A Wickham trolley

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Re: A Wickham trolley

Post by thornmini » Sun Mar 28, 2021 7:05 pm

I'm so glad you agree with Philip --- the India Wickham is an absolute MUST for you :thumbright:
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Re: A Wickham trolley

Post by philipy » Mon Mar 29, 2021 3:33 pm

Ok, a small update.
A few years ago, Rik posted about how he used a recordable greetings card module to provide sound to one of his small loco's, as part of a series of sound "How to's..".
At the time I thought that it might come in handy one day so I acquired a similar unit, put it in the cupboard and promptly forgot all about it. Every now and again I came across this collection of bits in a bag and couldn't quite remember what it was! However, I did remember Rik's articles and wondered if it might be helpful for the Wickham, so I looked it up last week and lo and behold, it jogged my memory about my bag of bits.
About 2/3 the way down this page: https://riksrailway.blogspot.com/search?q=sound
To cut a long story short, I lashed up my bag of bits following Rik's instructions, but it didn't work.... :scratch: until I noticed that after all this time one of the batteries had leaked. :oops: A new power supply and it worked exactly as described - thanks Rik.

I had hopes of putting the circuit board in the engine bay, but it may be a bit of a squeeze and would result in running wiring around, and since the speaker has to go under the trolley roof, I decided that the board may as well go up there as well.

So I designed and printed the following housing to fit the curve of the roof underside: From left to right - the speaker is obvious, the circuit board is next to it and the small push button switch allows the sound to be turned on/off completely. The two wired objects at the top of the picture are the mic and record button and will be removed in due course, and the twisted pair at the bottom are the power supply, which will need to be run down to the main battery.
Image

The mic and record buttons are only still attached because I'm not happy with the sound that I've downloaded and edited from a Youtube video and I will want to redo it when I find a better one.
Philip

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Re: A Wickham trolley

Post by Lonsdaler » Tue Mar 30, 2021 2:33 pm

philipy wrote: Mon Mar 29, 2021 3:33 pm Ok, a small update.
A few years ago, Rik posted about how he used a recordable greetings card module to provide sound to one of his small loco's, as part of a series of sound "How to's..".
At the time I thought that it might come in handy one day so I acquired a similar unit, put it in the cupboard and promptly forgot all about it. Every now and again I came across this collection of bits in a bag and couldn't quite remember what it was! However, I did remember Rik's articles and wondered if it might be helpful for the Wickham, so I looked it up last week and lo and behold, it jogged my memory about my bag of bits.
About 2/3 the way down this page: https://riksrailway.blogspot.com/search?q=sound
To cut a long story short, I lashed up my bag of bits following Rik's instructions, but it didn't work.... :scratch: until I noticed that after all this time one of the batteries had leaked. :oops: A new power supply and it worked exactly as described - thanks Rik.

I had hopes of putting the circuit board in the engine bay, but it may be a bit of a squeeze and would result in running wiring around, and since the speaker has to go under the trolley roof, I decided that the board may as well go up there as well.

So I designed and printed the following housing to fit the curve of the roof underside: From left to right - the speaker is obvious, the circuit board is next to it and the small push button switch allows the sound to be turned on/off completely. The two wired objects at the top of the picture are the mic and record button and will be removed in due course, and the twisted pair at the bottom are the power supply, which will need to be run down to the main battery.
Image

The mic and record buttons are only still attached because I'm not happy with the sound that I've downloaded and edited from a Youtube video and I will want to redo it when I find a better one.
Looking good. I did the same to my little HGLW steeple cab loco. In the end I stuck with the sound I first found, because I realised the low power and speaker wouldn't show a more realistic sound effect in a better light :dontknow:
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Re: A Wickham trolley

Post by Peter Butler » Wed Mar 31, 2021 9:40 pm

Problem solved..... A Wickham Trolley with reverse!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdfmJ2- ... 9w&index=1
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Re: A Wickham trolley

Post by philipy » Thu Apr 01, 2021 6:18 am

Thanks Peter. Yes the later ones with Ford etc engines and proper gearboxes did have reverse, but that was roughly from WW2 onwards. However the early ones from the 1920's used JAP V motorcycle engines with no reverse.
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Re: A Wickham trolley

Post by philipy » Wed Apr 07, 2021 11:24 am

It's been a bit of a job this past couple of weeks as I struggled to fit all that I wanted into the confined space in the Wickham. The sound unit was fairly simple, concealed under the roof as shown above, however within the engine housing I needed to fit: two batteries with protection board, voltage regulator, R/C receiver, on/off switch, motor, gears, charge sockets, fuse and, of course, bits of wire to join it all together - all in a space that is 118L x 21W x 30H maximum.
The whole lot needed to be mounted on or in a frame that would fit within those dims so that it was removable from the body so that immediately reduced the usable width even more.

