Mick on Lotus Notes, DCC in Model Railroading, and anything else I care to write about. http://www.MickMoignard.com/MickMoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/ en-us Tue, 25 May 2010 15:43:12 +0100 Tue, 25 May 2010 15:43:12 +0100 http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/25052010154310MMOKA3.htm iPod Mick Moignard http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/25052010154310MMOKA3.htm?opendocument&comments http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/25052010154310MMOKA3.htm
There's a free Citrix Receiver client app on the AppStore - search for Citrix.  I installed Citrix Receiver 2.2.1 - and note that there appears to be two versions, on for the iPhone/iTouch, and one for the iPad which may be the same thing, may be different.  The config for connections to Citrix servers is simple: five things to enter.  Connect up, sign on, and start the Notes client.

It worked well, with the performance that you'd expect with Notes running on Citrix - I was using Notes 8.5.1.   The Citrix App has gestures for zooming, panning and scrolling, so wandering around the screen is pretty easy, zooming and panning as relevant.   Entering data is more of a challenge; what takes a little more effort and care is to hit the screen accurately.   I found I could take several attempts to get the cursor into a field, or to click a control such as a button, field helper, OK button on a dialog, and not then accidentally fill fields up with carriage returns.  I found myself zooming in and out a lot, to be sure that I was hitting what I wanted to hit, but then be able to see enough of the Notes screen to be able to do what I wanted.  So actually entering data was a bit of a chore  - not something you'd want to do a lot of.   It does portrait to landscape switches well, and that also helped.

Given that the Notes app I played with was one that's a data entry app, with pulldowns, validations and so on, which meant that I was moving around the screen a lot to deal with dialog/picklist windows,  I'd say that the usability was reasonable - say 3 out of 5. With a Notes application that's more sensitive to the screen size, and one that is more oriented to reading than data entry, I'd say that it's perfectly usable.   ]]> http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dxcomments/25052010154310MMOKA3.htm http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/25052010154310MMOKA3.htm?opendocument&comments Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:42:02 -0400 http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/11032010104202MMOLEU.htm LotusScript Mick Moignard http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/11032010104202MMOLEU.htm?opendocument&comments http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/11032010104202MMOLEU.htm
       'is the partner tax exempt?  
       Dim ClientInsurer As NotesDocument
       Set ClientInsurer = GetPartnerDoc(claim.ID_ClientInsurer(0))
       If ClientInsurer Is Nothing then

And when this is run, ClientInsurer is invariably Nothing.  

GetPartnerDoc looks like this:

Function GetPartnerDoc(IPCode As String) As NotesDocument
       Dim pDB As NotesDatabase, insurers As NotesView
       Set pDB=GetPartnersDB
       Set Insurers=pDB.GetView("LookUpIPCode")
       Set GetPartnerDoc=Insurers.GetDocumentByKey(IPCode,True)
End Function

When I look at this with the debugger, I can see that the last line of getPartnerDoc populates getPartnerDoc with a NotesDocument data type, and it is indeed the partner document that I want - getPartnerDoc seems to work OK.   Yet that value, that I can see ready to go when it's executed the last line of GetPartnerDoc doesn't get back in to ClientInsurer in the invoking code.  How strange is that?

I've bypassed it by replacing the call to GetPartnerDoc with a direct lookup to the same view, and that works just fine.

Btw:  this is with Designer 8.5.1 FP1, Notes 851FP1 client and a Donino 851FP1 server.  However when the code runs on a 7.0.something server, it also generates the same erroneous result.   ]]> http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dxcomments/11032010104202MMOLEU.htm http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/11032010104202MMOLEU.htm?opendocument&comments Fri, 26 Feb 2010 07:22:12 +0100 http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/26022010072212MMOANG.htm NotLotusNotes Mick Moignard http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/26022010072212MMOANG.htm?opendocument&comments http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/26022010072212MMOANG.htm
]]> http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dxcomments/26022010072212MMOANG.htm http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/26022010072212MMOANG.htm?opendocument&comments Thu, 25 Feb 2010 15:04:23 +0100 http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/25022010150423MMOKPB.htm Lotusphere Mick Moignard http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/25022010150423MMOKPB.htm?opendocument&comments http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/25022010150423MMOKPB.htm
It occurred to me that you might like to do this too, or even that Ben might care to add the functionality himself.   Here's how to do it:

1.  Download the slides (and other materials).
For this year, if you've not done it already, you're a bit late to do it now.  However, if you have downloaded some or all of them, or found them at the speakers blogs, you can still do this.  Make sure that all filenames start with the session number (such as AD122.pdf, or AD112Files.zip).
Put all the files in the same directory on your harddrive/thumbdrive/whereever.  

