Selasa, 26 Ogos 2014
September 18, 2014 More Rivarossi Stuff Corrected
I'm have always dinked around with my Rivarossi locomotives to improve their running abilities. Over the years I've made a lot of what I refer to as Mel Mods to my fleet. Out of 18 Rivarossi articulated locomotives I do not have two alike but everyone runs better than it did from the factory.
One of my "better improvements" was adding lost wax casting marker lamps. My first attempt was to use diodes in series with the Rivarossi motor to power the 1� volt micro bulbs. Two diodes in series creates a 1.4 volt drop, perfect for 1� volt lamps. That worked for many years until I remotored my articulated fleet. The new Rare Earth magnet motors draw less then � of the original Rivarossi motor thus the diode trick doesn't work at creep speeds. I needed a new way for constant voltage to power the 1� volt marker lamps.
As I'm a retired Electronic Techie it was time to use some of my electronic knowledge. The obvious answer was to build a LM317 regulator with a 1.4 volt output. Using the 1 mm diameter micro bulbs the current draw is 20 ma per bulb so 40 ma is a piece of cake for the 1.5 amp rated LM317. I originally installed the regulators in my locomotives using the frame/weight as a heat sink to get rid of the heat from the LM317.
As time passed I wired all of my locomotives for DCC operation. Because I only have a few DCC decoders I move them around to the "locomotives of the hour" making use of my 8 DCC decoders.
About a year ago I picked up a couple more 1970s version Rivarossi Cab Forwards that I put on my display shelving and recently decided to restore them and put them into service. Over time I have found several better solutions for my end product. I have done quite a bit of research on DCC over the last year and was kicking around some wiring changes to my locomotives and this is a good opportunity to test my ideas.
My plan is to use DCC Function 3 to control the marker lights, under normal route scheduling the marker/classification lights would be off. Thanks to the NMRA DCC design folks it's rather easy to do. By using pin 3 on the 8 pin DCC connector and adding a green wire to the tender cable I can control the marker lights with the F3 command. Now things get even better, the 1.4 volt regulator can be removed and replaced with a shunt regulator. Removing the regulator allows more room for additional weight in the locomotive.
I have had a problem making baffles for the DCC sound decoder speakers that give good bass response so I came up with a rather easy way to accomplish that too. I use 28 mm 1 watt speakers in my tenders and by using a �" PVC pipe cap I solved the baffle problem too. It requires a bit of cutting and filing but it sounds fantastic, it's best baffle I've come up with so far.
I cut the PVC pipe cap to �" high and drilled a 3/16" hole in the side to pass the speaker wires.
The pipe cap is 1�" in diameter so for it to clear the tender sides I took ?" off the sides with a file. My glue preference for this type of project is Crafters Amazing Goop, it is very strong but remains somewhat flexible and with sharp #11 blade the glue can be removed with the aid of long nose pliers.
The tender is ready for assembly, I need to do a bit of clean up to the shell details and it's ready to put behind a Cab Forward or AC9.
This is the finished drawing of my DCC wiring diagram for my Dual Canon EN22 motor Rivarossi locomotives. The 1.4 volt LM317 regulator has been removed and replaced with a 1.4 volt shunt regulator to power the marker lamps in the locomotive. The regulator consists of a DF005 bridge Rectifier in series with two 470? � watt resistors in parallel and powers the marker lights on and off with DCC Control Function 3.
After final checkout everything is functioning correctly. I'm not wild about shunt regulators but for this purpose it works very well. The circuit draws 50 milliamps max from the decoder to operate the two 20 ma bulbs in parallel at 1.4 volts.
The PDF file and AutoCad DWG of my drawing is available for download from my Google Drive by clicking here.
Important Update
Do not attempt to plug the connectors together between the boiler shell and the frame with the power on!
It took me an hour to remove and replace the marker bulbs after accidentally touching the 1.4 volt contact with the 12 volt contact to the number boards.
Read More..
One of my "better improvements" was adding lost wax casting marker lamps. My first attempt was to use diodes in series with the Rivarossi motor to power the 1� volt micro bulbs. Two diodes in series creates a 1.4 volt drop, perfect for 1� volt lamps. That worked for many years until I remotored my articulated fleet. The new Rare Earth magnet motors draw less then � of the original Rivarossi motor thus the diode trick doesn't work at creep speeds. I needed a new way for constant voltage to power the 1� volt marker lamps.
