Ah yes, some kidding from my former roomate in China. Ron actually
invited me to go along which is the nice way to say that Ron thought I
should go and see my engineers about getting the 2-8-0 to market
sometime this decade. My meetings went well, I got to meet my new
junior engineer (4th one in the last year). Ernest went to university
in England and hia comand of English left both of us impressed.
Although he looks very young, he seemed pretty sharp and had a great
sense of humor. I am looking forward to working with him and hope he
stays around for a while. The company is in a bit of transistion having
been sold this past summer. Some of the improvements have dealt with QC
and QA have been needed for a while now. They do seem to be a bit more
organized than I remember in the past.
Our meetings went very well. It was a big thrill for me to see our
2-8-0 alive with smoke, sound and lights. The AC/DC LocoMatic sound
unit performed perfectly. The engine is equipped with synchronized
exhaust chuffs which can be user set to a prototypical 4 chuffs per
revolution, or non-prototypical 2 chuffs per revolution to 1 chuff per
revolution (matching older AF steam locomotives which performed only 1
chuff per revolution). The sounds produced include not only the
prototypical Whistle, Bell, and exhaust Chuffs but also prototypical
Air Pumps, Safety Valve, Blowers, and Cylinder Blow Down operations.
This system is also polyphonic with playing its sounds. The Whistle is
user playable by either the standard DC offset whistle button or
LocoMaticTM controller. As long as the Whistle button is held down, the
Whistle will play. The Bell is a push on push off operation via either
the DC offset bell button or the LocoMaticTM Controller's Bell button.
The Air Pumps will run at random while running down the track or at
rest. The Safety Valve will also operate at random at rest. To operate
the Cylinder Blow Down sequence requires the use of a LocoMaticTM
Controller. To activate the opening of the ball cocks, the engine must
be at rest for over 3 seconds. At that time, simply press the
Alt-Forward (Sound Function 3) buttons together. You will hear the ball
cock's open producing a lot of steam coming from the cylinders. Then
slowly pull the engine out and listen to the cylinders blow steam for
each exhaust chuff. After so many of these exhausts or a faster speed
is produced they will automatically close leaving the compressed
exhaust chuff sound. If desired, you can also turn them off by simply
pressing the AltFwd buttons on the controller again at any time, at idle
or running. The smoke unit is automatically operated. It is set to
smoke as soon as track power is present although some time is needed
for the wick to heat up enough to generate smoke. It is advised to
place 5 drops into the smoke unit before operation adding only 1or 2
drops as needed. The smoke unit will always operate when the engine is
running. While running, the smoke will puff out in synchronization to
the drivers. When the engine stops running (is in neutral / idle with
track power), the smoke will begin to gently flow out of the stack.
When stopped, the smoke unit will turn off after 5 minutes of idle time.
As soon as the engine is sequenced into forward or reverse, the smoke
unit will again turn back on. Another feature is to be able to control
the smoke unit via the LocoMaticTM Controller. The smoke unit can be
forced on by using the Alt-Horn combination. If the smoke unit is off,
this will force the smoke unit back on and vice versa. If the smoke
unit is forced on via the LocoMaticTM Controller it will not time out.
Resetting this to automatic operation is the same as the lighting,
press Alt-Bell and release or track power is removed for a period of
time. The headlight and backup light are also automatically operated
via the sequence of the engine. If manual control of these lights is
desired merely depress the appropriate buttons on the LocoMaticTM
Controller. The front headlight will operate with the Headlight button.
The backup light will operate with the Alt-Headlight buttons. Once
manual operation is used, automatic operation will not be restored until
the Alt-Bell buttons are pressed and released or until power is removed
from the locomotive for a period of time.
With all of the selector switches in the off position a start in
forward with standard AC operation is selected. With this selected, and
power is placed on the tracks for the first time it is necessary to
wait for a few seconds, especially with a low track voltage, before
attempting to sequence into neutral. If a sequence is selected too soon,
the engine will start in the reset mode of forward. A slight hum will
also be heard through the speaker indicating insufficient track power
to maintain proper operation. While this can be heard, a quick removal
and reapplication of track power can be done to still allow for a
sequence operation. This of course assumes that sufficient time has
passed to allow for the on board storage of energy to be done. While in
neutral, it is advisable to increase the track power from a low setting
to allow for a sufficient charge to occur to enable easier sequence
operation. Again, all sequence operation must be done in a fairly rapid
mode. Failure to do so will result in the system entering the reset
(original power up) condition. Of course, as in all LocoMaticTM
systems, sequence direction can also be controlled by the LocoMaticTM
Controller's Forward, Reverse, Slowdown/Stop buttons while track power
is never removed while still allowing for track power sequence operation.
This system, as with other LocoMaticTM systems contains dip
switches to select certain features. Startup is controlled by the first
and second switch as follows:
1 - off 2 - off Start in Forward
1 - on 2 - off Start in Neutral
1 - off 2 - on Lock in Forward
1 - on 2 - on Lock in Neutral - This mode allows for only LocoMaticTM
controller operation and allows for track voltage to be set to a fixed
amount. The track voltage will determine the maximum speed of the
locomotive.
Switch 3 - controls the whistle and bell operation. With this set ON the
whistle and bell will no longer operate leaving the engine for helper
service only.
Switch 4 - when set, the locomotive can be placed on the track in the
reverse direction. This way the rear (tender) of the engine will become
the Forward movement and the front of the engine will become the
reverse movement. This way two locomotives can be place in a push -
pull configuration. This was done many times in passenger service with
the passenger cars placed between the engines.
Switch 5 and 6. These switches control the exhaust chuff operation. SW5
SW6 Operation off off 4 chuffs per revolution on off 2 chuffs per
revolution off on 1 chuff per revolution on on no chuffs, only
blower sound.
Best of all, no batteries to install. Next will be the DCC.
Best regards,
Don
dphobbies wrote:
>--- In [email protected], Donald Thompson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>
>>Dear Dave,
>> I have been watching this thread while I was in China this past
>>week.
>>
>>
>
>OK Don, Give us the skinny. What were you doing in China last
>week? It sounds exotic. What great new things are you bringing us?
>
>
>Ron
>Des Plaines
>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
The poll results are in....... To REPLY to the list, use REPLY ALL, to reply
to the sender, use REPLY. I do NOT know if this works on all e-mail software,
but it works on some of the most common ones. For those of you on DIGEST mode,
all REPLY messages go to the list.
Change your membership, change your message settings, use our CALENDAR, view
shared files or photos, view the list archives, GO TO
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