2. Open the database in Designer, and go to the Forms.
You'll find two copies of the form aliased JournalEntry, one Notes client, one web.  Edit these, and find the field called Resources.  Go to the HideWhen for this field, and remove the checks on Hide Paragraph from NotesR4.6 or later and also from Web Browsers.

3. Create a new Actions Menu/Run Once agent.  
I called mine Load Session Slides, you can call yours anything you like.  The code is in an attachment on my downloads page.
Change the marked literal for the location of your downloaded material.
Save the agent

4. Run it.
Once it's run, you'll see that the database views (try the SessionID view) will show an arrow next to the speaker name.  That indicates that there are attached resouces for that session.

If they aren't there, check the document properties.  Is there anything in field Resources?  Is the field HasResourceLink got the value "Yes"?  
Run the agent with the debugger.  See anything I've missed?

As ever, it works for me.  YMMV, and of course it's always possible that in next year's session database, Ben has changed something that prevents the agent from working. ]]> http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dxcomments/25022010150423MMOKPB.htm http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/25022010150423MMOKPB.htm?opendocument&comments Tue, 23 Feb 2010 11:41:19 +0100 http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/23022010114119MMOFQE.htm Mick Moignard http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/23022010114119MMOFQE.htm?opendocument&comments http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/23022010114119MMOFQE.htm
Called them again, and they really didn't seem to have any idea what was going on. Said that they'd get on to the delivery office in Aylesbury.   So far, no package.

Update: the called me mid-morning yesterday to say that it would be delivered between 3 and 3:30.  It arrived at 3:15.  Contrary to the card, I didn't have to sign for it.  Come on guys, you really need to be able to do better than this.   ]]> http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dxcomments/23022010114119MMOFQE.htm http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/23022010114119MMOFQE.htm?opendocument&comments Mon, 22 Feb 2010 16:41:03 +0100 http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/22022010164103MMOMKQ.htm Mick Moignard http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/22022010164103MMOMKQ.htm?opendocument&comments http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/22022010164103MMOMKQ.htm last time, the UK Post Office excels at customer service.  Another package from the US, with  customs duty to pay, so they leave a card in the door Saturday.  No item number on it, by the way, but directions to a web site (www.royalmail.com/fee2pay) to pay the charge.

This website is pretty casual; it allows you to pay for the item without quoting a reference number for it - which I didn't have.  You fill in all the details based on your postcode, and what the card says you have to pay - nothing, apart from the card, to correlate item to payment.   The card also tells you that you can use this website to request re-delivery as you pay the charge.  Well, you can't, directly.  You have to go back to the homepage and start all over again, identifying yourself, postcode, and so on with information from the card, again.

Anyway, I specifically requested that the package be delivered on Tuesday, because someone would be at home.  Not Monday, Tuesday.  Yes, they tried today, Monday.  Another card through  the door - this time, with a package number, sorry you were out, that sort of thing.   However, the package number didn't work - their website requires 13 characters, but the number on the card was only 12.  And even then, the website required me to complete checkboxes from those marked on the card, but would not actually accept those that were checked on the card! How much of a FAIL is that?

This time when I rang the number on the card (0845 6112980), one of the choices was complaints.  I went for that, and it was answered on the first ring. So I explained the issue, and he said he'd sort it,and arrange delivery tomorrow.  I can't check that, of course, because I don't have a tracking number that works.  I also reminded him of the last time this went wrong - and to my surprise, he seemed to be aware of it!

It might be funny, but for the fact that it isn't.  Someone needs to bang some heads together, fast, before the whole thing implodes completely - as it certainly appears to be doing.   ]]> http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dxcomments/22022010164103MMOMKQ.htm http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/22022010164103MMOMKQ.htm?opendocument&comments Mon, 15 Feb 2010 08:54:03 +0100 http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/15022010085400MMOCFT.htm Mick Moignard http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/15022010085400MMOCFT.htm?opendocument&comments http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/15022010085400MMOCFT.htm Watford Finescale show organisers web site, Camp 93 will not be appearing.

