My Control Panel

Looks fine to me Baykal ....... if it works and your happy with its operation then fine

QUOTE (ebaykal @ 8 Nov 2008, 11:23) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Is a bit primitive but finally over. Nothing compared with Trevors panel neatness..but hey it works.



Baykal

Hi Erkut,

looks Good!

David

View attachment 895 QUOTE (ebaykal @ 8 Nov 2008, 23:11) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>The LEDs are the one's that DCC Concepts supplied with the Masterswitch. i.e, Bi-polar. (Red&Green)

Hi Baykal.

Did you find that the Green element of the bi-colour LED is a bit dull compared to the Red ??.
If so there is a fix.

The problem is caused by the resistor built into the Masterswitch. I have a little test rig for checking LEDs and Point Motors. Looking at the top side of the Masterswitch the offending resistor is as shown in this picture.

The fix is take this resistor out of the equation by bridging across it on the back side of the Masterswitch. See photo.

You will then find that the Green is nice and bright. Unfortunately this also makes the Red element even brighter. The second part of the fix is to insert a 275 ohm resistor into the Red side of the LED. The Red side is the one with the longest leg. Here is a picture of my test rig with the additional resistor marked. You will find that this balances the Green & Red elements so that they appear equally bright.

Hope you find this useful.

QUOTE (neil_s_wood @ 8 Nov 2008, 21:34) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Looks good Erkut. Don't you use your ECoS to control your routes?

Neil , I don't, maybe in the future. Controling all 22 points you need a lot of S88 units, occupancy detectors, accesory decoders..etc. meaninig delay in running trains. All I want now is to run does trains. Plus with the control panel I will be involved , just like the real thing in controling the routes.

Trevor, yes the green is always a bit dimmer than the red. Thanks for sharing the fix. Will come very useful.

Just found this picture of a control panel. Thought it might be useful to share it with people who has a turntable, specially a Fleischmann one, because the controler is nearly the same as in the photo. Look where the guy mounted it. I missed that chance so if anyone else is planning to build one, its a good spot.



Baykal

QUOTE (clive hayward @ 9 Nov 2008, 13:11) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>I'd love one like that but have absolutely no idea where to start. Is there a layman's guide on to how to begin anywhere?

Hi Clive,

Control Panels can be as simple or as complicated as you care to make them. The ones that Baykal and I are doing are what I would call medium difficulty.

The easiest form of point control is using a stud and probe system which has no switches, no lights and requires only that you are able to drill a number of 2.5mm dia. holes. Basically the contact between the stud and the probe completes the circuit and the point motor solenoid moves in whichever direction you have chosen. Here are a couple of pictures of my earlier control panels which used this method.

The first thing to do is draw out your control panel diagram, full size, on a piece of graph paper. The diagram does not have to be to scale as long as it provides a reasonable representation of the location of the track and points relative to each other. Only when you've done this will you know what size 'box' you need.

I'm going to have to break off there Clive as duty calls me elsewhere. I will, however, come back to you and try to take you through the 'step-by-step' process of building a control panel.

QUOTE (Expat @ 9 Nov 2008, 14:50) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> View attachment 895

Hi Baykal.

Did you find that the Green element of the bi-colour LED is a bit dull compared to the Red ??.
If so there is a fix.

The problem is caused by the resistor built into the Masterswitch. I have a little test rig for checking LEDs and Point Motors. Looking at the top side of the Masterswitch the offending resistor is as shown in this picture.

View attachment 897

The fix is take this resistor out of the equation by bridging across it on the back side of the Masterswitch. See photo.

View attachment 896

You will then find that the Green is nice and bright. Unfortunately this also makes the Red element even brighter. The second part of the fix is to insert a 275 ohm resistor into the Red side of the LED. The Red side is the one with the longest leg. Here is a picture of my test rig with the additional resistor marked. You will find that this balances the Green & Red elements so that they appear equally bright.

View attachment 898

Hope you find this useful.

