Metal wheels and coach lighting

[Bredebahn]

I'd agree with the battery LED concensus. LGB pickup wheels are excellent (those with ball bearings, not the plunger type which add too much drag) but very expensive. If you wish to experiment with track pickup on cheaper wheelsets, might I suggest that playing with a short length of phospher-bronze strip/wire bearing on the back of each wheel might be the way to do this. Phospher-bronze is tensile, requiring little contact pressure, solders easily to connecting wires, and conducts well - it isn't affected by corrosion either. If it works in 00 and N without too many problems, it should be more easily achieved in our scale.

 

[steve parberry]

Glendale do BB wheels with pick ups from the trainline range.
http://www.glendalejunction.co.uk/TrainLine45Accs.html
I have no idea about there quality as i havent fitted any but it is an alternative to LGB versions

 

[Brixham]

My first post....!

I'm currently playing around with a mixed system...track pickup with a sort of battery...

Conventional track pickups feed a bridge rectifier..then a 5 volt regulator, which charges a 1 farad capacitor ( about the size of 5 stacked 2p pieces, say 25mm dia and 10mm high ). This then drives leds...

After a reasonable charge period, the 4 led's at 5 ma each will stay on for around 30 seconds..enough for station stops.
Also..no flickering.

Malcolm

 

[Rhinochugger]

Malcolm, congrats on your first post

Mind you, having gone to all that effort, I'd have put the electronic gizzmos in a carriage rather than on a post.........................






Oh, never mind

Welcome, nonetheless

 

[ntpntpntp]

... 5 volt regulator, which charges a 1 farad capacitor ...This then drives leds...

Are you sure it's 1 Farad? That's huge and would keep your LEDs running for days! Perhaps 1 microFarad?

 

[Neil Robinson]

... 5 volt regulator, which charges a 1 farad capacitor ...This then drives leds...

Are you sure it's 1 Farad? That's huge and would keep your LEDs running for days! Perhaps 1 microFarad?

1F 5.5V capacitors are available in the size Brixham mentioned.

http://industrial.panasonic.com/www-cgi/jvcr13pz.cgi?E+PZ+3+ABC0002+EECS5R5H105+7+WW < Link To http://industrial.panason...C0002+EECS5R5H105+7+WW

 

[ntpntpntp]

Indeed they are Neil, I wasn't alluring to the physical size - just that my gut reaction was I thought 30 seconds run time for the LEDs is way way under what I'd expect for that much capacitance? Mind you the voltage isn't very high, I'm more used to thinking in terms of 1000 microFarad CDUs running at 24V, a big difference in terms of the amount of stored energy.

It's been many many years since I studied electronics, obviously my memory's failed! Something to do with discharge curves and time constants and stuff - really must keep my mouth shut and go and look it up first!

 

[Gizzy]

My first post....!

I'm currently playing around with a mixed system...track pickup with a sort of battery...

Conventional track pickups feed a bridge rectifier..then a 5 volt regulator, which charges a 1 farad capacitor ( about the size of 5 stacked 2p pieces, say 25mm dia and 10mm high ). This then drives leds...

After a reasonable charge period, the 4 led's at 5 ma each will stay on for around 30 seconds..enough for station stops.
Also..no flickering.

Malcolm

Malcolm this is most interesting! And a great first post too?

Do you have a circuit diagram please....

 

[Paul2727]

I believe that sometime in the future electricity will need no wires to go from point A to point B. Electricity will travel the way radio waves now do. However, until that day arrives, we must be constricted in the wiring harnesses that will transmit that power from coach to coach for lighting purposes. I know it seems a nuisance to switch on each coach, then switch it off again when finished running trains for the night. But just a short time ago, before LEDs, we had to deal with all that drag, and miniature light bulbs that sap track power. I have converted all of my coaches to LED lighting with battery power. I run the LEDs directly off of two AA batteries. The batteries are located in a battery holder fastened to the underside of the coach roof. A sub miniature toggle switch is located along the sill of the car near one of it's trucks. It's incredible how long those LEDs will stay lit on two AA cells.

Wireless electrical connection over short distances (Near field.) does exist, it's called Inductive coupling and is used to charge mobile phones, laptops and power some pacemakers amongst other things. There's also far field beaming for longer distances. Both of these can be traced back to Nikola Tesla way back in the 1890's. Unfortunately the US government backed Edison in the great AC/DC debate so we will probably never know how close Tesla was to his dream of free beamed energy for all. Google 'Wardenclyffe Tower.' It makes for interesting reading. I'll leave it to you to decide if was just a pipe dream or not.

