integrated and does what I want for a handful of dollars. Why would I waste my time designing and building it from discrete, obsolete parts?
Considering how much real estate a discrete component implementation would require compared to the postage stamp sized Arduino that could perform the same functions, and more, it’s a no brainer why these obsolete parts are now useless. The only exception would as replacements for failed parts in an obsolete piece of equipment. But then the question is how useful is that obsolete piece of equipment compared to its modern equivalent?
Decades of Memories – My Office “Dispatcher’s” Chair (circa 2006)
My HO Scale Empire (Or What’s Left Of It)
A bit of history… I had a huge HO scale layout, spanning two bedrooms, one of which I called my office. The other used to be Nick’s bedroom, until he moved into his sister’s room when she moved out. I even cut tunnel passages through the drywall between the office and the corner bedroom. That all changed when we moved to Mount Dora and the kids moved back in there.
I’m hoping that just because I’m not talking about my garden scale pike, this HO scale discussion will still be of some interest. If not, it’s understandable. Anyone who’s ever started a model train layout knows it’s never finished. It’s a given. But this is going in the wrong direction entirely. Backwards. Having to dismantle everything I worked years to put together is not something I thought would be at the top of my priority list.
I had to dismantle the part of the layout that occupied my old office so our son-in-law could make it his office. That, too, was heartbreaking. Pulling up all the track and cork roadbed, removing track feeders, wiring and controllers. Then the real work began. Dismantling all the framework and carefully storing everything away in the corner room, with the understanding we would use that room for storage.
The plywood and L-girders were simply functional, meant to someday be covered with a beautifully stained veneer to match the ornate shelf brackets, with sweeping curves in the diagonal braces, crafted to mimic old railroad station architecture. Most of those pieces already made it to our Mount Dora home. The track and roadbed and HO scale structures remain there in the corner room.
Now defunct office side HO layout over the desk (circa 2006)
The Last Of My HO Scale Empire
That was then. This is now. I had forgotten all the track and roadbed is still there on the bookshelf layout, high along the walls of the corner room. There are remnants of track and roadbed that remain where the coal mine used to sit on the main level along the wall to the office, complete with the holes for the tunnels in the drywall, still there after all this time. I patched them on the office side long ago.
Beyond all the trackwork, I have models of buildings and trackside structures, many of them kits still in their boxes awaiting assembly. The assembled structures I’ve had nearly my entire life, since grade school anyway. The coal mine for instance. The brewery. The rolling lift bridge. And many more. Those already assembled structures present the challenge of how to best store them in the smallest possible space… Without damaging them.
Beyond that are all the miscellaneous items, distributed across a diverse set of containers, including old Athearn blue boxes, assorted electronics cases, and even an old Dannon yogurt container. When I say miscellaneous, I mean tools, hardware, pieces parts of rolling stock, leftover model kit sprues, model train power packs, wiring, terminal strips, etc. Everything I’ve collected over the years for my HO scale empire.
From HO Scale Empire to Bare Office Walls
Extraneous Information
So why all this extra information? To explain the lack of progress on the Barkyard. Why once again something else has taken higher priority. The good news is this “distraction” will help pave the way for our comfortable retirement. We stand to triple our money when we sell the house. Ann’s already retired. I’m not. I can’t wait, but I’ll have to, continuing to squirrel away 25% of my paycheck until then.
More good news is the progress in the garage here because of this distraction. Nowhere complete by any means, but many baby steps in the right direction. All the trestle making pieces are now in a large 90qt. storage bin, ready for organizer design and 3D printing. They were taking up all the “real estate” on the shelf over the carriage doors. Space that is now dedicated to storage bins that hold items seldom needed but not yet useless trash.
Some of those seldom needed items occupy most of the more valuable storage space above the wall cabinets over the work benches. While there’s not a whole lot of room to spare over the cabinets, what room there is would much better serve frequently needed items than seldom used ones. Items not used since going up “over the rafters” have been purged as well, making room for all the plastic stringer materials, just laying on the floor in front of the workbench.
Out of Garage Storage Space
Collateral Improvements
The garage is just one of the many “collateral improvements” underway, all thanks to needing more storage space. The only way to get there is to better organize the limited storage space available. Our Closet Lighting post details the addition of closet lighting, but doesn’t really touch on the amount of storage space that was freed up by cleaning out the closet.
The office has undergone a number of reorganizations too, incrementally wringing a bit more storage space here and there. But the biggest improvement yet was triggered by making space for the tall file cabinet coming here from the other house. The two “half sized” file cabinets have been here pretty much since we moved here. The time has come for the tall cabinet to move here too.
For the longest time, the color laser printer sat atop a stack of three large storage bins, full of HO treasures from previously dismantling the office portion of the layout. It sits at the end of the long stretch of cabinets in my office. This has a number of negative consequences. First is obstructed access, both to the bottom of the bookcase and the HO items stored in the bins beneath because of the printer sitting on top of them. Second is the lack of space for the printer anywhere else.
In preparation for that tall file cabinet’s arrival, the plan is to stack the two short cabinets atop one another and slide the tall cabinet in next to them. Same footprint on the floor, but twice as tall. Actually a little more than twice as tall, but you get the idea. There’s an assemble it yourself bookshelf unit that sits on top of the short cabinets at the moment, so the contents will need to go elsewhere and the shelf itself put out to the curb.
The Printer’s New Home On Top Of The File Cabinets
Storage Improvement Phases
Now we get to a third consequence for the printer. Where does it get power? The wall outlet will be blocked once the file cabinets are in place. The solution is a new surge strip with a “wall hugger” cord, just long enough to reach the printer on top of the file cabinets. Phase one complete. Bookshelf gone, contents elsewhere, file cabinets stacked, and printer relocated. That eliminates one other negative consequence. Now the front panel is at eye level. And legible!
Phase two is sort through the HO treasures and reduce the bin count from three to two. The plan is to stack those two bins on top of the two large storage bins already in the corner of the bedroom next to my dresser. There’s room for six more bins, including the two everything gets sorted into now. Stacking them in the corner reveals these new 90qt. bins are larger than expected, but thankfully there’s still enough space for them.
My Model Building Retirement Stash
Phase three is sort through the lower, sliding door section of the bookcase, now that moving those bins has restored access to it. There’s quite a bit of wasted space, even with all those CDs and DVDs in there. The original thought was access was seldom needed, so why not store them where access is difficult or limited at times. New plan. Move them elsewhere and store the plastic model kits in their place to take up that wasted space.
Those plastic model kits were the last things to come over from the other house and are now sitting on top of the bookcases. While all of them may not fit in that lower space, most of them will, freeing up the space on top for things that need more frequent access. Those models will have to wait until I have the time to spend on them. Like once I’m retired. At least, that’s the plan.
Model Kits’ Temporary Quarters
Future Distractions
Eventually I want to “remake” the bookcases. Those bookcases were designed and built to be “massive”, because they occupied either side of the massive stone fireplace at the other house. And while they do provide a huge amount of storage space, they were never designed to fit the space they occupy. If anything, the exact opposite is true. The space they occupy was designed to fit around them.
Where they sit now influenced the size and design of the new bedroom closets here in Mount Dora before they were even built. Each bookcase is 32″ wide. I allowed a bit over twice that, 65″ total, to leave some “wiggle room” between the outside wall and the back of the closets. When the closets and the back porch remodeling were finally completed, it was apparent I’d forgotten to take into account the width of the baseboards and the bookcase trim pieces.
Massive Bookcases Bracket The Massive Stone Fireplace
Some “minor” rework with a backsaw and problem solved. The larger problem is how to redesign them to better suit that space? Maybe it’s better to say rework them into a design that reuses as much of them as possible, if possible. The bookcases aren’t quite 22″ deep, and there’s only about 18″ between the end of the cabinets the bookcase on that side. Where they meet is a blind corner cabinet situation.
The main (structural) shelf is lower than the cabinets too, 30″ vs. 36″ off the floor, so simply extending the countertop to the bookcases won’t work. But that’s a future distraction. If it’s not apparent by now, it should be obvious why it takes so long to get anything done on the Barkyard. In this case, coming up with the design, finding a place for everything sitting on the bookcases, then disassembling and reassembling them to match the design.
The Next Distraction
Unfortunately, the next higher priority item is filing the taxes. We always file for an extension, which is why the deadline is October 15th, and not April 15th as you would expect. Hopefully it goes quickly and smoothly. As much as preparing for the sale of the house has been a source of friction between Ann and myself, it doesn’t hold a candle to tax time. It’s always guaranteed to bring those “suppressed emotions” to the surface.
Always something else that needs done first!
Taxes Due!
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If you made it all the way through to the end of this post, thank you. I hope you understand why this is important to us. Even if we didn’t really discuss the Barkyard all that much, other than to explain why we still have no progress to show all this time later. Call them excuses. Call them what you will. Soon we’ll have all the time that was taken from us by everything else that was higher priority.
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Not again! I was so happy to finally get this thing back up and running only a few months ago and it just failed on me again! Catastrophically this time, taking half my thumbnail with it! The extruder release lever broke, snapped right off, just trying to remove the filament. That sent my thumb on a rapid collision course with the printer frame. Ouch!
Blood everywhere and playing beat the clock to get the filament out before the hot end cools off, now I’m prying what’s left of the lever with a screwdriver to release it and still having to tug the filament harder than I should. I noticed it’s been getter harder and harder to remove the filament over the last week or so and should have known something was wrong.
Had I known it was going to fail I could have ordered a new extruder pre-emptively. Had I known it was going to fail, I could have saved myself some pain too. I guess in some ways I already knew it would fail, eventually, being made of plastic where metal is called for. Plastic gears. Plastic case. Plastic tensioner arm. All plastic!
The only things not plastic are the gear and idler pulley that together push the filament through the extruder. That and the screws that hold everything together. There’s the spring that holds pressure against that release arm the idler mounted on, pinching the filament against the drive gear too. It snapped off right where the spring pushes against it.
The Damage To The Extruder And My Thumbnail
Time To Rewind
Let’s rewind a bit. In my previous post, I covered the history of this Tevo Tarantula Pro (TTP) 3D printer and what it took to get it operational and back online. I’ve been using it almost daily ever since then. In fact, I’ve been using both 3D printers nearly every day. There’s a certain satisfaction from having both of them cranking out prints at the same time.
When one or both isn’t printing something, it’s almost like OCD with me, asking myself what can it be printing now? Every post since the one about getting it working again has included prints from both 3D printers. It’s uncanny how quickly that old TTP can print. I thought I couldn’t push it any faster, but I did mistakenly and it kept right up!
The new Sunlu S9+ was advertised as capable of 250mm/sec, but even when I ask it to do half that, the TTP is still faster, even though the print’s been sliced for it using slower speeds. How is that possible? Nick has a theory on that, thinking it’s built in acceleration profiles limiting the overall speed in the new one.
Turns out I was actually sending some pretty tame acceleration limits with the startup G-code. I modified the startup G-code to remove them and modified the printer settings directly with much more aggressive values, but it still seems to obey some magical built in values I haven’t been able to find. Oh well, at least it’s almost as fast as the TTP.
Too Fast For Even My New Phone Camera To Catch
Cranking ‘Em Out
As I said, we’ve been cranking out the prints. Between Death Trap, Death Trap Jr., and the Closet Lighting controller prints, both have been kept busy most of the time since bringing the TTP back online. I used the time between prints to make minor design modifications for each new iteration of each print then kicked off the next revision.
Of course, when it takes 8 – 12 hours to print each piece of a Death Trap it gives me plenty of time to work on other designs, and not just 3D print designs. I’ve also been working on a major refactor of how the menus and meters are handled in my Arduino sketches and libraries. The motivation is to test a new round display as a digital version of an analog meter.
But I’ll save those details for later. When I say later, I mean in a later post, once it’s all working again. To be honest, I was getting overwhelmed by the immensity of the project and had to step back from it for a bit. Not going to list all the priority items I’ve already discussed in recent posts. Let’s just say the Ultimatum of end of August is quickly approaching.
The Saturn V
My Saturn V Tribute
Between the Ultimatum and the constant media circus lately, even preempting the recent 56th anniversary of men first walking on the moon, July 20, 1969, I decided to print my own Saturn V as a tribute. I needed a breather. An escape from all this necessity and media insanity and it seemed like the perfect project.
Most of the parts are either black or white, with some parts in metallic silver, and a little red thrown in for the letters. The new printer is already loaded with white and the TTP with black, so I sliced the parts based on what printer had what color. Once all the black parts were printed, I loaded up a half spool of metallic silver, a.k.a. silk silver.
These were the engines, heat shields, the service module and few other interstage parts. The engines had the most supports I’ve ever printed by far. Probably more material in the supports than in the rocket engines themselves. Those supports had to come off in layers, peeling them off until getting down to the final course that snapped right off.
I should note these STL files are from a third party source and it took some doing to get them sliced for my printers. I generally design parts without the need for support unless absolutely necessary. I probably would have made the engine nozzles separate from the combustion chamber and turbo pumps and stuff so they can be printed flat on the build plate.
Finishing Touches
Anyway, I loaded up an old spool of what was left of 3D Solutech red. It was still coated in dust from sitting out in the office on the old closet rod arrangement I had sitting over the printers. The idea was to make it easy to load a different color by just sliding the desired color spool into place and loading it.
That was before I knew about the effects of moisture on the filament and filament driers. I loaded it in the filament drier and let it drive out as much moisture as it could first, before loading it in the TTP. Long story short, I thought I did a pretty good job getting rid of the dust. Not so much.
And it wasn’t apparent it was an issue until the symptoms of a clog started to manifest themselves later. The red letters were the least of my worries. Or so I thought at the time. Once they were done printing, I decided to print the base in red too. Think I putting the finishing touches on the Saturn V I literally put the finishing touches on the printer too.
Nice Red Pimple In A Sea Of White
Symptoms Adding Up
I originally printed the Death Trap Jr. in black, but it looks like exposure to the sun is enough to warp the plastic. I decided to print a white one with the filament left on the spool, starting with the lid. My first indication there was trouble brewing should have been how long it took to clear the red out of the hot end and replace it with the white.
