making the door open and close on a boxcar

very good idea  !!  and works great too..

Wow I am impressed. Your quite an engineer. I would love to learn more about the motor and the linkage. Can I E mail you? Nick

spooky!

Cool.  I'm going to do one with command control using a model airplane servo, but this works great.

That is out right fantastic. Now try to figure how to get it to drop the stage door on MTH's Canadian Pacific Holiday Express Stage Car. That would be the absolute best. Put some figures inside , stop train, open door Play music close door and keep going down the rails.

Dude, it actually looks good, unlike so many "operating" accessories. You Know Who or You Know Who II should call you about your design. 

Neat!  Can you show us a picture of the interior mechanism, so we can see how the door is linked to the motor?

Fascinating idea and it appears to work well.

Very smooth operation, can you leave it open if you want?

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Very smooth operation, can you leave it open if you want?

yep, I can stop the door at any point.  The motor spins so long as the horn is button is pressed.  When I let go of the horn button the motor stops.  Anyone with a conventional layout may not like this function, as their train whistle would blow, but my layout is almost all command control, so for me it is just controlling that door.

Works great, that's very cool.

Very nice! Smooth as silk operation! 

Professor Chaos posted:

Neat!  Can you show us a picture of the interior mechanism, so we can see how the door is linked to the motor?

unfortunately, I did not take a picture of the inside.  However, if you look at a steam engine you can basically imagine what I did.  On the motor is a plastic disc (I cut from a chunk of plastic using a hole saw).  I drilled a hole near the outer edge of the disk.  A piece of brass goes from that outer hole to the door.  so when the motor spins, it spins the disc.  The hole at the outer edge gets farther and closer to the door, that pushes and pulls the door.  

So if you imagine the wheel on a steam engine is my motor and disc, and the linkage from the steam engine is kind of what I recreated on the inside.

hope that makes sense!

I see a side business in your future.  Charlie

rockstars1989 posted:

Wow I am impressed. Your quite an engineer. I would love to learn more about the motor and the linkage. Can I E mail you? Nick

feel free, it is not a complex design at all.  The motor was in my bin, I usually search amazon for geared motors, and every once in a while add one to my cart to get free shipping on something else.

CurtisH posted:

That is out right fantastic. Now try to figure how to get it to drop the stage door on MTH's Canadian Pacific Holiday Express Stage Car. That would be the absolute best. Put some figures inside , stop train, open door Play music close door and keep going down the rails.

I actually have ideas on how to have a forklift load and unload the boxcar.  However, the door doesn't open very wide, so I may need to try another boxcar or something different.  I will certainly post a new thread if I figure out my loading/unloading accessory.

I really like your Christmas car idea though!!

THATS SO COOL!!!

one thing I was actually very proud of my self on the assembly of this car.  I glued a piece of metal to the roof of the car, where the motor would need to be.  I then attached magnets to the mount I made of my motor.  This allowed me to place the motor and move it easily so that I had it in the right spot for opening and closing the door all the way.  Once I was happy with the placement, I put some hot glue on it, just to help hold it in place.  The magnets were plenty strong, but figured I might bump it during assembly or something and the hot glue would keep it in place for any bumping.

Again I must say it is fantastic. Such smooth operation. I believe the words are You are a thinker, Doer, talented!

That door movement is absolutely terrific. 

WAY COOL. YOU'VE INSPIRED ME TO DO IT SOMETIME IN THE FUTURE. I HAVE MORE PROJECTS NOW TO KEEP ME OCCUPIED FOR A LONG TIME.

  Your distance delema is just the need for a larger disc (a lever here )  One you hit limits on size (arc radius) you need a new drive type..(rack&pinion & limit switches?)

   Servos for RC toys might be another option. The remote for a conventional car.  (kline or williams did it too)

  Lots you could do with it. From a hobo checking out where they may be enroute to goods transfering operations. Neat stuff.

