All the overhead has been strung and now awaits the Dremel and rotary abrasive rubber to remove excess solder and any little dags that tend to dewire the trolley wheel. The Horse tram trailer made an excellent rolling hand steady for soldering the wire to the ears, without it I needed an extra hand to hold the soldering iron steady, something I have to discuss with my surgeon. I have done a little more work with trolley wheels actually and I shall make new ones with a 3mm ball bearing in the centre and a nickel silver "wheel" pressed onto the bearing to help them stay clean. The profile will also be changed from the wide "U" shape I was using to a deep "V" shape that will hold the wire and wheel central so that when the wheel enters or exits a frog the wheel will be on centre under the wire and not decide to run along the edge of the frog and dewire. This profile will also theoretically double the contact area on the wire as both "sides" of the trolley wheel groove will be in contact with the wire. I have done some experiments with what happens with the current pick up with wheel and wire using an oscilloscope.... No wonder the R/C receiver was dropping out the graph looks like a saw blade with about 10 - 20 "brown outs" every 300mm......So to get an idea its like running the tip of a finger over a blunt tooth saw blade... So I'll have to dig out my supply of 5V 1 farad super capacitors and connect them across the Receiver battery circuit....
I have also discovered some R/C switches suitable to turn the headlights on and off for about $3.50 so I've ordered one to see what its capable of, It would be nice to be able to use the AUX channel to do this.
For reasons yet to be understood the trams that have not run for a few years don't seem to respond to the R/C commands, they may have lost their "plonk" and have to be rebound to the transmitter. The transmitter has to be reprogrammed anyway....
But its all looking good, I'll replant the tree when I've finished cleaning up the overhead.
These are the switches, they are 2 channel from one channel so should be able to switch headlights end to end.
https://www.ebay.com.au/…/Two-Channels-Contro…/162691785301…
Ok so I have had to rig up a temporary power supply as there are technical issues with the "pukka' one.... But the yard lights now work which is handy. Ask anyone who has had to put the pole back on the wire in the darkness of night with no light.... I have made up a device ( very technical) that lets me swing the trolley pole on the far road and put the poles back on the wire, it was very difficult to make, a 10mm length of dowel with a groove in the end, does the job........
All the overhead has been strung and now awaits the Dremel and rotary abrasive rubber to remove excess solder and any little dags that tend to dewire the trolley wheel. The Horse tram trailer made an excellent rolling hand steady for soldering the wire to the ears, without it I needed an extra hand to hold the soldering iron steady, something I have to discuss with my surgeon. I have done a little more work with trolley wheels actually and I shall make new ones with a 3mm ball bearing in the centre and a nickel silver "wheel" pressed onto the bearing to help them stay clean. The profile will also be changed from the wide "U" shape I was using to a deep "V" shape that will hold the wire and wheel central so that when the wheel enters or exits a frog the wheel will be on centre under the wire and not decide to run along the edge of the frog and dewire. This profile will also theoretically double the contact area on the wire as both "sides" of the trolley wheel groove will be in contact with the wire. I have done some experiments with what happens with the current pick up with wheel and wire using an oscilloscope.... No wonder the R/C receiver was dropping out the graph looks like a saw blade with about 10 - 20 "brown outs" every 300mm......So to get an idea its like running the tip of a finger over a blunt tooth saw blade... So I'll have to dig out my supply of 5V 1 farad super capacitors and connect them across the Receiver battery circuit....
Soooooo after all the excitement I'm having a clean up ready to start sorting the trams out, re plonking them, new lighting resistors etc etc and I have got some surplus stuff. Among it are some overhead frogs, they have all got 2.5mm wide grooves, anyone interested? I also have street gas lights too. And heaps of signalling stuff. Open to offers... Buyer pays actual postage costs.
I've had a fiddle around with the lighting resistors and now I dont get blinded. Now the calculator told me to use 240Ohm but in reality I used 820Ohm. I dont like the colours on either of them, much prefer green and brown or chocolate and gold but I'm told I have to choose resistors by value and not if I like the colours of them.... So with another few hours work Car No2 will be able to go back into limited service. I've lost the jumper lead too, have to make up a new one so 1 & 2 can run as a coupled set, compare the pair.
