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Subject: 
Re: Has Babylon Fallen?
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.trains
Date: 
Thu, 23 Nov 2006 15:01:37 GMT
Reply-To: 
cjmasi@*nogarbageplease*verizon./NoSpam/net
Viewed: 
4331 times
  
Chris Phillips wrote:
In lugnet.trains, Elroy Davis wrote:
In lugnet.trains, Christopher Masi wrote:

You know, it was always fun talking with you at the events, but I have
got to admit, I _really_ miss those crossing gates that you have. Those
things are AWESOME.
Oh yeah!  I remember seeing those at a show before I joined NELUG.  I went out
that day and bought some reed switches.  The next day I spent a few hours
burning my fingers and melting the things together.  I never did get them to
work properly.

The <http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=2264 reed switch sensors>
are a bit tricky.  There's not much room to work with, so you've gotta use
pretty small switches.  And they are very easy to break, basically being tiny
glass tubes.  (About half of my sensors no longer work.)  For some reason, you
need to lay them lengthwise along the track to get the best response from the
train couplings, which doesn't help the geometry any, either.  And don't make
the mistake of hooking one up to a motor output or you'll weld the contacts
closed in a real hurry.

I remember at various points offering these sensors to club members at my cost
of materials, but nobody took me up on it.  I also gave Joe Comeau a handful of
switches so he could give it a try, but I never heard whether he got them
working, either.  Well, maybe it's time to cook up a fresh batch of sensors.

Yeah, I almost took you up on the offer. When I designed a trolley line,
I thought wouldn't it be cool if the trolley crosses the main line I
realize that I'd need reed switches. Then I realized that even at your
cost I need $80 worth of switches, and then you disappeared :(. We
should talk about this, 'cause I think it would be very cool to have a
trolley line run from the downtown over the bridge and out to the 'burbs.

Chris

--
http://mysite.verizon.net/cjmasi/lego/

Learn about brittle bone disease
http://www.oif.org/



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: Has Babylon Fallen?
 
(...) Hmm, we should probably check my math. I think at the time I was having trouble finding inexpensive 3-foot electrical cables to chop in half, but I think $80 would pay for materials for more sensors than I usually bring to a train show. (...) (18 years ago, 23-Nov-06, to lugnet.trains)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Has Babylon Fallen?
 
(...) The (URL) reed switch sensors> are a bit tricky. There's not much room to work with, so you've gotta use pretty small switches. And they are very easy to break, basically being tiny glass tubes. (About half of my sensors no longer work.) For (...) (18 years ago, 23-Nov-06, to lugnet.trains, FTX)

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