LifeLike SW1200 - Suggestions for DCC/Sound “Tender”

[Dwight in Toronto]

Thanks Pete; I think I’m good to go.  Big props to wazzou.  And yes, you’re right - not intuitive at all.

[peteski]

Thanks Pete; I think I’m good to go.  Big props to wazzou.  And yes, you’re right - not intuitive at all.

Excellent. I also hope that you'll set up multiple categories (I call them "folders") so you can find your photos easily in the future (when needed again).  I wouldn't  put them all in the "General" section or in just 'My Gallery" category. 
To see some examples of how members set up their galleries, go to https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?action=gallery;su=user;sa=userlist and check few of the members listed on the top.

[Dwight in Toronto]

Thanks so much.  I just studied your tutorial - nice job on that - I’ve bookmarked it for ongoing reference. 

[peteski]

Thanks so much.  I just studied your tutorial - nice job on that - I’ve bookmarked it for ongoing reference.

I created that tutorial not too long after the TRW gallery was introduced (to host photos locally, not depending on outside "free" sites), because I found the process confusing too. Once I semi-figured it out, I thought others would benefit.  Reading the tutorial now, I think it is bit convoluted.  Someday I might rewrite it slightly.

[Dwight in Toronto]

Not a heckuva lot of progress to report on my slug build, but slowly making headway.

I’ve added four 1.8K smd resistors to the chassis/pc board in preparation for the desired LED’s.  I intend to tether the slug in front of the switcher, and the pic shows the lamp holes in the nose of the slug for an over/under headlight arrangement.  In the bottom right of the pic can be seen the upper & lower LED retaining tubes that will soon be glued into the slug shell.  Up top is a white LED which will operate in conjunction with the switcher headlight; the lower lamp is a red LED for reverse running (not sure yet if I’ll include a reverse light in the switcher).  I’d still like an amber rotating beacon on the slug roof, so there’s an output and resistor for if/when that comes to fruition.

Finally, the ESU speaker enclosure can be seen, positioned where it will soon be attached to the bottom side of the chassis/pc board between the trucks. 

Lately I’ve been contemplating how best to add weight to the shell, so any suggestions would be appreciated.

[Dwight in Toronto]

I removed the old TCS decoder from the SW1200, and replaced the headlight LED and all the wiring with fresh, new material (ESU’s high flex decoder wire is such a pleasure to use). 

The photo shows the tether lines running from the front of the switcher into the rear of the slug. Six wires in total - red & black track power, orange & gray motor leads, white & blue front headlight.  I studied the possibility of including the rear headlight on the switcher cab, but determined that it was  prohibitively intricate, and I really did not relish the thought of running a 7th (yellow) wire between the two locomotives. 

All six tether wires are lightly retained where they enter the slug with a small amount of white sticky-tack, and have been soldered to the chassis/pc board.  The speaker enclosure has been affixed between the trucks, and the speaker wires (brown) also soldered to the pc board.

The over/under slug headlights (white upper LED, red lower LED) are in place within the inside/front of the shell, but their leads have yet to be attached to their resistor pads on the board.  I’ll finish that up, and will hopefully be installing the Nano decoder within another day or two.

[nkalanaga]

As fine as those wires seem to be, "disguise" them as the MU hose.  Even slugs need those, so they'd look natural.

[Dwight in Toronto]

nkalananga - yes, absolutely - I’ll be taking a black sharpie to the mu hoses/cables as part of the final touchup. 
Ensuring that everything WORKS takes precedence … no point finishing off the fine details if the project ends up being abandoned due to some yet-to-be-seen roadblock. 

Final details include disguising the fuel tank, maybe eliminating all the radiator fans, and adding the amber rotary beacon.  I also need to replace the raggedy-a$$ handrails, and reattach some detail pieces to the switcher.  All in good time (hopefully, fingers crossed!). 

[nkalanaga]

If you don't want to go to the trouble of removing the fans, just plate them over.  If anyone asks, the shop removed the fans themselves, and welded sheet metal over the housings.

If you do remove the fans, you should also remove the radiator grills.  At that point, it would be easier to chop out the entire section and replace it with plastic sheet.  After all, prototype radiators aren't cheap, and I'm sure the shop would have saved them for spare parts!  The radiator section itself would make a nice industrial cooling unit.

Unless your switcher has dynamic brakes (some did!), you could also remove that section, or just cover the fan.

[Dwight in Toronto]

The donor shell I that I cut down for the slug body was in rough shape, especially the hand rails - warped, broken, and missing fragments.  So I thought I’d have a shot at soldering some fine brass rod, just to see what might happen.

The photo shows the sorry state of the plastic factory handrail, and my attempt to create a replacement.  There’s a chance that a light spray of white paint might result in a passable facsimile.

[Dwight in Toronto]

Earlier today I soldered the necessary Nano decoder wires to their respective pads on my make-shift pc board “chassis” - 11 wires in all.   Right after the picture was taken, I added the four wires from the two headlights in the nose of the shell. 