We were approached by them verbally to show the layout, but even after several phone calls (where the word No didn't seem to be understood), we didn't get a formal invite, nor did we ever get any paperwork to complete the loop.  On top of that, it's the same day as our own club's show in Princes Risborough, which is where we will be, but not with Camp 93.  

I hope that this error doesn't affect anyone's enjoyment of the Watford show, but we want you to be sure that the resons for the layout not being there are not ours.  For those of you who'd like to see Camp 93 again, we're next out at Sparsholt on 10 April (even though the posting there doesn't include us!) and Crawley on 17/18 April. ]]> http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dxcomments/15022010085400MMOCFT.htm http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/15022010085400MMOCFT.htm?opendocument&comments Thu, 11 Feb 2010 09:55:23 +0100 http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/11022010095523MMODN6.htm Symphony Mick Moignard http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/11022010095523MMODN6.htm?opendocument&comments http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/11022010095523MMODN6.htm Dominopower Article from 2005, but even I'll admit that there are times when you do need such an animal.  So I've kept up with what Lotus are doing with Symphony, and downloaded the beta of Symphony 3 a few days ago.

Just now I had cause to use it - a simple task, copy the rich text of a document from Lotus Notes, where I'd authored it, to make a separate tidy document to email to a customer.    The usual set of tasks here is Copy from Notes/Paste into Word/Swear at how badly it comes out/Reformat completely in Word/add header/add footer/Save/Email.   Actually, more often than not these days I've used the Symphony 1.3 documents as included in Notes 8.5.1, but that's noit an enormous improvement.

This time I used Symphony 3; takes a little longer to start, but after that, I was pleasantly surprised.  Copy/Paste/Header/Footer/Done.  No drama, no swearing   Now, I wasn't stressing it in any shape or form here, this is by no means an extended test, but it was a nice experience.   I'm looking forward to Symphony 3 going gold, and being able to update the embedded versions in Notes and not have to have two copies installed.   ]]> http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dxcomments/11022010095523MMODN6.htm http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/11022010095523MMODN6.htm?opendocument&comments Mon, 8 Feb 2010 21:05:10 +0100 http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/08022010210509MMOSQT.htm Lotusphere Mick Moignard http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/08022010210509MMOSQT.htm?opendocument&comments http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/08022010210509MMOSQT.htm raised the issue of session evals over on his blog.  This is something that I also feel quite strongly about, even though I've never presented at Lotusphere (I have done presentations for my hobby, and I too look for feedback about how I did, how the subject and material went, and so on).

I also remember from my old IBM Mainframe days going to G.U.I.D.E conferences around Europe.   Here they had a session evaluation system that seemed to work well.   What they did, if my mind serves me right, was:

• give out small slips of paper to every person who entered the room.  
• Requested answers to about three questions: Session number/speaker effectiveness/content rating and comments.  
• Collected them at the end of the session
• And,  here's the clincher: they were collated pretty much there and then.  Results were available at the end of the conference, because in the closing session they gave away a decent prize to each of the best IBM and non-IBM speakers.

Maybe that could be extended to Lotusphere:

• Give out slips at each session.   In that way, nobody could complain that the wireless sucked/run out of eval sheets in the conference pad/can't be bothered to log on/whatever.
• Reduce them to the barest essentials: session title, speaker effectiveness (rate 1-5), content value (1-5), your conference number (in a moment) and space for comments.
• Calculate a best IBM, and non-IBM speaker, by averaging the ratings per session (in that way, a sparsely attended session can still get  a good overall rating), and do it during the conference.
• In the closing session, give away a decent prize: say iPad, or a Thinkpad, to each of the best speakers.  In that way, you generate a little more enthusiasm on the part of each speaker to give of her best, because of the element of competition.
• And, to encourage the attendees to fill the evals in, give away a prize to an attendee too - say the iPad/Thinkpad, or even a free ticket to next year's 'Sphere.  That's why you add your conference number to the session eval slips.  