I remembered a series of articles in SMT from several years ago in which Mike Jeffries repurposed various low cost R/C units, and managed to dig it out - SMT 157 February 2016. These units are still available on ebay although the price has risen somewhat over the years, so I shelled out my £3-69 and when it arrived I was pleased to find that it did function exactly as Mike had described.


Image

In order to get the motor concealed between the frames and make maximum use of the space, I would need a 2 stage gearbox to get down to the driven axle, which would also have the advantage of keeping the top speed restricted. Given the small size of the wheels (20mm) it was a bit of a juggle to keep everything concealed, even in theory! However, again on good old fleabay, I found a model shop selling a 3v motor with a selection of nylon gears, for £3-95.

Image

A little bit of juggling around in Sketchup showed that it would just allow me to do what was needed. The middle gear does protrude slightly below the chassis but should be virtually invisible behind the wheels on a such a low slung vehicle.

More to follow.
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Re: A Wickham trolley

Post by ge_rik » Wed Apr 07, 2021 6:58 pm

philipy wrote: Mon Mar 29, 2021 3:33 pm
To cut a long story short, I lashed up my bag of bits following Rik's instructions, but it didn't work.... :scratch: until I noticed that after all this time one of the batteries had leaked. :oops: A new power supply and it worked exactly as described - thanks Rik.

Glad it's proved useful. I've not discovered a way of overcoming the half second pause when it recycles, but considering the price it's not too intrusive.

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Re: A Wickham trolley

Post by philipy » Wed Apr 07, 2021 7:36 pm

ge_rik wrote: Wed Apr 07, 2021 6:58 pm I've not discovered a way of overcoming the half second pause when it recycles, but considering the price it's not too intrusive.
I've only heard it on the bench so far, but I suspect that out in the garden with all the general noise of birds, wind, etc, it won't really notice at all.
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Re: A Wickham trolley

Post by Jimmyb » Thu Apr 08, 2021 8:26 am

Philip, I have one of the RF controls that came with a set of LED lights, and I have to admit I have struggled to get it to work, new batteries all round and it has been very sporadic, but will give it another go :)

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Re: A Wickham trolley

Post by philipy » Thu Apr 08, 2021 6:54 pm

So the next step was to 3D print the gearbox/chassis. No real problem with that although I had to do it several times, partly because after each prototype print I thought, "Hmm, I should have...", and partly because the issue of print shrinkage made it a bit tricky to precisely position the intermediate gear - the gears have very small teeth which leaves little room for error.

Image

The r/c receiver requires a minimum of 5.4v to function so the obvious choice for batteries was a pair of Li-ions giving 7.4v total. I managed to find two solder tagged 16340 3.7v Li-Ion batteries which I could make into a battery pack which included a very small (27 x 5.7 x 1.6mm) protection board, which I fitted inside the heatshrink sleeve.

Image

Image

This battery pack fitted neatly on top of the the gearbox chassis unit, the width being identical and by reducing the height of the chassis ( one of the protype mods I mentioned above) it fitted within the height constraint.

The Rx is 41 x 13 x 5mm and this fits neatly under the battery pack between the frames, although as Mike Jeffries suggested, it was necessary to remove and replace the rx heat shrink sleeve and replace the heavy wires with thinner more flexible ones. At the same time, I rerouted them to all come out of one end and used different coloured wires for the supply and control connections.
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Image
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Re: A Wickham trolley

Post by philipy » Fri Apr 09, 2021 11:11 am

So far so good and much as I had expected, but now for the bits that I didn't quite know what to do with - the sockets, the fuse, the switch and the voltage regulator.
In my box of bits I found a small Voltage Reg module which was by chance exactly 15mm wide and fitted perfectly on top of the top frame spacer over the motor, held in place by piece of double sided tape.
The voltage regulator is essential because the battery is nominally 7.4v and the motor is only 3 volts. The original article suggested using a string of diodes to drop the voltage, but apart from being a messy waste of space, it simply doesn't seem the right way to go about it, plus of course the regulator will compensate for battery voltage dropping.
The battery balance charge plug on a short lead will wrap down the side of the gearbox frame out of the way inside the outer housing, so thats not a problem.

This leaves the main charge socket, switch and fuse needng homes. The Rx board is 35mm long and between the frame spacers under the battery pack there is a space about 53mm long, which leaves me with about 18mm spare, just enough for the socket mounted vertically. Half an hour later and I had printed an L-shaped replacement spacer with a hole in it for the socket. I had to bend the socket tags down level with it's body to leave room for the battery on top and this leaves a small gap behind the socket is just big enough for the auto reset fuse!