It was pink for much longer than I’ve ever had to run the new material through to clear out the old. As it was laying down the first or second layer of the lid, all of a sudden it “burped” out a red “pimple”. That is to say a big glob of red that must have been still stuck in the hot end, now surrounded by a sea of white on the build plate.
That should have been my heads up. Between pulling out the filament getting harder and harder and now this, all the signs of a hot end clog were starting to come together. I thought there was enough filament left on the spool to print the base too, but I was wrong and had to pause the print to load the new Elegoo PLA+ filament.
Trouble Brewing
It was all I could do to pull the remaining filament out. I had ordered four spools of the Elegoo PLA+ in white, and loaded a spool as a test and a comparison to the white Sunlu PLA+ I’d been printing with. The TTP was reloaded with the new white and the print resumed. It seemed to print fine. If anything, it’s a slightly brighter white than the Sunlu.
Then the extruder started making that skipping noise, but given an assist from me in the form of a little extra push on the filament, it seemed to smooth out things for a while as the printing continued. The base finished and I thought nothing of it, preparing to pull the filament back out to store it in the drier until the next print.
That’s when it happened. Right around 9:00 PM Saturday night. I could not get the filament to pull back out. Pushing on the release lever didn’t seem to do anything. Until it snapped off, taking part of my thumbnail with it. So now we’re all caught up after the rewind. So why bother pulling the filament out at all?
After having the filament just randomly snap apart when left out and exposed to the humidity over a period of time, I decided to start removing the filament when the last print for the next few days finished. This allows the flexibility of keeping the spool in the drier or storing it in one of the sealed bags and loading a different spool, and whenever needed.
Replacement METAL Dual Gear Drive Extruder
Where Do We Go From Here?
Obviously I need a new extruder. I’m not sure if I can even still source the original, let alone find one that isn’t already on its way out like my old one. Nick recommended a dual drive replacement like the one he got for his printer recently. It’s all metal, with two opposed drive gears rather than one and an idler “pulley”. The frame is all anodized aluminum.
I ordered one from Amazon and it arrived Sunday afternoon. If I have any complaint it would be the total lack of assembly instructions. I had to closely scrutinize the limited number of pictures on Amazon to piece together how things fit and where.
But before all that, I had to remove the plastic gear pressed on the stepper motor shaft. Thankfully there was enough clearance between it and the face of the motor to get a pair of screwdrivers behind it and pry. I only flung it on the floor in spectacular fashion once… When the screwdrivers finally lost their leverage, the adjustable wrench finished the job.
Old Pressed On Plastic Drive Gear
Fitting The New Extruder
Now it’s time to get the new extruder drive gear on the stepper motor shaft and roughly aligned with its companion on the rest of the extruder. Running the set screw down will keep it in place until final adjustment can be made. Now we can fit the new extruder to the stepper motor, separated by the mounting bracket. I only screwed up the orientation twice…
First I managed to get it 90° off, thinking the release arm worked opposite of what it actually does. The next time I somehow managed to get connector on the stepper motor facing away from the cable. Each time it had to come all back apart and the screws totally loosened and moved with it.
After a few choice words, I finally get it all put together and ready to test. Well, once I adjust the drive gear alignment on the motor shaft that is. It’s already a miniscule set screw to begin with, and it’s a good thing the hex wrench is so small and flexible, because trying to get it in the set screw would be impossible without flexing it, even with a ball end.
With that done and out of the way, it’s time to load up the filament and do some testing. And instantly I’m getting that skipping and nothing out the nozzle… So much for the new extruder fixing the problem.
Nick Lends A Hand
Nick was kind enough to take a look at it with me after supper. I had basically shut down the printer and left it off until I was ready to test with the new extruder, not giving the idea of a clog a second thought. Until now.
Nick realizes it’s taking way too much force to push the filament into the hot end. Not much if any plastic is coming out the nozzle. That would explain why the extruder is just skipping. Then he asks if I recalibrated the extrusion rate. I told him I had not. Not being able to extrude makes it difficult to measure how much gets extruded to adjust the rate.
Looking at the old extruder, it’s readily apparent that I need to make at least some adjustment since the old one had a gear reduction and the new one is direct drive, right off the stepper motor shaft. Oopsie. After “guestimating” the reduction ratio, I make a quick divide by four change, from 408 to 102. Still skipping though.
Poked the nozzle. Nothing. Took the nozzle out to see if it could be reseated without having to tear down the hot end again. I probably just made things worse by giving the molten plastic all the room it needed to fill that void, guessing that “overdrive” forced the molten plastic out between the bowden tube and the nozzle in the hot end causing a clog.
A New Hope
After having torn down the hot end twice, and finally getting it fixed only a few months ago, I NEVER want to have to do it again. But it looks like that’s what it’s going to take. That’s it for tonight. I thank Nick for his help, then shut down the printer again and leave it off until I have more time. Do I need yet another new hot end or can just clear the clog?
Tearing down the hot end takes up my entire work cell to lay the printer on its side to be able to get to everything on the printer, short of standing over it while it’s sitting on the shelf and having to turn it to reach behind it. I need that work cell for my work laptop during the day. I can’t leave the printer torn down with parts strewn everywhere. It needs to wait.
Later in the week I was chatting more about it with Nick and something he said about the opening through the hot end being as big as the bowden tube triggered a thought. Will simply pushing the bowden tube through the hot end clear the clog? A quick search of the waste basket tells me I already threw out the old tubing. Damn!
I don’t really want to dig out the new roll of tubing again just to cut a short piece. Then I remember I have an assortment of solid brass rods. Is there a 2mm rod? Bingo! If it’s not 2mm, it’s 5⁄64″, and at least 100mm or 4″ long. If anything’s pushing the clog out, this ought to work, as long as it’s not too big around.
The Culprit, A 2mm x 6mm Plug
We’ll Do It Live!
It’s a perfect fit! It quickly and easily frees a 2mm round plug ~6mm long. It pops right out onto the build plate! Nice! Not having to tear down or replace the hot end is even better! I should mention I’m doing this while the hot end is live, at temperature set for 210°C. Otherwise the plastic would be solid as a rock and stuck to the inside of the hot end.
Time to thread the nozzle back in, as fast and as far as I can by hand until it gets too hot to touch. The small adjustable wrench tightens it the rest of the way in. Next is to thread in and tighten the retainer fitting for the bowden tube coming from the extruder. Last step is to push in the bowden tube until it seats against the top of the nozzle.
Basically the bowden tube has to fit tight against the top of the nozzle to prevent the molten plastic from oozing out around it and causing a clog in the hot end. To get that tight fit means the end must be cut absolutely straight. There’s even a special cutter tool to do just that. And you’d better believe I used mine!
With everything buttoned up, I load up the black filament, pushing it through the new extruder and all the way down the bowden tube until I feel the resistance of the nozzle. From there I command OctoPrint to extrude 50mm of filament and… Still skipping and very little plastic comes out the nozzle. Again?
Bowden Tube Cutter
We’ll Do It Again!
Let’s do this all over again then. Remove the fitting and bowden tube. Remove the sizzling hot nozzle with the wrench. Push out the clog with the brass rod. Put it all back together again. Same thing! Still skipping and very little plastic coming out the nozzle. What is going on?
Did the hot end somehow manage to clog again? How is that possible? I’m beginning to suspect the bowden tube isn’t fully seated on top the nozzle or the new nozzle is somehow clogged already or both. I try to mark where the bowden tube sits relative to the top of the fitting, but even permanent marker doesn’t stick to teflon tubing.
Let’s do this all over again. Again. This time I switched to another new nozzle, guessing not clearing the clog first just clogged the new nozzle too. This time to ensure the bowden tube was indeed fully inserted and sitting on top the nozzle I inserted it first, before screwing in the fitting and tightening it down. It definitely went in further than before!
It’s Alive! Again!
It’s alive! It’s extruding like it should! Not skipping at all! That must have been the problem, another clogged nozzle and the fitting interfering with the bowden tube and constraining it enough so I wasn’t able to insert it enough to fully seat on top the nozzle. Definitely need to remember to insert the bowden tube then install the fitting next time.
I’m so happy that it’s working again and cannot believe it wasn’t something more serious. Had I known it was going to be a simple fix I wouldn’t have waited all week to try it. But again, until Nick mentioned about the bowden tube passage through the hot end, I wouldn’t have thought to work on it while it was still sitting on the shelf.
Removing a few easy to access parts and pushing out a clog with length a brass rod is certainly easy enough to do just that though. Thankfully I didn’t wait for the weekend to try it. But before I start doing backflips to celebrate, it’s time to actually calibrate the extruder steps and run a test print.
Turns out my guess of 4:1 reduction was off, more like 2⅚, but now when I ask for 100mm of filament to be extruded I can be confident it is. I fire off a test print, crossing my fingers I won’t have to recalibrate the Z offset too. The closet lighting battery cover prints fine, although I may have heard the nozzle lightly grazing the texture of the build plate.
One More Time
I fire off another test print, this time another closet lighting switch box lid since the latching tabs were broken off the old one. Do I need another closet lighting switch box? No. Will it be nice to simply swap out one that needs charged with one that’s already fully charged and ready to go? Yes. Yes it will.
I’m not taking the time to put another one together right now though, but at least I’ll have all the parts I need to put one together when I’m ready to. With both the test prints finished and looking good, I’ll just need to keep an eye on the Z offset, looking for a telltale groove forming in the texture of the PEI sheet.
Desperately trying to find something else to print so as to keep exercising the printer but coming up short. Already have more than enough run in stands of various colors, like black, navy blue, and white.
Speaking of Navy Blue, that’s another 3D Solutech color I can’t seem to match and I’m down to the last few layers on the spool. And it was just as dusty as that red was that I’m pretty sure caused the clog in the printer.
Lessons Learned
I learned a number of things from this one. A number of things that I should avoid or do differently in the future. And I learned a method that will make it easier to remove another clog in the future if it happens again.
The first is even though I think I got all the dust cleaned off from those leftover 3D Solutech spools, they aren’t clean enough to avoid a clog. Maybe I can rinse them off then bake them in the drier to drive out the moisture. I hope it doesn’t totally ruin the filament, but at this point, it’s already ruined unless I can find a better way to clean off the dust.
The next is to insert the bowden tube into the hot end fully to ensure it’s flush against the nozzle before installing the retainer. And this time I learned something new, an easy way to clear a hot end clog without having to tear it all apart. Had I known this before destroying the original hot end the first time I had it apart, I could have avoided having to replace it.
Another thing that I learned before this happened is moisture is the enemy when it comes to 3D printer filament. I learned this the hard way when the exposed filament loaded in the printer would just randomly snap, becoming brittle from the moisture. The problem is the remaining filament is just as brittle and removing it may be difficult or impossible.
So Long Solutech
As an aside, 3D Solutech used to be my go to filament, made in many different colors. A much larger range of colors than most every other manufacturer. For example, Wheat, Skin, Denim Blue, Navy Blue, Merlot Red, etc. Their Merlot Red is a very close match to the maroon color of the AT&SF passenger cars while their Navy Blue a close match to B&O Blue.
Their products are no longer available since they went out of business years ago. Amazon’s available stock lasted for another year or two until it was finally depleted. I still have a large stock, vacuum sealed in the box, but once it’s gone, it’s gone. Like the Navy Blue, all I have left is a few layers on the spool, maybe one or two.
The only alternative is to paint the parts, in this case with B&O Blue, a.k.a. Bando Blue. But even getting matching paint has become more difficult as major manufacturers have left the market, citing low sales volume. So now everyone’s in the same boat as those who modelled a road name with colors no one carried, having to hand mix their own.
Ill Advised Attempt To Keep All Spools Available
Live And Learn
I also have a large stock of already open, dust impregnated spools that used to sit out on a wooden closet rod above the printer, exposed in the office environment, some for years on end. I’m really hoping the idea of rinsing the filament clean is a viable method to reclaim them. We shall see.
I’m faced with the prospect of just throwing them out. For those near empty spools, it’s not so difficult, but the nearly full ones I’d really like to save if at all possible. A dozen spools at $20 or more a spool is a $250 loss. I’ll learn my lesson the hard way it seems.
But it’s more than just the money. It’s the lack of suitable replacement color options. Sunlu has a large selection of colors, but nowhere near as many as Solutech offered. My favorite color to print prototypes with was “Mint”, an Aqua shade, but lighter. Kind of like powder blue but with more of a greenish tinge added.
Fringe Benefits
Oh well. At least now the filament sits in a filament drier meant to drive out the moisture. As a fringe benefit of being totally enclosed within the drier box, it also protects the filament from dust. As I said, the only issue is with the exposed filament if it isn’t removed from the printer after the last print for an extended period of time.
For now I should also learn to just take the win and move forward. After a relatively simple fix, I’m once again blessed with a working printer. Two working printers for that matter. And both are sitting idle, awaiting their next assignment, with exposed filament until then!
I hope you enjoyed this post and the “surprise” ending of a not dead again printer. Hopefully by the next post I’ll have the design for those concrete molds for the switch ladders. We shall see. Stay tuned, more to come.
Yes. Another. Project. And no, it’s not yet another passenger car lighting project! I can hear you rolling your eyes from here…
This time it’s about adding sound to anything that you please using an Arduino ESP32-S3 Super mini and an I2S amplifier. But I’m jumping the gun here going on about the specifics already. Let me start at the beginning, with a little history on our “sound projects”…
A Little History
We started looking at “sound enabling” our equipment years ago. January of 2020 to be exact. The idea was to couple an Arduino and one of those “cheap” MP3 player modules as a low cost sound option. When compared to the cost of retail sound offerings available, often for hundreds of dollars or more, the motivation is obvious.
Long story short, those “cheapo depot” MP3 DFPlayers turned out to be absolutely unreliable. Nothing but junk. No amount of tinkering or tweaking could guarantee operation without having to “ruthless reset” everything. We ended up mothballing the project indefinitely. Well, at least until I could find a more reliable solution.