 
Update: see another post from Chris, and check the comments, too.  Maybe there's some movement here? ]]> http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dxcomments/08022010210509MMOSQT.htm http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/08022010210509MMOSQT.htm?opendocument&comments Mon, 8 Feb 2010 12:01:33 +0100 http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/08022010120132MMOG4Z.htm Lotus Notes 8.5 Mick Moignard http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/08022010120132MMOG4Z.htm?opendocument&comments http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/08022010120132MMOG4Z.htm
I'm trying to do a simple comparison for a customer, expecting to be able to find some comparison data, but I can't seem to find any.  Anyone come across anything on this one?  

Thanks in advance! ]]> http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dxcomments/08022010120132MMOG4Z.htm http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/08022010120132MMOG4Z.htm?opendocument&comments Tue, 2 Feb 2010 12:10:13 +0100 http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/02022010121012MMOGAG.htm Lotus Notes 8.5 Mick Moignard http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/02022010121012MMOGAG.htm?opendocument&comments http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/02022010121012MMOGAG.htm
Notes Hotfix did not install.  Error encountered when installing Notes Hotfix Core component.

The fix for this is quite simple (on Windows, anyway).  Go to task manager, and stop the NSD process.  Then the install will work just fine. (clearly you have to have Notes itself stopped while the upgrade is done.  Upgrade took about 5 minutesm and everything worked as expected afterwards - including all my sidebars.

I expect that you'd also be able to get round the issue by rebooting and installing FP1 before starting Notes.  I tend to restart my machine pretty rarely, because Windows takes so long to start.  I just suspend it by closing the lid, and continue by opening the lid and signing on again. 30 seconds max.   ]]> http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dxcomments/02022010121012MMOGAG.htm http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/02022010121012MMOGAG.htm?opendocument&comments Mon, 25 Jan 2010 22:01:12 +0100 http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/25012010220111MMOTTT.htm DCC Mick Moignard http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/25012010220111MMOTTT.htm?opendocument&comments http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/25012010220111MMOTTT.htm downloads page. update: and the broken link there is now fixed.

Feel free to disseminate this as you wish, but please pass on the URL, rather than the PDF, as it is always possible that I'll update it again in the future.   ]]> http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dxcomments/25012010220111MMOTTT.htm http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/25012010220111MMOTTT.htm?opendocument&comments Sun, 24 Jan 2010 17:50:22 +0100 http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/24012010175022MMONX2.htm Lotusphere2010 Mick Moignard http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/24012010175022MMONX2.htm?opendocument&comments http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/24012010175022MMONX2.htm
When I first visited, way back in '95 or '96, the place absolutely oozed the Right Stuff.   It doesn't any more, and I think it, and the presentation of NASA's space program, are greatly diminished by it.    A great pity.   ]]> http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dxcomments/24012010175022MMONX2.htm http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/24012010175022MMONX2.htm?opendocument&comments Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:17:10 +0100 http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/20112009101710MMOE3T.htm xpages Mick Moignard http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/20112009101710MMOE3T.htm?opendocument&comments http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/20112009101710MMOE3T.htm It seems that there's a sporadic fault in the @Round function in Xpages SSJS.  I have a piece of code that calculates a number and is supposed to display the value, rounded to two decimal places in a tooltip on the page.  We rounded the number with @Round(value,0.01), and it worked just fine in testing - rounded all the values we threw at it as expected.  But our customer reported sporadic incidents where the rounding clearly wasn't working.  So I did some digging - and here's what I found.

The calculated number to be rounded to 2DP was 26.811000000000003  (that's 11 zeros).     That's a value I found generated the issue in testing - there are other values we've seen reported that don't round properly, and all of them have a long string of zeros before a non-zero digit at the right end.

Some quick testing showed me that

• @Round(value,0.1) gives 26.8. Correct.
• @Round(value,0.001) gives 26.811. Also correct.
• @Round(value,0.01) gives 26.810000000000002 (12 zeros).  Not correct - though it has managed to alter the value, and has the first two DPs correct.

Some Googling suggested that @Round has been under suspicion before.     eOffice's blog has a post describing using Math.Round instead of @Round for some other purpose.   But Math.Round rounds at the decimal point only.   Julian Buss though showed how to move the rounding point about - so simple!  And that gave me the idea for the workround I used, which just moves the effective digit that @Round works at to somewhere where it appears to work.  

My workround was this: @Round(value*100,1)/100: which works fine - or at least it does for  26.811000000000003.  But rounding to two decimal places is probably the commonest use of rounding, so the fact that there's an issue here is really is a bit of a worry.

