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Small sections of pre-tinned copper-
clad PCB material are glued to the sides
of the drive unit. We use quick set epoxy,
thoroughly degrease the mating surfaces on
the drive unit and copper, and score the
surface of the drive unit to provide a key
for the adhesive. Pickups are bent up from
0.011" phosphor bronze wire as shown. The
trapezoidal bends allow the wire to flex as
the two parts of the drive unit articulate.
The wire coils are formed of six turns
around the shank of a 0.7mm drill, finished
so that the pick ups themselves are
preloaded below their operating position by about 1mm. The wires are tinned and then
soldered to the copper-clad with a touch of the iron, with the feed wires tinned and
soldered on in turn, resin-cored solder being used throughout.
The feed wires from the pickups back to
the loco PCB are firmly anchored to the
bogie bolsters; holes are provided near the
top of each bolster to assist. This allows
the route of the wires between the bolster
and drive unit to be set and then to remain
undisturbed when the wires are routed
through the chassis block during the fitting
of the bogie to the loco.
Pickups and Power
48/52
(c) PenBits Model Railways, All Rights Reserved
04/05/2017