It was quite an effort to get as far as we did, but it left us with a reusable software implementation based on the concept of a “playlist”. The backend (Arduino) serves up the playlist in JSON format to the front end, a browser based user interface (UI), served up via WiFi from files stored on the backend.
MAX98357 I2S decoder amplifier
New Found Motivation
Enter the idea of the I2S interface. Not the I2C interface. I2S, short for Inter Integrated circuit Sound, developed by Philips back in the ’90s for stereo equipment interconnections to share audio streams between components, both internal and external. The more I read about it, the more I was convinced this was the solution I was looking for.
Being the electronics and audio buff I was growing up, I’m surprised I hadn’t heard more about it at the time. Late to the party, I found some folks online using various I2S audio decoders in their projects and settled on the MAX98357 based decoder. It has a built in 3W amplifier, with a somewhat odd 0-21 volume range, but whatever. At least it works!
But I’m skipping ahead again. While the Maxim hardware does everything for us, it requires a LOT more horsepower from the Arduino to handle converting and the streaming the audio data to the decoder hardware. When I say a LOT more horsepower, I mean at least an ESP32-S3 (dual core) to handle the load.
ESP32-S3
Time To Order Parts
I’ve never used an ESP32-S3 so I don’t have any to experiment with. Don’t have any of those Maxim decoders either, seeing as how I’m just now reading about them. While the Arduinos I’ve been using aren’t a dime a dozen, they aren’t ten dollars a piece either. They’re roughly twenty dollars for three of these “high horsepower” ones.
The Maxim decoders are about five for fifteen dollars. The only thing missing is an SD card reader. They may make an Arduino package that has one already included, but I haven’t looked for one (yet). I found five for $7.50. So far grand total of $7 + $3 + $2.50 = $12.50! That’s not including the micro SD card to store the sound files on.
That’s an order of magnitude (10x) less than the retail price of a low end sound system! Last time I bought a 32GB micro SD card was years ago, but it was ~$7.50. So let’s say $20 vs. $200. Sold! Thinking about it, maybe there’s a version with enough flash storage onboard to eliminate the need for a card reader altogether. Depends on the number and size of the files I guess.
The next step is to bring that old MP3Player project out of mothballs and see if we can breathe new life into our aspirations for sound.
What’s Next?
Time to start working the old software into a new project to meet our needs. The old project is one of the older ones and doesn’t have any of our latest improvements, like themes and OTA progress indication. But the first thing to do is get rid of the DFPlayer stuff, then update to using LittleFS in lieu of the old SPIFFS library.
I’ll try not to get into too much detail about the software, but that’s what we’re talking about, so… If you’re not familiar with Arduino speak, the Serial Peripheral Interface Flash File System (SPIFFS) is deprecated. The replacement recommendation is the Little File System (LittleFS). This is used to read files like the HTML web files (internal flash) and sound files (SD card).
Those libraries are “built in” to the specific Arduino hardware platform, unlike some of the others we use, like ArduinoJson and I2S_Audio that perform specific tasks regardless of platform. Fortunately, this sketch doesn’t need much else beyond those and the WiFi libraries.
Eventually the code we use to encapsulate the audio functionality will have its own library, but for now it’s part of the sketch to ease debug. Thankfully most of the playlist handling code doesn’t need much modification. Really the only “major” change is implementing looping in software where it used to be hardware driven with those junk MP3 modules.
Sounds Easy Enough…
The software is already pretty close, at least the UI code is, sans the equalizer settings. The looping is “commented out” until the backend Arduino code gets updated to implement it in software. The messaging piece is already there, it’s just adding the logic necessary to emulate what the old hardware used to do for us automatically.
The neat thing about the existing backend code is it already responds to event messages from the old hardware when the previously played track finishes playing. It should be easy enough to substitute the event processing for the new hardware, tracking the current looping mode to determine which track is next, if any.
Most of the effort on the UI is getting everything updated to use the latest improvements, which involves comparing the older existing code with current versions from other projects, like OiffceLighting, LithoPhaneLEDs, and PassengerCarLighting2812. We added two new themes for PassengerCarLighting2812 recently, highlighted in the Latest Evolution Lighting post.
ESP32-S3 Super Mini – Small Enough For The Latest Evolution Projects
Development Concerns
While we’re talking about adding themes, that brings up another “issue” with using Arduinos, at least when it comes to uploading files to them. The Arduino IDE, with the proper uploader installed, will upload all files in the “data” folder to the flash file system on the Arduino. No problem there as long as you can find and install the proper uploader package.
Right now each and every project has to have its own “data” folder with a “themes” subfolder in it. Any change, or in this case addition, in any one project must now be manually propagated to every other project to keep everything in sync. Similarly, all the CSS and javascript files suffer the same fate. Basically any shared common files.
There may be a way to use symbolic file links in place of the actual files, but I haven’t tried it yet. Hopefully the IDE won’t have problems with the file system interface using symbolic links. If that works, it will allow one set of files to be maintained and all projects can link to that “master” set. But let’s get this deployed before we go mucking around with something else…
Some More History
Just a little more. I promise. If you want A LOT More History, I’ve tacked it on the end of this post.
We started on this latest adventure going on six months ago as of this writing. But I let myself get sidetracked with other projects, Hurricanes, etc. You name name it, I got distracted by it. Some of those distractions were acquisitions and the ensuing investigations of their installed electronics, like battery power and sound systems.
The I2SAudio project was put on the back burner for at least a few months while all that was going on. But all the basics were there and working. We’re able to play sound files stored on the micro SD card from the UI. Only dynamically building out the looping buttons based on the playlist was left to do.
Past tense. That’s done now too. That leaves expand/collapse of the playlist in the UI. I swear I have code somewhere from past experiences with a javascript/CSS based “twisty” implementation. I’m hoping that I can leverage it, but like most things in my favorite place, somewhere, it will never be found quickly nor easily.
Making More Work For Myself
Defeated by wasting time looking for it, I tried yet another internet search. Unlike the first few searches that turned up nothing useful, encouraging me to look for that old code, this one came back with a new HTML5 construct I didn’t even know existed. The <details> and <summary> tags provide a built in expand/collapse function without the need for code behind it.
At first I thought this was the quick and dirty way to get there from here. WRONG! The entire playlist tree in the UI is built dynamically from the playlist data received from the backend. Using nested HTML <ul> and <li> elements, we build the hierarchy one entry at a time. Each <li> element has a <span> that contains the actual “name” of the entry in the tree.
All these elements are given a specific CSS class to correctly render in the browser. Without going into too much more detail, it’s important to note that any selection clicks made in the UI on any of those elements in the playlist tree get “bubbled up” to the top level element, in this case the top level containing <ul> element.
Why does this matter? Because now in the javascript event handler we have to figure out which one of potentially hundreds of elements was clicked on, then backtrack and modify the CSS class of the affected element(s) to indicate selection visually. Before adding the new elements, this boiled down to one of the three element types already mentioned. And it worked. Past tense.
Why Did You Break It?
After modifying the javascript dynamic generation function to add the new <details> and <summary> elements, all of a sudden NOTHING WORKS! So here we are weeks, if not months later, still fixing the “quick and dirty” way. But at least it’s working now. Even the CSS needed modifications to work with both versions.
I commented out the old, working version of code as I progressed with the new version. Boy am I glad I did! I went back and made it selectable using a single flag to indicate whether to use the old or the new version. My thought is maybe I’ll come back to this some day and figure out how to make it all work without the newer HTML5 constructs.
So why in the world would I want to come back and redo this, potentially breaking everything yet again? Looking back at how each level of the hierarchy needs more and more of these <details> <summary> blocks, it’s apparent these were meant to hide large blocks of HMTL, most likely upper level <div> element containers, not each and every nested element of a tree.
I’ll spare you and save those particulars and details for later. At this point, the only thing left to do for the existing UI is figure out why it stops selecting down to the lowest level for all child items except the first child of the parent selection. What did you just say? A picture is worth a thousand words…
I2SAudio UI Screen Shot Showing Only First Group Completely Expanded
There, I Fixed It
Well, not really. That can wait until we know this is really the UI paradigm that best fits what it is we’re trying to accomplish here. What you see is essentially an MP3 player interface, with play, pause, stop, next, previous, etc. There’s also a set of looping selections, based on the top level selection, in this case Genre, Artist, Album, or Track.
But those “classifications” don’t really fit either. Function type seems more suited for Steam Whistles and Diesel Horns than Genre. Not sure how to classify Single Chime vs. Three Chime, but Artist isn’t it. Road Name seems a better fit than Album for C&O vs. CN. Track may fit, kind of, but I think you get the idea.
The good thing is these classifications are all easily configurable as part of the playlist. But keep in mind for every new classification, there must be a corresponding addition to the CSS to accommodate it. The other thing to keep in mind is they can also be directly tied to the currently selected theme settings, like the “Teal Mobile” theme used in the above screenshot.
A New Look?
Regardless, the UI is going to need a facelift moving forward. Now what that should like like, I have no idea. Guess I need to look at some of those sound systems on the market to get an idea what theirs looks like. But even then that may not be the best fit for our application.
When it’s all said and done, we have everything we need in place whenever we finally figure out what it’s supposed to look like. Most of the commercial products I’ve seen tend to break up sounds into an intro, sustain, and ending portion, stringing them together, starting with the intro, then looping the sustain part, and finally play the ending to finish up.
Not sure how “quill” will work, but that’s a problem to solve another day. I’m sure there are other “features” we’ll need to add as we go, but for now we have a reliable, extensible solution. With that in mind, I’m wondering if we have the capability to play two tracks at once.
Stuck thinking in that MP3 player mindset, I just issue a stop, then play a new track. Wonder what happens if I don’t stop the currently playing track? I did a deep dive into the library code already to see for sure what was going on for other issues I ran into, but it would be easier to just modify my code and see what happens. Probably a kernel panic!
A Look At The Hardware
Originally just an ESP8226 was used for the MP3Player project, more than adequate to communicate with those POS DFPlayer modules over a 9600 baud serial connection. But even that simplicity was unreliable, or rather, the modules themselves are unreliable.
Fast forward to now, using I2S audio technology, proven over decades. But there’s a price to pay when it comes to the control side of things. Beyond the extra horsepower, the full sized ESP32-S3 is a sizeable piece of hardware, consuming nearly an entire half sized breadboard. In fact, to have space for anything else, we used two of those half size breadboards side by side!
The ESP32-S3 module itself is stout enough to hold the two breadboards together once plugged in. There are only two other components required, but to be sure there was space for them AND the connections without having to run half the connections under the Arduino, two side by side are better than one.
I2S Audio Breadboard And Size Comparison, “Super Mini” vs. Full Size Dev Module
The full sized S3 module is labelled with an abbreviation of the project and its last IP “triplet”. This is absolutely necessary for me to keep my sanity. When “rooting” through a box of old projects with probably a dozen Arduinos inside, it’s maddening having to plug in each and every one just to see what it’s running and what IP to use in the browser.
The two purple modules are the actual I2S decoders, one for the left channel, one for the right. Notice only one is connected. That’s because the decoder can also combine both channels into a single mono output as well. Good enough for what we’re doing. The actual formula is (L + R)/2. The mode is selectable with a single input, left, right, or both.
The blue module standing up next to the speaker is the micro SD card reader. All the audio files are stored on a 32GB micro SD card. The S3 reads the files and converts the audio to an I2S stream that the decoders turn into audio output to the speaker with over 3 watts of audio power! More than enough for our needs.
The speaker is a leftover from one of our Bachmann Ten Wheeler projects. We replaced the old tender bottom half with a new one, complete with “updated” electronics for chuff sound. Still the same tired old 9V hiss generator connected to a chuff switch… That only activates twice per revolution. Not very realistic, but at least the new red painted wheels look nice.
In any case, the speaker in the old bottom half became a “spare”. IIRC we ended up with at least three if not four “spares” this way. I designed and 3D printed the speaker enclosure, hoping to give the tired old 1W 8Ω speaker a fighting chance to sound good. It helps, but with its limited response, there’s not much else that can be done.
Something’s Different
You may have noticed a difference between the full sized S3 and other Arduinos, the number of USB connections. One is the standard Program Upload and Serial Monitor port. The other is for JTAG debug. JTAG is short for Joint Test Action Group, which defines a means of getting “inside the hardware”, essentially allowing the equivalent of attaching test probes inside the chip.
Apologies, that’s a very dumbed down explanation of a fantastic innovation in hardware development, also proven over decades. We won’t need that low level debug ability. At least, not yet. More pertinent to our discussion is which is which? The one that works is the one we’re looking for. Just that simple. The other is enabled and configured using the board settings.
The obvious difference with these “Super Minis” is their size. They’re so small it presents a problem when labelling. There’s no big metal can to stick the sticker on. Haven’t tried it yet, but probably have enough room on the back for a sticker. They also run hot to the touch. Hotter than their full size counterparts for sure. Beware.
That’s Not The Only Difference
Another difference with these S3s, and even the ESP32-C3 Super Minis, is the actual board selection. They only have one USB port, but good luck finding the correct board for your particular flavor of Chineseum. Nick had ordered a set of the C3 and S3 Super Minis and gave me a sample of each.
Even though the silkscreen on the C3 says it’s a specific type, selecting that type in the Arduino IDE board manager does not allow me to communicate with it. It also causes build errors that go away when selecting the generic ESP32-C3 Dev Module. What’s interesting is there are contact pads on the PC meant for “pogo pin” connections.
The C3s I bought have more contacts than the one Nick gave me. It’s a crap shoot when dealing with any of these “dime a dozen” Chineseum parts regardless of where they’re sourced. It would be helpful if the competition to mass produce knockoffs of knockoffs to make of profit didn’t make it impossible to get anything more than basic information, let alone good information.
That’s the nature of the beast. It would be different if paying more for quality actually worked in this case. Been suckered by that before with these things. About the only way for me to know is if they can be trusted is to order from an Amazon seller I’ve dealt with in the past that I feel can be trusted. Sometimes even that isn’t enough. Caveat Emptor.
What’s A “Pogo Pin”?
