We were eager to get the panel finished this week and got straight down to work (after our first cup of tea).
After a brief logistical discussion on how to lay out the relay and power supply units, Geoff and Laurence made-up a strip of plywood to form a sub-assembly. Meanwhile, Stephen made up all of the connecting wires together with the 18v ac supply 'posts' taken from the old control panel. A bridge rectifier was added to convert the supply to dc. The power units (which can take anything up to 30v) were trimmed to 1.5v and 5v. All of the units were assembled on the strip, the panel dropped into place. Geoff then made all of the final connections and we carried out an initial test.
Geoff in his element
The final assembly
Two of the relay boards
Power components
The 18v ac supply enters the box on the right and terminates on two bolts. One pair goes to the bridge rectifier that feeds to two point power supplies - one unit set to 1.5v for the point (servo) motors and the other (set to 5v) for the relays.
We connected the first layout board, to test the system, and it worked, much to Laurence's delight. It only has point, but it was very pleasing:
Laurence 'tickled pink' that it was working!
The other two boards followed, but it was found that a few of the points needed rewiring on the boards as, in their old configuration, points were wired and operated together, whereas the new system was one-switch-per-point. Furthermore, not all of the switches were correctly aligned, but a note was taken of all the anomalies and Geoff swapped the wiring later. One of the relays was also found to be faulty and will require replacement.
We were so pleased to complete the system overhaul, that we intend to have a running session next week, to give everything a good work-out, remind us what have achieved to date and where we are going.
