I really love my MTL F7s and have done quite a bit of taking apart, cleaning, adjusting etc..only ever because I felt it was necessary. When I got my first one it ran so badly that I returned it as defective. When the replacement came it was about 1% better . I started to investigate and have learned a lot about these. Right now both of mine are running as well and smoothly as they ever have. Of all the things I have done, in my opinion the single most important (above all the cleaning, ultrasonicating bogies and application of Conductalube) is trimming ONE of the connector wires on the bulb. They start out as both the same length. I think that when the chassis is back together and tight with the screws; an intermittent short can occur from this bulb wire. This will appear to be electrical drop because the controller is shutting down intermittently when a short occurs to protect itself. I trimmed ONE wire as shown. This is a bit tricky and is best done as follows: a) With the chassis apart gently bend up the wire in question by slipping a razor blade or scalpel blade underneath it, this makes trimming it much easier b) Using a VERY small pair of wire cutters or a small pair of nail clippers (I do mean small) snip off about 50% of the wire (see red line in LH photo)..DO NOT CUT too much! c) Push the wire stub back flat with the flat blade screw driver and reassemble If you did it correctly the bulb will still come on giving its familiar orange glow worm on the front of your precious F7 (lol) but now a short is not possible! I think that there are LED replacements available for these bulbs, yes? I know the AZL F7 is coming soon, looking forward to seeing it. I am not sure it can replace our familiar “coffee grinder” MTL s though. Hope this helps Previous post on the subject: http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine...ermittent-Short-Circuit&highlight=bulb+holder
I know Glen Chenier used to have the LED replacement boards for these at a reasonable price, but I haven't seen or heard anything from him in quite some time. I sure would like to get a few more myself. Anyone had contact with Glen recenttly? We sure could use his knowledge, expertise, and products!
MTL F7 LED Headlights Hi Bryan, My hands and vision are no longer accurate enough to make these anymore, so am trying to get my stepson to learn how to assemble them. But he has a day job and during his leisure time is more interested in video games, Netflix, and the rifle range. Nor do I install wipers anymore, same reasons, but still have stock to sell. Am still set up to mill dummy B shells, but since MTL finally is making powered B units no point in doing this. Regards, Glen Chenier
Glen! Thanks for popping in ! Many of us are heading or are in your situation. Notch up the vision specs a bit for some but I know the body doesn't always agree. I am surf we all can help.
Further to this - one of the reasons for the difficult assembly of MTL F7 LED headlights is that my previous version did not use an etched circuit board. Not knowing sales demand in advance I carved the circuit board for each unit using a Dremel diamond cutting wheel in a wood jig, along with needle files to cut the pattern into the copper. If I was to do a proper circuit board layout with solder paste and solder pads for the components, and scoring by the board manufacturer to allow me to break sections apart in the correct dimensions the assembly work would become much easier in spite of my reduced dexterity. This is only an idea at the moment, and before I proceed any farther I would like to have some idea if there would be enough demand to make this project worthwhile. So if those interested could give a 'show of hands' as to quantities I would need to provide I could get some idea of how many patterns to place on what size of copperclad pcb stock to have a professional pcb house manufacture the blanks for me.
Glen I do not know about electronics but I have just read about the Voltera V-One circuit board printer (volter.io). Now the pre-order price is $2,1999.00 and is expected to ship in 2016. Now this probably means 2017 or onwards (I am based in the UK and very familiar with Marklin release dates). This will not be of use to you at the moment but it might be similar to 3-D printing, so that designs can be sent to a printing service (like Shapeways). Rob Pearce (aka Viper Bugloss)
Glen, Wonderful to see you here. So sorry that you're not able to do this small work any longer, but I completely understand. If you are able to have the circuit boards cut, I would gladly buy at least 6 of the LED replacements for MTL F7's. Hope this works out!
