Corrections On Wiring the Viessmann 4016

Soldering the wires for Viessmann 4016

Since these days I've been starting to prepare the landscape for the retaining walls that will sit behind the Faller station, supporting the track going up, things have to be in order. A bunch of wires however sat in the way - the connections for the only Viessmann 4016 signal on the layout, not yet installed. After testing each LED of the signal using the transformer, the signal's own wires were soldered to the feeders already on the layout. However when powering up, with power from the panel board and hooking up the laptop to the USB interface controlling the aspects for this signal - something odd: the main signal would not show Hp2, but only Hp1 (a list of signal aspects can be found in the Viessmann 401x manual, there's one online here). Also the Hp0+Sh1 wouldn't turn on the shunting lights. On the distant signal part, it was even stranger - only the ge2 LED will be on, and cyclic through the aspects wouldn't trigger any change.

  Turns out there were 2 factors causing it:

  1. The plugs at the end of the wires coming out of the Viessmann modules and leading to the connectors on the panel board had poor contact. The fact the the tiny metal tubes - where the plugs fit - are actually made out of two halves doesn't help, since if the bent wire happens to slide between, there will be no contact. Fiddling with the plugs made the dark LEDs issue go away

   2. I wrongly *assumed* that it's the brown output of the Viessmann transformer that's supposed to to be used as input to the desired states on the 5220 module, but it turns out this isn't so. After quickly reading through the manual and running across a diagram for a normal + distant signal on the same mast, showing the wire leading to the rt1 LED being used as input for the "dark aspect" of the distant signal, it become obvious it's the yellow that's needed. Also, I only accounted for 3 aspects of the distant signal in my original plan, when in fact there's an additional one - Vr0 - displayed when neither of the inputs are ON. Looking back I didn't knew what the aspects were supposed to be in the first place, nor what the correct wiring was. Reading the manual thoroughly made things clearer.

As for the wiring of the distant signal, in order not to use an additional relay of a Phidget 1017 (there's still 1 left on one board and 5 on another), I've took advantage that the "dark aspect" of the distant signal is only "showed" when the main signal on the same mast is in a Hp0 state (or Hp0+Sh1). By also using the fact that all the relays on the 1017 are DPDT (double pole double throw), the output selecting between the groups Hp0/Hp+Sh1 and Hp1/Hp2 was used to toggle between feeding the "dark aspect" input, or serving as input itself to yet another relay switching between Vr0 (essentially no wire connected) and (yet !) another relay switching between Vr1 and Vr2. The photo below shows the yellow wire, which is connected to the yellow Viessmann transformer output, used as input. There are 2 green wires used as outputs - the one labelled "OFF 5220" is actually the one controlling the "dark aspect"; the red electrical tape further up was used to cover the soldering needed to extend this wire, originally connected to a different relay. The other green wire is the one leading to the stairway mechanism mentioned above - the empty output on the next relay can be clearly seen.

Painting the Roof and Auxiliary Elements of the Faller Station

Although the roof of the Faller station came out of the box sporting some nice burnt out marks, given the technology used to produce it, it still didn't look quite all right and proper painting had to be done. Along with the roof, 4 other element types had to be painted as well: the rain pipes, benches, trash bins and the window sills being mounted on the roof itself.

For the roof itself, the following formula was used: 

- 0.6 Tamiya Yellow (XF-3)

- 0.4 Tamiya Flat Red (XF-7)

- 1.0 Thinner (acrylic)

3 coats were applied, out of which the first was a light one.
For the rain pipes, benches, trash bins and window sills, it was decided to use gray for all of them - one of the reasons being that the box cover image actually had these gray as well. All were simply placed on a sticky tape side up - fixed itself on 2 perpendicular pieces of sticky tape. The "stickiness" was strong enough to hold the pieces down under the air flow of the airbrush. 3M Vinyl masking tape was used on certain parts of the window sills, since those will be glued on - and paint shouldn't get in the way.
The rain pipes only also had 2 coats of Tamiya Smoke, so they get a touch of metallic look.

Final roof color

Auxiliary elements getting ready
to be airbrushed

Bench before being painted

Bench after 2 coats of Tamiya J.N. Grey

Rain pipe detail after painting
with Tamiya J.N. Grey

Rain pipe detail after painting
with Tamiya J.N. Grey and 1 coat
of Tamiya Smoke

Rain pipe detail after painting
with Tamiya J.N. Grey and 2 coats
of Tamiya Smoke

Glueing the Roof on the Faller Station

  Once the decision to have the roof of the main station detachable was made, the next step was how to actually glue this in place. Additionally, painting will also have to be done, since (1) the bare plastic won't look well under any kind of lighting and (2) there needs to be some tooth for the weathering powders to actually adhere to.

  All needed in order to have one continuous piece ready for painting was to glue the main sides of the roof together, followed by the 2 small panels located on each side and also the ridge caps (a long one for the joint of the 2 main sides + 2 smaller ones for each panel-set on the sides).

  The pieces were first washed (a drop of liquid wash detergent added to a some warm water) and completely dried, while also removing some of the burnt plastic that resulted from the laser cutting process, since in some cases this was found right on the joints where adhesive would have been applied. For the 2 main sides and corresponding ridge cap, Bison 5-min Epoxy was used, while for the rest - Bison Plastic Cement. Reading around the web suggested that the epoxy is superior in strength to the plastic cement - albeit a rather short and subjective process on my part, hence the reason for it being used on the main roof sides. The masking tape was only used to keep the side panels together, given that like this they would rest just fine, unable to fall off until the cement set.

  It was also a good chance to test the Proses Magnetic Clamps that I bought one year ago, and they did a really good job in holding the main roof together until the epoxy became solid; luckily enough, there was just enough space between the paper mask and the roof for the underside of the clamps to fit into.

