Smoking electronics and floods...

Well I refitted the accessory decoders to Yeovil Town yesterday one by one and the last one failed on one H&M motor (all the others worked). When I checked it out I found that we had a direct short between the accessory bus and the track bus by virtue of one of the bare coil wires dipping down toward the blade of the on-board switch (switching the frog). I just had to lift it up with a screw driver and it all worked.

The only other point not to work was point number 4 (on the first decoder with the Fulgurex motors). I tried this and the CDU started to overheat and smoke (quick action to isolate helped preserve it!) A check on the decoder proved that it rattled so I opened it up – the two power transistors for channel 4 had become un-soldered and fallen out – Re-soldering fixed this problem.

All the points now work but number 6 is a bit stiff so I shall swap it out this week end. I can’t yet find the brass actuator bits from the old H&M motors which were taken out when the Fulgurex ones were put in so I may need to make a few if we are to replace them.

I have bought a cheap 13.8VDC 5Amp PSU from Maplins specifically for the MIMIC power (we need about 2.5Amps) and that can live in the power box (its beginning to get filled up).

We are not at he clubhouse the next two Wednesdays but may be there over the next two weekend and in any case I will be building the MIMIC panels in my workshop.
 

The 7mm room fared less well - all the carpets were soaking wet after some heavy local downfall (must have been 7mm rain cause the 4mm room is untouched!).  Looks like we need to soak up the water and dry the place out...

The Summit layout is now undergoing progress on many fronts;

• The control panels are fabricated and are being populated with components
• The track is being filled in with small sections of card to reduce the quantity of ballast needed
• The track is being sprayed with rust and grime
• The ballast has started to be laid
• The scenic base has been started

Peter has been running his new Hornby T9 in southern livery around South West by Southern and we managed to chip it in a few minutes during the afternoon (just one small mishap on the little aerial on the tender).  I am now off to persuade my wife that the afore mentioned T9 is an ideal Christmas present for me....