legoman666

Union Pacific SD70ACe - 7 Wide, PFX Brick /w sound

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Greetings. Back from a 5 month hiatus with a new locomotive. My previous 6 builds have been Union Pacific's Heritage SD70 units.

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There is this awesome photo of the whole group; in the photo is unit 8444. Frankly I don't know why its #8444 specifically, but I decided to build it so I could recreate the shot.

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Start from the ground up. My previous locomotives have had a tendency to eject the gears in the truck down on to the track when hauling a heavy load. This new truck design fixes that.

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All of this needs to fit inside. Oh boy. The rectangular blocks are placeholders.

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Testing the drive-train and transmission.

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I'm really bad at taking photos along the way. By this point its almost done, lol.

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I got an early copy of the PFX Brick to try out. The PFX Brick is a bluetooth/IR motor/sound/light controller that is very customizable. There is a PC/Mac program that is used to configure the thing, then it can be controlled either via Bluetooth or IR. Every button on the controller can be programmed to do whatever you want. My profile for this SD70 has ch1 left knob set to increase/decrease motor speed of both motors at the same time (even though they are on different channels on the PFX Brick). Ch1 right knob controls the horn and the bell. Ch1 left button slowly decelerates. Ch1 right button reverses direction. Left & right button at the same time is E-stop. Ch2, 3 & 4 all are programmed to do other things too, mostly different sounds.

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I printed my own decals on my Roland BN-20. (I take custom orders.)

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The rear grilles (the ladders) on the side are actually functional, there's a CC/CV regulator in there for the super cap bank that needs airflow.

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I'm particularly happy with the way the fins just behind the cab turned out. In real life there are only 3, but centering them in the 3 stud wide space was difficult.

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The cab windows are very tricky too, they're just wedged in there. They don't fall out if you turn it upside down, but they can rattle around.

I made a short video to show some of the sound features. Unfortunately it's very difficult to drive and record at the same time. 

Edited by legoman666

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Another excellent build. So is the real 8444 the UP RR heritage unit then? (wrt, the original photo where it is in with all of the fallen flags)

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47 minutes ago, zephyr1934 said:

Another excellent build. So is the real 8444 the UP RR heritage unit then? (wrt, the original photo where it is in with all of the fallen flags)

I think? I honestly didn't look too hard. All I know is that for some reason #8444 is always grouped with the other 6 in promo shots. 

Thanks all! 

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1 hour ago, Aaron said:

What size sound brick are you using in that?

It's a pfx brick

On 1/2/2018 at 10:46 AM, Freezingvettes99 said:

Andy, 

You have way too much time on your hands my friend!  I love the train sounds!!

I spent about 115 nights in hotels last year. So while I have lots of free time in the evenings when I'm away from home, I of course don't have any access to my Lego! (Sitting in a hotel room right now in fact)

 

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Sweet.  Looks and sounds good.   You seem to be doing alright without having to hire a camera man or driver.  :laugh:

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41 minutes ago, legoman666 said:

...I spent about 115 nights in hotels last year. So while I have lots of free time in the evenings when I'm away from home, I of course don't have any access to my Lego! (Sitting in a hotel room right now in fact)

Woah! That many nights in a hotel! You must be great with LDD then!!!  :hmpf_bad:

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8 hours ago, Younge said:

Woah! That many nights in a hotel! You must be great with LDD then!!!  :hmpf_bad:

:) I don't use any software to plan my builds. I've never used LDD at all, and I've used stud.io to recreate one of my locomotives after I had already built it out of brick. 

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11 hours ago, legoman666 said:

It's a pfx brick

I spent about 115 nights in hotels last year. So while I have lots of free time in the evenings when I'm away from home, I of course don't have any access to my Lego! (Sitting in a hotel room right now in fact)

 

That's a lot of night away from home!  At least you can dream about Lego!

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20 hours ago, legoman666 said:

It's a pfx brick

I spent about 115 nights in hotels last year. So while I have lots of free time in the evenings when I'm away from home, I of course don't have any access to my Lego! (Sitting in a hotel room right now in fact)

 

I meant as far as speakers go. There are two different sizes, which are M and XL.

https://fxbricks.com/pfxbrick/soundfx/

I'm assuming yours is the XL, given how clear it sounds? I backed the kickstarter pledge that included the XL speaker along with the PFX brick, since I was worried that the M speaker might not be loud enough for the diesel horn I want.

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11 hours ago, Electricsteam said:

Sick looking train man. Look like you put a ton of work into.

Just wondering whats up with the boat load of caps in series?

Thanks. The caps are a very temporary electrical storage that allow my locomotives to travel over unpowered track sections. They charge in about 12-15 seconds and can power the locomotive for about a minute. As long as all of my straight track is powered, the locomotive can make it through my BrickTracks R120 and 4D Brix R148 ultimate crossovers without having to resort to batteries.

10 hours ago, Aaron said:

I meant as far as speakers go. There are two different sizes, which are M and XL.

https://fxbricks.com/pfxbrick/soundfx/

I'm assuming yours is the XL, given how clear it sounds? I backed the kickstarter pledge that included the XL speaker along with the PFX brick, since I was worried that the M speaker might not be loud enough for the diesel horn I want.

Oh sorry, yes it's the XL. It can get quite loud :)

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Where can I find a build list for this?

Also, can you explain all of the electronics inside?

I see a dc-dc voltage converter. How much volts are you sending to the motors?

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7 minutes ago, Bmr4life said:

Where can I find a build list for this?

Also, can you explain all of the electronics inside?

I see a dc-dc voltage converter. How much volts are you sending to the motors?

I never made a build list, I built the first (MoPac) from scratch by staring at photos, then the other 5 are based off the first. The electronics are easier explained by a photo:

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Oh ok, I didn't know you were using the tracks for power. So the caps handle voltage drops due to poor connections? How much voltage are you sending to the BT controller?

Lastly, which I should have said first, I am highly impressed by you setup and definitely want to copy most of it. I don't have any powered track so I would have to go with on board batts.

Edited by Bmr4life

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10 minutes ago, Bmr4life said:

Oh ok, I didn't know you were using the tracks for power. So the caps handle voltage drops due to poor connections? How much voltage are you sending to the BT controller?

Lastly, which I should have said first, I am highly impressed by you setup and definitely want to copy most of it. I don't have any powered track so I would have to go with on board batts.

Right, I'm using home turned aluminum wheels. Track voltage is 24V. The super caps provide enough juice to last about 45 seconds. I developed this system a few years ago to keep my locomotives moving through 3rd party plastic track. As long as I have enough powered 9v straight track to keep the caps juiced up, my locomotives will keep going forever.

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As previously mentioned, the UP 8444 number is a reference to when FEF-3 UP 844 was renumbered to 8444 because of a GP30 which arrived on the property which had the 844 number. Ironically, that GP30 remains in operation at the Nevada Southern Museum outside of Las Vegas, and the original 844 is still in steam as UP's 'ambassador engine'.

However, SD70ACe UP 8444 was never really treated as a "heritage unit" in the same breadth as the other six were. That famous group promotional photo was done in Salt Lake City, Utah at the Intermodal "Ramp" over ten years ago now. The other six units have all received fresh paint since then and have served in special services such as display trains, passenger specials, and helpers in steam locomotive runs in addition to regular freight. UP 8444 though has really only been used in freight service, and is not considered part of the heritage group. However, UP rosters probably hundreds of SD70ACe's; meaning UP 8444 is very representative of what a "typical" UP engine looks like.

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