NOW THE BATTERY WORK BEGINGS Train Line Pffifi and Mallett Break Down Diagrams any one have a link please? Link provided thanks.

dunnyrail

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I will soon all being well be Barreyising some of my DCC Locomotives, to that end have been looking at Pfiffi's underneath anatomy as shown below:-
image.jpeg
I see 6 relevant black screws, 2 either side by the cylinders, 2 more by the Couplings and 2 more below the front of the cab. I think these should be all I need to undo to get inside. I am assuming that the Silver Torx Like Screws go into a Metal Weight inside the beast.

A pull apart diagram would be so very useful if anyone can link it, also the Malletts please?
 

Zerogee

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I don't have any diagrams, JonD, I'm not sure that TL45 have ever offered one..... their instruction manuals leave quite a lot to be desired, even in comparison with the newer M/LGB ones (which in themselves are pale imitations of the old "proper" LGB manuals and exploded service diagrams).

However I will be very interested to see just what is inside your Pfiffi once you take the plunge and start removing screws - I've not needed to open mine up yet, though at some point I will get inside Fiffi (oo-er missus....) in order to fit her two "sperarately supplied" centre driver pickups!

Jon.
 

MTheStrong

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Hi Jon,

I hope the attached will help. The second pdf is for Pffifi and although not in english has an exploded view showing the position of the screws etc.

Regards

Martin
 

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Ralphmp

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Love the bit that says the pulsed smoke generator can be operated dry and then says longer operation without steam must be avoided. What the heck does this mean?!

I am thinking of getting one of TL’s locos but I don’t want issues if I don’t use smoke generating fluid. Is this just a weird translation or is it essential to use the fluid?
 

Zerogee

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Love the bit that says the pulsed smoke generator can be operated dry and then says longer operation without steam must be avoided. What the heck does this mean?!

I am thinking of getting one of TL’s locos but I don’t want issues if I don’t use smoke generating fluid. Is this just a weird translation or is it essential to use the fluid?

If you're running it on DCC, then you can simply leave the pulsed smoke unit turned off; F7 toggles it on or off, and if it's on then you will hear the fan whirring (provided you've got the loco sound turned down!).
I think that what they probably mean is that it won't hurt the unit if it is run "dry" for a little while, but don't leave it on all the time!

Jon.
 

Zerogee

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Hi Jon,

I hope the attached will help. The second pdf is for Pffifi and although not in english has an exploded view showing the position of the screws etc.

Regards

Martin


Very useful, Martin, thanks - especially the Boerman manual for Pfiffi - interesting that it takes a third party to produce a half-decent manual for one of TL45's products....!

I think that the TL45 manual for the 5901 Mallet looks a little more comprehensive than the one I got with mine, maybe they've revised it in light of customer feedback.

Jon.
 

Ralphmp

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Ah that makes sense. Thanks Jon.

Looking forward to see how Jon D gets on with his "batteryisation " project.
 

dunnyrail

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Hi Jon,

I hope the attached will help. The second pdf is for Pffifi and although not in english has an exploded view showing the position of the screws etc.

Regards

Martin
Many thanks Martin so very useful and it looks like I was right about the 6 screws I needed to undo on Pffifi. Sadly the Mallett does not have a break down diagram. Though there are instructions of what to do. If you come accross one would be most grateful if you could post here please. Sadly the diagrams are not as the LGB ones, appears we have been spoilt by LGB!

Love the bit that says the pulsed smoke generator can be operated dry and then says longer operation without steam must be avoided. What the heck does this mean?!

I am thinking of getting one of TL’s locos but I don’t want issues if I don’t use smoke generating fluid. Is this just a weird translation or is it essential to use the fluid?
The Smoke generator is set in motion by use of a Button Instruction on the DCC Handset F7 turns it on and off (at least I think tgat is the button Verdampfer). So no smoke turn it off!
 

Zerogee

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On the subject of TL45 locos in general (and specifically Fiffi and Pfiffi), despite my various small niggles about them I DO like them, and all of the locos I've got from them (the Twins, plus 5901 and 5902) do run very nicely - for me, at least - others including JonD have had more hassles....
It needs to be remembered that they are a small and relatively new arrival on the G scale scene, they don't have 50 years of experience of building G scale products like LGB do.....

Jon.
 

dunnyrail

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On the subject of TL45 locos in general (and specifically Fiffi and Pfiffi), despite my various small niggles about them I DO like them, and all of the locos I've got from them (the Twins, plus 5901 and 5902) do run very nicely - for me, at least - others including JonD have had more hassles....
It needs to be remembered that they are a small and relatively new arrival on the G scale scene, they don't have 50 years of experience of building G scale products like LGB do.....

