Tip: Water Crane with Servo Motor, LED Lantern, Moving Man Date: Update includes video

Transcription

1 Hi All, I ve had the Faller Swivel Water Spouts kit (B137 = old number) since 2000, which I will refer to as a Water Crane. I assembled the kit at the time with the intent of animating it with a servo motor sometime later, well I have finally got around to it and was very pleased with the results. Water Crane installed on the layout Top View with Water Crane in the filling position (C) 1

2 The picture above shows the original Water Crane with two plastic lanterns. The photo above shows the completed modifications for the Water Crane before painting and weathering. The plastic lanterns have been replaced by a single LED lantern showing the red side. The wires to the lantern have been concealed on the underside of the structure and can just be seen near the top of the brass column. There are no moving/flexible wires as the brass column is a conductor with another insulated brass rod inside that acts as the other electrical connection as well as the drive from the servo motor to the head of the Water Crane. To finish of the animated scene I used the Viessmann emotion Moving world item 5113 (railway worker) which when mounted near the valve handle looks as though he is turning On/Off water to the Water Crane. Note: Viessmann produce a moving Water Crane 5132 complete with motor drive but it doesn t have a LED lantern or moving man. Animation scene on the layout The LED Lantern is always on and faces the entering locomotive on the siding with the white side of the lantern. The locomotive enters the siding and stops near the Water Crane. The Water Crane swings over the water tank filler and the red side of the lantern faces up the track. After a small pause the moving man operates to turn the water on for a few seconds then stops. There is a longer pause as the locomotive water tanks are filled then the moving man starts for a few seconds to turn off the water. After the moving man stops, the Water Crane swings back to its rest position and the locomotive moves off to another location. YouTube Video Link 44 Seconds Duration 2

3 Construction/Modifications If you are constructing the kit with the intension to use a servo motor and LED Lantern, don t glue 3/2 support column in place as this will be replaced by the brass support column. As mentioned I had glued 3/2 column in place and had to remove it before doing the next step To position the brass tube 1/8 dia. x 62mm in the centre of the support footing I used a small 5/32 dia. x 10mm copper tube to be a nice fit between the support flanges. I used this to act as a drill guide and centre for the 1/8 drill. I ensured that the drill was vertical and drilled through the plastic base and also through some scrap 9mm thick plywood. Water Spout Height Calculation By default the height of the plastic water spout is 39mm from the base when used with the plastic column. As I use K track I selected several different locomotives and placed each in turn on the track and measured the height to just clear the water tank filler location. To my surprise I needed a height of 46mm to clear the locomotives. Tip: - If you use C track the height of the water spout will have to increase. Column Length Calculation with K-Track With 46mm clearance required and with 9mm thickness of the baseboard I wanted the brass tube to protrude below the baseboard by 4-5mm and a height difference of 5mm between the spout and the rotation point, I needed a tube length of 65mm total. 46mm The diagram is calculated for K-Track with a 3mm cork underlay. 3

4 Completing the Support Column The top of the support column requires an 8BA brass washer to be soldered to it to act as an electrical connection point (commutator) for the top of the Water Crane to sit on and make electrical contact. This requires that the washer is perpendicular to the tube and centred on the brass tube internal diameter. The two photos below show how I managed to get a perfect fit. In the left photo I drilled a clearance hole for a 3/32 brass rod in my scrap timber. Next I inserted a length of 3/32 rod into the hole and placed the 8BA brass washer over the rod. I now placed the column support 1/8 brass tube over the 3/32 rod with the end cleaned as shown. The right hand photo shows the 1/8 tube resting on the 8BA washer and I used a square to ensure the tube was perpendicular to the washer. I soldered the washer and tube with a nice small fillet of solder. As a last process I ground down the diameter of the 8BA washer from a diameter of 5.65mm to 5.25mm To ensure the head of the Water Crane would rotate freely without an interference fit

