10-08-2020, 04:26 PM
Good day all. I'm still plugging away here. My lastest endeavour has me installing some interior lighting to my caboose roster. The idea or technique is not my own however I can still show/explain what I did here.
So basically what I have here is a 25 volt 220 uf capacitor soldered to a 2 amp bridge rectifier wired to a nano LED and a 420 ohm resistor. I have it connected to the leads on my PSU to test everything else so see if I like the brightness etc. It looks very bright but once inside the shell the results are pretty subdued.
Next thing was to install it into the caboose. I covered the weights with Kapton tape and used double sided tape to secure the components to the floor. I did clean up my wiring and used some shrink tubing on my connections before putting the shell back on. This was just to test the electrical pick up on the trucks. So, in the next pic you can see how I achieved the electrical pick up. Basically a copper "sleeve" was made and slid over the metal axel of each wheelset. Just be sure you alternate the insulated wheels. So one axle acts as the pick up for your South Rail and the other your North Rail. The sleeves were cut from some copper tubing I already had on hand. The inner Dia was too small so using a jewelers saw I spliced it down the length and the spread the tube apart until I achieved a good fit that allowed the axle to spin freely. But not so big a diameter that would allow the tube to contact the opposite wheel. I also filed and sanded any burrs off of the copper pick ups. I've only done this for one set of trucks for now.
...and then I put the shell back on.
The only caveats I have is/are: 1) I couldn't find any semiscale wheels. So I went with standard Walthers RP25 metal wheels w/metal axles...the upside is that when I can finally get my hands on some I can easily pull the sleeve off the existing ones and slide them onto the new ones. 2). There is some flickering. I could increase the capacitor or just use the other set of trucks for pick up as well. Which is what I'll probably end up doing. If that doesn't work then I'll see about wiring in a slightly larger capacitor. 3). I need to "clean up" my wiring a bit more to hide the bits inside the shell. I've also thought about relocating the light up into the cupola instead or wiring another light in series...but for now, I'm pretty chuffed that this works.
That's all for now.
So basically what I have here is a 25 volt 220 uf capacitor soldered to a 2 amp bridge rectifier wired to a nano LED and a 420 ohm resistor. I have it connected to the leads on my PSU to test everything else so see if I like the brightness etc. It looks very bright but once inside the shell the results are pretty subdued.
Next thing was to install it into the caboose. I covered the weights with Kapton tape and used double sided tape to secure the components to the floor. I did clean up my wiring and used some shrink tubing on my connections before putting the shell back on. This was just to test the electrical pick up on the trucks. So, in the next pic you can see how I achieved the electrical pick up. Basically a copper "sleeve" was made and slid over the metal axel of each wheelset. Just be sure you alternate the insulated wheels. So one axle acts as the pick up for your South Rail and the other your North Rail. The sleeves were cut from some copper tubing I already had on hand. The inner Dia was too small so using a jewelers saw I spliced it down the length and the spread the tube apart until I achieved a good fit that allowed the axle to spin freely. But not so big a diameter that would allow the tube to contact the opposite wheel. I also filed and sanded any burrs off of the copper pick ups. I've only done this for one set of trucks for now.
...and then I put the shell back on.
The only caveats I have is/are: 1) I couldn't find any semiscale wheels. So I went with standard Walthers RP25 metal wheels w/metal axles...the upside is that when I can finally get my hands on some I can easily pull the sleeve off the existing ones and slide them onto the new ones. 2). There is some flickering. I could increase the capacitor or just use the other set of trucks for pick up as well. Which is what I'll probably end up doing. If that doesn't work then I'll see about wiring in a slightly larger capacitor. 3). I need to "clean up" my wiring a bit more to hide the bits inside the shell. I've also thought about relocating the light up into the cupola instead or wiring another light in series...but for now, I'm pretty chuffed that this works.
That's all for now.