techhobbies

So, one problem I don't like about N scale, is that to get reasonable sized sensors for things like location, you don't have as many options. I wanted a way to put a notification sensor to tell me when a train passes a location. Use IR or Hall, right? Well, they are big and clunky really. I did find a Youtube of a guy who did something clever. He put an IR and Photodiode into a tiny package to fit in between the tracks. Well, that would work for me, so I tried the same thing, and it works.
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Tags: crossing gate, detection, electronics, sensor

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It's been almost 6 months since I last put any real effort into the layout. Surprisingly, it just worked when I turned it on, which was very nice to have happen. I did spend about 30 minutes wiping down the track, and vacuuming out all the little spots first though. I expect it would have been a bit rough if I hadn't. I'm still impressed though. The No-Ox just works. It's magic, that's all there is to it. I left that sit for 6 months in a humid basement, and while there was a little black ...

Tags: modeling, reverse loops

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'N' Scale Related

I've been doing a lot of scenery now that the tracks work correctly. I'm learning a lot fast as I do it too. Even with hundreds of hours of video about how watched, it's still a practice issue. The more you practice, the better you get.

I added a new locomotive depot/shed with a parking lot and lighting which I think turned out nicely. The shed was the first model I built for my first attempt at a layout 3 years ago, and it's finally in place, albeit, without one of the little ...

Tags: lighting, roadway, scenery

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'N' Scale Related , Prototype Related

I finally got there. Two trains running together and not requiring any user intervention. The outer loop was easy, but the inner loop is two independent reverse loops tied together. To make this work without my activating turnouts, I used the DCCConcepts LM-iD to sense when a train is getting close to the turnout, which then toggles the Cobalt IP Digital which is the turnout point motor. This was the magic sauce. It works great too, and didn't take too long to wire up.

I got the idea ...

Tags: layout video, metra, running

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'N' Scale Related

So, before the holidays, I took a lot of time to reconsider the layout. I was having a lot of trouble running trains and for the space, it felt very complicated. It's 4x8, but there were lots of ways for trains to go. I found it was hard to enjoy. So, I stepped back, redesigned it a bit, and ended up ripping up a lot of track and scenery. I'm still doing a LOT of work on scenery, and haven't gotten the reversing loops tested yet. But the outer loop works great now. I felt so good about it, I staged ...

Tags: design, layout building, layout video, track planning

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'N' Scale Related