[Richard Johnson]

QUOTE (Expat @ 30 Aug 2008, 02:00) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Hi guys,

Any comment on that Richard ??.

Expat.

***Yes, two different answers. One simple and the really practical one, the other the reason why one looks brighter than the other.

(1) When in a panel, you will be looking at the end of the LED only. LED's are lensed and throw most light out the front... it will look different then, and it will be quite bright enough to do its job as an indicator light.

(2) When I make a product I have to assume several things

a/ that most modellers hate soldering so it needs to be minimised and ....inevitably many will connect things up and then read the instructions. So I have to keep it simple and build a resistor into the product!

b/ The resistor has to work with any customer LED type or colour choice, as sometimes customers want to use separated LEDs rather than the bicolours, and they can be any colour they choose.

Not all LED have the same voltage or current requirements - Various colours and "standard led types" depending on brand and type can vary from 2 milliamp to 20 milliamps and much much more.

c/ Ideally each should have its own resistor but I have to choose ONE value that will allow them all to be used safely, and so to some degree, the overall level of output will vary colour by colour and brand by brand.

Red is always the brightest LED colour anyway as its so easily transmitted as a colour. Green is a little less eficient and so is less intense.

Ideally a separated value per LED would be the way to go, but then it would mean that a fixed colour always has to go to a fixed place - you couldn't easily swap red for green or yellow or white or blue..... and that would really annoy users as they want either setting to be either colour depending on the points on the layout, not the needs of the LED colour!

regards

Richard

 

[Richard Johnson]

QUOTE (Expat @ 30 Aug 2008, 02:00) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>One thing that is bugging me though. Why do my photos always get reduced in size??

They are 640 x 480 as recommended.

Expat.

**I have to say that with photo intensive posts, I really very, very much prefer the thumbnails.

When there are many images embedded full size, it becomes really annoying when all you want to do is scan to the last post and the page keeps moving about as it accommodates the download of all the images.... that seems inevitable as a problem with wireless as its a tad slow compared to the cable connection on my other PC.

Too many images especially of irrelevant or narrow subject is enough to put me off even looking at many threads twice.

I think that frequent image intensive posters should use gallery, attached images as thumbnails or start a blog.... referring readers to the blogs rather than cluttering up the bandwidth.

Richard

 

[john woodall]

I think that using thumbnails is the way to go. It does give the readers a choice as to whether they want to see the big picture or not.

A few of the other forums that I belong to actually set limits as to the size the pictures you can load in a thread.

I know it may seem a case of big brother watching you but like Richard says it does get a bit annoying when a thread takes a long time to load because it is picture intensive.

Regards

John

 

[Chinahand]

QUOTE (Richard Johnson @ 30 Aug 2008, 08:46) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>(1) When in a panel, you will be looking at the end of the LED only. LED's are lensed and throw most light out the front... it will look different then, and it will be quite bright enough to do its job as an indicator light.

(2) When I make a product I have to assume several things

a/ that most modellers hate soldering so it needs to be minimised and ....inevitably many will connect things up and then read the instructions. So I have to keep it simple and build a resistor into the product!

b/ The resistor has to work with any customer LED type or colour choice, as sometimes customers want to use separated LEDs rather than the bicolours, and they can be any colour they choose.

Richard

Thanks for that Richard. I have now masked the sides of the LEDs and that has improved the visibility of the green a little though it does seem to vary from LED to LED.

Not sure if I'm understanding you correctly but are you saying that the resistor incorporated into the MS V2 is a "one for all" solution, in which case would changing the resistor do anything to give a more balanced intensity for each colour ?? Not that I'm about to start taking your MS apart. Just curiosity.

Apart from this I can only endorse the comments by others. The MS V2 is a splendid bit of kit which does everything I need to do and more.
Regards,

Trevor

 

[ebaykal]

Ok , now that we all got our masterswitch's working, time to search other possibilities that we can do with it.
One that comes to my mind are my Viessmann semaphores.

Need your help on this one Richard. Basically its as below:

Now;

The 2 Blues; one is "proceed" the other is "stop"
The 2 Yellows;one is Common pole for the drive coils and the other which has a resistor is the light.
The 1 Brown is light (+diode for LED lighting) (ground )
The 2 Reds are contacts for train control.

Question is how can I operate the semaphore with the masterswitch+Points ?

Baykal

 

[Brian Considine]

QUOTE (Richard Johnson @ 30 Aug 2008, 04:54) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>**I have to say that with photo intensive posts, I really very, very much prefer the thumbnails.

Richard
So do I, however, if you just want to quickly scroll down to the last piece of text just press the "stop" button on your browser as (it looks to me anyway) the test loads first, then the pictures.

 

[john woodall]

I know we be on the other side of the world and all, but even down here we hate test's, unless of course the Al Blacks are winning.

I even hate that txt speek stuff, but then i am getting old and dont understand it.

John

 

[john woodall]

Would you not just wire it up like a point motor?

The reds are connected as an on/off switch via the signal. the signal light wires can be run off a seperate supply (at least I run my lights off a seperate supply)

That being said it could get difficult with a three aspect signal.

John

Or have I missed something.

 

[Brian Considine]

Well spotted John !

(I've now corrected the typo)

 

[Richard Johnson]

QUOTE (ebaykal @ 30 Aug 2008, 16:03) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Ok , now that we all got our masterswitch's working, time to search other possibilities that we can do with it.
One that comes to my mind are my Viessmann semaphores.

Need your help on this one Richard. Basically its as below:

Now;

The 2 Blues; one is "proceed" the other is "stop"
The 2 Yellows;one is Common pole for the drive coils and the other which has a resistor is the light.
The 1 Brown is light (+diode for LED lighting) (ground )
The 2 Reds are contacts for train control.

