Bachmann GE 45 Tonner

[Rhinochugger]

OK, because I'm so boring that nobody will talk to me, here's a question.

I'm converting a 45t to battery power, and need to know the voltages of the directional LEDs and the cab light LED.

Anybody know?

Cheers

 

[steven large]

try 12 volts nic batteries? mine is fitted with recharge drill battery on my SW-4! CAN run on led light as well aslo cab light as well....but i didnt use it on ciruct boards...just the motors and light......

 

[steven large]

if u are not sure...ask for mr.spockie.....he did ave yr same loco with batteries....drop him a line..

 

[Rhinochugger]

Ah, that's the issue Stephen, the integral circuit board has got to come out - now that the locos are DCC ready, there's too much gubbins inside - the circuit board's massive :thumbdown::thumbdown:

 

[ntpntpntp]

I normally just assume an average of something like 2 volts drop and 20mA current. If you play around with one of the online resister calculators you'll find that the forward voltage of anywhere from 1.5v to 3v doesn't make a lot of difference in the suggested resistor value for the sort of supply voltages we tend to use.

http://ledz.com/?p=zz.led.resistor.calculator

Eg. for 12v supply I normally reckon a 470 or 560 ohm resistor is fine. I start high and try the lower value if the LED isn't bright enough.

 

[Rhinochugger]

OK, thanks for that, Nick

So what colour stripes do the 470 ohm resistors and the 560 ohm resistors have?

I have a little stash of resistors, and you can bet your bottom dollar that none of them are suitable

 

[Rhinochugger]

OK, conversion work has started

The AAAs are for the sound card - which, 'cos the holes weren't too accurate, has caused the styrene sub-frame to buckle a bit. Never mind, it's solid enough.

Still waiting fro the power battery packs to arrrive nphone:

The sub-frames slide over the steel hex uprights, and for the switch panel, will be screwed down to make them nice and solid

 

[CoggesRailway]

Interesting keep it coming!!

 

[Rhinochugger]

There's another swicth and another charging socket to be mounted on the plate yet - for the main power.

I reckoned that I could get all four in the original aperture.

I've done away with the smoke units - I have to admit, I can't really see the point, not unless someone comes up with a smoke unit that'll produce a dirty great plume of black smoke belching out of the exhaust pipe

Anyway, there's not enough room now.

Stuff's on its way from Brian Jones next week, so there'll be a bit of soldering an' stuff to do

 

[Rhinochugger]

Have put the trucks back on ternight, and wired them up - and yes all the whizzy cranks are going in the same direction

I then had to re-work the suports for the styrene sub-frames because they fouled the little printed circuit boards that sit on top of the pivots

 

[Rhinochugger]

A bit more dabbling - a busy weekend with SWMBO's birthday celebrations, so it's been bits 'n' pieces.

Soldered a few wires on switches and things. I've been finding it easier to solder small switch tags with plain solder and liquid flux - am now running out of 145 degree solder, so have had to re-order. Roxey Mouldings (4mm & 7mm modelling) seemed to come out cheapest

 

[coyote97]

the LEDs have (for my gusto) never the right colour to be prototypical.

There are yellow ones, giving yellow light...looking somlike strange. And there are the white ones, which i do not like at all.


I replaced the LED in the headlights with small 12V bulbs. They give a warm light, not to hard, not to soft. Like it very much.

Your Battery-Pack seems to be a bit weak. Those cells are more for low-current-operations. The small ones make difficulties with grades and heavy load for bigger locos (which the 45-tonner is). I shot through some small-cell-packs and even a cheap controler: 2 amps are not enough, even with the bachmann 4-6-0. No chance with the Connie or multi-motorized locos like the mallet or shay.
Though, 2 amps are too much for most mignon cells (AA).

I know its not cheap, but i made some good experience with LiPo-Packs of about 11,1 V and 3500-5000mAh.
If you worry about the 11,1 V, there are 14,8V Packs as well, but many controllers wont make more than 12 V.....

Greetings

Frank

 

[Rhinochugger]

Frank

Don't fret - that battery pack is for the sound card - the main power pack hasn't arrrived yet :impatient::impatient:

 

[Rhinochugger]

Progress has been slow, but we have done a bit more wiring.

That's the thing with this sort of project, there's wires everywhere.

Part of the trouble is that I decided to split the 14.4v pack into two for weight distribution purposes, then after I'd ordered the battery packs, decided to go for a sound card as well.

Decisions, decisions

So , a few wires added

The PCB in the middle is to hold the resistors for the lights - three of 'em. Front, Back, Cab.

And lastly, a way of retaining the overload cut outs. Again two of 'em, one for the sound card and one for the power.

 

[Rhinochugger]

Yes, they are a little on the large side.

That's because they're 1:20.3 and the prototype is a standard catalogue model that's fitted to every gauge from 2' 6" to 5' 3".

But they're supposed to be easy to convert to battery because they have so much space inside - once you've taken out all the solid state electronic gismo for smoke units, DCC and all that guff.

There's even a prototype space under the floor in the cab for all the wiring. The real thing has a raised floor for the brake cylinders

 

[Rhinochugger]

All the stuff has arrived from Brain Jones - watch this space

 

[Tony Walsham]

I have converted a number of them.
http://www.largescalecentral.com/LSCForums/viewtopic.php?id=5786 < Link To Here is one way I did it.
I retained the stock diode lighting and added a small resistor (470R) in series with each LED for the forward and reverse lights. The LED's are a bit too blue for my taste, so in later versions I replaced them with warm white LED's.

 

[Rhinochugger]

Aha - just in time Tony. That's lucky, cos I've used blue 470 diodes for the dircetional LEDs and a 1k for the cab light which is a bulb I've found out, not an LED.

 

[Rhinochugger]

Anyway - a bit more progress

The power packs and the MAC 5 are installed.

The power packs are taking a charge, but the sound unit packs of AAAs don't want to take a charge at the moment. I've probably got a wire wrong somewhere.

If it's the charging socket again, it'll be a bit tricky to get at :impatient::impatient:

 

[Rhinochugger]

Those nice folks from Meerkovo have sent Yakov the toymaker to help me sort things out. They thought that two brains were better than one

He identified the short on the power side, and we now have forward and reverse motion from the R/C.

He reckoned that the problems with the power sound pack were due to me buying cheap and nasty Japanese rechargeables from ebay - I was able to prove him wrong with a simples test.

He is now inspecting the wiring of the Maplins charging socket - always a mystery to me - it gave me grief on the VW drasine.

He also reckons that the resistor in the cab light wiring is to big (interfering kat - he'll get sent back to Meerkovo if he doesn't watch it nphone:nphone:nphone:

I'll have to look and se if I've got a 560 ohm resistor somewhere.