Jon.
Only Pffifi is a problem, my 2 Mallets are great runners with no problems at all. In fact the only problem with Pffifi and all less than ‘Double’ locomotives is the less than reliable running without perfectly clean track and livve frogs. Even my LGB 99-6001 is a bit of a problem and is due for pickups on the Pony Trucks when i get round to it! Yet my US 2-6-0 is a great runner. But it picks up on all drivers and 2 of the Tender Axles as well which makes all the difference.
 

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So here we go again trashing another investment, this time over a Grand’s worth. Never mind at least with this job I should turn Pfiffi into a ‘really useful engine’. As this is a DCC Loco with a very nice Zimo MX696 Sound Chip I had always decided that it would be a DCC Battery job. Now that Fosworks has upped their game somewhat with 12 Function Buttons I am going to use that rather than an Aristocraft one. This job other than the breakdown and put back together should not be anything like as complex as the Piko 25 Tonner, famous last words! But as always Battery Fitting is the main issue and to facilitate that the Smoke Unit has been removed, it took up a lot of space in the Smokebox and I never use them any way. In fact the one fitted to Pfiffi makes such a racket when working (common to all the motorised Smoke Units I believe) that it annoyed me more than you could believe. So bye bye Smoke unit. The weight below it has also gone, but this should be more than compensated for by the Batteries. The inside has a lot of excess Plastic Moulding to hold it in place so this was also razor sawed out. This now gave space for this Battery Configuration (shown is a Test Lash up of normal cells).
54541797-7936-45CF-A368-AF3FC2289D58.jpeg
A few more bits of Plastic were removed after this picture was taken as the boiler would not slot into the Smokebox with the 10 batteries fitted so a little more wriggle room was required.

I calculated the Value if the 10 shown and decided that a few more would be prudent so another lash of 4 was tested out for space and they fit nicely as shown in behind the Speaker on top of the Chip. This has a topmost surface of some sort of inert material glued to it so the location should work out just fine.
E280A228-4F13-43A5-9E09-9393965F2DEA.jpeg
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Next up was to fit the Switches and Charging Socket. I always intended to have a DPDT CO Switch to facilitate Track or Battery Power, required for any alterations to the Chip if nothing else. Had I decided to fit the Aristocraft system I could have dispenced with this as that system has the facility to update chips. As Pfiffi is not the best runner on Track Power (well mine isn't anyway though others have found them to be fine) I deduced that fitting in the Cab as close to the door as possible would make them accesible plus a couple of figures inside the can should make the one the other side pretty well invisible. So that is where they fitted and the wires fit into the Box below in front of the Cab Steps nicely. Wires have all been soldered up to the DPDT CO Switch and the line in from the Track spit to allow the Power to the battery or Track via the DPDT CO Switch. As is my normal logic, the switch is changed forwards to be Battery Power and the Battery one also for on. Charging Socket was fitted to the front of this Box at the Right Hand Side looking towards the Chimney, accesible but pretty near invisible from a normal viewpoint. The wires needed acces to the inside of the boiler and to facilitate this some Plastic was taken off the bottom outside of the Front Cab Spectacle, not much more than 10mm or so. Next view shows the Switches mounted under the Cab Footplate.
CD73DFAF-317C-4B67-A7E3-D8E5AC6B3BC8.jpeg
Then with the Footplate mounted on the Chassis. Some Black Gaffe Tape secures the wires and a bit of Heatshrink disguises the DPDT ones comming out from below. The Fosworks Loom on the far side has been disguised with Gaffe Tape.
9B882C57-69BD-41D7-A927-16757B6DE80D.jpeg
The long Yellow and Red wire connect to the Fosworks DCC system, the only other wires attached to that are the 2 Battery Wires. Very simples.
1093AB69-5C96-4768-BC50-D2A1501443AE.jpeg
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So now I await the Batteries ordered yesterday, I will also need to redefine the Loco to Chip No3 as that is what the Fosworks DCC Setup has been delivered as, though this can be changed when ordering.

A pretty quick start up this far as this was all achieved yesterday morning.
 
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dunnyrail

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After my apparent sucess with this convertion to date I had a frustrating day yesterday having got Pfiffi pretty well ready to have its Batteries installed I I then find that I cannot read the Chip to change the Number to Default Setting 3 or even read what it currently is. Tried my Massoth and my Roco Z21, both will not see it. Hm tested wiring Track to Switches OK. Must I guess check out Track to Chip to see if both of those routes OK. Perhaps writing this has helped me think through that option which in my frustration I never checked out yesterday, nice to talk.