These were designed in the ’70s for testing integrated circuits and other micro circuits. Basically they’re a spring loaded pin the provides positive pressure on a mating contact pad. I hadn’t seen them is common use until using a Raspberry PI Zero. The I/O is limited on the PI Zero, but an expansion board can provide more USB connections.
The expansion board “piggybacks” on the original PI Zero, making connection via pogo pins on the expansion board that mate to a set of built in pads on the PI. These Super Minis are the only other commercially available products that I’ve seen them on.
That’s not to say you have to use pogo pins to make the connection. It’s just another solder pad, it just doesn’t have the plate thru hole. You can just solder wires directly to them, but be sure to strain relieve the wires. Don’t depend on the pad to hold the wires in place or you’ll find yourself in the situation where the pad got lifted off the board and went with the wire.
The Particulars
If you’re already familiar with HTML, feel free to skip over this. For those unfamiliar with HTML, it’s basically a page description “language”, a means of describing a page of text, images, graphics to a browser and how to present the various elements of the page, even dynamic elements like Data Driven Documents (D3). We use that to display current sensor data for our block controller.
With Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), we can tell the browser what colors to use, what font/size/color, whether to left, center, or right justify, etc. for every element! Javascript adds another dimension of dynamic interaction between the page and browser without the need to reload everything from the web server for every action, even override the default event handling.
We’ve mentioned a number of HTML elements used. I think the <details> and <summary> tags are self explanatory, but one item of note is the <details> tag has an “open” attribute that, when set, expands to display everything between the <details> and closing </details> tag. Otherwise, just the items between the <summary> and closing </summary> tag are displayed.
More Details
A division tag, or <div>, is a sort of container, meaning everything between the <div> and closing </div> it to be treated in a similar fashion. Generally it will have a CSS class or classes associated with it, sometimes even an id. The corresponding CSS describes how to present these items to the browser, even whether to display or hide the entire division.
The unordered list <ul> and list item <li> tags are a means of grouping similar items together, like a list of bullet points. CSS can describe exactly whether you want bullets, squares, triangles, or nothing at all in front of each list item. Unordered simply means it’s not a ordered (numbered) list <ol> type, which has it’s own styling settings.
Each list item can have its own child element(s), like the <span>, or even another unordered list, with its own list items, in nested fashion. Each level in the hierarchy can have its own presentation style described with CSS. For example, present the highest level items with a light red background color, the next level down as light yellow, the next light green, the last light blue.
Even better, CSS can tell the browser to invert the item when “moused over”, swapping the color of the background and the font, without having to write javascript event handler code to monitor for when the mouse is actually over the item. Same with currently “focused” items. More complex CSS “selectors” can provide finer control over browser actions.
Developer Tools
If you’d like to learn more about HTML, CSS, and javascript, there are plenty of resources available online for free. For example, W3 Schools, has tutorials for just about anything you’d like to learn about coding. I find it to be an invaluable tool for HTML, CSS, Javascript and jQuery, Python, SQL, etc.
If you’d like to see what’s happening “under the hood” of your browser, try opening the “developer tools”. Each different browser has its own way to enable this mode, but in Chrome, my browser of choice, simply press the F12 key. I use it to monitor and debug my code ALL THE TIME!
Here’s where I spend most of my time when adding and troubleshooting new features. The screen shot shows the developer tools inspecting the javascript “Console” log. Starting at the top, it captures the tail end of the Connect message response from the backend, including the playlist and themes data used to build the UI presentation.
I2S Audio UI Developer Tools Example For Javascript Console
Below that is the beginning of parsing the JSON message into actions and dispatching to those specific action handlers. The repeated “WebSocket.js:254” message demonstrates the looping behavior as each new action is dispatched, in this case power, then version, then volume which is dispatched to its corresponding handler.
It lives at “WebGenAudio.js:108”, or line 108 in the WebGenAudio.js file. This handler was “registered” with the main WebSocket.js handler for all web socket communication between the front end (UI) and the backend (Arduino). The power and version messages are common to every project because they all have a Power button and a software version field in the Settings.
Not every project uses audio though. All the audio related processing is contained in the WebGenAudio.js file. Similarly, all themes based processing is contained in the WebThemes.js file and again, action handling for themes is registered with the main WebSocket.js web socket handler.
This amount of information ion the console log is obviously very verbose. Not to worry, there are a number of predefined “log levels” that are turned on or off with the flip of a “switch” at the top of code. Turn them on as needed to troubleshoot then turn them off for “production” code.
Styling Tools
All the audio related styling is contained in audio.css rather than clutter the main.css file with styling only useful to audio projects. The themes module has a livery.css file to describe the various color choices available. It is included by the main.css by default, available to all subsequent styling files.
This is deliberate and part of our modular architecture. If you want it, include it. If not, don’t. Themes is really the only “baked in” choice, but if not wanted or needed, a default livery.css file can be provided or its inclusion in main.css removed altogether.
The developer tools allow you to view all the HTML elements AND their associated CSS styling in the HTML “Elements” tab, just to the right of the javascript “Console” tab. The secret magic trick to using Elements is the “select” tool at the very left of all those tabs. Click it to enter select mode, then go and click on the element of choice and it will take you to that part of the document.
If you don’t make a selection then wonder why clicking isn’t working the way it should, it’s because the browser is still in select element mode. Click the “select” tool again to exit selection mode. Don’t ask me how I know…
I2S Audio Developer Tools Elements – HTML And CSS Selectors and Properties
CSS Selector Tools
Earlier I mentioned CSS “selectors”. Essentially these are a shorthand for telling the browser, when you see this, do this. For example, we generally assign the “button” class to a button declaration in the HTML source file. The corresponding selector would be “.button” in the CSS file.
If different buttons have a different id, e.g. id=”play” vs. id=”pause”, then “#play” and “#pause” would be the corresponding CSS selectors. These are simple examples, but there are much more complex selectors available, like providing a visual “highlight” when the mouse travels over an element or dimming a button when it’s disabled.
We use these constructs and even more complex ones to transform those awful looking default “radio” buttons like like the classic car, old style radios with mechanical pushbuttons. We even override the awful “File Upload” to match all our other button styling. And it’s all done with a CSS definition. And it’s all handled by the browser! NO OTHER CODE REQUIRED.
The developer tools Elements above displays both the selected element HTML, and its associated style information below in the “Styles” window, including the selectors used to determine how to present it. You can even poke and prod values into the element style to play with various settings without having to edit, save, and reload the page. Very powerful and I use it quite a bit.
A LOT More History
We started looking at “sound enabling” our equipment years ago. January of 2020 to be exact. The idea was to couple and Arduino and one of those “cheap” MP3 player modules as a low cost sound option. When compared to the cost of sound offerings available, often for hundreds of dollars more, the motivation is obvious.
If I can throw together something acceptable feature-wise for a handful of dollars, it’s a no brainer. The emphasis here is a fairly limited feature set. The cheapo depot MP3 player modules are meant for one thing, and one thing only. Controlling an MP3 player with a minimum parts count.
It provides a built in amplifier with 30 level volume control to directly drive a speaker, and it is LOUD! It also has a micro SD card slot for storing the music files, inaccessible from the Arduino using a dreadfully slow and antiquated 9600 baud serial connection, and a minimal interface for standalone operation via a handful of external components. And they’re JUNK!
Originally just an ESP8226 was used for the MP3Player project, more than adequate to communicate with those POS modules over a 9600 baud serial connection. I remember owning a number of 9600 baud modems back in the ancient times, but seriously, that’s how bad those modules were to work with.
If you’ve ever lost a 9600 baud modem connection back in the day while downloading a file, and had to restart all over again when it happened, you know how unreliable they are. Same with these modules, with the same lack of warning.
ABSOLUTE JUNK!!!
That’s right, these DFPlayers are ABSOLUTE JUNK!!! After spending months on end working with these things, it was apparent they would NEVER run reliably. If there is a way, I certainly couldn’t find the magic combination of software and hardware to make them work without constantly getting into a “zombie” state.
Once they’re “zombies”, the only way to bring them back to life is a hardware reset. It appears that the digital noise from the Arduino side of things is just not conducive to reliable operation. I never tried them in stand alone mode, but then again, that’s not the mode of operation we require. I’m not building a “Walkman™”.
It wasn’t all wasted effort though. I did eventually manage to create a workable user interface built around their feature set, and some of those features are rather impressive for the price, like built in equalizer modes, e.g. Classic, Rock, Jazz, etc. Another useful feature is the looping capability. Now if they just worked…
Mothballing The Project
It was quite an effort to get as far as we did, and it left us with a reusable software implementation based on the concept of a “playlist”. The backend (Arduino) serves up the playlist in JSON format to the front end, a browser based user interface (UI), served up via WiFi from files stored on the backend.
The UI relies on HTML, CSS, and javascript to render a modern presentation. The playlist is presented in a hierarchical “tree” fashion, e.g. Genres, Artists, Albums, Tracks. The front end communicates with the backend via a “Web Socket” connection, essentially a bi-directional communication channel that “sits on top of” the HTML connection.
But unlike the HTML connection, immediate updates to the UI can be made without having to “refresh” the page and wait for everything to load, all the files served from the backend again. A “click” to play a track from the playlist in the UI is sent via the web socket to the backend, it starts playing the track, then responds to the UI to keep things in sync.
Gratuitous Starship Troopers Reference FTW!
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Thanks for following along. Stay tuned. We’ll have more soon!
This will be a combination lighting controller and latest acquisition update. It all started when I was searching for a USA Trains GP9 like the one I bought years ago. When I bought the SD40s, I also bought some spare trucks, with the idea of modifying the 4 axle GP9 into a 6 axle SD24. When I first bought the GP9, they were plentiful. But now that I want another, good luck finding one!
The same thing happened with the 2-6-6-2 Mallet. What used to be plentiful was no longer available anywhere. Perseverance paid off. I finally managed to find the Mallet, but so far, no such luck with the GP9. What I did find was a Bachmann full baggage car for both the green and creme “Pennsylvania Limited” set and the B&O “Royal Blue” set.
I was always somewhat disappointed that there were only two cars with our first B&O “Royal Blue” set, so I was really excited to see there was another car that matched them. Beyond that, the three green and creme “Pennsylvania Limited” cars were obviously matched, right down to the combination car only having the creme for the passenger half.
Royal Blue Baggage Car
But that left the two solid green LGB coaches looking like oddballs sitting ahead of the combination car. Now with the full baggage car, it will balance them, perhaps as economy coaches? Or the three matched cars can be used for one train while the solid green full baggage and two solid green coaches can make up another train.
Pennsylvania Limited Baggage Car
More Acquisitions?
Regardless, half of them have our next gen lighting controllers installed, and the other half don’t. In fact, the last car I installed the latest version in was the combination car. I had replaced the existing oversized battery box installation with a smaller version that fit entirely in the original 9V battery case. But let me back up and explain where I was going with that.
The 3D printed ones work just fine, but we don’t really need 11 – 12 hours of continuous operation. That means we don’t really need that size battery either. Some of them boast 2800mAH while others just 2000mAH, that is to say they’re labelled as such. Then again, I’ve seen 2000mAH 18650 cells labelled and sold as 5000mAH too.
The oversized, 3D printed battery box that replaced the original 9V battery case in the first and next gen designs was specifically designed around that battery size (654065, or 6.5mm x 40mm x 65mm), just slightly bigger than the outline of the original 9V case. So the thought is what if we can find a smaller battery that will fit, along with the electronics?
Oversized Battery Box
I found a number of smaller batteries that will fit in the original case. There are 750mAH, 850mAH, and 1000mAH candidates in various form factors that fit. I bought a handful of each to test with. Turns out the 1000mAH battery fits best, which is nice since it will give us the longest run time as well.
More Lighting Controllers?
The 1000mAH battery fits nicely, with room to spare for the battery monitor/charge circuit board, and an Arduino Wemos D1 mini (ESP8266). Unfortunately, I’ve had nothing but problems with them! From issues with Windows drivers not being able to upload new program versions to failure to serve the web page files reliably via WiFi once programmed.
When they work, they work well. When they don’t, which is most of the time, it’s very frustrating to say the least. Already short on time, I don’t have any extra, let alone two weeks for messing around with, “Why doesn’t this blasted thing work now?” Until the latest round of Windows updates, at least my laptop was able to communicate with their CH340 chip. But no longer!
There has to be a small form factor Arduino that’s much more reliable than these pieces of… junk. I try to keep up with the latest innovations, but with the time constraints already mentioned, can’t be as thorough as I’d like. Thankfully Nick found these “super mini” versions of the ESP32C3 and ESP32S3 Arduinos, even more tiny, and more powerful.
The Latest Evolution Lighting
Nick had sampled some and gave me a C3 and an S3 to experiment with after telling him my long, sad Wemos D1 story. But my hopes of having a quick fix quickly disappeared after trying to compile the code for the new C3 target. More time chasing gremlins, or in this case, yet another way of doing the same thing in the same family of parts!
More Problems?
How many different ways can they screw around a simple watchdog timer reset function? Apparently as many as the number of different types of ESP32 that exist. My code is now full of #ifdefs around every chunk of code for every different type of Arduino used!
If you’re not familiar with the concept of an #ifdef, it’s a way of including or excluding parts of the code based on whether a flag is defined or not. In this case, #ifdef ESP8266 vs. #ifdef ESP32 vs. #ifdef ARDUINO_ESP32C3_DEV vs. #ifdef ARDUINO_ESP32S3_DEV vs… You get the idea.
After yet another week of fumbling around and refactoring code I was no closer to anything that worked. The lighting controller is based on the FastLED library for the addressable LED strips. Without getting into too much detail, it forces the user to declare what Arduino pin to use at compile time, meaning it can’t be configured later, at runtime, from a config file.