 

[dunnyrail]

I have been pondering Coach Lighting for a long time now. As I am gradually going over to Battery Power, Track systems will not work for me. It seams that one of the best options is most certainly Battery, as I have 3 Train Ciaching Sets that mostly get used one is a Bogie Van and Passenger accomodation, the other two are 2 bogie coaches with a Van Sandwiched between them. So each set has space for the Batteries.

Connection between Vehicles can be accomodated by varying plugs etc but as I wish the Battery Cars to provide Lighting Power to Locomotives Coupling and Uncoupling (though a prototypical task) would be a real pain.

So I am pondering the possibility of Flexible Couplings that would Automatically Couple by having a Rare Earth Small Magnet on the end of simulated Jumper Cables. Flexibility plus length of the wire here wil be the issue, too much and the wrong jumpers may connect, too little and they may not couple or stay coupled on curves at all.

As for the power there are a few methods. As has been said Switched Battery Boxes are readily available, but another option I have seen is to use a Latching Reed Switch on/in the Roof. A Magnet is passed over it to turn lights on and off. This may be a better system for individual lights on each vehicle. Hmm more brain work and surfing to find that me thinks.

Hope you find my ramblings though provoking.

 

[Madman]

Wireless electrical connection over short distances (Near field.) does exist, it's called Inductive coupling and is used to charge mobile phones, laptops and power some pacemakers amongst other things. There's also far field beaming for longer distances. Both of these can be traced back to Nikola Tesla way back in the 1890's. Unfortunately the US government backed Edison in the great AC/DC debate so we will probably never know how close Tesla was to his dream of free beamed energy for all. Google 'Wardenclyffe Tower.' It makes for interesting reading. I'll leave it to you to decide if was just a pipe dream or not.

It wasn't the government as much as big business, who backed Edison in those days. Can you imagine not paying an electricity bill as we know them ? The same can be said today of oil and gas. We, in the states, are contaminating the earth with chemicals in order to extract natural gas and oil from shale. All of that expense and energy could have been put to good use advancing solar, wind and water power. Even nuclear power is looking good to environmentalists these days, compared to the mess we are creating.

A small town in western Pennsylvania is fighting a gas company over dumping Fracking waste chemicals into the ground. The highly toxic chemical mixture used to extract oil and gas can only be used a few times before it becomes useless. The spent mixture is pumped into the ground at dump sites around the country. What a freeking mess.

 

[idlemarvel]

The "latched reed switch in roof" is a neat idea. I might try that for my track powered coach lighting, much easier than having to pick up the rolling stock and fiddle with a hidden switch. Much cheaper than a function decoder, although that's not too bad if you have permanently coupled rakes with one decoder between them.

 

[dunnyrail]

The "latched reed switch in roof" is a neat idea. I might try that for my track powered coach lighting, much easier than having to pick up the rolling stock and fiddle with a hidden switch. Much cheaper than a function decoder, although that's not too bad if you have permanently coupled rakes with one decoder between them.

These may be another option with some adaption to get the length of a G Scale Coach.

http://www.train-tech.com/index.php/lighting/interior-coach-lighting

Found this while looking for the Magnet System that I have seen around at Shows.

 

[Deleted member 4232]

Moved

 

[dunnyrail]

The "latched reed switch in roof" is a neat idea. I might try that for my track powered coach lighting, much easier than having to pick up the rolling stock and fiddle with a hidden switch. Much cheaper than a function decoder, although that's not too bad if you have permanently coupled rakes with one decoder between them.

Further to the Latching Reed Switch thing. At the GC Modeling event I found the Man that supplies them. I was just looking at these Latching Switches in two sizes that he flogs. I latched onto them immediately seeing them as a roof mounted switch, perhaps hidden with a roof ventilator attached to make them work, invisibles pretty much. These are the smaller ones.

Then I mentioned the Latching Reed lights, "oh yes I make them as well" he says. So we had a long chat about the availability for G Scale and he had not thought about that. I bought an 0 Gauge Kit and they very nicely cut me some more of the Led Strip to enable fitting to a G Scale Coach. Cost me £7.50. Original kit came with 20cm of LED and they cut me anither 35cm off of a Roll. Have researched these rolls of LED and they are readily available on Ebay. Below is the kit with contact details.

The reed is a bit tricky, it appears to have a very small weak Magnet attached with Heatshrink. This has not quite enough strength to pull the reed into contact but enough if assisted by a Magnet. This is reverced to uncouple the connection. Neat. So a stick (or uncoupling knife) with a rare earth Magnet does the job. One way turn on, the other way turn off.