Interested in a signal building group?

[Keith1500]

Dave.

I have sent you an e-mail of an drawing for a miniature LMS signal arm. It should help hopefully.

Keith

[Richard Phillips]

Lost a follow-up post somewhere, but yes I got the bits Dave, thank you. The small glasses were the only dimensions I have although it looks like the Signalling Record Society might have drawings under Accession Number SRS201500318 based on their lists.

Have you got any detail on where the bends for the spectacle plate drive lever? I'm hoping to be at Wootton to ask various questions

[Dave Noble]

Richard, I've added a drawing to THE LIST for you.

[Richard Phillips]

So whilst I've tested various components related to controlling the signals via a 2-wire bus, I had to bring the lot together, and at the beginning of the week it all appeared to be going very wrong, with nothing appearing to work as designed. Anyway I ironed out the various issues and the cluttered photo below shows me working toward a fixed design for finalised circuits.

It looks messy because it's all being prototyped, but to explain what you're looking at, the board with lights on is what effectively is the signalbox, this will display the position of the signals and status of communications, it will interface with a lever frame of closing contacts. It has a little white "breadboard" next to it - this represents the lever frame for now for me to send inputs to the 'box!

If you follow the two wires (one white and one yellow), that is the bus and connects to a "Micro" board, in this case powered by a 9Volt battery - it has a voltage regulator and the circuit is similar to what will be in the signals, although hopefully better laid out.

The one concern with the "micro" board was that it is comparatively expensive, so that is connected to another board via another two way bus (in this case controlling two servos) which is a cheaper, but larger board. These have been extensively copied and are available as cheaper "compatible" boards - and this works using exactly the same code as the smaller boards.

Don't worry too much about the wires all over the place, this is just for convenience for me to chop and change as the design firms up. If I had more bits I could have set up the entirety of Middleton box, all the code is written - as during testing, much to my surprise I couldn't get some servos to work, only to realise I was using the wrong inputs - the code was right and I was wrong...

masterslave2.JPG (38.91 KiB) Viewed 28178 times

[Dave Noble]

Got the melting pot out yesterday morning and finished some castings.

Box of castings reduced.jpg (87.56 KiB) Viewed 28125 times

That's all the single balance lever brackets, main spectacle plates and spindle bearings (reamed). The flash isn't as bad as it looks!

I'll add a picture of the balance lever bracket to THE LIST.

[Ben Lyons]

Hi Dave Great job. do you what help drilling ect. I'm on with the two brackets plus the post cross arms and upper posts for your Bracket.
Will post some pics latter, spectacle arm are on way from Holland advise to us this Thursday. So looks like parts are coming together.

Ben

[Dave Noble]

The crank base pattern is with the casters, but this is what the finished thing should look like. Update in THE LIST.

Crank base reduced.jpg (33.51 KiB) Viewed 28100 times

[Alan Wood]

They look great Dave , how are the other parts like the bases doing , have they resolved the heat problem and will it all fit into the base , do you need help with any of these parts .

[Dave Noble]

do you need help with any of these parts?

If anyone likes drilling 1/32 cross holes and turning small shafts, let me know, there are about 44 to make!

[Alan Wood]

Sorry I think my Colchester is a bit big for turning the shafts you need , I will quite happily do the cross drilling if it helps ?

[Ben Lyons]

Hi all

Ive been getting on with sorting my two Bracket signals have tried parts looks OK, so will adjust and final fix. lots of angles to add so B&Q here I come

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bracket 1.JPG (32.85 KiB) Viewed 28043 times

[Keith1500]

I had another go at replicating the signal pull wire termination.

In this case I have used a small diameter tube to act as a crimp. Then given it a lick of silver solder. cut off the surplus cable then filed away the crimp. then dressed over the joint with fine electrical wire and sealed it with some loctite. incidentally those of you who think it looks good, look again thats the real thing and the little one is the scale version !



As an experiment and without spending too much time on this I simply wound together 7 strands of 0.2mm electrical wire and then terminated it using the correct method. it worked. it could be neater and the length of the joint should be less.



1. I guess that provides a few options to consider. The very easy but not accurate way of simply crimping the cable.
2. The crimp it, soldered it and dress it up method.
3. or make some signal wire and terminated it correctly.

[Dave Noble]

Good effort Keith. I knew they would be fiddly, that's why I asked for volunteers!

Quick update on things mechanical. I've turned all the caps for the posts. The etchers have just e-mailed to say the remaining arms are in the post. The lost wax casters have let me know that they hope cast the saddles and crank bases this week.

[Ben Lyons]

Hi all

Picture of spec arms I only need to trim and drill and they are ready to go

Arms.JPG (31.28 KiB) Viewed 27944 times

[Dave Noble]

Ben, I hope they are backblinder arms, and they will need slitting too.

[Ben Lyons]

Hi Dave Yes wrong name -- silly me !
Lamp bracket sent today plus 2% however maybe not as clean as first one so take your pick I don't think 2% small would notice leave it to you.

[Dave Noble]

Signal meeting and working party at Ben's this Saturday, 6th. What time Ben?

[Eddyg]

Hi Dave,

You'll forgive me for tendering my apologies for not attending Saturday's meeting, it's a long haul from here. Hope it's productive and we can get down to production soon.

Eddie

[Ben Lyons]

Hi Dave

MEETING FROM 9 on

myself, John Catt, Alan wood will be in from around 8-30 Yourself as soon as you can as you have bits, Keith Brunt will be here around 9-0 with
Richard Phillips following on Jonny may not make it but is talking to Richard re power ect.
Eddie we hope to have all but a full set of parts to send you, clearly it far to far for a day out however but we all appreciate your involvement.

Ben

[Richard Phillips]

Anyone had any thoughts about paint schemes? It would appear the posts are mostly white with a black band for the track circuit/block diamond. I've seen grey (possibly galvanised finish?) posts and grey or black lower sections.

The spectacle arm I assumed was black, but I have seen them the same colour as the distant/main arm colour. Balance hardware in grey or black. Ladders? Anyway, is there an official scheme?