ESU LokSound Select Micro Install in Kato N-Scale SD45

[AKNscale]

Looks good, I like that resistor setup

[RBrodzinsky]

What kind of milling machine did you use?  Cost?  Link?

Proxxon MF70 Micro Mill https://www.amazon.com/Proxxon-37110-Micro-Mill-MF/dp/B0017PTAHG

[MK]

Thanks!  I thought it would be more than that.  That's not bad!

[tehachapifan]

Nice looking and sounding install! Sounds like this is the same sound file I put in an IM SD45T-2, which has the low-idle function. Great sounding file! I only wish ESU would get a better sample of the P3 horn. The one they have sounds a bit on the sickly side and is a bit quiet as compared to some of their other horns.

[RBrodzinsky]

If this was my model I would try my hardest to prevent the headlight's light from leaking into the cab.  I just don't care for glowing cabs.

The real issue here is the front window glass is part of the light pipe for the number boards and head lights.  So the edges "glow", even if I stick black paper to the back of the windows!

[Sdynamo]

@RBrodzinsky Where did you source your caps from?  I have not come across 20V 150 uF before.  It's a nice compromise compared to the 16V 220 uF and 100 uF 25V ones I've been experimenting with.

[peteski]

The real issue here is the front window glass is part of the light pipe for the number boards and head lights.  So the edges "glow", even if I stick black paper to the back of the windows!

I don't want to hear excuses! 
How about separating the window glass area from the upper part (headlight and number boards)?  Can you take that part out, score the cut line with a knife and snap it off?  Then paint the entire light pipe assembly white,  then black (with possibly an intermediate layer of silver paint) until no light comes out?

I might even go as far as slicing the number boards, gluing them in the shell and replacing the headlights piece with 2 short pieces of fiber optic. Then install individual LEDs behind the number boards and behind the fiber optics.  Then make that assembly (in the roof of the cab) light-tight.  I know - I'm nuts. 

[Point353]

@RBrodzinsky Where did you source your caps from?  I have not come across 20V 150 uF before.  It's a nice compromise compared to the 16V 220 uF and 100 uF 25V ones I've been experimenting with.

Both Digikey and Mouser have several SMT/SMD type tantalum capacitors made by AVX, Kemet or Vishay in stock in that combination of capacitance value and voltage rating.

[RBrodzinsky]

@RBrodzinsky Where did you source your caps from?  I have not come across 20V 150 uF before.  It's a nice compromise compared to the 16V 220 uF and 100 uF 25V ones I've been experimenting with.

I get mine from DigiKey: Kemet is the mfg.

[RBrodzinsky]

I don't want to hear excuses! 
How about separating the window glass area from the upper part (headlight and number boards)?  Can you take that part out, score the cut line with a knife and snap it off?  Then paint the entire light pipe assembly white,  then black (with possibly an intermediate layer of silver paint) until no light comes out?

I might even go as far as slicing the number boards, gluing them in the shell and replacing the headlights piece with 2 short pieces of fiber optic. Then install individual LEDs behind the number boards and behind the fiber optics.  Then make that assembly (in the roof of the cab) light-tight.  I know - I'm nuts. 

While I am in there, maybe an N scale control station, with proper panel lighting.  LOL

FWIW, I actually played a bit this morning, trying to adjust things. Light blocks didn’t work at all. I did look back at the old TCS board, and the SMD LED on it was facing upwards and is above most of the black plastic shield, whereas I installed mine facing forwards and a bit lower. I might try to remount the LED on black styrene facing upwards; but that will for another day. Already have the Mikados out, and figuring out the best weathering scheme for each, to do that while each of them is apart.

[jdcolombo]

Proxxon MF70 Micro Mill https://www.amazon.com/Proxxon-37110-Micro-Mill-MF/dp/B0017PTAHG

Just a note on the Proxxon.  I also have one of these and love it, but it really is a "micro" milling machine.  It is perfect for N-scale work, and I've done some milling on HO-scale frames with it, but that's as large as you're going to be able to go.  The maximum shaft size is 1/8", and that means that you are limited in the size of mills you can use.

If you are thinking that you'll do some N-scale frames and then bore out your 327 Chevy V8 block on the weekends, ain't gonna happen.

John C.

[MK]

Thanks for the additional warning John.  I'm in radio controlled airplanes, helicopters and a touch of trucks/buggies.  It can be handy in that aspect too.

[peteski]

For a small, but more substantial (and US-made) I recommend Sherline system.  That is what I have in my workshop.  Lots of interchangeable parts and oodles of accessories (and they keep inventing new accessories).  It can also be easily adapted for CNC.  But that all comes at a price.  However, thanks to the modular construction, it can be purchased in a piecemeal fashion.

I started off with a lathe. I added a vertical mill column attachment couple of years later (which fits on the lathe base). Then few more years later I upgraded to a full milling machine base (I still kept interchanging the headstock between the lathe and mill. I asked them to re-use my vertical milling column on the bare mill base, which they gladly did for me, saving me some money.  Then I added digital readout so I no longer had to count revolutions of the handwheels.

Later I bought 2nd headstock to dedicate it to the mill.  In between the major purchases I kept buying more and more accessories.  Over the 30+ years of ownership I've built up a nicely equipped miniature machine shop.

[jdcolombo]

Yes, the Sherline is more of a "real" mill while still being relatively compact with a 10" base.   And the whole system is well-designed.  I looked at it before I bought the Proxxon, and decided to go with the Proxxon mostly because I wasn't really sure how much I'd use a mill, and the Proxxon was about half the cost of the Sherline.  For what I currently do, the Proxxon is all I need - but every once in a while, particularly when asked by some of my HO friends to put a sound decoder in their engines, I wish I had a bigger mill.

Peteski - have you ever used the Sherline to cut  grooves in PC board?   I use the Proxxon to do this to make my little PC board "circuits" for SMT dropping resistors and parallel wiring of caps using a 1/64" mill.  Works great.  I assume I could do the same with a Sherline, but wondered if you ever tried it.  [I suspect you probably etch boards for things like this, but . . . ]

John C.

[peteski]

Peteski - have you ever used the Sherline to cut  grooves in PC board?   I use the Proxxon to do this to make my little PC board "circuits" for SMT dropping resistors and parallel wiring of caps using a 1/64" mill.  Works great.  I assume I could do the same with a Sherline, but wondered if you ever tried it.  [I suspect you probably etch boards for things like this, but . . . ]

John C.

No, I have never used it for that purpose, but it is just another milling operation, so I don't see why it wouldn't work. I have some 0.020" mills which would probably be ideal for this type of operation. And you are right, I etch my PC boards instead.  Also, I use fairly thin PC boards (like 0.015" or 0.020"). Milling a groove in those would likely weaken them (not that these are under much stress, but still. . .)