Question is how can I operate the semaphore with the masterswitch+Points ?

Baykal

Hi Ebaykal

Are they are solenoids that need a momentary pulse? If so, you could just connect them the same as a point motor to the same outputs you'd connect the point motor to.... they will be low current tyes. LEDs on the signal could be connected to to same solder pads the control panel LEDs are connected to as there is enough power there... again, just try it.

Its possible you could just connect both to one MS, but I am not certain - try it and see!

It MAY happen that if you connect both to one, because one is solenoid efficient (the signal) and the other is inneficient (the point motor) both may not throw.

if that is the case, you could use a MS on each and just connect both MS to one switch to throw them...

Richard

 

[john woodall]

Hi Richard,

If they are the signals I think they are they just need a momentary pulse. The movement of the signal arm is done by a damping method. It really is a neat piece of engineering.

How many momentary power devices can you units power at one time?

Cheers

John

 

[Richard Johnson]

QUOTE (john woodall @ 31 Aug 2008, 06:10) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Hi Richard,

If they are the signals I think they are they just need a momentary pulse. The movement of the signal arm is done by a damping method. It really is a neat piece of engineering.

How many momentary power devices can you units power at one time?

Cheers

John

I don't really know the impedance of their mech, but you could measure the impedance of one coil and calculate with ohms law.

Peco is a very inneficient low impedance/very high current coil so a couple at best unless the power supply is exceptional, however with a good power supply MS can deliver better than 6 amps in a pulse, so if they are say 50 ohm coils and you have 15 volts, thats 300mA so it will do more many comfortably - again, its a wee bit dependent on your power supply more than the MS.

The proviso is that they are all the same - as I mentioned previously, if the coils are significantly different the less efficient ones will not get a fair share of power.

Richard

 

[zmil]

Hi All
This is a great thread and very informative

The MASTERswitch V2 looks to be a very useful device

I'm sure Richard has mentioned this before , but I'll ask the question anyway

Is it possible to connect the MASTERswitch up to a DCC stationary decoder like the Lenz LS-150 or similar
to allow both manual and DCC switching and still use the LED's as route indicators.

The Manual for the LS-150 shows wiring to momentary contact switches (powered from the LS_150's AC input)

Regards Zmil

 

[Brian Considine]

The VM semaphore's are as John says a nice bit of kit. They just require a pulse or they can be fed perminatly as they have "end-off" switching. Once the actual solenoid has tripped over the damping mechanism does the rest. We have found that they seem to work better on around 20v & draw very little current.

 

[Richard Johnson]

QUOTE (zmil @ 31 Aug 2008, 12:33) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Hi All
This is a great thread and very informative

The MASTERswitch V2 looks to be a very useful device

I'm sure Richard has mentioned this before , but I'll ask the question anyway

Is it possible to connect the MASTERswitch up to a DCC stationary decoder like the Lenz LS-150 or similar
to allow both manual and DCC switching and still use the LED's as route indicators.

The Manual for the LS-150 shows wiring to momentary contact switches (powered from the LS_150's AC input)

Regards Zmil

***Yes you can do as you wish with the LS150. Order them specified for DCC use and I supply an interface + buttons instead of the standard DPDT switches - The interface is an opto-isolation board so when that is used you can use any form of triggering from any decoder of any brand - the Opto board also has bridge recitifers built in so whether the ouput of the decoder is common +, common - or ac the MASTERswitch doesn't care.

(The opto board was added after we found issues with some accessory decoders, so isn't mentioned in the manual....)

Richard

 

[Martin71]

Opto Board

 

[zmil]

Hi All
I'm Amazed at the possibilities!

More Planning to do now!

Regards Zmil

 

[butler-henderson]

Have looked the masterswitch before but find a good old relay to be just as useful and far cheaper ie you can use a pair of relays for each pair of outputs from a point decoder to switch whatever loads, circuits you need. Okay so you need a bridge rectifier on the decoder ouputs to each relay coil but the cost of a pair of relays and a pair of bridge rectifiers is around £3 at Maplin, and if you are changing from dc and have a CDU then you can use it to throw the points through the switched outputs of the relay(s) in a route setting manner that is only restricted by the capacity of your CDU.

 

[ebaykal]

QUOTE (Richard Johnson @ 31 Aug 2008, 04:50) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>I don't really know the impedance of their mech, but you could measure the impedance of one coil and calculate with ohms law.

Peco is a very inneficient low impedance/very high current coil so a couple at best unless the power supply is exceptional, however with a good power supply MS can deliver better than 6 amps in a pulse, so if they are say 50 ohm coils and you have 15 volts, thats 300mA so it will do more many comfortably - again, its a wee bit dependent on your power supply more than the MS.

The proviso is that they are all the same - as I mentioned previously, if the coils are significantly different the less efficient ones will not get a fair share of power.

Richard

Richard,

Fiddled with the masterswitch+point motor+control panel LED's and Viessmann Semaphore this evening with no result . Obviously I am doing something wrong.

Semaphore Tech specs:
Signal has a electromagnetic drive unit with dampening effect
Operating voltage :16 v (AC/DC)
Peak inrush current ( for approx 0.1sec) : 0.7 amp

For more detail :

http://www.viessmann-modell.com/en/produkt...r=2&gr_nr=2

Cat no 4500 and click on "installation"

Baykal

 

[john woodall]

Hi Baykal,

Have you tried it with a different signal. I ended up with a duff shunting signal that took a while for me to work out it was the signal not me.

Does the signal work with out the masterswithch?

Cheers

John