Lighting the Faller Station

There's been some uncertainty about how to fix in place the Faller station, and also how to allow access to the lighting inside. The options were to either make the whole station removable from the layout, or avoid fixing the roofs (station + shed) so these can be removed in the future when needed. The latter was chosen, due to the disadvantages associated with the former, namely "breaking" the earth blend right next to the walls and the track ballast next to the corresponding track-side.

The lamp sockets and bulbs - Faller 180670 - are not included with the station (Faller 110096) as-is but I did purchase 3 of these a while ago. Since the sockets have each 2 holes, 1.5 mm in diameter, I've extended these to 2 mm, since I had plenty of 2mm bolts complete with nuts. The wires will have plenty of space, since the whole building will seat on beams, 2 cm in height, so the track terrain nearby is matched.

The Faller sockets come with pre-drilled holes
of 1.5 mm

Lamp sockets in place

Detail of the lamp socket in the station building,
slightly offset by mistake

Replacing a Viessmann Light Bulb

More than 3 years ago, a Viessmann 6384 railway lamp was bought. Besides aspects such as painting, positioning and wire placement, one thing of interest was how the light bulb is changed, in case it fails.

Removing the plastic hood is rather quick, although some force needs to be applied. Next came taking the light bulb out. This proved more complicated for me, so with help from Viessmann's support, it turns out the brown wire has to be gently pulled inside the mast. Using some sharp tweezers is best, in order to squeeze the tip between the mast's lattice, and pull the wire bit by bit towards the top. After the wire has some some space inside the mast, the light bulb can be further extracted. In first stage, this needs to be done with care until the wire that's not insulated is released from the tube. Then the whole brown wire needs to be extracted via this end (the 6229 replacement bulb comes complete with the wires - one long insulated and one short not insulated - just like the removed one). The red wire is actually soldered to the mast, and the electrical connectivity goes just up to the point where the bulb is inserted. The last picture shows the electrical connectivity between these points.

The lamp before disassembly

Removing the hood

Light bulb extracted so that the
live wire is released

View of the wire inside the mast

Testing that electrical connectivity
is in place between the edge of the
mast and the red wire

Problems Assembling Faller's 110096's Shed Roof

A while ago I've ran into issues assembling the roof of the shed for the Faller 110096 Klingenberg station. I've emailed Faller support at the time, and they were very kind and provided by post - free of charge - a new paper mask and a few elements as well. However it was my fault that I didn't explain my problem very well. Hopefully I will be able to do this below.

 At page 10 of the manual included with the station, the roof must be applied on top of the walls, after the M2 paper mask has been inserted in place. This doesn't work quite ok though. A bit of background: the roof has 2 shoulders underneath; these will "click" in place when applied to the walls of the building. Also, the adjoining wall of the station has 2 grooves, into which the edges of the roof will only slide into provided the shoulders click in place when applied to the shed's walls.The problems start when the shed's paper mask is put in place - once this is done there is no more room for the shoulders to be inserted so that they "click" in place between the shed's walls, since the paper mask takes up that space. Also the grooves in the station wall no longer match the edge of the shed's roof.

One way to solve this would be to cut the paper mask so that the shoulders reach enough depth, but this will mean the structure of the paper mask will be broken, thus losing strength. One workaround would be simply remove the black top of the paper mask, thus assuring the roof's shoulders are no longer blocked, however there is one problem by doing this - light will be installed inside the shed (Faller 180670); the shed's roof is plastic, but doesn't stop light completely, so will run the risk of the roof "glowing" in the night.

Roof shoulders

Shed roof sliding in the station wall's grooves

Shed's paper mask glued and inserted 

Shed roof's shoulders no longer able to "click"

Shed's roof too high due to shoulders hitting the paper mask

Shed's room no longer matching the groove in the station wall,
once the paper mask is applied

Electrical Modifications For Phidget 1012

  Sometimes last year, when I was about to order the remaining boards for input detection (for detectors & points status) I realized that the manufacturer of the board I was about to buy had a new product, capable of twice as many inputs. Namely - the new Phidget 1012 had 16 digital inputs as compared to the old Phidget 1018 board containing only 8. However there's a catch with the new board - it requires an external DC power supply.

  Even though I've previously believed that separate input boards are needed for optical detectors and for the switches' feedback, it turns out they can be handled by the same board. The key is using a ground level selected at the potential of 'brown' (of the Viessmann 5200 transformer). Going back to how the 1012 works - this will show an input as ON if the power supply has its circuit closed by the 1012's ground pin and that specific input (eg for input 0, this will be ON when the MRD1's relay is closed, namely when G and D1 are shorted on the figure below). Note that the DC power supply's polarity DOES matter. All in all, pretty straightforward for the optical detectors. Now for the feedback of switches, there's 'grey' and 'green' which get alternatively connected to the 'yellow' and 'pink' respectively, depending which way the switch is toggled. Since 'yellow' and 'pink' are actually outputs of the Phidget output board (1017), these are simply commanded by the input board's relays, which simply connect the "brown" of the Viesmann 5200 transformer to either 'yellow' or 'pink', respectively. So the key in getting the feedbacks to work with the 1012 as well is to have ground always connected to the same potential of "brown", which is made through a simple connection, as indicated in the picture below.

  Initially I had trouble understanding how this works, simply because both DC and AC notions apparently got together in the same figure. However the "brown" (BN) is a simple connection, there's no alternative current flowing through this diagram. It's simply that one can choose his arbitrary ground for the direct current.

  Special thanks go to John Parsons of Azatrax - the manufacturer of the optical detectors used on this layout - who was kind enough to point me in the right direction with the Phidget 1012.