As I'm a retired Electronic Techie it was time to use some of my electronic knowledge. The obvious answer was to build a LM317 regulator with a 1.4 volt output. Using the 1 mm diameter micro bulbs the current draw is 20 ma per bulb so 40 ma is a piece of cake for the 1.5 amp rated LM317. I originally installed the regulators in my locomotives using the frame/weight as a heat sink to get rid of the heat from the LM317.
As time passed I wired all of my locomotives for DCC operation. Because I only have a few DCC decoders I move them around to the "locomotives of the hour" making use of my 8 DCC decoders.
About a year ago I picked up a couple more 1970s version Rivarossi Cab Forwards that I put on my display shelving and recently decided to restore them and put them into service. Over time I have found several better solutions for my end product. I have done quite a bit of research on DCC over the last year and was kicking around some wiring changes to my locomotives and this is a good opportunity to test my ideas.
My plan is to use DCC Function 3 to control the marker lights, under normal route scheduling the marker/classification lights would be off. Thanks to the NMRA DCC design folks it's rather easy to do. By using pin 3 on the 8 pin DCC connector and adding a green wire to the tender cable I can control the marker lights with the F3 command. Now things get even better, the 1.4 volt regulator can be removed and replaced with a shunt regulator. Removing the regulator allows more room for additional weight in the locomotive.
I have had a problem making baffles for the DCC sound decoder speakers that give good bass response so I came up with a rather easy way to accomplish that too. I use 28 mm 1 watt speakers in my tenders and by using a �" PVC pipe cap I solved the baffle problem too. It requires a bit of cutting and filing but it sounds fantastic, it's best baffle I've come up with so far.
I cut the PVC pipe cap to �" high and drilled a 3/16" hole in the side to pass the speaker wires.
The pipe cap is 1�" in diameter so for it to clear the tender sides I took ?" off the sides with a file. My glue preference for this type of project is Crafters Amazing Goop, it is very strong but remains somewhat flexible and with sharp #11 blade the glue can be removed with the aid of long nose pliers.
The tender is ready for assembly, I need to do a bit of clean up to the shell details and it's ready to put behind a Cab Forward or AC9.
This is the finished drawing of my DCC wiring diagram for my Dual Canon EN22 motor Rivarossi locomotives. The 1.4 volt LM317 regulator has been removed and replaced with a 1.4 volt shunt regulator to power the marker lamps in the locomotive. The regulator consists of a DF005 bridge Rectifier in series with two 470? � watt resistors in parallel and powers the marker lights on and off with DCC Control Function 3.
After final checkout everything is functioning correctly. I'm not wild about shunt regulators but for this purpose it works very well. The circuit draws 50 milliamps max from the decoder to operate the two 20 ma bulbs in parallel at 1.4 volts.
The PDF file and AutoCad DWG of my drawing is available for download from my Google Drive by clicking here.
Important Update
Do not attempt to plug the connectors together between the boiler shell and the frame with the power on!
It took me an hour to remove and replace the marker bulbs after accidentally touching the 1.4 volt contact with the 12 volt contact to the number boards.
Sabtu, 9 Ogos 2014
August 9, 2014 Remotoring a Rivarossi Cab Forward
Over the years I have remotored over a dozen Rivarossi Cab Forwards and created several posts on remotoring them. This post is a new angle on remotoring. After thinking about the dual Canon EN22 motor Cab Forward modification I had an idea bonk me on the head, "Why not make a new frame to fit the two Canon motors?" I decided to do my thing on my CAD to see if it was easily doable.
I began by making a drawing of a Rivarossi Cab Forward "out of the box".
After about three days of dinking around off and on drawing several versions I came up with a scheme that I thought should be rather easy to do.
The picture above is a preliminary concept to see if it was a doable project.
After three or four days playing around with several versions the drawing above is the one I liked the best. The inline shaft alignment should result in better efficiently with less mechanical problems. After I drew up all the components to scale it was simple to move things around on the drawing.