After spending even more time searching issues around using the FastLED library with the ESP32C3, I found a number of different threads with people saying the C3 doesn’t have enough horsepower to handle FastLED and WiFi, saying it can barely handle WiFi! Great! After all this, I still don’t have a working model. But at least it can serve up the revised UI…
Royal Blue UI
Squashing Bugs
Some of those folks recommend using the Adafruit NeoPixel library instead, so in the process of bringing together all the next gen and latest Arduino technology, I decided to refactor our LEDInterface to add yet another type that uses NeoPixel instead of FastLED. But even after the switch, still nothing! I’m beginning to think I’m cursed.
I added reading pins and such from the config file as well. In the process of debugging why it couldn’t correctly pull the default color, I stumble across the issue. Rather than duplicate code, I decided to share the piece that converts a CSS string color value into the red, green, and blue components to set the LEDs to…
Except it always returns black when using the hexadecimal #rrggbb form! For example, the color of the amber glow of those kerosene lamps is coded as #140600, i.e. red = 20, green = 6, blue = 0. But I must have missed a line when combining the two functions because it always returned black (0, 0, 0) and not amber (20, 6, 0). Yep. You guessed it. It was working all along!
Confidence restored, I even found a way to workaround that FastLED limitation of having to know the pin at compile time! You just ask for all of them, then select the one you want to use at run time based on the config file value! Another ESP32 “breaking” change was in the ledc interface, rendering all our code for the 5050 PWM LED strips useless. So I fixed that too.
Pennsylvania Limited UI
The Latest Evolution
So when we talk about the “latest evolution”, we’re talking about replacing the already small Arduino NodeMCU 12E and Wemos D1 mini boards with these even more tiny, more powerful, “super mini” Arduinos. I’ve been working with a larger version of the ESP32S3 to experiment with I2S sound! I’ve totally reworked to old MP3Player sketch to use I2S and have a working prototype!
If you’re familiar with our “Themes” option, you may have noticed we’ve added a few new ones here. If not, they’re accessed by clicking on the Themes button, which presents a list of the various predefined color schemes based on different railroad liveries to select from. For example, a Pennsylvania Limited Green and Cream scheme didn’t exist. Until now.
We already had a B&O Gold, Blue, and Gray scheme for more modern F units, but we had to create an entirely new B&O Royal Blue scheme. Clicking the desired livery in the list presented sets it as default color scheme for the UI to use. If that sort of thing isn’t important to you, that’s fine. But it’s important to me, and it’s easy enough to add new liveries as desired.
Beyond that, early testing of the new 1000mAH battery yields more than 4 hours of operation. Compared to that, I’d say the 2800mAH markings were closer to the mark than the 2000mAH, but that frees up those batteries for other things, like sound!
I’m really excited about the latest evolution and the ability to add lighting to these Bachmann cars using the original 9V battery case. With just a few mods to add a power switch and charging port, all the electronics fit! And that’s a good thing too, because those other two Royal Blue cars still have the original incandescent bulbs, just begging for an upgrade!
What’s Next?
It would really be nice if we could recharge the battery from track power. Trying to access the charging port in the side of the battery box on the underside of the car can be difficult. I usually end up having to lift it off the track to be able to plug in the USB charging cable. But none of the passenger cars have track power pickups anyway. They would have to be added.
It’s really more for equipment that already has power pickups installed, like the USA Trains “cabeese” that still rely on the archaic 9V battery. Unfortunately, they’re internal and it takes some doing to gain access to replace them when they’re dead. Wouldn’t it be nice if that track power could recharge one of these LiPo cells instead?
But that’s a project for another day. I think I need to get the infrastructure back into running order before I worry about something like that!
So here we are again. More acquisitions? What gives? When are we going to turn our attention to track and infrastructure improvements so we can run all this new equipment? Have some patience, we’re getting there! Slowly but surely, we’re creeping up on the improvements necessary to once again run trains. But until then, I can’t pass up a good deal.
I was a bit late getting into large scale. Too late to acquire these items I wanted when they first came out. And nearly too late to grab them now, before they’re no longer available. Period. But I’m disappointed with the choices available nowadays. That’s not to say I haven’t purchased new equipment, be it Bachmann, LGB, or USA Trains. Mostly USA Trains.
I’d love to have the opportunity to purchase another GP9, with the sole purpose to convert it to an SD24, but they’re no longer available! That alone prompted me to act when the GP38s, SD40s, and F7s became available. I’d love to buy more, but the issue becomes where to store them when not operating. Not to mention that without improvements, we’re not operating. Period.
New Heavyweight Diner
When Opportunity Knocks…
Fresh off my recent scores on eBay, I thought I’d satisfied that desire to fill the roster with more transition era steam power. We have umpteen Bachmann ten wheelers already. More than enough, to be honest. And I still have new drive mechanisms and shells yet to be assembled! The new to me Aristocraft 2-8-2 Mikado and 4-6-2 Pacific fit the bill nicely.
The added bonus of sound for both was encouraging. It’s fun to see these “antiquated” systems, still working, and still in use today! I’m working on an Arduino based I2S audio system to complement the motor/block controller system to replace all that antiquated electronics. But until the ESP32 version of DCC-EX is more mature and I adapt the motor controller to its specifications, that will have to wait.
For now, I’ve been “lurking” on some of the Garden scale forums that still exist, looking for ideas and keeping in touch with the latest in the hobby. That’s an oxymoron right there. Most of the folks in this scale are “antiquated”, just like the technology. And only folks that made it this far have the funds available to afford it! So when opportunity knocks…
Diner Kitchen Area
Time To Join
Part of my morning routine includes reading my Facebook “news” feed. We won’t go into the political ramifications of that statement, but suffice it to say I only check in on Facebook once a day. It’s about all the “news” I can take. This particular morning though, I’m greeted by a new post on the Large Scale Central page, a new listing of an Aristocraft heavyweight B&O passenger set, including a 4-6-2 Pacific and tender!
So right away I want to know more, but can’t post until I join! The only drawback of “lurking” on a site. It doesn’t take long though and the moderators added me quickly. Quickly enough to be the first to respond to the post! That post set things in motion and led to these new acquisitions. But let’s go through the steps it took the get this new equipment to my door.
Right off the bat, the only drawback is I already have a B&O 4-6-2 Pacific #5300! I’m thinking that 3 can become an 8 real quick with one of my metallic paint pens. The number boards may take some doing too, but easily within the realm of possibility. Next are the passenger cars. Five absolutely awesome Aristocraft heavyweight passenger cars. The two coaches are duplicates, but with some renumbering, not a problem.
Another B&O Pacific
This Ain’t Amazon Free Shipping
Well, the name of the coach will need to change too, but… Shipping is the issue here. The price ain’t bad, $750 for the lot, but I’m thinking the shipping is going to kill the deal. At least on eBay you have an idea what you’re looking at going in. This is a total unknown. In fact, that’s how I approached the post, “I’m curious as to the shipping to 32757”.
Our first PMs back and forth are his estimates from another transaction, over $300! But he tells me he’ll get an estimate from USPS and UPS and choose the lesser unless I have a preference. As long as it’s NOT FedEx, I’m fine with whatever’s least expensive. The estimated total is somewhere between $250 and $260. So now I’m looking at a thousand dollars for something that was a deal at $750.
Now I’m wondering if I should have haggled over the price, but his reply was unexpected. The shipping came to $236.39, but he said just make it $200 for a total of $950, with an expected arrival of the day before my birthday! I thanked him for the birthday present and put the check in the mail.
Old School
Wait. What? That’s right. I said “Check’s in the mail”. I asked if PayPal was acceptable or what he had in mind for payment. His reply was “I don’t do PayPal, a personal check or bank check only”. Yep. I can’t remember the last time I wrote a check, let alone where my checkbook is. Like I said, most of the folks in this scale are “antiquated”. I even asked if he wanted a picture of the check to use his phone bank app to deposit it.
Nope. Snail mail is fine… I did manage to find my checkbook. He got my last check! Time order more? Maybe. He got my last stamp too! Definitely time to get more of those. Talking about it now, I totally forgot to get a book when I picked up my prescription at Publix yesterday. Oh well. Next time.
I was surprised that he shipped the whole kit and kaboodle without first receiving the check from me as he originally stated. I dropped the check in the mail to him, along with a letter explaining why the address and phone number didn’t match. I mean after all, those checks are going on twenty years old now. We haven’t had that landline for more than a decade, and we’ve lived here in Mount Dora at least a decade now too. Time flies…
Shipping Box, Poinsettia for Scale
The Unboxening
Except when you’re waiting on the package with your birthday present to yourself that is. But it gets here on time, as expected, and I am totally amazed. This packing job is definitely to be admired! Quite the work of art actually. He actually managed to fit everything into one box! And it’s all padded with precisely cut and constructed blue insulation foam inserts! Definitely a work of art.
One by one I extract each and every item, packed in their original boxes. Everything’s here. An RPO baggage car, two coaches, an observation car, a diner, the 4-6-2 engine and tender. All in the B&O “Royal Blue” livery. Time to inspect my birthday haul.
The first item is the diner. After all, he did say the sink counter was loose, so I figured I ‘d better have a look at that first. Sure enough, it’s loose and rattling around inside. Not only that, but the interior lighting doesn’t appear to work either. Time for a closer look.
The Fixening
These Aristocraft heavyweight passenger cars are somewhat complex. To get to the screws that hold the roof to the car, the car ends first need to be removed to gain access, with another set of screws that hold them to the car body. Once the roof is off, the twin power rails that line it and provide power to the four incandescent bulbs are visible, along with the spring contacts on the body that connect them.
I test the bulbs with the bench power supply and they’re all in working order. The same can’t be said for the LED table lamps in the dining area. Near as I can tell from what little I’ve found online about these cars, there’s a circuit card between the underside of the floor and the actual car bottom. And of course no user serviceable items there. The remedy is to send the car to Aristocraft for repair.
Yep. Not an option. Guess I’ll have to take my chances not screwing everything up. I decide to take the time to map out the three floor sections and create a schematic diagram of the electronics on that small, square circuit board, sandwiched between the floor and car bottom. Essentially it’s a full wave bridge rectifier and a pair of current limiting resistors.
Small Circuit Card
Not What I Expected
I was thinking one of the diodes on the circuit card was either open or shorted, but that wasn’t the case. Feeding power to it in both polarities, the table lamps’ LEDs lit right up. Feeding power to the trucks, the LEDs light when the power switch is on. Hmmm… I wonder if it’s those contacts between the floor segments causing the problem? Only one way to find out.
I say the LEDs lit right up. But in actuality, the LEDs are all in series with one another. Four of them are on one floor section and the other four on another. I had to jumper them to complete the circuit to get them to light. But they did light. So everything is working. The only electrical item in question is the contacts between the floor sections.
With the necessary information collected, I reassemble the floor sections, paying special attention to ensure the contacts are in place and aren’t bent the wrong way or otherwise malformed. But even so, nothing is lit! I carefully use a jewelers screwdriver to bridge the contacts and find one that isn’t connecting, even after taking special care. Copper tape to the rescue!
Floor Segments And Contacts
Making It Work
I use scissors to cut the ¼” wide copper tape into two ⅛” pieces. Wrapping one of the pieces over the end of the jewelers screwdriver, I insert it into the gap between the two contacts. Lights on! Well, table lamp LEDs anyway. The bulbs along the roof still aren’t illuminated. After taking the roof off again and bending the spring contacts up to make contact, the ceiling bulbs are now working too.
One last issue to resolve with one of the truck pickups. Once again using the jewelers screwdriver, I identify the culprit contacts and insert the other piece of copper tape. There. Now everything works as expected. I can set the car on a piece of track and apply power to just the track and have everything illuminated.
Now for that sink counter from the kitchen prep area. I’m thinking it may look more like stainless steel with a coat of that Molotow chrome paint. Not so much though. Even so, I get out the hot melt glue gun and secure it over the two floor sections where it belongs. I don’t have much confidence in how long it will hold though since it was previously attached with hot melt glue that failed.
Sink Counter Reattached
Checking The Rest
One by one I check out the remaining passenger cars. Both the coaches are missing windows in the vestibule door as well as the diner. Some are tumbling around, loose in the boxes, but in the end, two are totally missing. I use a toothpick to apply some wood glue along the top and bottom gaps of the windows I do have to keep them in place, allowing enough time for the glue to set up before reassembling.
The RPO baggage car is a disappointment. It must have been a newer model because those gawdy, awful looking 14V bayonet base bulbs and sockets just aren’t scale. The fact that they’re visible from the clerestory windows and it’s obvious what they are is just the beginning. Why they chose 14V bulbs instead of what appear to be 24V bulbs in all the other equipment is a mystery.
The engine is operational and all the detail parts are included and still in the original packaging. The only thing missing is the air compressor. All the plumbing to and from it is there, just no compressor. Thankfully the other Pacific has it and can be used to design a model to 3D print a replacement. Eventually. I’m thoroughly pleased with my purchase and can’t wait to get them out on the rails and running. Someday.
All About Me
That’s pretty much what everything boils down to. It has to wait on me to do it. As much as I’d love to have help, it’s just me doing most of this. Ann does a good job on the garden side of things, but ever since we took out the pond and the waterfall fell into disrepair, it’s been the opposite. She actually cut down the trees that had grown to just the right scale size, all because she couldn’t see past them!
And it’s not like I had a say in the matter. There one day, gone the next! Oh well. Without them to protect the bridge and abutments, those were soon destroyed by the pups too. Now we have nothing to replace that span. Nothing but a giant, empty gap remains! Working on a way to hide that pond and use it as a reservoir for a new waterfall and waterwheel driven mill off the end of the deck.
Still quite a bit of “imagineering” needed here though. Add it to the list of things for me to do… Someday. If this all sounds a bit depressing, to a certain extent it is. When most of my day goes toward making income and not making my dream railroad come true, it’s bound to be slow going. But even slow progress is progress!
Back at it again! This time it’s just a tender all by itself. I normally wouldn’t buy just the tender, but for this eBay auction, the pictures showed some unique features. The first thing that caught my eye was the toggle switch protruding from the bottom of the tender floor. Next was what looked like a reed switch, presumably to sense speed from one of the axles for a sound system.