5 Components and Sub-assemblies Used The photo below shows most components and some sub-assemblies for the Water Crane On the top row the sub-assembly consists of the blue crank for the servo motor with a Märklin 7140xx plug (metal part only) cut the split pin section off the plug hold in place with 3/64 brass rod inserted through the existing hole in the plug and bent to fit into two enlarged holes 1.2mm on either side of the crank centre. 2. The next sub-assembly is a commutator made up from 3/32 x 7mm and 1/8 x 3mm tube with an 8BA washer. This stops the connecting wire to the internal 3/32 rod from wrapping around the shaft. All items are soldered together. 3. A spring from an old pen. 4. Insulating tube 1/8 ID (internal diameter) x 5mm length. 5. Base of the Water Crane kit with 1/8 hole drilled. 6. 5/32 x 10mm copper tube. 7. 1/8 x 62mm brass tube (column support). 8. 3x 8BA brass washers. One is soldered to the brass tube (7) the second is reduced in diameter to 5.25mm and bent to act as a crinkle washer and the last has a flat ground on one side and used as the electrical commutator connection for the top of the Water Crane. 9. Plastic Water Crane Spout assembly without the LED lantern /64 brass rod insulated with 3/32 x 87mm styrene tube (see special note page 5) 11. Moving Viessmann man 5113 with motor mounted under the Water Crane base and held in place with hot melt glue. (see detail page 6) 12. Completed Water Crane spout assembly with LED lantern and insulated drive shaft. Please note for (item 1) I changed the servo crank arms by trimming the excess length as shown below 5

6 Insulated Drive Shaft Detail (10) Above is a top view of the insulated internal drive shaft made from 3/32 styrene tube and 3/64 brass rod. Note the slot at the end on one side only of the styrene tube (green arrow) the brass rod is bent up at 90 deg. (see photo below) and the edges are filed flat (see red lines above) Ensure the rod is a neat fit in the slot and is not bigger than the diameter of the styrene tube. Now insert it into the head of the Water Crane fully and with a pencil trace the outline (orange) at the back of the head of the Water Crane where the styrene tube can be seen through the similar shape hole. Remove the drive shaft from the head of the Water Crane, then remove the brass rod and file across the styrene tube to form a hole as shown. Make sure you leave 1mm at the bottom as shown so the hole is clear of the bottom part of the Water Crane head. 1 Insert the brass rod into the styrene tube fully and trace with a pencil over the brass rod seen in the hole to identify at which location the brass rod will be tinned with solder. Now remove the rod and tin with solder at the marked location. Don t do this with the styrene fitted as it will melt and distort the tube. Wipe excess solder from the rod and after it cools down ensure you can still insert the rod back into the styrene tube. Please Note: - The 3/32 styrene tube I originally bought had a thinner wall thickness which allowed me to insert the 3/64 brass rod with ease. I have since bought some more 3/32 styrene tube and the wall thickness is thicker and the 3/64 brass rod won t fit. I have tested I can enlarge the hole by using a 1.3mm drill by hand. The insulated styrene tube just has to be made in two sections as the maximum drill depth, in my case was 44mm as that is the usable limit of the 1.3mm drill length. Don t glue the drive shaft into the head of the Water Crane at this stage of the project. 6

7 Mounting the Moving Man The supplied Viessmann 5113 moving railway worker isn t suitable to mount close to the hand valve of the Water Crane but with some easy modifications it works well. Please note you do all modifications at your own risk. First I removed the man by carefully pulling the man away from the drive mechanism. 1. Remove the small end cap at the left end of the module shown above by just pulling left carefully. 2. Locate the two tabs on the tube and squeeze in while pushing the PCB through the tube to the right. 3. The motor is just a press fit into the top cap and can just be pulled out. 4. I soldered two wires onto the motor contact pads and threaded them through the motor mounting hole on the top cap. 5. Then re-assemble the drive electronics. 6. I also put a white dot near the motor terminal so the wiring would be correct (see orange circle below). 7. To mount the motor at the correct location drill a 2mm hole, 3.5mm from the valve handle centre. 8. Counter bore from the bottom side with a 2.5mm drill, deep enough to allow the 3.5 motor to sit flush with the bottom of the crane mounting plate. 9. Hot melt glue the motor onto the bottom of the mounting plate and re-insert the man back into the motor shaft. 7

8 Lantern Construction Drawings Below are three views of the completed lantern (top right) which provide enough dimensions to construct the lantern from 6.5mm acrylic rod. SketchUp 2014 LED Lantern 8