MAN I have to tell you with what you have developed you can apply all kinds of automation to your layout. Factory overhead roll up doors etc etc. Nick

Adriatic posted:

  Your distance delema is just the need for a larger disc (a lever here )  One you hit limits on size (arc radius) you need a new drive type..(rack&pinion & limit switches?)

   Servos for RC toys might be another option. The remote for a conventional car.  (kline or williams did it too)

  Lots you could do with it. From a hobo checking out where they may be enroute to goods transfering operations. Neat stuff.

 

I did want to do a bigger disc I was actually limited by the connection to the door. It took up more space than I planned and limited how far the door could open. 

I agree with the other options. Lots of ways people could do it. 

jrmertz posted:

rockstars1989 posted:

Wow I am impressed. Your quite an engineer. I would love to learn more about the motor and the linkage. Can I E mail you? Nick

feel free, it is not a complex design at all.  The motor was in my bin, I usually search amazon for geared motors, and every once in a while add one to my cart to get free shipping on something else.

Jr can you E Mail me? rockstars1989@yahoo.com Thanks. Nick

rockstars1989 posted:

MAN I have to tell you with what you have developed you can apply all kinds of automation to your layout. Factory overhead roll up doors etc etc. Nick

You are correct!  I’ve actually used a similar mechanism before. This one was actually simpler. Below was first attempt at automation. It is a command controlled car I made. 

rockstars1989 posted:

jrmertz posted:

rockstars1989 posted:

Wow I am impressed. Your quite an engineer. I would love to learn more about the motor and the linkage. Can I E mail you? Nick

feel free, it is not a complex design at all.  The motor was in my bin, I usually search amazon for geared motors, and every once in a while add one to my cart to get free shipping on something else.

Jr can you E Mail me? rockstars1989@yahoo.com Thanks. Nick

Sure thing. Just sent a message. 

Several years before Lionel made the command controlled Tie-Jector, I made my own command controlled version.  I used a model airplane servo to control the ejection mechanism as it was controlled by trackside track-trips.

I triggered it using the smoke control output of the ERR Mini Commander II, and that activated this little hand-wrapped board.

Here's a link to my project description:Command Equipped Tie-Jector

I'm glad it worked.

Just curious as to how much it cost you to make it please ?  It'll be interesting to see how much of a mark up should anyone decide to come out with one of their own. Nice job by the way.

Thanks,

Joe B.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Several years before Lionel made the command controlled Tie-Jector, I made my own command controlled version.  I used a model airplane servo to control the ejection mechanism as it was controlled by trackside track-trips.

I triggered it using the smoke control output of the ERR Mini Commander II, and that activated this little hand-wrapped board.

Here's a link to my project description:Command Equipped Tie-Jector

i definitely read through your post before on this one.  It was a cool project.  I've been interested in servo motors, but I don't yet understand how to control them.  They would have been much nicer for my Navy car with tank gun swiveling at the top.  That is why I have resorted to more mechanical fixes.

Joe B posted:

Just curious as to how much it cost you to make it please ?  It'll be interesting to see how much of a mark up should anyone decide to come out with one of their own. Nice job by the way.

Thanks,

Joe B.

cost is a bit difficult, but I will try to break down from memory
1. box car - $40 (this could vary widely I'm sure)

2. truck with pickups - $25
3. DC buck converter - $8 - however, I have since found cheaper ones in my Amazon cart right now is a 6 pack of them for $11

4. Whistle circuit - $0 - i'm not sure the cost on this one, as i just took it from my parts bin after upgrading my hogwarts train.

5. Geared Motor - $10 - these vary in price for me, i bought a few a while ago.  I think the ones I tend to find average around $10

6. Miscellaneous parts I used - Brass sheet, plastic sheet, wire, hot glue, super glue, epoxy glue, metal brace, magnets, double sided tape, bolts, nuts, washers,  - $? - hard to say as i bought most of this a while ago and just used it for this project.  Also, most of this could be used over several projects

7. time.  For a hobby project like I did, there is no cost for time.  But if a person was selling these, they would probably want to recover some value of their time.  I did this over a weekend essentially.  It went quick.  I had no plans except what I thought in my head and i just did it.

hopefully that helps answer the cost equation a bit...My train store (sommerfelds in Butler WI) was a big help in finding a box car with a nice door and one that could have trucks with pickups.  