Another feature was what looked like a charging port on the rear bulkhead, which would imply some sort of battery power scheme. Unfortunately at the time, there was no separate engine listed without the tender that may have matched up to it. Hoping there was to piece together the mystery of what lies within. Oh well, for the “Buy It Now” price, it’s worth the gamble.
The hope is there’s another Phoenix sound system inside at the very least. Battery power would be an unexpected bonus. Although this is likely all very old technology, it’s new to me. And what better way to learn about these older, no longer manufactured locomotives than to buy a few, investigate, and experiment with them?
Evidence Of Sound System
Surprise!
When it finally arrived, the initial inspection revealed it was dirty. Just like the other items, it looked like it was placed in the box, straight off the rails. Not like it just sat on a shelf long enough to gather dust, this is last run outside and left to sit stored there, like part of an estate sale score or something. Could very well be. And like the other tenders, the shell came off and got a good scrub.
But not until finding a few surprises! The first is the weight. This thing is HEAVY! Next, the toggle switch isn’t the momentary on, center off, momentary on style expected, but rather just a standard, two position toggle! Hmmm… Guess that means I didn’t get the Phoenix sound system I was expecting. Not sure what to expect now. Time to get that shell off and see what’s really inside there.
Where to start? There’s a LOT more packed inside here than what I expected. First is a large, HEAVY, NiMH battery pack from Cordless Renovations. That’s connected to a small circuit board with that toggle switch on it. That’s also connected to what looks to be a three terminal voltage regulator on a substantial heat sink. Guessing this is the power supply and that toggle selects between charge and run.
Packed Full Of Goodies
Score!
From there, the power supply feeds what looks like a large interface “breakout” board with four slide switches labelled track/battery, on/off, smoke on/off, and lamp on/off. There are numerous connectors, some with something plugged in and others empty. There are a few pads labelled but not populated with any connectors at all. We’ll get into more detail in a bit.
The biggest thing of note is the daughter card, piggybacked on the interface card, labelled with a 2.4GHz FCC ID and a short, straight wire antenna. This has wireless remote control! Another big surprise is what looks like a sound card. It has the expected momentary toggle switch pigtailed to it. Could it be the volume control switch for another Phoenix sound card?
This is exciting! For the cost of a sound system or a wireless remote system or a battery pack or even just a tender alone, we get them ALL! It’s going to take more sleuthing to figure out what we have exactly, but this was more of a score than I ever expected. Is this another one of those seller didn’t know what they had items? Or knew what they had but also knew it didn’t work?
Whatzit?
Many Questions
I feel like a kid in a candy shop! But now it’s time to answer some questions. My recent success with Google’s search by image feature prompted another try for that wireless remote control. It’s a 2.4 GHz Revolution Train Engineer receiver with sound! Wow. Now all we need is the transmitter. And the programming software. And Crest or Aristocraft to still be in business to get them.
The transmitters can be had on eBay, and even some online dealers still list them, albeit as back ordered or out of stock. The good news is they can be had for a price, somewhere between $150 and $200. As for the programmer and the software, that may prove to be difficult to find, let alone acquire. Unfortunately it’s one of those “need one to reverse engineer one” situations.
The next question to answer is what sounds system is this? For the first time the search by image has let me down. Time to take a different tack… Searching for Phoenix together with the patent ID labelled on the card turns up a link to a Big Sound 2K2, like the one I already have. But this one doesn’t look like it, It’s smaller and has a different configuration. Thankfully the link also has others listed.
Phoenix Whatzit?
The Search Continues
The next in line is the P5 model. This appears to have the same pinouts, but the picture doesn’t quite match the configuration of the components. It’s difficult to know for sure since the entire card is protected by a large piece of heat shrink covering everything except the connectors on either end. And there’s a piece of sticky backed Velcro™ stuck to that, together with its mate holding it to the tender floor.
Next up is the P8 and what looks to be the perfect match. Same pinouts as the P5, except this one warns that without some connection to the speed sensing input, which there aren’t, there won’t be any sound. Bummer. But it also says that it should provide background steam sounds or diesel startup sounds when idle. So which is it. Idle sounds or no sounds? Guess we’ll see when bench testing.
Looked up the battery too. That particular model is no longer available, but other styles are, so all is not lost. A more more modern lithium style battery would be preferrable to the older NiMH technology, but beggars and all that…
Bench Testing
Now to find out if it’s worth the money spent. Since the run/charge switch position isn’t labelled, it seems prudent to remove the battery leads from the circuit card and deal with it separately. Thankfully the connections are all screw terminals, labelled even. I don’t have any charging equipment for that multi-cell style battery pack, just single cell chargers, usually four cells at once.
Using the bench supply and closely monitoring the voltage and current should provide a good enough indication of charge rate and completion. The label says 18V, but it requires more like 22V before any appreciable current begins to flow. We’re talking an amp or more vs. tens of milliamps. The charging current continues to fall as the battery voltage increases. The supply voltage must be increased to compensate.
The goal is to keep the current above an amp without requiring excessive voltage. Charging is complete once the current falls to less than 100 milliamps at full charge voltage, which in this case appears to be ~22V. Without doing the math to add up cell voltages in series, we’ll call that good enough. It’s taken several hours already and should provide enough power to do some testing.
Bummer
Flipping the switch causes the battery voltage to drop from ~22V to ~2V? What is going on here? Did I somehow create a short when I broke the charging connector trying to remove it from the tender shell? Well shoot! Is it that 5V regulator? Is there something else going on with the sound card? Is the battery pack weak? Without jumping in and disconnecting and testing everything individually, who knows?
A first pass through everything looks like the charging connector is shorting the battery when switched to the apparent charging position. With that connector disconnected, the battery voltage remains the same with the switch in both positions. Maybe it just expects the charger to be plugged in before switching to charging? Dunno. Guess I’ll need to fashion a charging plug for the bench supply to find out.
Time to totally eliminate that little power distribution circuit card from the equation. The charging port is now disconnected as well as the battery leads. That leaves just the power feed connections to the Phoenix sound card and the wireless remote interface card. Thankfully they’re screw terminals as well. Time to isolate the sound card and remove those power leads too.
A Sound Success
As a precaution, even the miniature JST connector is unplugged, presumably feeding all the external triggers to the sound card from the wireless remote control. The bench supply is set to 12V. As the test leads are connected to the power wires of the P8, it hisses to life! It’s the steam startup sequence. Another working sound system. It looks to be more modern and smaller than the Big Sound 2K2 unit in the Mikado.
Rather than just jump in and try to power the wireless remote card, it seems prudent to reverse engineer that small run/charge switch card. Time to draw the schematic and hopefully get a better idea how it interacts with the charging socket. It’s the 2.5mm variety and doesn’t need the 2.1mm adapter. It does rely on the charging connector to complete the circuit when no plug is inserted.
Time to check the health of the 5V three terminal regulator. At this point, if that’s not the problem, then that leaves the wireless remote control card. Nope. Not the 5V regulator. Just briefly touching the bench supply to the battery input leads causes the voltage to drop and current limiting to engage at 10A! It almost welds the wire to the test lead clip!
Running Out Of Options
Switching to track power doesn’t seem to have any effect. That is to say, regardless of where the test leads are connected, the power doesn’t seem to get past the wheels. It seems to have pickups that connect through the wheel bearings, but with one wheel isolated from the axle, it amounts to just four wheel pickup, not eight.
A bit more fiddling reveals that the short is polarity dependent. There should be an assumed bridge rectifier to convert to the proper polarity but seems to be expecting the correct DC polarity. Turns out the track inputs do the same thing. Nothing for one polarity, dead short for the other. Guess I just managed to find the correct polarity the first time around.
Buzzed out the diodes on the interface card and they all act like diodes, none conduct in both directions. Removing the wireless card cures the short. Well, that’s that. Something’s wrong with the wireless remote card. Bummer. Glad I didn’t already spring for that transmitter! One thing left to check, the underside of the interface card, in case it’s double sided. Nope.
Fresh Fried Circuits
Throwing in the towel this time. The plug in wireless remote control card is fried. Unfortunately, it also has the motor control drivers on it, eight power transistors under a heat sink. Without it, about the only thing battery powered is the sound system. It’s a little disappointing, but I put enough of it back together to be able to do just that, battery power the sound system by flipping a switch.
It’s a good jumping off point though. This will allow experimenting with the different motor controller setups we have, only this time they’ll be built into the engine itself. Going to need some sort of full wave bridge if running track power though. Next steps would be charging from track power. That’s something I’d like to add to the passenger car lighting and the old style 9V powered cabeese marker lights too.
It had been nearly a year since we added to our equipment roster, until our recent addition of a Mikado, described in our first installment. This time around, it’s an Aristocraft Pacific. It’s as good a deal as could be found. Not as good as the Mikado, but close. It’s a little more expensive and a little less impressive, but only because it’s the early version with plastic side rods and such.
It does have the original sound system in the tender, and it still works. It’s missing the whistle and the bell, but the bell harp is still there. It does have the “cow catcher”, unlike the Mikado. The one big feature it sports is it’s in the B&O Royal Blue livery. And like its ten wheeler predecessor, it’s a bit on the wobbly and unreliable side. But there’s hope for it. It should be fine after a much needed tune up.
Being the early version, it still has the “glowing firebox” feature, no longer present on the more recent Mikado. Best I can tell, the Pacific is pre 2003 and the Mikado 2003 or later. The difference is the Mikado has an added Battery vs. Track Power switch stacked with the Motor On/Off switch in place of the glowing firebox door in the Pacific.
The Pacific has Motor On/Off on the cab floor, along with the Lighting On/Off switch, also on the floor of the Mikado. The Pacific placed the Smoke On/Off switch at the front of the engine on the pilot frame. The Mikado has its Smoke On/Off switch on the cab floor, opposite the Lighting switch.
B&O Royal Blue Pacific
Initial Findings
I did manage to find the manual and more information on various large scale sites. It appears to match the “Old Pacific” manual. And now my searches are turning up the ART-5400 PWM controller for use with it. Still haven’t found the “magic words” for the search to find the waveforms. But then again, that was probably a closely guarded bit of secret information (read intellectual property) when they were still in business.
I won’t go into all the details of our foray into PWM motor controllers here. It’s pretty much covered elsewhere. The long and short of PWM, for me anyway, is the annoying buzz at anything in the audible frequency range, and the lack of response from any built in constant lighting circuitry at any frequency greater than a few kilohertz.
Considering this locomotive also sports its own track powered sound system, not sure how Aristocraft managed to get the PWM concept to work, let alone together with it. It does require a fair amount of voltage before anything works. IIRC, the wheels didn’t even start turning until around 8V.
Original Aristocraft Sound Card
We Have Sound
It took some doing to figure out how this sound board works. When I first opened the hatch on the tender looking for a battery, not only did I not find one, I didn’t even see the 9V battery clip laying inside there on the very bottom. It became very apparent when I removed the tender shell to get a look at what was going on inside.
At first glance I can tell this is old technology, likely from the ’90s judging by all the discrete components surrounding four Dual Inline Package (DIP) style integrated circuits. One’s a quad comparator op amp, one’s a decade (÷10) counter, another’s a hex inverter/buffer, and finally a dual channel audio amplifier. I finally got rid of most of my DIP style parts recently, deciding I’d never be using parts that were at least 30 years old in any design.
Of course the first thing I have to do is look up which post is which on a 9V battery so I can attach the bench supply with the correct polarity. Let’s try not to let out the magic smoke, shall we? So with that knowledge in hand, I power on the bench supply and… Nothing. Adjusting the voltage has no effect. Neither does adjusting the current limit. What about spinning the wheel with the sensor on it? Nothing.
Or Do We?
All this is going on while trying to record a video of it, and paying more attention to that, the lead that fell off the bench supply goes unnoticed at first. Not sure what the first clue was, no current draw perhaps? With the power now connected, the faint sound from the speaker of amplified noise together with one of those old style analog bell resonator circuits, right on the edge of ringing, riding on top of the noise can be heard.
Adjusting the volume knob has the expected “crackle”, another remnant from analog days where any DC voltage present on the adjuster arm detects every speck of dust in its path and creates a loud “pop” in the speaker when it finds it. But the real payoff comes from spinning the wheel with the sensor on it. The bell comes to life, then the chuff, chuff as the wheel spins faster.
It does manage to make reasonable bell, chuff, and hiss sounds, but will be replaced once the I2S sound sketch is up and running. The short exposure to that Phoenix 2K2 card spoiled me. It’s less than half the size of this thing, makes much better sound, and can be controlled simply by connecting external reed switches or programmatically via DCC or other means. And even that one’s obsolete!
Does It Run?
Jumped the gun describing the sound system first though. Once the tender’s open, it’s obvious more research is required. Testing out the engine came first. I set it on a short stretch of track and connected the test leads from the bench supply. It does run, if only for a short time before it runs off the end of the track. Reversing the polarity sends it the other direction.
So it does run, but how well is unknown until the first set of run in stands is finished printing and assembled. It takes six for just the three driver axles. Those together with the other ones I already had printed and assembled should be just enough… If the mix matched colors isn’t an issue. That set took all but the last one of the roller skate bearings. Time to restock those and the other hardware.
It probably wouldn’t have taken as long if the assembly steps hadn’t been recorded as well, but at least they’re finished. Once on the run in stand, it’s obvious this has a lot of slop designed in, most likely for tight radius curves. There’s at least a quarter of an inch (~6mm) slop side to side in each of the driver axles. Couple that with the middle axle being driven only by the plastic side rods and it’s a wobbly ride!
Death Wobble?
Don’t know if it’s “death wobble”, but she’s certainly a rockin’ back and forth and side to side! With a slight tug on the cab the wobble is tamed somewhat, but not entirely. While the first and last axles are physically linked together by a shaft to the motor, that middle axle is free to “float” between the side rod links. There are two of them, not one solid single side rod like on the ten wheelers.
One link is connected between the drive pins of the middle and rear drivers. The other connects to the that link and the drive pin of the front driver. The connecting rod from the piston and cylinder shares the middle driver’s pin with one of the side links as well as the arm to the valve rod. The sector arm rocks back and forth around a centered “Johnson bar” with the valve rod action.
