I sent Al Krug an e-mail asking how to use the FRED/MARY system. Wouldn't it be nice to have these functions in train-sim?>How can the butons on the MARY device be used to use the functions >in the FRED/MARY system?
Thanks.Air pressure and the various indicator lights such as moving/stopped,
marker
on/off, FR/RF No Comm require no button pushing.To use the footage counter you push the count button once to start,
again
to stop, and a 3rd time to zero.To see the loco wheel diameter set into Mary and the battery state you
press
and hold the Test button.To set the display brightness you press the Dim Button, there are 4
levels
of brightness which t he button cycles through.Mary beeps at you every time something changes. To set the "beep"
volume you
press and hold the Test button while pressing the Dim button. The
volume
cycles thru 4 levels.To arm Fred (actually you arm mary) someone must push the Test/Arm
button on
FRED itself and you then get an "Arm Now" message on the Mary. You have
about 10 seconds to push the Arm button on your Mary to arm the
emergency
braking system.To put the FRED and train into remergency you lift the protective cover
over
the Emergency switch and toggle the switch.To set the loco wheel diameter for the counter there is a two digit
thumbwheel under a spring loaded cover on the back of Mary. You dial in
your
loco wheel diameter. The two numbers represent only the last two digits
of
numbers from about 37.0 inches to 43.0 inches. The first digit 3 or 4
is
implied.
Each 1/10 of an inch in wheel diameter represents approx 13 feet per
mile so
you can calibrate your footage counter to within 13 ft by setting these
thumbwheels. If my counter is off (as checked by measuring a set of
known
good mileposts) I simply divide the difference between the reading and
5280
ft by 13 to get how many digitis I need to change my counter
calibration.
For instance: If I measure a known good mile at 5185 ft that is 95 feet
short of a mile which is 5280 ft. Divide 95 by 13 and you get 7.3,
round to
7. If the thumbwheels are set at a wheel diamter of 39.8 inches as
indicated
by the digits 9.8 on the thumbwheels, I need to increase that number by
7/10ths. 39.8 + 0.7 = 40.5 so I change the thumbwheels from 9.8 to 0.5
and
it is now calibrated correctly. Alternately if you actually measure the
wheel diameter to be 40.5" you would just dial 0.5 into the
thumbwheels.
Simple aint it.These instructions are for the stand alone blackboxMarys only. The ones
built into the newer locos with computer screens are operated somewhat
differently.AK
Unknown Person
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