By using K&S Brass Strips there is very little cutting. The motor shaft alignment recess is easily accomplished by using .062" thick brass strips, three layers equal .186" and the shaft recess needed for alignment is .184". Because of the curvature of the boiler in the Rivarossi shell the bottom brass strip works out to �" wide by 4 7/16" long. The second layer also needs to be �" wide by only 1�" long, the top two strips are �" wide by 1�" long. The wider top sections will give a larger working area for the Rivarossi gearbox.
After cutting the brass strips to size I used vice-grip pliers to hold the various pieces together to drill and tap holes so that I could keep them inline for soldering. I used a 150 watt soldering iron to solder the brass then a sharp metal file to trim it up into a nice looking frame.
I have created a Directory on Google My Drive with the DesignCAD file, an actual size PDF as well a JPG of the drawing. To access the drawings Click Here
I have finished the brass frame and installed it in the Cab Forward shell and test run it with it's tender and both run terrific, very smooth with no wobble.
The picture above shows the brass frame in the shell wired to DCC specs. In this version I'm going to install the 1.4 volt regulator in the tender with the sound decoder. I'm going to use the green wire on pin 3 of the NMRA connector for the Marker lights to turn them on and off with DCC Function 3.
I will add more to this post after I complete the wiring and add 8 ounces of lead bird shot to the boiler for added traction.
Added August 10, 2014
This dual motor conversion of a Rivarossi Cab Forward works so much better than the original that I'm going to make a second brass frame to experiment with. The locomotive runs so unbelievably good I'm going to replace the frame in one of my kitbashed AC-9s also.
Added August 15, 2014
After several hours of testing both a Cab Forward and a AC-9 using my home brew dual Canon EN22 motor brass frames I have come to the conclusion that dual motors with inline motor to gearbox alignment does away with all of the "Rivarossi Wobble". Both run extremely smooth without any wobble. I'm currently installing my third dual motor brass frame in a Rivarossi Cab Forward. At this point my plan is to convert my entire Canon powered Rivarossi fleet with brass frames.
Read More..
I began by making a drawing of a Rivarossi Cab Forward "out of the box".
After three or four days playing around with several versions the drawing above is the one I liked the best. The inline shaft alignment should result in better efficiently with less mechanical problems. After I drew up all the components to scale it was simple to move things around on the drawing.
By using K&S Brass Strips there is very little cutting. The motor shaft alignment recess is easily accomplished by using .062" thick brass strips, three layers equal .186" and the shaft recess needed for alignment is .184". Because of the curvature of the boiler in the Rivarossi shell the bottom brass strip works out to �" wide by 4 7/16" long. The second layer also needs to be �" wide by only 1�" long, the top two strips are �" wide by 1�" long. The wider top sections will give a larger working area for the Rivarossi gearbox.
After cutting the brass strips to size I used vice-grip pliers to hold the various pieces together to drill and tap holes so that I could keep them inline for soldering. I used a 150 watt soldering iron to solder the brass then a sharp metal file to trim it up into a nice looking frame.
I have created a Directory on Google My Drive with the DesignCAD file, an actual size PDF as well a JPG of the drawing. To access the drawings Click Here
I have finished the brass frame and installed it in the Cab Forward shell and test run it with it's tender and both run terrific, very smooth with no wobble.
The picture above shows the brass frame in the shell wired to DCC specs. In this version I'm going to install the 1.4 volt regulator in the tender with the sound decoder. I'm going to use the green wire on pin 3 of the NMRA connector for the Marker lights to turn them on and off with DCC Function 3.
I will add more to this post after I complete the wiring and add 8 ounces of lead bird shot to the boiler for added traction.
Added August 10, 2014
This dual motor conversion of a Rivarossi Cab Forward works so much better than the original that I'm going to make a second brass frame to experiment with. The locomotive runs so unbelievably good I'm going to replace the frame in one of my kitbashed AC-9s also.
Added August 15, 2014
After several hours of testing both a Cab Forward and a AC-9 using my home brew dual Canon EN22 motor brass frames I have come to the conclusion that dual motors with inline motor to gearbox alignment does away with all of the "Rivarossi Wobble". Both run extremely smooth without any wobble. I'm currently installing my third dual motor brass frame in a Rivarossi Cab Forward. At this point my plan is to convert my entire Canon powered Rivarossi fleet with brass frames.
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