That’s the extent of valving action. I’d like to draft up a CNC design to mill out metal side rods and operational valve links with prototypical reverser action. Unfortunately, the Mikado suffers the same valve action limitations with rigid cast plastic in place of the expected moving mechanism. Just now thinking about, it may be possible to borrow valve parts from the ten wheeler replacement mechanisms. Hmmm…
Saving The Best For Last?
More like saving the boring for last. The first installment of this series focused on catching up with where we’re at and why expanding the roster wasn’t a priority. Then it moved on to how most of these historic items are no longer available except for those rare offerings on eBay. The occasional item may pop up in an online dealer’s list of previously owned items, but they’re usually way overpriced.
With that being said, the particulars of the deal were held until the last this time around. This particular acquisition was one of those buy it now or best offer deals on eBay. Most of those available were in the $750 – $1150 “Buy It Now” price range. Not sure what the original price was back when Aristocraft was still in business, but even so, that’s pretty steep.
The offer was half the ask, and the seller countered with an extra $50 tacked on. Combined with tax and shipping it was a little over $500 all told, not quite a hundred dollars more than the Mikado deal, where the tax and shipping together were still less than just the shipping here.
Stupid eBay Tricks
Guess it’s a common “trick” eBay sellers use to avoid having to pay more of a surcharge or lose as much when some buyer tries to rook them, but when I see shipping costs of more than a hundred dollars, it better be hand delivered, straight to my hands, and not tossed around by the postal system until it’s dropped at my doorstep. Literally.
One thing I didn’t cover in the first part was all the offers I got from sellers I hadn’t extended and offer to… Way to scare me off. Folks I’ve never met nor reached out to, already “leaching” out to me. I already think what they’re asking is overpriced to begin with. Those offers only put the price in the ball park of other sellers, before I make any offers. No thanks. I’ll keep looking.
I know what these items are worth to me, regardless of what the sellers think they’re worth. “No lowball offers. I know what I got.” comes to mind. But enough about eBay sellers and tactics. I bought the item I wanted for a price I was willing to pay. Granted, it’s not what I thought I was buying, but it’s a good enough start to know better next time. Who knows? Maybe I’ll design my own CNC version of the mechanism and 3D print the rest.
The Best Part
The best part is all the video material recorded while exploring these “new to us” models. It’s been way too long since we’ve posted any new videos to our YouTube channel. They pretty much stopped when our beloved Brigel crossed the Rainbow Bridge mid 2022. There’s a short of Brigel’s last days with us to mark the anniversary of his passing, but nothing since.
That’s not the only reason, but it definitely took its toll on us. Another source of concern was the aging computer system we use to edit and render the videos. It was a real screamer in its day… A decade ago! Now its age is definitely showing. Nick gave me an older video card he had that was still more powerful than the one I built the system with. That’s helped for a while. But the old girl is tired…
But not retired. That system has roughly 20TB of storage. Some of it SSD, most of it spindle drives. It provides network access to all our collected works, knowledge, and projects. When we lost two of the 2TB drives, meant to be backups of each other, we lost most of our pictures from 2013 and parts of 2014. It was the motivation to pull the trigger on a new machine.
A New Hope
The new system is more than capable of creating videos. There were some hiccups along the way, like when the boot SSD failed, and it could have been bricked for more than two months. And all this just after finally getting everything squared away and ready to go. Seemed like we just couldn’t catch a break. I took the opportunity to rebuild a new boot drive without all the extra fluff included with Windows 11.
Back up and running, all the while waiting on a warranty replacement SSD. At first it was a struggle just to figure out who was on the hook for the warranty. Once that got resolved, things didn’t improve much. Not until I finally convinced someone in support that having a new computer that’s essentially a brick sitting under my desk for the last two months wasn’t the user experience I expected when I bought it.
He sent me a new 2TB boot SSD express! The best part was I got another 2TB replacement SSD a week or so later through the standard warranty channels! So I bought a set of USB drive cases and now have two external 2TB SSD drives for portable storage. The new computer itself was already treated to an upgrade of a second internal drive, a 4TB SSD!
A New Video
With all that being said, it’s time to start putting out the videos again. I managed to collect up all the relevant material in a “starter” project I can “save as” to any new video project, then just remove the content that’s not related. Maybe I should just export all the bins and import just what I need into the new project. Guess I’ll try both ways.
I use DaVinci Resolve for making videos. It’s just the free version, but has plenty of features even so. Microsoft was pushing their latest Clipchamp “freebie”, but it’s barely capable of editing out the unwanted parts just creating a short excerpt video. Guess I’m spoiled. I’m using version DaVinci Resolve 18.6, but they’ve already pushed out the new 19 release.
The short video clips in these new posts were created just for them, saving the full up content for new YouTube postings. All we need now is that “flashy” intro for the channel. Maybe even a trailer to boot. Just need the inspiration…
It’s been nearly a year since we added to our equipment roster, choosing instead to concentrate on infrastructure improvements, organization, and storage. While I’d like to say we’ve been busy doing that, progress has been almost nonexistent. If anything, we’ve taken a few steps backward. The latest setback is preparations for hurricane Helene, hurriedly cramming everything in the garage, and making a shambles of any progress organizing it.
One great feature we added long ago is the storage drawers for the old Bachmann ten wheelers and passenger cars. More recent acquisitions concentrated on diesel equipment, mainly freight oriented, but the USA Trains heavyweight passenger car set upstaged all the Bachmann passenger cars. And while those ten wheelers are well suited to the Bachmann cars, the heavyweights would look out of place behind one.
Most of the other steam engines we have are more suited for logging applications, like the three truck shay and mallet. There’s that 2-6-0 we were going to modify to match the “Orange Blossom Cannonball” that we used to ride from Mount Dora out to Tavares and back, then realized it was the wrong prototype to start with and would require massive modifications. It would be much better to start with something closer, but the original has long since ceased operation anyway.
Limited Choices
Few manufacturers make anything more than “novel” steam engines. LGB is one of the few remaining, but predominantly European designs. USA Trains has one offering, the UP FEF-3 Northern, with a price tag of $4,000. Not for the feint of heart, or pocketbook. Considering the only other offerings are live steam, usually in the $5,000-$7,000 price range for just a little 0-4-0, pretty slim pickings if you’re in the market for a modern steam engine.
Before they went out of business, Aristocraft used to make some decent modern steam engines, like a 2-8-2 Mikado, and a 4-6-2 Pacific. LGB also had a 2-8-2 Mikado offering. No one makes them anymore, which leaves the aftermarket, be it eBay or online dealers. Of all the hobby shops I used to frequent, I can only think of one that may still be in business, and it’s paired with a photography store. Trains on one side, cameras and such on the other.
There was one time way back, when we were shopping after going out to dinner, we thought we found a new one. Walking in we were told they just sold all their inventory to another dealer. I don’t want to call those types of deals “predatory”, so let’s just say the online dealers I’ve seen, brick or mortar front or not, seem to want exorbitant amounts of money for what’s left of those “rare” items.
Caveat Emptor (Buyer Beware)
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve found a few good deals online, but not many. That leaves eBay. My experience with eBay has been mixed. If you’re looking for deals on eBay, you really have to know what it is you’re looking for. You need to “do your homework”, so to speak, and go in with “eyes wide open” as they say. Many of the sellers are established, and most are fair and honest and want your return business.
But even though some sport good overall ratings, they’re shady nonetheless. Back when I was restoring classic motorcycles, I had a seller refuse to refund my money when he had obviously posted a deceptive offering. When I gave him a poor review, he retaliated and said I was the one that was lying about the whole deal and trying to get something for nothing. Live and learn, and NEVER deal with them again!
Sadly, the best deals I’ve found is when the seller doesn’t no what they have, offering the item for much less than it’s worth, or mislabeling it where most others looking for the item wouldn’t think to look at that auction. Long gone are my days of sniping items at the last second. I’m more of a buy it now type these days. I know what I want and what I’m willing to pay for it. These latest deals were one of those “Make an Offer” types.
Milwaukee Road Mikado
Shiny and New?
From eBay? Nope. As luck would have it, I got a great deal on an Aristocraft Milwaukee Road Mikado from an online dealer! Listed as “Very Good” and in the box, the price was already lower than anything I’d seen on eBay for similar items. Couple that with a 10% off coupon and it’s a deal. That 10% almost covered the tax and shipping. I think they priced it low because the tender had been modified with some sort of aftermarket electronics added to it.
Talk about a deal! I’d even call it a steal. The only way I knew there was something in the tender from the pictures was the handle of a toggle switch protruding from beneath the floor. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but knew it was some sort of electronics. For less than $450 delivered, I had a “new to me” Mikado. Of course the first thing I had to do was see if it ran. Normally that would be as easy as applying power to the wheels. Not this time though.
I did a quick internet search for the manuals and such. Near as I could tell, the plugs and wires I could see kind of matched the schematics? The front pilot was fitted with an Aristocraft coupler and the “cow catcher” was missing. One of the cast steps from the tender was broken off and missing too. There were other loose parts floating around, like the whistle and rear pilot, but not those parts.
Oh well. For what I paid, I can’t complain, although I might argue with the “Very Good” rating they gave it.
A Peek Inside The Tender
Such a Deal
One of the first things I did was take the shell off the tender to see what electronics lurked inside. Not that I’d know what I was looking at mind you. There’s a built in circuit card, and additional circuit card, a speaker, a small battery pack, a couple of switches, one in the tender floor and one in the tender shell, and a bunch of mix matched wiring, complete with wire nuts. Ugh. Thankfully there’s a connector to the switch in the tender shell.
The additional circuit card uses “modern” surface mount components. It has one large, apparently custom chip, with 40 – 50 pins and a large “sticker” on it. I try Googling the numbers from the sticker and other components but not getting a good match from any of them. I’ve never used the image search feature… Until now. That’s what it takes to get me a valid match. Turns out it’s a Phoenix sound system! Nice!
At least that’s what I thought, until I tried to find more information. It’s a BigSound™ 2K2, short for model year 2002 I’m guessing. But I’m too late to the party. They went out of business more than a year ago. Even though I’m able to find a saved version of their website on the “WayBack Machine” site, looks like none of the PDF or MP3 files were saved. Damn! That means no manuals, no sound files, nothing.
Now What?
I did manage to find the manual and more information on various large scale sites, and one user even brags he recently made a copy of the Phoenix site, but advises to just throw them in the bin. Great. Thanks for the help. Any information gleaned from a site no longer available, that might help support others willing to take the time to keep these things working, would be greatly appreciated.
If you’re reading this and have the sound files, and are willing to share them, please let me know. If you have the programming interface and installation CD, even the schematic, I’m interested in those too. The bottom line is I have one of these sound systems and it still works fine. I’d like to keep it working and not just throw it away because there’s something newer and better.
The good news is IT WORKS! Let me see if I can figure out a way to embed a video player here. I may need to link to one already deployed on the web site itself. It has chuff, dynamo, automatic whistle, cylinder cock steam hiss, and bell on first motion. The chuff must be speed sensitive since it has some sort of magnet/reed switch sensor on one of the tender axles.
Sound Works, But Does It Run?
One of the first things I did after diving into the sound system was to take the engine apart, both to clean it and see if I could just apply power to the circuit board and get it to run that way. I was able to download the manual and parts diagrams for it along with the schematic. It shows a “jumper board” that can be replaced by DCC or other means of remote control. It’s nice that one end has the power connection and the other end the ground.
It has a built in switch to select battery power or track power, but applying power to the pickups on either of the pilot or pony trucks doesn’t work, regardless of the position of the switch. That small battery pack is just to keep the sounds playing when track power is removed. I was hoping it was some sort of battery power arrangement for running the locomotive too, but no such luck. With the shell removed, I have access to the circuit card.
Connecting the adjustable bench supply using a set of test jumpers, I slowly increase the voltage. With the base of the engine laying on its side, the drivers slowly begin to move. IT WORKS TOO! Wahoo! Not sure why the power pickups on the engine aren’t working, but at least I know once it gets power it will move. Would hate to think it relies on just two axles on the tender for power, but a battery power conversion will fix that.
It’s Alive!
I am absolutely thrilled with these results. The next step is to get things working reliably. To that end, I begin disassembling the drive mechanism. This is a strange beast to behold though. Each axle has its own dedicated gear box, all connected together by drive shafts, with the last axle also connected to the motor by drive shaft. I start with the lead axle gearbox, carefully removing the side rods and the the gear box itself.
Or should I say rod? That’s when I find the engineer’s (right) side is missing the link between the first and second axles. Bummer. I can probably design and 3D print something that will fit, but these are all metal side rods, and I’d rather fashion something from metal than plastic. What are the odds of finding that replacement part for a 20 year old engine? Slim to none I would wager. Disappointing, but not a show stopper.
Digging deeper into the first gear box, I realize at least one of the wheels will need to come off to split the gear box halves and expose the innards. The gear box itself is plastic, the halves held together by two screws each on opposite sides. The worm is metal and the drive line components have ball bearings on either end of the worm shaft. The axle also has ball bearings. The weird thing is the wheel and axle is taper fit. Never seen that before.
Missing Side Rod Link
Replacement Parts
Generally wheels and axles are keyed to each other in some fashion to ensure quartering is maintained between sides. This design relies on the taper fit to wedge the wheels to the axles. The tighter the wheel retaining screw, the tighter the fit to the axle. Again, not a show stopper, but I realize it’s going to take some sort of quartering jig to maintain ALL the wheel positions relative to each another and decide to stop with that first axle.
The ball bearings looks to be single sided metal shielded, and the one at the front of that first axle gear box is pretty rusty and crusty. Its movement feels rough too. Time to replace it, but I don’t have any bearings on hand that will fit. Time to grab the measurements and see what’s available. The nice thing about bearings is they’re standardized and can be identified with just the measurements.
I ordered a pack of 10 for when I finally decide to get in there. I’d do a total refresh of the gear boxes and such, but for now, it will be easy enough to just replace that front bearing without having to tear the rest of the driveline apart. Until I come up with a quartering jig, there’s no way I’m tearing it all apart. The goal is to get it running “good enough”. It would be a good thing to get the track good enough to run on first.
