Ng16 Radio Controĺ

[Winsley]

Hi All
Question re radio control on my NG16 (well, two questions in fact)

1. The regulator is off at 10 o'clock. The RC can open the regulator to about 7oclock. To get decent power from the loco, I need to open it to 3oclock. Try as I might with adjusting it, I can't. Any ideas? Does anyone have an NG16 who could share a picture of their RC on both off and fully open?

2. The reverser no longer works off the RC on both ends of the engine. Just whirs but no movement. Any suggestions? Also, in order to access the servos can anyone suggest how to remove the bodywork to access it?

Pictured attached of my regulator both open and off.

Thanks for any help offered

 

[PhilP]

You can get a replacement regulator valve for RC,that needs less travel. - We call it 'throw'.

You can not normally get more than around 130 degrees of rotation from a normal servo.

You can get a little more throw, by altering where on the servo horn, and on the arm on the regulator, you put the linkages.

Most servos will give you about 90 degrees of throw. Some will do more, but you will need to be able to adjust this on your radio gear.

If you can hear whirring, but the linkages don't move:
Either a screw has come loose, or you have stripped the teeth on the gearing in the servo.

PhilP.

 

[Rhos Helyg Loco Works]

Front tank and rear bunker are held in place by many 2mm hex head screws around their bases. You will need to be aware of the dummy pipework when they are removed. Those 2mm screws are why an NGG16 must NEVER be picked up by the tank and bunker - they will not take the weight.

 

[tac foley]

As every NGG16 I've seen that was fitted with r/c has been different, so it's a toss-up how yours might be configured. Rod Blakeman did my initial set-up back in 2008, and David Mees re-did it all a couple years syne after a major rebuild.

PhilP has the right or if - a whirring servo is a dead servo - you MUST use the best metal-geared servos available - all else is a waste of £££. Tony Willmore or Dave Mees are your advisors here - both have HUGE experience fitting e/c to these magnificent models.

I'll take some pics of my set-up in the morning, but it will no doubt differ substantially from yours. Dave Mees uses a custom 3D printed servo stand for the throttle that bears against the back wall of the cab, thereby maximising the effort induced by the lever. You can buy it from him at Abbeybach Engineering Services Ltd.

 

[Paul M]

You could try moving the adjustment screw on the regulator to the end hole, that may give you a bit more movement

 

[Winsley]

Thanks very much for your replies. I'll open her up and look at the servos; and see if I can get a new regulator valve too.

 

[Rhos Helyg Loco Works]

My NGG16 still has its original regulator valve, and I see no need to change it. Yours is a Batch 1 or 2 loco, mine is a Batch 3 and this is how the regulator servo is mounted (as supplied by Accucraft themselves)...

 

[PhilP]

I would sort the reverser out first?

Your lack of control could be that the loco is not 'in gear' so loosing steam.

Just a theory. Defer to Tony, on this sort of thing.

PhilP.

 

[Rhos Helyg Loco Works]

To get decent power from the loco, I need to ...

... also remove the exhaust pipe in the smokebox and replace the too small copper bits of the exhaust system pipework to remove the enormous amount of back-pressure that they create. This will allow the loco to "breath". On a Batch 3, the lubricator also needs some modification, not needed on a Batch 1 or 2 loco.

 

[tac foley]

Thanks very much for your replies. I'll open her up and look at the servos; and see if I can get a new regulator valve too.

My set-up is a mirror image of yours, designed to maximise the movement of the throttle with the least amount of servo movement. Your set-up, on the other paw, seems to be trying to vertically move an already vertical throttle arm.

 

[David Price]

Hi Winsley,

Are you the first owner of the engine?

IF the engine has been fitted with the Accucraft fine control needle before you acquired it you won't get sufficient travel out of the thread to maximise steam flow under radio control:

I found this out (as mentioned in my thread on the 7/8" Decauville) after I fitted servo control to the regulator with a fine control needle from Jason Kovak.

Reverting to the standard Accucraft regulator needle resolved the issue with enough travel from a HItec HS-82MG (metal gear servo - +/- 60 degree travel).

Similarly a fine control needle if used in a Roundhouse manual regulator is quite a different beast to the Roundhouse radio-control one - obvious from the threads and ends which is which:

 

[tac foley]

Dave Mees - 'Abbeybach engineering Services Ltd' in North Wales, and Simon Whenmouth - 'Anything Narrow Gauge' - somewhere else, has suitable replacement needles.

 

[Winsley]

Thanks v much. I'll contact one of them. This is my existing needle

 

[Rhos Helyg Loco Works]

Thanks v much. I'll contact one of them. This is my existing needle

And I would say there is nothing wrong with that, but what do I know....?

 

[Winsley]

Front tank and rear bunker are held in place by many 2mm hex head screws around their bases. You will need to be aware of the dummy pipework when they are removed. Those 2mm screws are why an NGG16 must NEVER be picked up by the tank and bunker - they will not take the weight.

They don't make the access easy, do they!

 

[David Price]

This is the fine control needle for Accucraft regulators from Jason Kovak:



As I detailed in my thread on the 7/8" Decauville I was unable to get enough steam flow using a HItech servo - reverting to the needle supplied with the locomotive fixed the problem.

Unsure whether you have this needle Winsley from the image you put up earlier.

NB: the fine gas control needle from the Train Department does not suit/fit the gas control column for the 7/8" Decauville.

 

[Rhos Helyg Loco Works]

For radio control the one thing YOU DO NOT NEED is a "fine control needle", it will never work. Look at David's picture of the two Roundhouse regulators above. The r/c one is on the right, has a course thread and a FLAT END. Strewth...

 

[dunnyrail]

For radio control the one thing YOU DO NOT NEED is a "fine control needle", it will never work. Look at David's picture of the two Roundhouse regulators above. The r/c one is on the right, has a course thread and a FLAT END. Strewth...

Interesting been into RC live steam since around 1983/4 time and never heard that, I was with Merlin that were always good controllable locomotives that you could shunt with. The much better built Roundhouse that I now have are great runners but shunting always an issue till I fitted them up with SloMo’s.

 

[AWPlivesteam]

Hi All
Question re radio control on my NG16 (well, two questions in fact)

1. The regulator is off at 10 o'clock. The RC can open the regulator to about 7oclock. To get decent power from the loco, I need to open it to 3oclock. Try as I might with adjusting it, I can't. Any ideas? Does anyone have an NG16 who could share a picture of their RC on both off and fully open?

2. The reverser no longer works off the RC on both ends of the engine. Just whirs but no movement. Any suggestions? Also, in order to access the servos can anyone suggest how to remove the bodywork to access it?

Pictured attached of my regulator both open and off.

Thanks for any help offered

Hi Winsley,
may be this servo arrangement could solve your problem