Drop in pre-mounted RTR battery R/C package.

[Tony Walsham]

A new customer asked me to help him out with a ready to go battery R/C and sound package to fit in a 120 mm x 70 mm x 45 mm space in the tender of his scratch built loco.

Here is what I came up with.

The battery pack is 12 volts. 10 x 1.2 volt AA size ENELOOP hybrid Alkaline/NiMh cells. I have had great success with them in the last few years. Unlike regular NiMh cells, which self discharge in a few weeks, these are guaranteed to hold 85% of a charge for one year. I mounted the pack on a sheet of styrene with silicone adhesive.
They are ideal for smallish low current draw locos. I do not recommend them for high current draw installations.

The RCS-Beltrol ECL-3r is in two parts. The decoder part and Hobby King RX were mounted with silicone at one end. The actual Motor driver part was mounted along one edge.
Beside that part was a MyLocosound sound system with the new version mechanical chuff timer.

At the end is a row of 5 x 2 way terminals to take wires to various points.
I have no idea how long the wires need to be for the chuff reed switch, speaker and charge port, so I left them long so the owner can shorten them to suit without having to do any soldering.
The ON-OFF switch is on a remote lead and can be mounted anywhere convenient.

 

[gregh]

Sure is a neat package Tony.

 

[Tony Walsham]

Thanks Greg.
I find being as neat as possible makes for a much more reliable installation.

 

[MR SPOCK]

[align=center]HI Tony

thats a neat bit of kit there what is the sort of life of those batteries when charged and how long to recharge please,

I use onboard chargers but isolate the cells when not in use as the charger seems to flatten them in a day or so,

pete
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[Tony Walsham]

Hello Pete.
Those are 2,000 mah AA size ENELOOP hybrid Alkaline/NiMh cells.
How fast they charge depends on the charger.
They do not self discharge like NiMh cells do. Although I only ever use a plug in charger.
You are limited to about 1 amp max continuous current draw, otherwise the life span of the batteries will be reduced from the claimed 500 cycles.

 

[MRail]

isolate the cells when not in use as the charger seems to flatten them in a day or so,
pete

Back when I was a little(ish) lad, and charging car batteries etc, my dad said never leave a battery connected to a non-powered charger. The battery would try to power the charger and thus discharge itself.
Rob G

 

[Tony Walsham]

It would probably be OK to leave it connected PROVIDED the charger output was diode protected. Although that would prevent a smart charger from detecting peak voltage properly.

 

[MR SPOCK]

[align=center]Today I fitted a switch to isolate the battery totally from everything,

I got fed up with having flat batteries on a friday evening knowing they were fully charged on sunday night, I wish that sellers would be more upfront about small details like this, I also wired the charger circuit to the loco side of the switch , Thanks Mrail for stating the obviuos, it really wasnt obviuos to me but that has saved my batteries from early land fill,

I have also discovered that my fancy onboard chargers that cost me £ 30 plus, I can make for less than 20p, this week end two of my locos ran everytime I wanted them to with my new circuit and charger, the other two failed as they always do, they are now in the workshop for modification,

I am now looking at building a charger unit that will chuck out a decent current and not shut down as soon as a loco wanders into the circuit that has a battery PD of more than 13.8volts,

|I did look at standardising on the australian loco control as it had all the features I wanted , but as I got no replies from the uk dealers I gave up

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[Tony Walsham]

Dear Vulcan,
You could have tried the Australian system maker. Me.
You do know the UK distributor was very ill last year and is only now up and running again.

BTW. If you are using regular NiMH batteries that will likely explain why they are going flat. NiMH self discharge. Sometimes very rapidly.

 

[MR SPOCK]

[align=center]Thanks Tony,

I use sealed lead acids, but it is the charger and regulator that is flattening the battery or was should I say,I used to have all nicad but gave them away as I had too many fires, !!! haha,

I found that most people selling gear are at the age of being ill including myself so I dont look to deeply into things and just get what I can, it took a while to get responses from everyone to be honest,

I will stick with locolinc now as I cannot be chewed changing, but would if I was starting again definately go fo Beltrol,

regards Pete

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