4mm

At the risk of drifting away from Pete's Dapol B4 and going   I now use Amazon Prime for loads on online shopping and I do watch their streaming service as terrestrial (free to air) tv here is now pretty awful, so for me the subscription is money well spent.

I do agree with Roger though, that  if your not very careful you unknowingly subscribe when purchasing and it's quite difficult to cancel the subscription if you don't want it.


Ed

I don't know where you are, Ed, but here in Oz it's nothing short of dire. I'm glad we subscribed to Britbox a little while ago, or we'd have had to start talking to each other in the evenings. :-)

peterm said

I don't know where you are, Ed, but here in Oz it's nothing short of dire. I'm glad we subscribed to Britbox a little while ago, or we'd have had to start talking to each other in the evenings. :-)

From “Post #288,721”, 20th September 2023, 11:56 pm

 

This is turning into a bit of a saga. I'd fitted a Zimo MX616F. I'd de-soldered the pins and soldered straight to the pads. Stay alive in the cab and away it went.. until a wheel spun on the drive axle. I got some Loctite 640 and using my NWSL quartering jig, refitted the wheel. It worked perfectly. Then I decided I'd fit a sound decoder, speaker and stay alive. I stripped it down and found that a Zimo MS480 wouldn't fit, so I decided to use a wagon for the decoder, stay alive and a nice big speaker. It sounded great. Then the decoder burnt out. That went off to Zimo for repair after finding that no wires were damaged and no shorts found. Just to see it running, I used an MX658N18 decoder with an adapter board. It ran very nicely albeit with no sound, of course… Until a wheel spun on the other axle. Sorted that out in the same way, but now I can't get the keeper plate back on, as it won't sit over the axle and bearings!!

I checked so many times that there's nothing I can see that's causing this. Without the front axle, the plate fits perfectly, so it's definitely the axle/bearings, of which there are 3; one in the middle that the axle swings on and one at either end. These end ones are square and slot into cut outs in the chassis. There are springs under the axle so it's a form of suspension. I'm right out of ideas, so any suggestions are welcome.

Sounds to me as if you've got some stray Loctite in there somewhere Pete.  I'd gues it would only take a tiny sliver to stop the bearings seating properly…………………..

Thanks, Peter but definitely no stray loctite. I put a tiny amount in from the back of wheel  so that the axle would push it in as I pressed it on.

How are you going?

As I said at the start of this post; lovely looking model and runs really smoothly, but! I've now had to take off and secure 3 wheel with the Loctite 640 (thanks, John). I'm so glad I splashed out on the NWSL quartering jig. I can also press the wheels onto the axles with it as well.

That's not good news Pete.  I had imagined Dapol were above this sort of thing but it seems not.

Given the cost of these things, I wouldn't have thought it too much to ask that they were well made.

I guess your repairs have negated the guarantee but what choice did you have……a long wait and high costs to return it to UK….?

I get really annoyed when manufacturers use customers as their test-bed.  It's that sort of rubbish that ruined the UK motor industry !

The UK motor industry… Ha ha. Must have been the laughing stock of the World. But back to more serious things. It's out of warranty anyway and it would have cost me about £20.00 or more plus exorbitant postage cost's, and then imagine how I'd feel if it happened again. We're going to England in May/June, so might see what DCC Supplies have to say for themselves while we're on our way to or from north Wales for a canal trip (narrow boat) for a week. Having said that, the manufacturers don't make a supply of spares available, so DCC supplies are behind the same 8 ball as us.

One of the problems of not living in UK Pete.

From parts of northern France, you can see England but since Brexit, it might as well have been the moon.  I face silly postage costs from UK now plus duty and  customs fees and more often than not, a standard €10 "handling fee".

Sadly, I now tend to buy my decoders from a German supplier but if I want something pre-fitted (essentially, a stay-alive and/or sound project) then I have to resort to a UK suplier.  The decoder is usually a bit more expensive. those high postage costs I mentioned plus, when talking about a decoder setup at around £130 plus , failry hefty charges at this end.  I do however, by necessity, buy locos and rolling stock from UK and usually take the opportunity to have decoders installed before shipment out to me.  That can be eye-watering !

My soldering is not up to attacking expensive decoders althougyh I have been known to try my hand with the odd MX600 ………………..

Your narrow boat trip in Wales sounds like fun.  How big is the boat - not a 70 footer I'd guess - and will you be anywhere near the Pontcysyllte aqueduct - not Wales I know but close !  I saw a shot of it drained for maintenance recently - presumably making sure all was A1 before the "season" ………

I'm with you on the price of things from overseas, but if you're in France, wouldn't it be better to order your Zimo decoders from Austria and download a sound file from Digitrains? I know you'd need an MXULFA unless you have one, but if you've a few sound decoders still to buy it could save you money in the long run.

Looking forward to the narrow boat trip. We're going with another married couple; old school mates. It's a 48' boat. And yes, we'll be going across the viaduct again. We went back in 2008 with a 69' boat because there was meant to be six of us, but a husband died, so only four.