9 Lantern Construction Method The construction of the lantern from 6.5mm acrylic rod is difficult because of the lantern size and as there are no parallel sides it is hard to use any clamping device. I tried a few methods before I was successful and could repeat the process. 1. It is most essential to drill at the end of the rod in the centre with a 2mm drill to a depth of mm. This hole will be used to hold the lantern in the final stages of grinding the final shape as well as hold the LED for the completed lantern. 2. With my Dremel tool held in a vice and fitted with a 409 cutting disc I set the speed control to a slow speed to avoid melting the acrylic rod. 3. The end of the rod with the 2mm hole is the 3mm square end of the lantern. Small grinding steps are recommended to remove material as you can repeat the process until you have the correct dimensions. 4. Print the side view of the lantern and use it as a guide to help get the angle correct. Angle the acrylic rod into the side of the disc to grind the first angled face of the lantern. Remember the end of the rod is the 3mm square end. 5. With one face started rotate the rod 90 degree and grind the next face. 6. Repeat step 5 until you have ground all faces of the lantern and keep checking the measurements. 7. Once the four faces are complete you can cut the lantern from the rod at approximately mm from the end. Make sure you don t lose the small piece when it separates from the rod. 8. Insert the 2mm drill back into the hole of the lantern and use it as a handle to first grind the lantern to its correct length of 4.8mm Ensure the drill stays in the hole when grinding. 9. Now carefully grind the roof shape with four faces as shown in the drawing. 10. As a final process drill a 0.5mm hole as shown making sure it doesn t break through the opposite face. Lantern Assembly 1. Solder two 0.25mm x 90mm length enamelled copper wires to a 0603 warm white LED. Mark the wire connected to the LED anode with white paint. 2. Test the LED and don t forget to use a 1k limiting resistor. 3. The 0603 bright white LED s I have show a blue tinge to the light output. To cure this problem I used Tamiya Clear Yellow X-24 acrylic paint. 4. Once the LED colour is to your liking insulate the bottom of the LED with thin blank card so it won t short circuit on the brass rod and insert it into the hole of the lantern. 5. Insert a brass rod x 50mm into the hole below the LED as shown. Glue the rod into place with super glue. The length of the rod is important to help as an aid to hold the lantern while it is being painted and will be trimmed to length 7mm when it is mounted onto the Water Crane. 6. Test the LED again, don t forget to use a 1k limiting resistor. 7. Twist the copper wires around the brass rod for a few turns. 8. Fill the hole with hot melt glue to seal the end of the lantern. 9. Paint the lantern face with the brass rod and the opposite face with Tamiya Clear Red X-27 acrylic paint as shown. 9

10 Lantern Assembly continued 10. With a flat black acrylic paint, paint the top and bottom of the lantern then a fine line on each edge of the lantern faces as shown. 11. Test the LED again and see the results of your hard work. 12. Carefully store the lantern assembly until you are ready to mount in on the Water Crane. Water Crane Drive Shaft and LED Assembly 1. Cut the styrene insulating tube to 87mm length for one piece or use 2 lengths to make up the 87mm length (see note page 5). 2. Now insert the 3/64 brass rod into the styrene insulator and make sure the bent end fits into the slot. 3. Hot melt glue on the end of the drive shaft and quickly insert into the head of the water crane ensuring the exposed notch in the insulator matches the shape at the back of the head of the water crane. 4. Drill a 0.5mm hole where the original plastic lantern was mounted on the water crane spout. 5. Now cut the brass rod on the LED lantern to approx 4mm from the face of the lantern and be careful not to cut the copper wires, put a small drop of super glue on the end of the rod and insert the LED lantern assembly into the hole. 6. Wind the copper wires around the shaft a few more turns then route them along the underside of the spout holding them in place with some paint. Note the grey paint I used for the path of the wires. 7. Now file a small flat on the edge of an 8BA brass washer and make sure it fits at the bottom of the crane head with flat edge close to the plastic (see red arrow). 8. Trim the copper wire from the LED cathode to length so you have a small loop that will allow you to solder to the edge of the brass washer. Tin the wire end and solder to the edge of the washer. 9. Glue the washer to the crane head with a small amount of super glue. This forms half of the commutator ring. 10. Trim to length the anode copper wire so you have a small loop that will allow you to solder to the drive shaft location (blue arrow). Tin the wire end and solder to the tinned shaft. Be very quick so the plastic and styrene insulator isn t damaged. 11. Test the LED lantern once more making sure you use a 1k limiting resistor. 12. Place the crinkle washer (bent 8BA brass washer reduced in diameter to 5.25mm) on the drive shaft (violet arrow). 10

