MTH PS3 A5 0-4-0 picture and video

Nice little switcher there.  Your video of the PRR Mikado makes me want to go out and buy one.

Very nice video and layout.

Nice!  

I still wanna find out if theres a spot for rent in one of those houses on the hillside.

Between the view and the train watching ,what a great place to live!

Nice find. I'm not a Pennsy collector, though I have a 3rd Rail S2 Turbine. The A5 is one I think about quite a bit as it's like a little "pet" locomotive, akin to a 44-tonner or the AGEIR box cab.

May I ask what's with the flickering headlight? Mine is on steady with no flickering. Nice layout and video.

RickO posted:

Nice!  

I still wanna find out if theres a spot for rent in one of those houses on the hillside.

Between the view and the train watching ,what a great place to live!

I know what you mean! I imagine being a kid, and me and my friends would have a little spot in the woods on the top of the hill across the road overlooking the engine facility and the curved track.  I will need to model that in there somewhere.  

josef posted:

May I ask what's with the flickering headlight? Mine is on steady with no flickering. Nice layout and video.

It doesn't flicker to the eye.  I think that flickering in the video has something to do with the combination of the particular LED/circuit and the particular camera.  None of the LEDs in my other locomotives cause that phenomenon with my camera (galaxy S9 plus). 

Just watched the video, and I might have a suggestion about the "flickering" headlight.  I noticed that when the engine went into reverse, the front headlight did not go off.  I may be wrong, but I thought the system was supposed to be "either / or" for the back-up and head light.  If I'm right, there might be a loose headlight wire causing problems.  If not right, please forgive my ignorance. 

Beautiful engine, by the way, and nice video and layout, too.

Chuck

PRR1950 posted:

Just watched the video, and I might have a suggestion about the "flickering" headlight.  I noticed that when the engine went into reverse, the front headlight did not go off.  I may be wrong, but I thought the system was supposed to be "either / or" for the back-up and head light.  If I'm right, there might be a loose headlight wire causing problems.  If not right, please forgive my ignorance. 

Beautiful engine, by the way, and nice video and layout, too.

Chuck

It looks like it has Rule 17 lighting on the front, headlight dimmed when stopped or in reverse.  

"Almost all LED s operate using an electronics principle known as Pulse Width Modulation (PWM for short). PWM works by "blinking" the LEDs at a rapid rate, such that it cycles through "on" and "off" states many times per second."

" By increasing or decreasing the ratio of "on" vs "off" time during each cycle, brightness can be increased or decreased, respectively."

" In other words, the light source is not actually producing a constant light output with constant brightness, even if it appears to our human vision systems that it does."

"Even though to humans the LED light source appears to have a constant brightness, video cameras reveal that it is in fact rapidly switching between "on" and "off" states"

I though about getting one years ago when Vince had a C&O Ps2, but ended up getting something the grandson wanted instead.

Now, after seeing your video, I'm hooked again....

Thinning the herd now, so there will be funds available soon.

Thanks for the post!

Jim M Sr posted:

I though about getting one years ago when Vince had a C&O Ps2, but ended up getting something the grandson wanted instead.

Now, after seeing your video, I'm hooked again....

Thinning the herd now, so there will be funds available soon.

Thanks for the post!

I would recommend it.  Honestly, I was initially sort of thinking of it more as a little novelty, but it is a legit shifter, and I think it is going to be on my layout a whole lot.  Nice for smaller layouts since its only around 15 inches long, and the tiny drivers with 4 chuff seems to stretch the layout!

Neat little switcher.  If I didn't already have the K-Line A-5, I'd probably consider this one.

@gunrunnerjohn, do you have any explanation about why the video by my phone of the headlight flickers but other LEDs (including the LED on the tender of the same locomotive) does not flicker?

Just curious.  Thank you.

Jeff, Rick was correct, it's the PWM that's used to drive the LED.  If it syncs up with the video frame rate (or a multiple of the frame rate), you'll get that effect.  However, it's much faster than the human eye can discern, so you don't see any flicker in real life.  It's the same kind of artifact as when you see an airplane prop or a car wheel spinning in a video, sometimes you can see a shadow of the rotation going backwards.  It's not really happening.

Rick and John, thank you.  That's what I figured.  It seems like this flicker issue is less common recently.  I wonder if the LED makers have set the PWM frequency differently to avoid frequencies that commonly cause issues with video cameras.   

Someday when I get energetic, I'll put a 'scope on the various lighting outputs and see what switching frequency they are using.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Jeff, Rick was correct, it's the PWM that's used to drive the LED.  If it syncs up with the video frame rate (or a multiple of the frame rate), you'll get that effect. 

Erics Siegels train videos are a good example. Since he's done so many. Some locomotives don't flicker at all. There are also some that flicker so much. Eric actually states on the video that there is nothing wrong with the headlight, that it is the camera.

However, it's much faster than the human eye can discern, so you don't see any flicker in real life.  

I can, I just haven't told anybody, LOL!

That's only in your bionic eye Rick, the rest of us have no problem!

Great looking little locomotive! I also really like your layout. Well done.

Tom