Next steps
As luck would have it, there are just enough spare run in stands to assemble together for the engine to sit on, and in matching black no less! It takes every last one I have that isn’t dedicated to another engine type. I’ll need to 3D print and assemble 8 more for the tender, but considering it can just sit on the rails with no moving parts, there’s no great hurry or need. For now, we’re all set.
We’ve made a number of improvements over the Summer. Some we’ve already covered. Some not. We’re making progress, albeit slowly. The main focus is getting trains running again, and to do that, we need to start laying track again, not pulling it back up.
Something that’s been bothering me is the lack of progress on setting the last batch of roadbed bricks in place. It’s been a couple of months since the last batch of bricks was cast and laid in position. That’s mostly on me for not improving the state of the garage. It’s in no shape to work on any project. Not until recently anyway.
I’ll save how the garage and the office were updated with new shelving and other improvements for another post. To say the least, the casting bench is ready for action. And speaking of casting, it’s time to set those roadbed bricks in place then cast more and place them.
Some Filaments Are More UV Resistant Than Others
If you remember from the Roadbed Bricks – Round Three post, some of those 3D printed ballast profile molds had warped and yellowed from the UV exposure. What’s left of them are sitting in a bucket outside the carriage doors of the garage. So the “then cast more” part is going to have to wait.
Setting The Bricks
We’ll get back to that later. Now it’s time to set the rest of those bricks in place. They’ve been lying there on top of what’s left of the artificial turf that needs cut back to make room for them. Time to better protect that 14# power feed cable in the process by “hiding” it under the turf next to the bricks.
My “wheelie cart” helps save me from having to crawl around on my hands and knees. Lately my knees painfully remind me I’m not getting any younger. In the spirit of “there’s always something else that needs done first”, the tires need inflated. They’re not quite flat, but they could definitely use some air.
My Helper As Always
I grab the Dremel saw bag and the retractable extension cord and get that ready to go while waiting for the compressor to build up pressure. The retractable air hose makes it easy to fill the tires just outside the side garage door. Much better!
The first thing I find once I get going is most of the four bricks are already sitting right on the dirt. If it weren’t for that black “weed control” fabric and just a wedge of turf, they could be set right in place, if the dirt had been moved anyway. Time for the yard cart… Which is full of water!
Well, not all the way full, but Hurricane Debby dropped a good amount of rain on us. Easy enough to dump it out and roll it over to the job site. I made sure when I ordered the new Gorilla Cart™ it came with the solid tires. No worrying about flats!
A couple of quick cuts with the Dremel saw make quick work of that turf wedge. And the black fabric can be pulled out of the way enough to set those first four bricks in place. It takes a few tries to remove enough dirt and test fit the contour for each brick.
The First Four At The Job Site
Annoyances
That fabric certainly is annoying though. Not only does it NOT stop the weeds from growing, it’s so flexible it’s nearly impossible to cut with the Dremel saw! The one thing it DOES do well is keep the seams between the sections of turf from “puckering”, for lack of a better term.
Puckering describes the way the dirt washes away at the seam and builds up under either side, like lips puckering. At this point, it’s no longer necessary with the bricks in place. The work progresses a brick or two at a time while cutting away the turf and fabric and fitting them in place.
By the time I’m finishing up, the shade has disappeared. The new umbrella Ann got me is working fine to block the sun though. It wouldn’t have taken so long if it weren’t for the post and remnants of the stringer that were in the way and had to be removed.
The Stretch To The Switch Set In Place
Unfortunately that left a patch of dirt exposed leading up to the switch. Thankfully a chunk of turf previously cut out of the way covers it and fits the bill quite nicely. It will be good enough until the next batch of bricks is ready to finish that stretch.
But Wait, There’s More
But it’s not done yet. There are three more bricks on the other end of the “cast in place” failure. Alright, it wasn’t a total failure, but it ain’t very pretty and that’s for sure. These three fit between the other end of the “cast in place” section and the end of the previous batch of bricks.
It’s a bit harder to get the turf cut this time because of the surroundings. On one end is the the previous batch of bricks and the other is cast in place concrete. But the most difficult part is the tight squeeze getting everything to fir in that space!
That end brick from the last batch actually had the corner crack off, but it doesn’t want to go back in place without a fight, or leaving a gap. After more finagling, and even more stomping, they finally fit. Probably best not to disturb the bricks already placed last time around.
The Last Of The Batch Set In Place
Levelling Up
Next up is levelling that 4×4 that sits proud of the first batch of bricks. All those 4x4s along the lower loop started out level when first installed. Over time they settled, heaving or slumping in the process. Every one of them sit on dirt with the exception of the one sitting proud.
That 4×4 sits proud because it’s resting on a wedge of turf. A wedge of turf that should have been cut out of the way when it was first installed a few years back. The time has come. But first the 10′ section of flex track that sits on top of it has to be removed.
This allows access for refitting the 4×4 to sit lower and level with its neighbor and the first round of bricks. Turns out not only is there one wedge, there’s two! A convergence, where two different sections of turf meet. This discovery forces removing the first batch bricks, disturbing the pile of rubble they sat on.
After struggling with getting the high spot out of the middle and trying to eliminate the rocking motion, the 4×4 finally sits flat and at the proper level. Getting that rubble and the bricks to sit flat and level is even more of a struggle, but eventually everything lines up.
Many Infrastructure Items Resolved
More Levelling
Unfortunately that 4×4 wasn’t the only one that needed attention. Ann had been working in the front yard, adding pavers and removing dirt to do so. She nearly filled the dump cart and I dumped that dirt where the track leaves the deck. The idea is to build up the terrain there.
After removing the section of track, I backed the heavy dump cart over the 4×4 and released the latch to dump the dirt. Why does this matter? Those aren’t the 4x4s that need levelled! It’s the ones in front of the deck step. Yet another 10′ section of flex track needs moved.
Thankfully this time the turf didn’t need trimmed, but it did need pulled out of the way while adjusting the 4x4s. While I still have the track out of the way, it’s time to trim the turf along the 4×4 that staircases the terrain where the dirt was dumped.
Dirt Terraced And Track Laid On Levelled 4x4s
The cutoff piece of turf isn’t quite big enough cover all the dirt, there’s still an exposed patch, but it’s mostly covered. Time to put the track back together. Of course, the Split Jaw™ couplers needed new socket head bolts to replace the bent, mangled originals.
Thankfully the track just falls into place, having retained their shape from using the rail bender when they were first installed. The hold down screws are left out for now with the idea that some 1×2 blocking will be fabricated to hold the rail in place.
For now, even the end that was uneven drops right into place. It doesn’t even take concrete blocks like it did months ago. It probably would have waited, except the Bozos that installed the new copper A/C line set grabbed them and used them for seats and step stools.
The Track Finally Fits The Roadbed Bricks
Sour Grapes
Definitely some sour grapes there. First of all, who told them they could use those blocks? And they didn’t even put them back where they got them! I had to download the security camera videos just to know whether they took them with them when they left.
Second, but more importantly, who misdiagnosed the leak was in the line set to begin with? Nothing like having to pay $1500 for a non repair! Still leaking and no A/C a day later, in Florida, in the middle of August no less! Ends up needing a brand new condensing coil and we get to pay to have that installed too!
Guess I should be happy we finally got someone that knew what they were doing. So frustrating paying supposed “professionals” to have it done right and I end up knowing more than they do! I’m paying you to fix it so I don’t have to!
Broken Stringer And Extra Track Removed
But enough whining. I don’t need them to hold the track down anymore, and that was the goal. To keep the puppies from poking their eyes out, I removed the sagging 3′ straight track section and the broken stringer that was no longer holding it up.
I left the plastic pipe to mark where the track goes in preparation for the upcoming trestle work. You can see from the pictures how much more track work remains. Next step is to add back more of the 10′ flex track sections into the roadbed bricks.
Still struggling with the decision to use wooden or metal for the trestle and bridges. It may end up being 3D printed PETG that looks like metal, but still have to experiment with PETG and its durability when exposed to the elements. Time will tell.
“Then Cast More”
I promised to say more about the “then cast more” part of the discussion. One of the things accomplished when making the casting bench operational was to cut the 8′ long pieces of the roadbed brick casting forms into two sets 4′ long.
They’re sitting on the casting bench waiting to be reassembled. I’m still looking for another chunk of 2×6 that’s 4′ long to create a third 4′ long form. I’ve also 3D printed at least three more ballast profile molds for that section, but will probably need more
This is a short follow up on the original 3D Printed Casting “Mock Ups”. Considering the length of the original post, that’s an understatement. But sometimes it’s necessary to fill in the blanks when progress is low and discouragement is high.
Even though progress has been slow, it’s actually been beneficial in this case. The original design is based on our “fleet” of Bachmann passenger cars, literally dozens and dozens and dozens of them. Some modified with our Passenger Car Lighting systems, some still sporting the original 9V battery twin light bulb version. All of them suffering from flimsy, rubberized plastic handrails.
I wouldn’t mention those handrails except we’re talking about 3D printing. What better replacement for plastic than plastic? Well, metal for one. Brass to be exact, but then we’d need jigs for bending the brass to shape, most likely 3D printed as well.
Steps Barely Clear Capstones
Design “Flaws”
Just like those original handrails that failed the test, so did our original casting design. Well, at least the mock up did. The first flaw was discovered when first fitting the 10′ diameter curved track section. A redesign doubled the number of segments to better fit the curve. This was discussed in the first installment and it works quite well.
The next “flaw” is genuinely a “new” one, as in there’s not enough clearance for the new USA Trains Heavyweight passenger cars. And before you ask, no, there are not dozens of them. But there is a decade of them. There was a bulk deal on ten of them around Christmas time, so I pulled the trigger, as well as ordering a pair of F7 A-B units for A-B-B-A running.
They’ve been packed away since then, awaiting completion of all these “infrastructure improvements”. After unboxing one of them to test with, it was readily apparent the design was too narrow for these behemoths. The car is longer than the mock up! The wheels just fit on a single curve section though.
The steps and the equipment boxes both will interfere with the platform or the capstones. Back to the drawing board! It took some doing, and some days to do it, but I managed to add a “crude” approximation of the new passenger car to the mock up design.
Steps Interfere With Pillar Capstones
Back To The Drawing Board
The test fit also reveals a flaw in the “track trough”. Not sure where I picked up that fault, but for whatever reason, the track is sitting proud of the platform rather than flush with it. To give an idea of how the prototype fits together, most platforms are slightly higher than the track, by about 4″ (10cm). In scale, that’s roughly 1⁄6″.
I figured giving the equipment that little bit of a height boost would hopefully compensate for any errors made while measuring their dimensions. Looks like I worried about the wrong measurement errors. Add that to the list of things that need fixed.
I’m back and forth with whether to try to forcibly disassemble the mock ups or just print all new pieces. I say try because the chemical solvent I use to cement the plastic pieces literally melts the two together into one part. Printing all new pieces is going to take a lot longer.
Each 4″ x 7″ retaining wall segment takes 4½ hours to print. Two of the pillars that join the wall segments take 3½ hours. An 8″ long track trough takes 5 hours. It should have been obvious when the curved track trough only took 3½ hours to print.
Anyway, these flaws are certainly obvious now. Not to worry though, the entire reason for all these mockups is to find the errors and flaws before they’re cast in stone, er… concrete.
Time Better Spent As Debby Approaches
Time Is Of The Essence
Alright, being overly dramatic, but time certainly is the essence of the conundrum. As in there is not enough of it to get ahead of everything that needs done. So little to do and so much time… Strike that. Reverse it.
Some say if deadlines are not set, they’ll never be met. Tell that to hurricane Debby. Now instead of spending time moving closer to the goal of running trains, it will now be spent preparing for a hurricane.
Retract the SunSetter™ awning. Stash any loose items that will blow away, like lawn chairs and cushions. You get the idea. Now add to that the garage where those items are usually stored is still the disaster it was right after the A/C decided to leak all over everything.
Progress is slow, but progress is progress. The large empty storage bin that used to sit in front of the table saw because there was no place else to put it is now filled with HO scale items that used to occupy a slot on the bookshelves in the office. It will fit beneath the work cell, taking up the wasted space under it.
Next Steps
Immediate steps are hurricane preparation, like dumping the work cart full of dirt at the end of the driveway where it has washed out around the apron and sidewalk, then retract the awning so as not to create a cart full of mud.
Beyond the immediate, back to the drawing board. The track trough and curved section redesign has already begun, old hold temporarily to prepare for Debby. I don’t like leaving the 3D printer sit idle for any length of time, but short of printing more 4″ x 7″ retaining walls, it will have to wait for the new part designs.
The big ticket item is capturing the step by step process for actually creating the station platform from all the separate cast pieces and how to create forms with them for a concrete pour. So far the mockups have captured segments of the final product, but not the process of creating those final products.
The garage needs a few more items completed before it’s ready for casting concrete patch into those retaining wall panels. There’s a stud space or two where the sill plate is totally rotted that could use a new chunk of 2×4 before setting the table saw in front of there.
The new shelves are already installed but need some thought put in to organizing what should go there and what will fit. All the things that haven’t been used and won’t be any time soon were thrown out to make more space.
It continues to evolve, like the wall cabinet for electrical items expanding to occupy two cabinets. Next is going through that cabinet that has all the “might be useful” items for the model railroad, ripe for harvesting more trash that will never be used.
Long Term
Long term is 3D printing with PETG, a more suitable material for use outdoors. Definitely more heat resistant than PLA. Not sure about its UV resilience, but paint can mitigate any shortcomings there.
The first designs will be concerned with ties and insulated split jaw parts. The originals printed in PLA lasted about ten minutes before they started to melt and deform in the Florida heat. Those stainless steel rails get mighty hot in the sun!
Next will be structural items, like window and door frames, “gingerbread” decorations and supports on buildings, etc. The ultimate goal is to create our own switches and turnouts, custom fit to the needs of the Barkyard Railroad.