]]> http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dxcomments/20112009101710MMOE3T.htm http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/20112009101710MMOE3T.htm?opendocument&comments Fri, 13 Nov 2009 08:59:50 +0100 http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/13112009085948MMOCKG.htm LotusNotes. MX Mick Moignard http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/13112009085948MMOCKG.htm?opendocument&comments http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/13112009085948MMOCKG.htm  
Router: No messages transferred to CLUSTER8OUT.EU.MESSAGELABS.COM (host mail195.MESSAGE) via SMTP: The remote server is not a known TCP/IP host.

Note that the host name in the error report is truncated.  Digging and diagnosis tells us that in the in the DNS, that domain has MX records for 11 hosts, all with a preference of 10.  Which means that Domino picks one of these at random - or, more probably, cycles round the list.  But it appears that the list that it stores gets truncated somewhere, so every so often - about 10% of the time, in fact, the message route fails and it tries again with another server.  

This annoys my customer - he dislikes seeing errors in his server log that he can't resolve - and doesn't want to ignore it or just to filter it out.  Anyone seen this one before. Got any ideas?  

Here's what I get from an MX query to dsn4.messagelabs.com for cluster8out.eu.messagelabs.com.

> cluster8.eu.messagelabs.com
Server:  dns4.messagelabs.com
Address:  216.82.242.229

cluster8.eu.messagelabs.com     MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = mail205.messagelabs.com
cluster8.eu.messagelabs.com     MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = mail206.messagelabs.com
cluster8.eu.messagelabs.com     MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = mail178.messagelabs.com
cluster8.eu.messagelabs.com     MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = mail179.messagelabs.com
cluster8.eu.messagelabs.com     MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = mail186.messagelabs.com
cluster8.eu.messagelabs.com     MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = mail188.messagelabs.com
cluster8.eu.messagelabs.com     MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = mail189.messagelabs.com
cluster8.eu.messagelabs.com     MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = mail193.messagelabs.com
cluster8.eu.messagelabs.com     MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = mail194.messagelabs.com
cluster8.eu.messagelabs.com     MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = mail195.messagelabs.com
cluster8.eu.messagelabs.com     MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = mail204.messagelabs.com
> ]]> http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dxcomments/13112009085948MMOCKG.htm http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/13112009085948MMOCKG.htm?opendocument&comments Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:56:03 +0100 http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/10112009155603MMOLPL.htm DCC Mick Moignard http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/10112009155603MMOLPL.htm?opendocument&comments http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/10112009155603MMOLPL.htm Digitrax DZ121  decoder to a DZ123, and then to a Lenz Mini-Gold and Power-1 combo - which neither made much difference to the poor pickup,  nor any change at all to the noise.

But in an idle conversation with Mark Kasprowicz, repowering brass Geese with Con-Cor chassis was mentioned.  I wondered if I one could be squeezed into my #2 - and follow it up with some proper sound, given that the mechanical issues would then be solved.  I figured that it would fit nicely, with the flywheel in the rear box extension of the body, and powered truck in exactly the same place as the original.  And I found that this isn't a difficult conversion either - the frame modifications and adding new mountings inside the rear box is a one-evening project.  

First, take the donor goose frame apart.  Pull it out from the box body, unscrew the little PCB at the front and unclip the wires from that from the circuit board.    Then unclip all the rest of the wires from the circuit board, take out the two screws, and remove it.  Unscrew and remove the rear truck, then unclip the motor and the powered truck - you'll need to assist the clips on the top of the powered tuck a little. Unscrew the plastic motor clip, and carefully pull off the two steps and the brake gear rods from the underside - and you should now have the bare frame.    Your modifications are limited to the Con-Cor frame, and to the #2 goose body.  

First, cut off the lug from the front of the Con-Cor frame and file that smooth.  Then file off all the body attachment lugs from the sides of the frame, and make that smooth too - take a little care here, because firstly you'll need to put a square against the frame side, and secondly without doing this, the frame won't fit the #2 body.   Next, mark a line exactly 32mm from the rear end of the frame - and then cut off the rear of the frame and file carefully and squarely back to that line.   Clip the motor back into the mounting bracket, and place that on the frame. You should have around 1mm of frame behind the flywheel.  

