July 16, 2023

Placed another order with Plaza Japan

 And finally got some decoders for a few Kato trains and some other stuff. 



July 14, 2023

DCC-EX

Ive decided to ditch temporally my NCE DCC system for DCC++EX  DCC-EX is an open source DCC system that runs on Arduino and consists Arduino, Motor Shield and a Wi-Fi Shield. With these 3 piece's you can have a low cost DCC system with Wi-Fi and al you need is a old beat up cellphone for a throttle or you can use a web browser and JMRI, Below are the main parts of the DCC-EX system. 





ESP8266 WiFi Shield



Arduino Motor Shield Rev3






Elegoo Mega R3 Board ATMega 2560


A couple of new buildings just completed

The smaller building is from Miniatuart which is a paper laser cut kit. That could be a clinic or shop but Im making it a Koban which is a Japanese Police station. The Larger building is from Outland Models and this will be a city police station. They both came out better than I expected especially the smaller building. All thats needed for both are police men, motor cycles, and signage Ive started to work on that 



July 07, 2023

My 1st large purchase from Hobby Search

 Today I completed a nice purchase from Hobby Search that should tide me over for a little while. I got some parts a railbus and an excursion 3 car set what I forgot were some decoders but I think HS was out of them. The most anticipated item is a Japanese Koban that is laser cut cardboard kit. I've had a fascination with Kobans lately and will post some of the pics that I found on the internet of them. 




July 01, 2023

Documenting the DZ123 install in a TOMIX Hello Kitty motor car


Im going to preface this post by say that this post is in no way inclusive of want needs to happen in your decoder installation like the one I performed. You could blow up your decoder and need to get a new one however that didnt happen to me. This post will have pics and light on words except where needed. 



Disassembled Hello Kitty Motor Car


DZ126T soldered to copper contact strips





 

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