11 Mounting and Aligning the Servo Motor I chose the ESU precision mini servo to drive my Water Crane. The criteria I wanted was to be able to assemble and disassemble the Water Crane with ease for servicing as required and the solution I have arrived at is very simple and allows fine adjustment of the Water Crane position. 1. I mounted the servo into the supplied plastic mounting block following the ESU instructions. The servo can move a little in the block as it was designed to. 2. The servo assembly shown screwed to a small plywood block was for the prototype test only for this project. 3. The aluminium bracket below was made from 50mm x 3 mm flat strip cut to 90mm in length. 4. I drilled 3 holes for each slot as shown then filed the edges to form a smooth slot. 5. Once all slots and holes were complete I placed the straight aluminium strip in a vice and bent it to a 90 degree angle. 6. The slots provide some latitude to align the servo motor with the water crane shaft and this can be accomplished by one person working under the layout. SketchUp 2014 Mounting Bracket 11

12 Mounting and Aligning the Servo Motor continued I wanted to make the installation of the servo motor as simple as possible and found that if I used a scrap piece of 9mm ply I could set up the position of the servo motor on the aluminium bracket before installing it on the layout. 1. I drilled a 1/8 perpendicular hole in the ply, inserted some spare 1/8 brass tube with a 3/32 styrene tube inside then inserted some spare 3/64 brass rod. 2. Mount the servo motor with holder on the metal bracket held with two self tapper screws and spring washers and make sure you can slide it in the slots. 3. Fix the metal bracket to the ply wood using two self tapper screws and spring washers and make sure you can slide it in the slots and ensure it is centred on the servo motor drive shaft as shown. 4. Now adjust the height of the servo motor to 34mm and tighten the mounting screws. 34 Servo Drive Crank with Spring Tension 1. Remove the spare copper tube, insulator and brass rod from the timber and insert the support column brass tube. 2. See note 1 page 13 for wiring details. 3. Place the insulating tube (item 4 page 5) over the end of the brass tube (orange arrow) to hold the solder lug and insulate the drive shaft from the support column. 4. Place the crinkle washer (note 12 page 9) on the drive shaft of the Water Crane spout assembly and insert it into the support column, adjust the height of the column support for the correct water spout height of 46mm. 5. Take the servo crank assembly with the Märklin plug and push it onto the servo drive shaft. 6. Trim the length of the 3/64 brass drive shaft so the shaft length when inserted into the plug is below the screw by a few mm. 7. Lift the Water Crane spout assembly to create a gap and insert the spring followed by the commutator (item 2 page 5) then carefully insert the Water Crane spout assembly into the plug and lightly tighten the screw. Moving Man Electronics Module 1. Position the moving man electronics module on the back of the metal bracket as shown and hold in place with a plastic tie wrap. 12

13 Layout Installation Before installing the Water Crane on the layout I had to first determine where my locomotives would stop on the track with a trial schedule. I then hand held the Water Crane in the filling position then marked the hole location 25mm further away which would allow me some fine tuning for the locomotive fill position. Check below the layout before drilling to ensure you don t damage anything. Layout Installation Tip The Water Crane support column needs to be perpendicular to the track so when the Water Crane rotates you don t see any strange angles and it maintains the specified clearance of 46mm. Please don t use your drill free hand as 9 out of 10 times you will get a non perpendicular hole. The easiest way is to use some scrap hardwood (I used an off cut of flooring) and drill the required size hole, in this case 1/8 using a drill press to get a perpendicular hole to the woods surface. Place the wood across the track and position the hole where required. Insert the drill bit into the wood and drill the hole through the layout surface. The wood will guide the drill bit perpendicular to the track surface. Drill a pilot hole for the moving man with the 1/8 drill 10mm behind the mast hole with a 2mm offset depending on which side you mount the moving man. The hole can then be enlarged to 8.5mm to fit the moving man. I then used a round file to enlarge the hole as required to allow a perfect fit for the moving man. 13

14 Layout Installation continued On my layout the Water Crane position was right in the middle of a support rib under the layout, Murphy had struck again. I had to cut a hole in the rib, large enough for the servo and mounting bracket but also large enough for my hand, to allow the fitting of the servo crank and spring. This tested my patience as the process was very fiddly. The close up photo to the right shows the LED power supply assembly connected to the digital supply for all my k83 s and k84 s. Below is the latching relay wired to a k83 module and the contacts switch the moving man Off or On. See diagram next page. 14