PR&NJRR posted:

THATS SO COOL!!!

Kinda sez it all! 

jrmertz posted:

i definitely read through your post before on this one.  It was a cool project.  I've been interested in servo motors, but I don't yet understand how to control them.  They would have been much nicer for my Navy car with tank gun swiveling at the top.  That is why I have resorted to more mechanical fixes.

The servo motors are controlled by a single PWM logic bit chain.  The pulse width determines the servo positioning.  For just two positions, it's really easy to do with a 555, you just have to change the timing with the input of some sort.

This board provided the power, input signal isolation for the smoke control (relay) and of course, the two different PWM values to position the servo to activate/deactivate the ejection mechanism.

Thank you JRMERTZ.

Joe B.

jrmertz posted:

I've been interested in servo motors, but I don't yet understand how to control them.  They would have been much nicer for my Navy car with tank gun swiveling at the top.  That is why I have resorted to more mechanical fixes.

There is yet another wrinkle with model servos, you can have one that is capable of 360 degree rotation with no stops.  That would really be cool for the tank turret.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

jrmertz posted:

i definitely read through your post before on this one.  It was a cool project.  I've been interested in servo motors, but I don't yet understand how to control them.  They would have been much nicer for my Navy car with tank gun swiveling at the top.  That is why I have resorted to more mechanical fixes.

The servo motors are controlled by a single PWM logic bit chain.  The pulse width determines the servo positioning.  For just two positions, it's really easy to do with a 555, you just have to change the timing with the input of some sort.

This board provided the power, input signal isolation for the smoke control (relay) and of course, the two different PWM values to position the servo to activate/deactivate the ejection mechanism.

I think I understand the pulse width, looking at your drawing and re-reading it.  However, if I remember right you made your own board for that second schematic?  I think that is the part I struggle with.  I don't quite follow all the symbols and things in that diagram.  If that was a ready made board that would be much easier for me.  Or a kit, I would not be afraid to try soldering it all together myself...

gunrunnerjohn posted:

jrmertz posted:

I've been interested in servo motors, but I don't yet understand how to control them.  They would have been much nicer for my Navy car with tank gun swiveling at the top.  That is why I have resorted to more mechanical fixes.

There is yet another wrinkle with model servos, you can have one that is capable of 360 degree rotation with no stops.  That would really be cool for the tank turret.

ah, so I contemplated 360 motion, it would have been easier for me actually to just mount the gun straight to my geared motor.  My problem, I wasn't sure how to comfortably get power to the gun barrel.  I have a red LED light in the barrel.  When I press a button, it makes a firing noise and the light goes off.  I was afraid the wires for the light would just get all twisted.  So, I decided I had to either solve for the wires, or reduce the motion.  I decided to reduce the motion.  

I'm sure smarter people than me (people like yourself) could do much better    

Since I put a command board in this one, one of my other thoughts was to put a command board for engines, and use the the function for control forward and reverse as a way to choose where the turret was spinning and such.  However, this still left me with the tangled wires for my Red LED problem.  I really thought the gun barrel lighting up was cooler than full range of motion...I also thought solving for partial motion was easier than solving for tangled wires  

Yep, I just cobbled that board together for the specific purpose.  At the time I wasn't thinking of doing PCB layouts.  Nowadays, it's actually easier for me to do a PCB, wait a week or two for the prototypes to come back, and solder stuff up.  The hand wiring of something like that is actually fairly time consuming, and not infrequently error prone.

I've probably made a number of PCB's for every one you see me talk about here, sometimes there's an obvious head space in the design and I have to do a simple mod, other times when I get one, I realize that the functionality isn't what I really need.

I will say that you can certainly pick up the ability to do some simple boards, start small for a couple of projects and then move up scale.

I use TinyCAD schematic capture for stuff that doesn't go to PCB, and DipTrace schematic capture for stuff that will get turned into a PCB.