01-10-2009, 05:04 PM
I picked up an i-Phone a few weeks ago, and placed an leveling application on it called called "Clinometer" (the i-Phone has a three way accelerometer in it, which is used by the leveling application). I chose this particular leveling app because it can display incline in, among other formats, percentage. The lightbulb went off - I can use this to determine spot grades on the layout!
There are places on the layout that I can't reach easily, so I decided to build a cradle for the i-Phone that could be carried on a flatcar. The cradle "feet" are about 1/8" narrower than the NMRA clearance template (a little less than 2"). The vertical pieces that make up phone cradle itself is offset about 1/8" toward the camera in the photo below to account for the i-Phone being back-heavy - presumably due to the battery location. The opening in the back is to allow the phone to be extracted with a thumb and a forefinger pinch.
Phone in place. The "L" shape of the feet is enough to keep the phone from slipping through the bottom.
Loaded on the flatcar. I'd like to do two additional tasks to complete this project; one is to add some positive locating pins so the cradle is held in place by more than gravity, the second is to devise a mechanism to stablize the load surface. This is a fairly heavy load with a high center of gravity, so the car tends to tilt.
The question you may be asking is "why"? A good question, and the best answer I can give is "because it was possible"!
I did find that I had two sections of 5% + grade that I wasn't expecting to find, so I've found further justification!
Matt
There are places on the layout that I can't reach easily, so I decided to build a cradle for the i-Phone that could be carried on a flatcar. The cradle "feet" are about 1/8" narrower than the NMRA clearance template (a little less than 2"). The vertical pieces that make up phone cradle itself is offset about 1/8" toward the camera in the photo below to account for the i-Phone being back-heavy - presumably due to the battery location. The opening in the back is to allow the phone to be extracted with a thumb and a forefinger pinch.
Phone in place. The "L" shape of the feet is enough to keep the phone from slipping through the bottom.
Loaded on the flatcar. I'd like to do two additional tasks to complete this project; one is to add some positive locating pins so the cradle is held in place by more than gravity, the second is to devise a mechanism to stablize the load surface. This is a fairly heavy load with a high center of gravity, so the car tends to tilt.
The question you may be asking is "why"? A good question, and the best answer I can give is "because it was possible"!
I did find that I had two sections of 5% + grade that I wasn't expecting to find, so I've found further justification!Matt
Matt Goodman
Columbus, Ohio
Columbus, Ohio