Best Of The TP56/TP70 Kitbash thread N scale

[u18b]

After about 10 or so minutes under full load running max  (I have Vmax set below 6 volts)... the motor was pretty warm.
The good news is that those weights in the battery boxes that snuggle next to the motor act as heat sinks.


Right now, I'm running a more manageable 5  boxcars and a caboose at about scale speed (37 smph).

We will see how that does.

[Mike C]

And after all that lead work go ahead and lick your fingers    Seriously though it's good work ! Way to modern for me though .

[u18b]

Thanks Mike.

Report:

After about 20 minutes of running a more manageable 5  boxcars and a caboose at about scale speed (37 smph).....

The motor is barely warm.

 

[u18b]

Time to start work on lights.

Front first.  Rear will be harder.

decided to make a light board to mount on top of decoder.

Cut out some thin board I had from another project.




Soldered some jumper wires to the light wires on the DZ126.




Superglued the board on top of the decoder.




Micro LEDs.  I bought about 100 off ebay (China a year or two ago).  I love these things (and the price    )

The point of the triangle go to the white or yellow wire.
The flat side goes to the blue wire.




Here's the board installed.
LED on the front of the board.
A TCS 2-pin micro-socket on the rear for the cab headlight.  I'll use a plug and magnet wire.  The LED will be permanently mounted in the cab- thus the plug is needed when removing the shell.



We have lights!
(well, at least on the front.)



 

[JanesCustomTrain]

Ditch lights ? I see the connector for the rear light is already on the board 

Jane

[tehachapifan]

Looks great!

Thinking one of these might be pretty cool painted in SP colors....even though they never had one.

[u18b]

Ditch lights ? I see the connector for the rear light is already on the board 

Jane

No.  TP70 #0002 did not have ditchlights.




On the other hand....
TP1 (as I have seen it called), that is the demo unit, it DOES have ditchlights.

[u18b]

Can anyone tell me where to buy some BLMA air conditioners?

BLMA N 103 Modern RV Style Locomotive Air Conditioners

http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/BLMA-N-Modern-RV-Style-Loco-Air-Conditioners-p/blma-103.htm

Having trouble finding them.

[JanesCustomTrain]

Kato # 921572

http://www.katousa.com/images/921572.jpg

Jane

[metalworkertom]

Can anyone tell me where to buy some BLMA air conditioners?

BLMA N 103 Modern RV Style Locomotive Air Conditioners

http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/BLMA-N-Modern-RV-Style-Loco-Air-Conditioners-p/blma-103.htm

Having trouble finding them.

Fifer is showing the BMLA RV on his web site if it is current.

[u18b]

Fifer is showing the BMLA RV on his web site if it is current.

When I look it shows out of stock.

http://fiferhobbysu770.corecommerce.com/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=12211



Looks like Kato may be the way to go.

Thanks Jane.

[u18b]

I wonder if the jerkiness is caused by the decoder's BEMF when driving that motor?  You might want to mess around with the BEMF CVs or even try another decoder.  Have you tried on DC (in the current configuration)?

Pete.
You may be right.

I don't know much about finer motor tinkering in DCC.

But I do know that when this loco is run under analog, there is a clear surging pattern.
Like some kind of electronic harmonic effect.

Do you have any suggestions of what CV to mess with?
This is a Digitrax DZ126.

[nickelplate759]

I've used several Digitrax decoders, including the DZ126T, and DM126M2, that do that.  It has nothing to do with your particular motor.  I was so perplexed the first time that I went to the trouble of removing the decoder again because I thought I had screwed up the mechanism of a Life Like SW8.

My conclusion was that these decoders are a poor choice for running on DC.

[randgust]

I got so irritated by the TCS Z2  on surging, hiccupping on and off at creep speed for no reason in my Climaxes I tore it back out and haven't bothered with DCC since.  I returned one under warranty, got a replacement, it did the same thing, tech support basically told me my locomotives were too small, which I think was complete BS.  Pete has indicated there may have been a firmware glitch, I hope that was it.   I admit being incompetent on DCC, which is why I even sent it down to Lee Weldon to debug, he was similarly puzzled.

I was really hoping I'd hear that the tiny Digitrax had it beat cold.  I have lots of people trying to install DCC in my Climax kits, the TCS Z2's worked for several installs and then mysteriously started this behavior.  As an ex-computer guy, I really felt firmware..... anyway, good luck Ron...

[keeper]

Ok, I just ordered two of these critters from shapeways. I friend of mine wanted one too... 

Thomas