Next, cut the two rear corners out of the frame.  My cutouts were 9mm front to back and 5.5mm width, leaving a tongue at the rear just under 14mm wide, that slotted nicely into the rear box of the #2 goose body.   Finally, file off the two frame member castings that run down the underside of the frame flush with the flat floor area under the motor area.  Don't file off the dome in the middle of that area where the motor clip screws in - otherwise you'll have to glue the motor clip back on to the frame.  

Now is the time to strip the #2 goose - you need to get everything off the box body including any weights.   You should find that the cut-down frame will fit into the box body, but it will stick out too far downwards.  We now need to get it further up into the box, so that the flat floor of the underside of the motor area is around 0.5mm further into the box than the bottom of the box.  

I had hoped that just filing off the top of the rear tongue would work, so I set onto that, and filed that rear tongue down till it was about 1mm think.  But that wasn't enough, so I still had to move the interior mounting plate in the rear box bumpout.   I found that if I grabbed it with pliers and twisted it, it came out easily.   You need to file around 2mm off the front face of this piece, so that the new frame and motor clip can fit into the body properly.   Now,  you need to get the rear plate back into the body. If you don't file the rear platform area off the frame, it needs to be about 2mm further up inside the body.  Put it into the space, and gently push the frame into place until it's just inside flush with the bottom of the body.  You say you can't get the frame in that far? - you'll need to file off the interior projections of the bottom side door hinges to get it in.  Once you can get the frame in place and can see where the rear retaining plate goes, solder it back in its new location and check that it is level.  I guess you could also Araldite it in place if you wanted.    Just ensure that there are no solder or Araldite fillets around the edge stopping the frame from sitting on it properly.   Now drill a #61 hole through the frame rear tongue to match the screw hole that's in the rear mounting plate, and you'll be able to attach the frame to the body at the rear with the original screw.   This hole will be about 1.5mm behind the rear of the two holes that originally held the brake mechanism.  

Here's a picture of the revised frame from the underside.  You can see where it's been shortened, and the screw holding the rear.


Now you need to make up a front frame bracket.  I bent mine up from 15-thou nickel silver, about 5mm wide.  I drilled a hole (#67, if I remember) in the middle of this strip, close to one edge, and tapped it to take one of the old Goose mounting screws.  The hole needs to be close to one edge so that the frame, when the motor is attached, can be got past the bracket.   Then I bent up the ends so that the final U-shaped bracket fitted closely inside the body - with the two vertical horns of the U being about 5mm long.  I then screwed it to the existing ready-tapped front hole on the frame, but with the screw in from the underside.    I removed a little of the frame crosspiece by the screw hole so that the screw would nestle down to the frame properly.  

Now, with that front bracket attached to the frame,  shove the whole lot into the body, add the rear screw, and level the frame inside the body so that it all fits straight and level.  Carefully remove the two screws and the frame, leaving the front bracket in place. Did I tell you to tin the two upturned ends of the front bracket first?  Well, I should have done.  Solder it in place.  Chances are, that like me, you'll have to take two or three goes at this to get it all in place properly.  Put the frame back in and check it's all OK.  Now put the motor clip back on the frame and check that it still fits OK. If not, you'll need to remove a bit more metal from the front edge of the rear mounting plate in the body.   Here's an inside picture that shows this internal bracket:

You can also see the front weight, the speaker and the MicroTsunami's capacitor.


That's the difficult bits done.   What I did next was wash the frame and the body, dried them, and then reassembled the frame - screw on the motor clip, clip in the motor, put the power truck back in, threading the pickup wires carefully through the holes in the frame.    For DC, then just connect the motor and pickup wires together, though I added plugs and sockets on mine so that I can remove the truck and decoder without unsoldering.    Put the frame back in the box - flywheel first, and noting that it will be a close fit against the front bracket you added, and give it a test - and basically, that's it.  Except that you'll need a spacer of about 2mm between the front frame mounting in the rear box and the rear of the front frame,  

What I then did to finish it off was this.    I dismantled the new frame again, and painted it.   While that dried,  I took the original box body weight and filed a corner off so that it would fit onto the front wall of the box, over the original front mount bracket - and attached it with double-sided tape.  I put a 3/4 inch round speaker into a Soundtraxx speaker box, and added that to the end of 2-inches of speaker leads off the Goose MicroTsunami.  I shortened the red and black leads and added mini-sockets to them to plug into the mini-plugs I'd added to the truck leads, and I added the orange and grey to the motor.   A small piece of double-side tape went on the back of the speaker box, then, once I'd reassembled the frame again,  I wriggled the whole lot into the box, with the speaker stuck to the weight - check the photo above.   I didn't add lights to my goose, so I cut the white and yellow light wires off short.   Here's a picture of the revised mechanism, showing the plugs in the pickup leads.  


