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Peter

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Everything posted by Peter

  1. Boat traverses up and down stream without turning around. It needs to be symmetrical, with two bow sections, so it does not look like to is reversing when the boat returns. Bought two cheap wooden boat kits from China. Here is a photo edit to get an idea of what the boat ought to look like. I cut the two decks, cabins, and keels in half. Glued the bow sections together, with scrap wood supports. Planking was too stiff without heat shaping them first. Found a DIY method on the Internet. It worked real well. Here I am bending the gunwale first. Marked where I wanted the waterline to be. Then bent and added the waterline plank. All other planking was to fill the gap between gunwale and waterline. Then the bootom got cut off. Sanded the base flat on a sheet of sandpaper.
  2. Both DC geared motors for bridge and boat require control circuits. Decided to use logic controlled circuitry for switching motor rotation (CW and CCW). Also discovered that the span would raise too quickly even with a 148:1 gearbox. Using a lower supply voltage, via a series of diodes, to the motors slowed it down. Also discovered that the motor shaft roation drifts when switched off. This drift needs to be accounted for when placing the triggers that switch the motors off. Building the two motor circuits on the one circuit board.
  3. Thank you @ewahl and @Mark Deliduka for visiting thread and kind words. I suppose personal history of skills gained has lend itself to this first model. It sure seems to be a unique opportunity for me, though I did not see it that way at first. I am sure others also have transferable skills that could lend itself to a particular unforeseen task. A woman I know also found such an opportunity land on her lap, all her skills lend itself to comody theatre. Yes, I am grateful to have found a niche, after all this time. Or perhaps I should say 'the niche found me'. I feel the same way with sport, I tried all sorts of sport to no avail, until I had to do cycling for health reasons. Now I love it! Have been cycling for years. It is a sport that found me (I was not looking for it). However, after saying all this, nearly all the steps I take on this model is done with a degree of apprehension. Some more apprehensive than others. Modelling, as you know, has its challenges. I am certain we need them or else we won't get any satisfaction from building models.
  4. Designed and built servo controllers for the gates. The gates rotate 90 deg. You can see on the oscilloscope the required change in duty-cycle to control the rotated position. Each servo has its own two trim-pots (blue squares) for adjusting the open and close position of the gates. Made wooden brackets to fix the servos and gate levers in place under the table. Each pair of gates has its limit switches, not for positioning the gates, but for triggering the console red and green gate lamps. Also to determine when all the gates are either open or closed. These brackets will fit over the servo-gate mechanism. The gate levers will enable the microswitch (on/off).
  5. Thank you Kev @Roktman. I do appreciate your responses. _________________________________________ The original bridge console operated swing gates instead of todays boom gates. Had lots of trouble finding an image of what they used to look like, until I saw this (enlarged detail). This gave me the go ahead to make the gates. They will be servo motor controlled. Used washers, brass tube, tin from a lid, fencing wire, flat wire, scrap plate, couplings fron electrical terminal strip, and fly screen.
  6. Painted the road surface. Built a corner fence for the house.
  7. Interesting point. Will invite them to the display opening day (whenever that is).
  8. Thank you Peter @StrikeEagle, for your complimentive words. Glad you like the build log. ______________________________________ Now there was a matter of a partial house within the display boundaries. Assuming standard whole 'feet' measurements. I was able to get a good estimation of the house size. Decided to include interior lighting. Using an electronic ciruit which squences 5 outputs (LED lights). So, I divide the house into five rooms. Also added thin Perspex for windows. It was a bit tricky making the roof. Because the Masonite is 2.5 mm thick, I had to use wood putty to fill on the bevelled gaps. Included a painted figurine into the front enclosed verander. She is now overlooking the construction of the model Tested and created the sequencer circuit. Every 10 seconds one room light will turn off while an adjacent room switches on. This will appear as if someone is going from one room to the next.
  9. Building Bridge Street (now called Bridge Drive).
  10. Thank you @Mark Deliduka for kind words. __________________________________________ Getting back to the bridge display, there was the matter of the land masses and riverbanks at each end of bridge. Starting on the North side with the footpath that goes under the bridge. Left (2010), right (2017). Took basic measurements and started modelling the stairs, etc.
  11. Added Passive InfraRed (PIR) unit inside console. This is to detect human activity near the console. Detected human movement will turn on interior lighting, to attract visitors to interact with the display. Added felt lining around front edge. Lined the interior edge with LED flexible strip. Added front Perspex panel, with kickboard cut from the original steel panel. Console diorama completed.
  12. Thank you Kev for for your wows. Much appreciated. ______________________________ To re-wire the console I had to create a wiring harness first. This is much larger than wiring a radio or a sterio internals. Done some reasearch into industrial wiring, such as for a car. They used a large peg-board to map out where the wires go. So I did the same thing. Then came the task of attaching the harness. Did not bother too much about how it would look under the control panel, nobody will see it anyway. But it was important to have no stress /tension on any of the wires. Installed the control panel with harness to the console. Initially used white plastic ties, but after connecting to the three terminal strips I replaced them with coloured ones. A smaller harness was made between terminal strips and the two D-Connectors at rear of console. These will bridge, via a multi-core cable, to the display control box.
  13. Thanks Mark for your response. ________________________________ At this stage i needed a break from the bridge display. So I focussed on the console for a while. Renovating the interior and instrumentation.
  14. Thank you Mark @Mark Deliduka for your kind words and encouragement. Much appreciated. __________________________________________ The next part was to paint the road surface (concrete), which is different to the highway (bitumen). Tried to use a splatter technique which did not work well for me. So then I the dry brush dabbing method. Finally used a fine brush to spot dark (gravel) and light (cement) colours. It took a while, but I think it paid off. Painting under the span frame was quite difficult. The edges across the road between span and bridge are protected with steel plate (painted silver). Masked the road for centre and fog lines. Added small yellow reflectos down the road centre. Later, I could not resist playing with the 1/74 (OO gauge) scale cars.
  15. Painted the railings.
  16. Turned display table on its side to harness the wiring, from the bridge, towards the centre where the control box (pulley system and electronics) will be attached.
  17. Spent a few days adding the railings on both road and footpath. Used matchsticks and split bamboo skewers.
  18. Thank you mysterious 'someone' for liking above.
  19. Due to the nature of my design, which includes wiring under the bridge, three items have to be installed at the same time. That is, the towers, road base, and traffic lights. Took me awhile to find a solution that won't split the wood when drilling it. Making the traffic lights. Building the road and footpath base. Drilled countless holes for railing posts. Routed the wiring to go under the table. Installed towers, road, and lights.
  20. Built up the top of the tower and added its servicing gangway.
  21. A set of pulley wheels need brackets to hold them in place at the top of the towers. Used aluminium plate. The towers are not yet installed. Just checking to see how the wheels line up with the span cable anchoring points. Also, where I need to drill cable holes into the bridge. Checking how the bumper rollers are to the tower.
  22. Thanks for kind words. Here and there, I left out written explanations. Thinkingt that some photos ought to be somewhat self explanatory. Glad you like the build log so far.
  23. Painted the span framework. Added road and footpath railings.
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