*** HI Erkut, its nice to see your panel done and working -well done!

***Hello Trevor

Please be careful how you use data provided to you directly.

You wrote this as if it is a masterswitch problem when it is not: - A per our conversation when I provided you with both the reasons the resistor value was chosen and the details of the possible modification if you wanted to do it, it is a result of making it easy for those who do not like wiring and also keeping it universal for those who prefer to use their own LED of any colour combination without having to worry about resistors.

Remember too that while I specifically said it was OK for you to do it based on our one on one conversaton, anyone doing it with less than adequate information and skill will simply invalidate warranty.

Presenting it in this way isn't really appropriate.

regards

Richard

QUOTE (Expat @ 9 Nov 2008, 22:14) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>My apologies Richard. I had no intention of slandering your Masterswitches as they are absolutely superb pieces of equipment. I am, however, a little surprised that they are incompatible with the bi-colour LEDs and, obviously incorrectly, assumed that the 'fix' you provided was a standard solution to overcome that problem.

Wrists duly slapped.

*** Trevor, no big deal as those on list are generally pretty sane, but as to the compatibility comment, in fact they are 100% compatible with every commonly used LED including the bicolour one provided - the reason for the single resistor value was already clearly explained.... Red and green ideally need two different resistor values but we have no control over which of the leds will be which colour... or even if the user will change from a bicolour to two separate leds of different type and colours, and it needs to be at a level safe for ALL...

The only "production option" is to supply two of the same colour - and our research showed that to be a less popular option.

You are only one of two people worldwide who have ever requested variance since V2 was released - and the other was to query modifying the level of the LED outputs so it was usable for his home made computer IO card, not the LED light levels!

I would never offer a general option for modellers to take to a product with a soldering iron - Our already generous warranty would have no meaning at all if I did.

The only generally acceptable "consumer thing" to do would be add a second resistor to the red LED to lower its light level to perfectly match the actually quite Ok level of the green - I gave one-on-one to you a specific internal change knowing that you as an individual were both careful and Ok with a soldering Iron. Consider that a compliment based on my impression of you and your work on your panels!

The only "production option" is to supply two of the same colour - and our research showed that to be a less popular option.

This LED area is something I may well look at for V3, but it will probably mean a change in the provided LED type, not a MS change.

Richard

QUOTE (clive hayward @ 9 Nov 2008, 09:11) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Baykal,
a very neat and impressive control panel. I'd love one like that but have absolutely no idea where to start. Is there a layman's guide on to how to begin anywhere? (Either in print or on the Web). How do you get the switches onto te metal panel? Presumably with a drill, but even this easy feat has put me off all these years. Any help would be gratefully received.

regards

Clive

Clive believe me its simple if you think simple as I did. Trevor and David will/has explained alot of the hows. This is how I planed mine:

Every layout has certain blocks like station,yard,depot,....etc. all being accessed thru points. I have divided mine into 5 blocks or sections as below. It doesn't have to be one after another but sections. I crammed All 5 into a small space. Wish I could've used a large panel but I have size restrictions. I wanted both the panel and ECOS to be next to each other and the layout bench prevented me doing otherwise.



Now the sections:

A-Is the passover of two oppositely running trains.Where one waits for the other to arrive.
B-Is the diesel fueling and depot facility
C-Is the Station complex
D-Is the yard. (Notice there are no switches.Only at the entrance.The rest I plan to do wire in tube)
E- Is the other station complex with depots of loading and unloading.

Materials used:

0,5 cm thick cardboard for the panel and 1,5cm plywood for the body. Drilling was fairly easy for the switches and the LEDs.
Strips were self adhesive just stick it up onto to the plan I drew with a pencil on the cardboard. Then I found this self adhesive transparent polyethylene plastic that my kids used to cover there books with and covered the whole panel with it.
Finally I mounted the switches and LEDS to it. That easy.

The underneath of the panel of how it looks? .....Don't ask. Spaghetti junction it is .

Baykal