Leopard Street, LNER 1930's

[manna]

Double post. Sorry.

[aleopardstail]

Been away for a week up North Queensland (by train of course ) and return to find that you've cracked the 1k mark on your YouTube channel - well done you!

G'Day Gents

And you didn't call in ??????

manna

lol

[Phred]

manna wrote:
And you didn't call in ??????

The Spirit of Queensland stops for no man!
Plus, my missus wanted to feed the rock-wallabies and I wanted to get a snorkel in, although I found out that I could no longer duck-dive with ease. Fat floats.

[manna]

G'Day Gents



manna

[aleopardstail]

Disco baby! disco!

or as its also known, I've added some fancy addressable RGBW lighting to the first building, bit of paint touch up and finishing needed. nice effect though

[Phred]

aleopardstail wrote:
Disco baby! disco!

Neighbours from hell...

[Mountain]

Nice.......

[aleopardstail]

small side project started tonight, it will get videos etc at some point - a custom function decoder, specifically designed to make adding lights to coaches easy and controllable - away "always on" lights are easy, or mucking with reed switches.. but Leopard Street is DCC.. so why not use that?

trouble is function decoders are not cheap, £16.50 for one or £19.50 for four functions..

can it be done for less? especially integrating its power supply into the lighting?

well the diddy 8 pin AtTiny85 micro controller can apparently do it, so I got some, lets have a play

tonight I got the prototype programmer assembled - needs moving to a proper board and enclosure, have an AtTiny blinking an LED..

need to get the support stuff to get it to listen to DCC and act one it..

then work out how the $%"& to make is smaller...

[Bigmet]

...trouble is function decoders are not cheap, £16.50 for one or £19.50 for four functions... can it be done for less?...

My 'low cost method' arises out of helping friends with near useless 'DCC fitted' model purchases, and a few of my own such, from new and s/h purchases offered at low low bargain prices.

Decoders that fall far short of my expected performance standard are plentiful, and effectively come for free by my acquisition process: these are used as light switches, which basic function they can usually perform. Size is not a consideration, as the floors or undersides of OO bogie carriages offer ample space. These are used to have the lights of RTR OO rolling stock switched off, with the lights on such carriage sets only switched on by request.

(The feature lacking by this method is the inability to reprogramme the one sound decoder to make appropriate noises, without undue expense. If that were possible I'd have it making loud flushing W.C. noises as the glamorous Pullman service sweeps past; a reminder of this less salubrious practise of the steam railway.

[aleopardstail]

do have to say its curious just how hard (and expensive) it is to programme a sound decoder. you can have an mp3 audio player, with SD slot - just add speakers and a serial interface for a few quid - and the sound from it is pretty good (I used one for ambient sounds on a slot car track for a while)

some of the cheap motor ones can be pushed to work, suitable resistor in place of a motor is usually needed to get it right though

[aleopardstail]

bit of progress

more going on that is visible..

the street light has a custom support bracket printed to connect to, its been tested but isn't yet connected to power.

roadway and its supporting card could only go in after the light, ditto the bridge getting glued in (which is finally has been) needed that road sorting first.

embankment has been given plaster bandages, the various walls have been sorted (though still have all the buttresses to design and print) and finally the modelling compound went in which is now drying.. then it all needs painting.. then the dirt scatter, then the ballast etc..

soo much to do, most of which involves waiting for glue to dry, does look a lot better though

[Phred]

That's a very effective 'dirty snow' effect. Almost a pity to cover it with grass.

[aleopardstail]

That's a very effective 'dirty snow' effect. Almost a pity to cover it with grass.

colour mix is a bit off for dirty snow, however adding that compound over all of it, smoothed out a bit more and it would be reasonably close, though fallen snow tends to be quite hard to model as it never really looks right.

but a really pale blue all over, then heavily drybrushed pale grey then lighter in white and finally with a clear mica effect would do it

[aleopardstail]

a few hours, much sweary words later

plaster stuff not dry enough to paint, so I made light work

[Bigmet]

...do have to say its curious just how hard (and expensive) it is to programme a sound decoder...

Hi Fi being my 'expensive' hobby, I cannot but agree. The profit motive in charging lots more for a low cost electronics assembly might just have something to do with it?