15 Wiring Lantern LED B ~ ~ 10uF 25V 1k I connected this small circuit to the track power to prevent the LED pulsing to the digital signal as the lantern LED will always be powered on. Track power 1. For the final wiring insert a solder lug over the support column and hold in place with the insulating tube. Solder a grey wire from the lug to the resistor as shown. 2. A blue wire is soldered from the commutator ring to the plus connection on the PCB. The reason for this arrangement is to prevent the wire from rotating when the Water Crane is rotating. Wiring Moving Man to a K V AC/DC 5113 Moving Man Electronics Module Wire a 12V latching relay as shown above or use a k

16 Servo Motor and Controller Selection As this was my first experiment with servo motors and controllers I chose the ESU precision mini servo and the SwitchPilot V2.0 which has provision for two servo motors as well as four k83 compatible outputs. I soon discovered that I could only have two positions programmed for the servo motor. A Start position A and an End position B for each servo drive. The combination worked well but as the filler position on the locomotives are in different places I wanted to be able to program different End positions to cater for different locomotives. I now have the ESU SwitchPilot Servo V2.0 which will allow four programmed positions, a Start position A and three programmed End positions B,C,D for each of the four servo motors it can control. My selection would have been easier if ESU stated the number of programmed positions for each controller in the Technical Data sheet and also mentioned the maximum angle of rotation for the servo motors. Programming the Water Crane Positions I found programming the LokPilot/LokPilot Servo straight forward and just followed the ESU instructions. I chose to program in DCC mode and also control them in DCC mode. Make sure the Water Crane spout is clear of all obstructions before you start to program the positions. Once the Start position A and the first End position B has been programmed you will see the direction and angle the servo motor turns. I chose a minimum CV value for A=0 and a maximum CV value for B=63 and noted the direction the Water Crane turned and also the maximum angle it would turn. If you want the Water Crane to turn in the opposite direction swap the min/max values for positions A and B. I made a small paper protractor to help measure the maximum angle of 145 Once you have decided where the start position needs to be you can adjust the Water Crane spout position by loosening the grub screw on the servo crank, turn the Water Crane spout by hand to the new position and retighten the grub screw. Now you can program all end positions CV s to the correct locations to suite the varied locomotives you want to use for this small working diorama. 16

17 Programming the Water Crane Positions continued Water Crane CV values and degrees Position CV Value Degree Value Degree Value Degree D C B A With a maximum angle of 145 I set the CV values (marked in red) as a starting point for me to fine tune the position of the Water Crane. D C B B is the default position A Position C 17

18 Using TrainController Controlling the Water Crane and moving man to turn on/off the water is straight forward. I have set up a pushbutton for each position where each pushbutton has the correct digital address for the A,B,C and D positions for the Water Crane. See red rectangle Positions with Moving Man macros For positions A, C and D I have a macro that after a small delay (time to allow the Water Crane to get to the required position) the moving man will be turned on for a few seconds then turned off. A longer delay now happens as the tender water tank is filled. Once the tender is filled I turn on the Moving Man for a few seconds then turn off the Moving Man then the Water Crane will return to default position B. The Water Crane moving man is controlled by the timer pushbutton which turns the man on for a small time then turns off. Macros Below is a list of the macros created. 18

19 Locomotive Setup For the locomotive I added a move function which allows me to adjust the distance to position the tender water tank hatch below the Water Crane spout. The Water Crane Train Position Jog macro starts on the locomotive Function Water Crane Jog and moves the locomotive at threshold speed for a very short duration to adjust the correct distance then stops. See Action Stop List below Schedule specific Route/Block settings The locomotive moves from the Head Shunt to the Destination Block Yard12 and stops. On the Action Stop List the Water Crane Train Position Jog macro is started with the Water Crane Jog function. The schedule is then terminated. The Water Crane position C is started by a pushbutton and after a delay is then turned off. For position C the action starts after a small delay (time to allow the Water Crane to get to the required position) the Moving Man will be turned on for a few seconds then turned off. A longer delay now happens as the tender water tank is filled. 19

20 Once the tender is filled I turn on the Moving Man for a few seconds then turn off the Moving Man then the Water Crane will return to default position B. All this action is covered by the long delay (48 seconds) before the next schedule is started to return the locomotive to the Head Shunt. Protractor Below is the drawn protractor which can be printed, cut out and used to setup your own Water Crane As always enjoy your model trains. 20