Well none of that worked so I decided to bite the bullet and make up a new wire run into the chip so that I could try to change the Chip to default 3 using a Test Chassis. Fortunately I have a couple of the requisite plugs and one was quickly wired up and joy of joys my Masssoth System allowed me to change to chip to default 3, the one that my Fosworks Setup is defined to. This is the lashy set up I used for my labours:-
7DBDAFDE-4786-41C9-9C3F-67A59764FDF8.jpeg
Having got that sorted I decided to strip out the DPDT CO setup leaving 2 unwanted holes on the Cab Floor, a little Black Plasticard will resolve that issue. Then I rejigged things to get wires setup so that the Fosworks Reciever could be wired in and a Test setup using my spare battery as shown below. The long Red and Yellow Wires (formerly Track Pickup) now go direct the the Fosworks Chip Marked DCC Out. The Battery is connected via a Spare JST Female Lead that I have to the Male on the Fosworks Loom. The Battery which has a Male Connects to the Female in the Fosworks Loom. Could not be simpler.
BA1499BC-98F2-41C2-B87B-ADD7E0A4226A.jpeg
Joy of joys on turning things on I could drive the Loco but no Sound. This was because F8 which turns the Sound On/Off is a Latching Function, easily sorted by swopping the F8 on the Fosworks to Latching. Ureka Sound when I turn it all on! So now all is well with the world, just need to wait patiently for my ordered Battery Pack, put it all back together, new Number Stickers, remove Track Pickups and I will have a working Pfiffi at long last.
 

palmerston

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Joy of joys on turning things on I could drive the Loco but no Sound. This was because F8 which turns the Sound On/Off is a Latching Function, easily sorted by swopping the F8 on the Fosworks to Latching. Ureka Sound when I turn it all on! So now all is well with the world, just need to wait patiently for my ordered Battery Pack, put it all back together, new Number Stickers, remove Track Pickups and I will have a working Pfiffi at long last.

For my wireless DCC i need a momentary button action, Massoth Uncouplers. This is a setting in the Navigator or Handheld Diasy II from Uhlenbrock/KM1. How to achieve this with the Fosworks transmitter?
 

dunnyrail

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For my wireless DCC i need a momentary button action, Massoth Uncouplers. This is a setting in the Navigator or Handheld Diasy II from Uhlenbrock/KM1. How to achieve this with the Fosworks transmitter?
Is it as a result of a F key press existingly? If so as long as it is assigned to between F1-12 Functions and the Fosworks Function Button is set to Momentary rather than Latch it ought to work.

However if what you are talking about is via some other means then I am not sure Fosworks or even Aristocraft DCC would be able to help you.
 

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You are a brave man doing all that work, I hope it is a success.
 

dunnyrail

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You are a brave man doing all that work, I hope it is a success.
I think I mentioned elswhere rather than on this thread. It is all back together and runs very sweetly. So at last I have a working Pfiffi to play with. Only problem thus far is the ability to turn on lights, a tech issue that I will be raising with Fosworks. The Cab Light is set to F1 and duly comes on as commanded. But as lights Front and Rear are at F0, there is no F0 (only F1-12)! Sure that this could be resolved, though possibly at the loss of 1 other Function but I am speculating here.
 

palmerston

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So how do you set the Fosworks buttons on the transmitter to Latching or Momentary?
 

dunnyrail

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It is in the OMNI Tx-4.1 DCC Instructions by putting the Handset in Re-Programming Mode. I do not intend to repeat the Instructions on here as if you have a set I cannot tell them any better. But No Plugs or any add ons are required and it is all done from the Transmitter. Hope that helps, the Instructions are at the top of the un-numbered Page 3 or right hand inside side of the Opened Instruction Sheet.
 

dunnyrail

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So today I managed to do a Demonstration Vid to show Pfiffi works on Battery, on Wood Blocks otherwise how would you know? Inevitably there are some bits left over. Some I know about like the Weight and Smoke Generator plus the Red bit at the left which will not go back in place because of the Charging Socket (bad planning or no other Choice You choose?). But there are 6 plastic bits of wire (right) some that are curved that I have no clue about location, if anyone can help with a close up pic of the parts that would be great.
50F2EE4B-79AC-4C2E-AA47-2B3C316336A1.jpeg
Inevitably I also managed to break the Hand Holds on the Front Lamps. These have been replaced by thin Wire that required new holes with a No74 Drill. I thought we all got into G to save our eyes on working with small parts! The resultant replacements can be seen on the following brutal close up prior to being painted.
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And finally a full shot showing the Fireman nonchalently leaning out of the Cab, (they drive Pfiffi on the right hand side), you should also,be able to make out the glued in Real Coal.
2FACDFD0-B004-407A-BFAF-DE92C8E69E8C.jpeg
Oh no Finally Finally the Testing on Blocks. You can also see from the RC how I have added F Function Assignments Print to the Handset.

 
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