DB says: I've been living like a recovering alcoholic all week, sitting in the train room with a bad case of the shakes, slowly building masters, while resisting the urge to just stick those masters on and just finish a damned DX already... But no. I've been good. I've abstained. Its been two weeks since I last bolted through anything in NZ120 without a care in the world.Tonight I was relieved to stick the masters in a box, pour some rubber in to make a mold and begin some casting.
The casting session dragged out over more than a day as its been a while... Most of my casting is done in very small efforts, so I use a disposable plastic spoon to measure 3 spoons of this and three spoons of that into a disposable picnic shot-glass. Then I'm supposed to use the handle of a disposable fork to stir it up well and apply drips of resin into the molds.This time I forgot, and used the mixing spoon for the whole shebang. When you do that, you end up pouring unmixed resin (the layers on the spoon from the measuring process don't get mixed in thoroughly) into your mold, which won't set of course, and even when you take the whole soggy mess out hours later, there will be some sticky residue left behind on the mold surfaces to attach itself to future pours and ruin them as well... So: measure the resin with the spoon, pour with the fork handle. I usually get 5-10 or more pours out of each disposable item, each of which only costs a few cents, so this is an economical way to go for me.
At long last, the assembly of our clone army is proceeding as planned. Darth Tyranus will be pleased. As will Temuera Morrison, who will no doubt be doing the voice-overs for the DCC sound chips.
Speaking of which, has anyone out there put DCC sound into an NZ120 model yet?
9 comments:
Yes, I have put a Loksound Micro in a NZ120 Da and Dx.
I will do an article for the MD Blog after shifting house in Jan 2010, as both items are in storage at present.
Happy New Year to all.
On a DCC system for locmotives I was wondering how many added features you could put in, as I would like to have both sound and automatic decoupling. Does anyone know how kato does there automatic decoupling on the mikato that came out this year.
RKBL
Remote uncoupling is what I think you are referring to(rather than automatic decoupling) and is another real challenge for most N and NZ120 locos.
Solenoids are the most reliable but are too big (even the mini ones)for most diesel and steam applications. (See the latest Guild Journal for an idea that could be miniaturised to N.)
Memory wire controlled coupling operation by a function output of a DCC decoder is another option but is stated as being less reliable.
The article in the latest journal was idea wise quite good, but it reminded me somewhat of a 1960's solution to the problem. I've knocked up a bench rig this afternoon which seems to do the job, so will just have to miniaturise it to fit behind the loco headstock.
Oh, and I'd rather have remote uncoupling than sound.
Kato has bought out a n scale Mikado last year which could remote uncouple looks like I may have to find a linke
Ok heres the link for the remote couplers
http://www.katousa.com/Kobo/E-NMikado.html
This is what I would like to see on NZ120 oneday, hmmm oneday may have to buy one when I'm rich at 450 USD it's quite expensive
RKBL
Remote uncoupling would be relatively easy to arrange in a large locomotive such as a Mikado or a bogey wagon.
MD
What method have you used on your bench lashup?
With a bit of ingenuity I think both sound and remote uncoupling could be achieved within a suitable NZ120 body.
You will just have to wait and see....
I cannot see why the remote coupling couldn't be put in a NZ120. IIRC N scale Mikado's are only about the same size of a DF or DX
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