Piko BR204 (Harzkamel standard gauge) power consumption?

[Beddhist]

I have shouted myself a belated birthday present: the blue Pressnitztalbahn "Kamel". As I am building my layout with dead rails it will have to be converted to Airwire and I want to install a sound decoder.

Checking the Piko Harzkamel manual they say that it only needs a 2A power supply. If that is correct then I could use a Zimo HO decoder with this, as some of them are rated 2.5A continuous. This would work out a lot cheaper than a large scale decoder.

Has anybody ever measured the actual power consumption of one of these? I'm assuming that they are all identical under the hood, including the 2- and 3-axle bogie versions.

Then again, if I later want to add smoke I will go over that, won't I?

 

[Beddhist]

Oops, scratch that, I mis-read the table and looked at the peak Amps. :-X A LS decoder it will have to be.

 

[Zerogee]

I wouldn't use an LS, Peter - it hasn't really got enough power capacity for a twin-motor LGB loco, let alone a Piko one!
You'll need an XLS at least - or you could save a bit of money with an XL and a SUSI plug-in soundmodule (Dietz/Uhlenbrock).

Jon.

 

[CoggesRailway]

if its any help I have the bo bo coverted to battery with a 5300 amp hour battery in it. it lasts 2 and a bit hours with a decent train on the flat, at mid speed and in constant motion.

I think this suggests Zero above is right - to cater for starting train etc you need something fairly meaty installed...

Or my battery isn't as labeled- more than possible!

 

[Beddhist]

Thanks guys. Serves me right, abbreviating large scale to LS ... when Massoth make an HO decoder that's called LS! :-X

I got it, for LS I need a Massoth XLS decoder.

Cogges, I think you are right: from what I have read in this forum about batteries, most manufacturers seem to vastly overstate capacities.

If I ever get a bigger loco I will have a problem: the Airwire Convertr is rated at 2.5A. Airwire's G3 decoder seems a little simplistic.

 

[mibema]

I own the PIKO BR 298, the orange version of the loco. The power consumption of the cheap motors is horrible.

without load, the whole loco has 0,5 Amps, but with load, it increases rapidly to 2,5 and more. My MASSOTH XLS comes to its limits.....but this is a special "feature" of PIKO's poor motors.

LGB's Buehler motor are much better, if these have such a power consumption, you may trow them away.....
All right, the sound-file for V100/Harzkamel sets the current-limit of the XLS a little bit higher, so it will work in most cases.

But my "cleaning-train" has 2 cars with cleanig-sets 50050 with heavy load......

The eMotion-L(S) is similar to LGB's 55021 for just one gearbox(=motor).

regards

Michael

 

[Beddhist]

Danke, Michael!

Looks like I will have to measure mine before ordering any electronics. If it's over 2.5A continuous I will have to get an Airwire decoder and have to live with less functionality.

 

[Zerogee]

My Harzkamel has an XLS installed, and that seems to cope fine - no overload problems that I've seen.

Jon.