Hi Glen I would like at least a 1/2 dozen led replacements for my F7's maybe more depending on price. I'm also sending you a message about the wheel wipers. I would like to purchase several sets from you. David
Well I can't speak about the LED's, But Glen's wheel wipers make a Huge difference. I ordered a few sets and followed his instructions for adding the wipers and fine tuning the MTL F7's. And I couldn't be happier with the results.. If I hadn't done the work installing the wipers myself I would swear that someone swapped locomotives on me. It took me the better part of Saturday morning to get the first one done. . I started with my worst running F7 thinking I had nothing to loose as the only way to make it run was to hold wires directly on the motor. Now it runs great It starts moving at about 2.1 V and will crawl along with out stalling at 1.8 volts. The 2nd and 3rd ones didn't take me as long. Before installing the wipers both of them had to be run at full throttle to prevent stalling . Now they will crawl along smooth and steady at slow speeds with out stalling. I got 2 more done tonight, I must be getting better at it as they only took me about a hour each. I haven't put them on the test track yet but they sure run smooth on the roller test stand. Having done 5 of them I now understand the need to have the proper tools including a good magnifying lens or headset and more importantly good dexterity. Installing the wipers with out it would be difficult if not impossible. Glen Thank you for coming up with this fix and producing the wipers. With out your wipers most of my MTL F7's would still be nothing more than Christmas ornaments sitting on a shelf collecting dust. I am defiantly interested in your LED lights for the F7's. I'm a fair hand with a soldering iron and shouldn't have any trouble assembling them. David
I'm interrested with G Chennier's wheel wipers. With these set in place, does the unit crawls at a steady pace under low voltage, or is the motion still a little bit jerky? Dom
I've installed glens wipers in 7 of my F7's so far. 4 run smooth at slower speeds On #5 & #6 I also milled down the frames and installed decoders while I was at it. They really crawl slow and steady with out any jerking #7 has the wipers installed but I haven't finished milling the frames for the decoder yet. David
Hi im looking for help developing my motor conversion kit for the MT f7a im new to this scale and the noise. does anyone have a pictures of these wheel wipers ? and i am looking for details on the rokuhan a100-2 motor data sheet or pics of the shaft ends, i hope to post cad drawings for 3d printing tom
David and all, LED headlight circuit boards have been designed and should arrive next week, I found a manufacturer that could scored them into break-off blanks. The problem with assembling them is that they are so small (3mm x 6mm) that it is impossible to handle them one at a time, they have to be assembled while still fastened together in a bunch and then broken apart afterwards. I plan to use a close-up digital microscope and solder paste to help me get the parts positioned right. If all goes well I might have them available for sale in a few weeks.
Great news, Glen! I'll have my Paypal, or whatever appropriate form of payment, ready for whenever you have them available. I am anxious to re-light a number of my F7's! Will probably invest in a few more wipers while I'm at it. I'm excited! My email is bkeyser @ cox . net (remove spaces) if you would like to take any prepayment assistance. Thank you SO much!
Another question Glen: are you still able to get, or do you still have any stock of the spare F7 axles, tower gears, and assorted other parts that you used to use for running improvements? Just curious, as Dave and I both would like to get our hands on some or all of those, just to have options. Thank you again for all your help.
That's good News Glen, I'll be looking to order some along with some more wheel wipers. Let me know if you need help assembling them. As I said I'm a fair hand with a soldering iron and have gotten pretty good at installing your wipers & tuning up the F7's and other locomotives. Also as Brian mentioned We are interested in getting some replacement parts like geared wheel sets As I have a few loco's of my own and a couple belonging to friends that I'm currently tuning up that have damaged and out of shape wheels sets /off center axles. David
Tom and all, Sounds like you are doing an interesting project. Please keep us informed as to your progress. I have placed all my MTL F7 repair and maintenance notes into this group https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/MTL-ZScaleLocomotiveMaintenance/info Feel free to join. This is all old stuff, but you can see pictures of wheelwipers in the instructions in the Files section. The LEDlight file is old and pertains to my early and now obsolete version, but all the information will apply to my new version.