I decided that I would also add the Con-Cor front truck to replace the original, given that it had those nasty N-scale wheels in it - not that overly-wide the Con-Cor wheels aren't also rather nasty,   If yours still has the original wheels you'll probably stick with it - but what I did was file about 1mm off the bottom of the centre piece of the Con-Cor truck, and then mounted it on the original peg, with the spring above it and a washer and the spring washer below it.  And here's a pic of the assembled goose showing the Con-cor truck.   All I then needed to do was program the decoder, and that was it.  


Since taking the photos above I've turned the wheels down a bit.  The Con-Cor flanges are to RP25, but for standard gauge - which is also why the wheel treads are so wide.  I found that turning the flanges down so that they drop into the HOn3 NMRA gauge not only makes the wheels look better but it also stops issues with the flanges bottoming on spikes on small rail sections - 55 and 40 particularly, and that reduces further any chances of dropouts.  Here's a photo of the whole thing, after doing the wheels - compate the front truck to the photo above:

And here's a closeup of the rear truck after doing the wheels.  I blackened the front truck wheels, but I polished the rear truck treads and then left then clean do as not to affect the pickup.  


And how goes it go now?    Mechanically, like all Con-Cor geese, it's practically silent - above about step 60 you can hear the motor whine, but at more normal speeds, nothing.  

Programming-wise, what I've done is this.  I set CV3 to 25 for slow acceleration. CV61 set to 255 (-127 with DecoderPro), coupled with CV4 at 135, means that it coasts nicely with the throttle closed, and stops on the brakes when F11 is pressed.  I set the engine to start on step 1, and then set up a custom speed table that actually prevents the thing moving on step 1 - so I tweak the throttle onto to step 1 to start the engine - but the goose doesn't yet move.  On my Digitrax system, I have the emergency stop set to local, and pressing that stops the engine.  CV212 is set to 80 to calm the back-emf down a bit, and then I played with volume levels, the equalizer and the reverb until I was happy.  Finally I set the master volume to 50 which is about right for a home layout.    Though of course over the coming weeks I may play around with these settings a bit.   ]]> http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dxcomments/10112009155603MMOLPL.htm http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/10112009155603MMOLPL.htm?opendocument&comments Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:06:46 +0100 http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/21102009190646MMOP9B.htm Lotus Notes 8.5 Mick Moignard http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/21102009190646MMOP9B.htm?opendocument&comments http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/21102009190646MMOP9B.htm
Notes 8.5.1 - F7 in the RT editor now works properly again.  Thanks. ]]> http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dxcomments/21102009190646MMOP9B.htm http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/21102009190646MMOP9B.htm?opendocument&comments Mon, 12 Oct 2009 09:04:28 +0100 http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/12102009090428MMOBGU.htm Broadband Mick Moignard http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/12102009090428MMOBGU.htm?opendocument&comments http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/12102009090428MMOBGU.htm


But it doesn't last:



Hmm.  
]]> http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dxcomments/12102009090428MMOBGU.htm http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/12102009090428MMOBGU.htm?opendocument&comments Mon, 12 Oct 2009 08:47:22 +0100 http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/12102009084721MMOB67.htm Lotus Notes 8.5 Mick Moignard http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/12102009084721MMOB67.htm?opendocument&comments http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/12102009084721MMOB67.htm ]]> http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dxcomments/12102009084721MMOB67.htm http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/12102009084721MMOB67.htm?opendocument&comments Wed, 7 Oct 2009 20:06:49 +0100 http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/07102009200649MMOQET.htm UKLUG Mick Moignard http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/07102009200649MMOQET.htm?opendocument&comments http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/07102009200649MMOQET.htm http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dxcomments/07102009200649MMOQET.htm http://www.mickmoignard.com/mickmoignard/mickmoignard.nsf/dx/07102009200649MMOQET.htm?opendocument&comments