We went to north Wales on another visit and ended up at Betys y coed where we went into an obvoiusly local's pub. The bar went quiet and we got some strange looks, so me being me started talking to people. Ended up with what could have been a few mates if we'd had longer. :-)

I'm really looking forward to going into Vermuilens bakery in Ellesemeer, (not Mllesmeer Port) where they sell top notch pork pies. I don't care if I do came home a lot heavier. :-)

I'm not sure buying chips direct from Zimo is on offer Pete.  Maybe they ensure their agents are stocked before selling them direct but I don't think I've seen them offered direct …………I may of course, be wrong but I think I've drawn a blank in the past.

I do have an MXULFA and have purchased sound projects from both Digitrains and YouChoos in the past.  My concern - nay, abject fear, comes whenever I'm faced with adding a stay-alive.  I know Zimo now fit one as standard to one (or some) of their decoders (can't remember which) but they're not very big and my layout unfortunately includes a couple of dead frog double slips and three 3-way points also dead frog.  These often cause problems because, being part of the entry/exit to yards are all negotiated at low speed.  Either I change the points for live frog, although I'm not sure they exist in double slips, or I fit decent stay-alives.  Given the space restrictions and my clumpy hands, I prefer to pay a professional to carry out such installations.

I think the answer is to practice and improve my soldering skills, then learn how to fit a quart into a "OO" Gauge pint pot !!

I envy you your canal trip.  I haven't done one for many years but used to be involved in canal restoration work way back.

I meant from Austria, not Zimo direct. Would you have to pay tax if you bought from a retailer in Austria or Germany? Or can you get them in France?  It's so handy to be able to download sound files.

On the soldering front, you really do need a good temp controlled soldering station. I use a Goot (Japanese) but there are plenty of other good one's out there. With my shaky hands I find a way to rest them on something and use a small chisel shaped bit. I take no notice of people that say a 15 watt iron is good; mine's a 60 watt and only needs a quick touch to solder.

I wasn't very good when I first started this soldering lark, but with good quality stuff and practice, I've come on leaps and bounds.

Austria, Germany, France, Spain - it makes no difference where I buy them within the European Union Pete - there are no "extras" to pay.

French suppliers seem to carry very little Zimo stock and their prices are usually slightly higher than in Germany.  Dealing with German suppliers has got somewhat easier over recent times.  For some reason, Germany resisted the use of cards and bizzarely,  one had to pay by bank transfer.  This took a few days to arrange but, once they'd been paid, they dispatched the goods - provided they were in stock !  I came a cropper with one company whose site suggested the decoders were in stock but on payment, I got a mail saying they'd dispatch as soon as they had the stock - that took about 2 months !!  Postage from almost anywhere on the continent, including Germany does add another €10 to the cost but as I said, there's no duty to pay.

I agree that, using the MXULFA, uploading sound projects is pretty easy (which reminds me, I must check for MXULFA updates).

Regarding soldering - I do have a couple of temperature controlled irons - neither is "high end" but they seem to work OK.  One is a normal dial controlled station and the other, a digital iron where one sets the temperature by pressing buttons and the LCD screen on the body of the iron gives the temperature.  I've never actually checked the accuracy of either iron but assume they're roughly correct.  I tend to use a pointed tip on small objects - the chisels seem massive against those tiny pads……………….

I think my major problem is one of fear (coupled with financial concern).  To ruin a £20 decoder with a big blob of solder covering half the pads is one thing but to do it to a chip costing in excess of £100 is quite another.

My soldering has improved considerably and maybe what I should do is practice on a duff decoder by unsoldering then re-soldering the wires.  I also need to learn to hold my hand steady when there's an iron in it !!

I've got solder across two pads at the same time and have wiped the tip dry on the damp sponge, then stroking the dry tip over the excess. Easier to show than describe, but I think you get the drift. Having said that, I sometimes have to put a tiny bit of solder on the tip to start this method going.

Confused? I don't blame you, but if you do have a duff decoder that'll never be repaired..

Thanks to John (Brossard) for the tip about Loctite 640 The B4 now runs as sweet as a nut. BUT! I don't know what happened but the MX658N18 blew out so I soldered a 6 pin socket to the loco wiring and put a 6 pin plug on to an MS480. This works perfectly, until it doesn't. By that I mean it has some sort of intermittent fault which is really annoying as it hasn't long been back from Zimo after repair. I can plug an MX617 in and it runs perfectly, albeit with no sound. I've disconnected the stay alive on the sound decoder and seen no change. I suppose I should disconnect the speaker too just to make sure.

That's a very expensive fault Pete.

I'm guessing Dapol limit their liability to the DC supplied loco and adding a decoder negates their guarantee - clever, if slightly suspect move on their part when the loco is sold as "DCC Ready" (faults included at no extra charge !)

Petermac said

That's a very expensive fault Pete.

I'm guessing Dapol limit their liability to the DC supplied loco and adding a decoder negates their guarantee - clever, if slightly suspect move on their part when the loco is sold as "DCC Ready" (faults included at no extra charge !)

From “Post #290,238”, 19th May 2024, 10:35 am

Yes Peter, a very expensive fault. I seem to be getting a run of faults just lately. It's a drawback of living on the other side of the world. My wife and I are having a last visit (you probably know why) to the UK at the end of May until late ish June. I might go to Digitrains if we get time. I'd quite like to meet the people there. Having said the, we've only got 4 weeks to fit everything in.

That comment came as a bit of a shock Pete ……………..

Not sure where you'll be based but do try to make time to get to Digitrains.  I've never been myself but I'm told it's an interesting place with lots to see and they're a very knowledgeable bunch of people.