Subject:
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Re: Automated shunter/switcher
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.trains
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Date:
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Thu, 22 Mar 2007 10:06:43 GMT
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Viewed:
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4109 times
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In lugnet.trains, Matija Puzar wrote:
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So, I got this idea of making an automated shunter for our group’s
exhibition layout, it would be a nice eye catcher and a great oportunity
for the big trains’ motors to rest and cool off.
In the simplest version, it would just come to a bunch of parked cars,
take them to another location, park them there and then go away somewhere
and give place to the big trains.
This is most probably not a new idea, but I haven’t seen any solutions
so far (if I missed them, I apologise).
So, a few problems arise:
- Detaching the cars from the locomotive - anyone with some clever and proven ideas? :) A mechanical arm coming in between and separating the magnets might be a solution, but it would be hard to make it unnoticable. It would also be a problem with regards to the number of motors needed if I’d want to be able to shuffle the cars automatically, i.e. sometimes take 1, sometimes 3, etc. An electromagnet would be also an idea, but hard to implement for more than just the locomotive (also, it might prove to be a heavy burden for the DCC decoder and funny things might happen if the engine loses power in the middle of the loop :)).
- A lot of reed switches will be needed and multiplexing becomes a necessity. Has anyone been able to make a stable multiplexer for more than 3-4 sensors? If 3 is recommended, would you recommend the parallel or the serial version, or does it boil down to the same? I tried making one for 4 sensors, but soon found out how problematic it gets if the resistors are not extremely precise.
- “Thanks” to Tim Gould for the wonderful Norwegian NSB Di 2 :) I’ve put it in quotes since now I have problems doing my own design of the same engine and not thinking of his one the whole time ;) Which is a problem since it is so nicely made! We’ll see, I might end up doing Di 5 instead (of just 1-2 of Tim’s Di 2 and not think more about it ;)).
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I can’t find any pictures right now, but I built a small steam shunting engine
around a battery box and my own home-made IR receiver (this contains a circuit
built from a kit from an electronics shop):
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1708842
Inside the engine’s coal wagon was this arrangement:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1708843
The belt drives the furthest axle from the motor, which is geared back to the
centre axle. The pinion gears on the centre axle drive two racks to withdraw
the magnet. It’s pretty quick and powerful.
The wagon needs some old-style 1x2 plates with buffers front and back, and BBB
small wheels on technic pegs so that the wagon’s wheels don’t need full axles.
Jason R
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Automated shunter/switcher
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| So, I got this idea of making an automated shunter for our group's exhibition layout, it would be a nice eye catcher and a great oportunity for the big trains' motors to rest and cool off. In the simplest version, it would just come to a bunch of (...) (18 years ago, 21-Mar-07, to lugnet.trains, FTX)
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