I moved everything to my programming board, fired up LokProgrammer on the computer, and anxiously awaited confirmation of newly installed decoder recognition.   I gave out a sigh of relief when the initial quick-&-dirty Drivers Cab test verified that there was indeed forward & reverse motion, and that the speaker readily played those hokey factory sounds for prime mover, bell and horn.

So far, so good.  Next step - download an appropriate SW1200 sound project from ESU’s database. 

[Dwight in Toronto]

As kind of a “just in case” precaution, I wanted to keep the decoder wires as long as possible.  To achieve a neat, compact bundle, I folded the excess over upon themselves and then tucked them inside a short piece of heat shrink tubing:
 


I attached the slug body to the chassis, and once again visited the programming board.  Just a few moments of LokProgrammer fine tuning, and it was satisfying indeed to see both headlights illuminate in the ‘forward’ direction.  I would have preferred a less ‘warm’ LED in the switcher, ie - the same bright white as the slug headlamp, but I’m going to live with it at this point:



Finally, I was pleased to see the red LED fire up when the loco was shifted into reverse.  Honestly, it looks unmistakably RED in real life - not sure why it gets washed out in photos.  As evidence, witness the red glow on the tracks beneath the nose of the slug (I’ll have to block that with some shielding).




And yes, as luck would have it, that IS a sizeable chunk of side cowling that fell off the slug, and vanished into the ‘modeler’s ether’.   It’s simply unbelievable how small parts can literally disappear from the face of the earth, never to be found again, despite hours of hands-&-knees searching in a relatively small work space.  But that is precisely what seems to happen all too often.

On the upside, the mother-&-slug run beautifully on my Kato Unitrack test loop, and after all these years, it’s hugely satisfying to finally hear the sounds of prime mover, horn, bell, compressor etc from this little switcher. 

Anyway, next steps will be to to reattach the various handrails, finalize the body work (repair the missing chunk, eliminate the fans, freshen up the paint, add decals etc), and see if I can affix a MT coupler to the front of the slug. 

As mentioned, the consist runs great on my test loop, but I might look into adding a bit of weight to the shell.  I also need to investigate a characteristic lamp housing and amber light source for that rotary beacon concept.  Is there even such a thing as an amber 0402 LED?  How ‘bout shining a warm yellow LED through Kapton tape ? !

[craigolio1]

Great build! 

If you want an easy way to add weight to the slug shell, have a look at this lead tape. There’s all kinds of it on Amazon. I used it inside a 3D printed steam loco boiler and was able to add quite a bit of weight back to it. It’s no replacement for a big hunk of metal but it sticks to the shell and is easy to use.

https://www.amazon.ca/Gamma-ALTI10-Lead-Tape-inch/dp/B000EEXYC8/ref=mp_s_a_1_16?crid=14XGLOJRIL00U&keywords=lead+tape&qid=1683594987&sprefix=lead+tape%2Caps%2C129&sr=8-16

Craig

[Dwight in Toronto]

Thanks Craig, both for the compliment, and for the pointer re: lead tape. 

When I clicked on the link and saw the material, it triggered a thought that I may even have some of this stuff.   I’m retired, but ended up in a rather relaxed part-time job where I show up at a 36 hole golf course, walking distance from my home, whenever I feel like it, to repair and maintain a fleet of 120 engine-driven rental carts.   I think I might have some of that lead in my cart shop. 

And also, now that I think about it, there’s a chance that they have some weighted putty or some such thing in the pro shop, for fine-tuning golf club balance.  Finally, there’s also a chance that our heavy equipment mechanic might have tungsten welding electrodes.   Hmmmm - several possibilities!

[Dwight in Toronto]

I managed to come up with a beacon for the slug. 

While building some Lego with my granddaughter, I came across a small, translucent orange piece that I immediately recognized as potentially fitting the bill.  Since there were three other pieces just like it, she willingly devoted it to the cause.

In short order I had trimmed down the Lego piece to suit, drilled out a small pocket with a pin vice, and fitted a warm white 0402 LED into the cavity with a drop of CA.  I then filled in the middle fan on the roof of the shell with Bondic plastic, filed it smooth, and drilled a hole in the centre to allow the tiny protrusion from the Lego piece to pass through the inside of the shell in order to serve as the lamp housing.  The LED leads were soldered to the pc board/chassis, where a 1.8K smd resistor had previously been fitted to AUX1 of the nano decoder. 

A short session with LokProgrammer enabled the “rotary beacon” configuration to be toggled via F5, resulting in a nicely paced-&-phased brightening/dimming effect that is entirely pleasing.  The colour intensity is much more “amber” than the washed-out yellowish image presented here. 

I was unable to attach a short video, so a snapshot will have to suffice.  In this instance, the beacon was captured at its brightest.  The spoke-like radial pattern surrounding the beacon is due to extraneous light from the LED emanating through the remnants of the fan blades buried within the Bondic compound.  Although somewhat attractive in its own right, the radial effect will be eliminated when the shell gets a fresh spray of flat black paint.

Next steps - eliminate the remaining roof-top fans, disguise the speaker housing between the trucks as a fuel tank/air reservoir, repaint, add decals, and affix white handrails to ends and sides.