All that just leaves the on/off switch. Of course sometimes it's unavoidable, but I hate seeing switches visibly mounted on external frames, footplates, etc. In this case there isn't even that much luxury and I've been contemplating having to surface mount it and try to disguise it as a toolbox or something. The trouble with that is that it would have the switch mounted on the body not the underframe with all the electrics.
Then good fortune smiled on me again. In the photos, some of this early design of Trolley had a gap in the top boarding of the engine housing, just in front of the drivers seat. I'm not sure what it is for in the real thing, but there is a lever of some sort protruding up from it, gear lever perhaps? I had already left this gap when I printed the body parts and when I looked through this gap, after offering the works up underneath, low and behold there was a gap between the motor and the L-shaped spacer, which lined up almost perfectly with my top gap. Moreover, when I measured the actual space I found that a few strokes of a file could reduce the body of a slide switch slightly to fit between the frames. The switch knob was not quite lined up, but I sawed down from the top and reduced the width by about 50% so that it now slides in the gap. A little bit of work with a short piece of 4mm scale bullhead rail and a couple of 14BA nuts and bolts, gives me a 'knob extension' which allows the switch to function from above the body whilst being fixed to the works.

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Re: A Wickham trolley

Post by ge_rik » Fri Apr 09, 2021 2:08 pm

Marvellous bit of engineering. Can't wait to see it in action.

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Re: A Wickham trolley

Post by philipy » Sat Apr 10, 2021 7:05 am

philipy wrote: Sun Mar 14, 2021 8:34 pm
invicta280 wrote: Sun Mar 14, 2021 8:13 pm I believe they were often kept in a lineside shed equiped with a miniature turntable to put them onto a siding.
Yes, the turntable was a standard fitting although I can't make out where/how they carried it.
I'm just about to start on the small body fittings etc and in looking at various photos I think I've more or less answered my own question. Most pictures are from the driver's side, but on two which are from the other side, when zoomed in I noticed that both had a couple of strange shaped wooden blocks fixed to the floor. I'm not sure exactly how it works but I strongly suspect that they somehow restrain the the pieces of the the turntable.
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Re: A Wickham trolley

Post by philipy » Mon Apr 26, 2021 9:54 am

Some progress going on behind the scenes. I've managed to produce all the small bits and fittings and they are waiting to be glued on.
I've also produced a crew/PW gang, although for some reason I appear to have recruited little green men from Mars! :D
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Re: A Wickham trolley

Post by ge_rik » Mon Apr 26, 2021 12:07 pm

Why is one of them doing the hokey kokey?

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Re: A Wickham trolley

Post by philipy » Mon Apr 26, 2021 12:22 pm

ge_rik wrote: Mon Apr 26, 2021 12:07 pm Why is one of them doing the hokey kokey?

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Re: A Wickham trolley

Post by philipy » Sun May 16, 2021 2:12 pm

Been a much bigger delay than I was expecting but now finished apart from the sound. I'll explain the delay at the end of this.

This gives a view of the underside but before the brakes were fitted.
I had to use a bit of modellers licence because I was unable to find any detail of a narrow gauge underframe apart from a passing comment that they used an external sprung axlebox. So I pinched the axleboxes from a target trolley which appears to have the same arrangement.
Image

On the track
Image

The Head Ganger driving.
Image

Just for Rik - the "Hokey Cokey man" - Now you can see why! :lol:
Image

Just to complete the gang - the Lad.
Image

It runs quite nicely, but is still awaiting sound.
As I said earlier, I was intending to use Rik's greeting card system, however for some reason it packed up on me. I ordered a new one which in the ebay listing appeared to be identical, but when it arrived it had a different component on the board - instead of a black dome glued on the board it had a 'proper' discrete IC. It worked fine but I was unable to find the shorting connection to allow it to repeat on a loop and eventually it got hot and stopped working completely. However, before that I experimented with using a transistor switch to turn it on and off as the drive motor started and stopped. It sort of worked but was erratic and spasmodic and I know enough about electronics to know that I don't know enough about electronics to solve the problem. I then had an idea and called in the electronic big guns. SWMBO's business partner is a high powered contract electronic design engineer so I asked him how to effect the switch I wanted. Could have been a mistake :lol: :roll: We've spent almost 3 weeks going backwards and forwards with Arduino's and SD card readers and sound clips and who knows what else and now we are trying to miniaturise it all to fit under the curve of the Trolley roof. Watch this space....
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Re: A Wickham trolley

Post by Lonsdaler » Sun May 16, 2021 2:17 pm

That is looking really good Philip. What a difference it makes when the people's poses are correct for the location they're in too. I hope the expert assistance comes good in the end too!
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Re: A Wickham trolley

Post by ge_rik » Sun May 16, 2021 2:17 pm

Well worth the wait - I'm glad Hokey Kokey Man now has a place, I was getting concerned about him.

The greetings card module on my Simplex has finally given up the ghost, so I'm trying to decided whether to replace like with like or go down the Arduino route - however, as you've found, that will take up more space.

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Re: A Wickham trolley

Post by -steves- » Sun May 16, 2021 2:23 pm

Well Philip you have outdone yourself, that is truly spectacular in all ways. My hat off to you sir :salute:
The buck stops here .......

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