RC for Piko motor block. Hi all seeking advice again.

[Steve Manners]

I bought a Piko 0-6-0 motor block from Topslots and I want to convert it to RC. They also sell the RC control unit used on their Circus Roncali starter set separately. I thought I might use the two together. Has anyone tried this before?
I assume you need to remove the pickup shoes, but do any of the wheelsets pick up track power as well? I will probably use unpowered track but it would be useful to know if I could run it in RC mode on powered track.
On the top of the block there are electrical pin connections. 2 marked M - motor? Also 2 marked S - shoes? Any ideas would be welcome. Thanks Steve M.

 

[Greg Elmassian]

You might be able to remove the wipers for the drivers and the skates and make the operation reversable, as opposed to changing the wiring.

Greg

 

[dunnyrail]

There are wires that connect the wheel plungers but you need to be careful removing these as they are used for the single plugs (2) to the motor.

You may get some help from this thread converting my Piko 2-10-2

Piko 2-10-2 Class 95 Ref. 37230 conversion to Battery Power.

In my continued quest for Battery Locomotives I have decided to buy one of these to be converted as a Harz Line may have been. It is pretty well known that there were to be a selection of Standard Locomotives Built by Krupp for Metre Gauge and possibly 75cm lines as well. Thus I intend to trash...

www.gscalecentral.net

This is how I did my Piko 25 tonner

Modifying a Piko 25 Tonner to Battery Power.

Now I imagine that some on here will be wondering why he is doing that when there exists a Battery Powered one already? Well the answer is that I have no need for a Track Cleaning Loco, I want one that is controllable (the Track Cleaner to the best of my knowledge can only be made to go...

www.gscalecentral.net

This is my 0-6-0 conversion.

Red Battery GRS Pecket Loco Conversion using Fosworks and NiMh Batteries with My Loco Sound.

I bought this loco for around £145 back in October 2020. I had been involved with suggesting the price to a lady that had asked us for some values and as nobody appeared to be interested I took the opportunity to buy it as I thought it looked rather nice. It is a Piko 0-6-0 Chassis with what I...

www.gscalecentral.net

bound to be some sort of pics in these showing wires and things.

 

[PhilP]

To the OP:
If you get really stuck.. Yell, and I will take mine apart, and photograph the process.

PhilP

 

[Greg Elmassian]

Unfortunately, in the Piko 0-6-0 thread, no mention of steps to remove pickups or wiring for battery other than the charging socket.

Isn't there an active thread here that shows as Piko 0-6-0 with it's bottom cover off?

Greg

 

[Paradise]

Unfortunately, in the Piko 0-6-0 thread, no mention of steps to remove pickups or wiring for battery other than the charging socket.

Isn't there an active thread here that shows as Piko 0-6-0 with it's bottom cover off?

Greg

Yes there is an image in the other current thread but it is the early version of the block with no ball bearings on the axles. The OP hasn't mentioned which one he has.
It's easy to tell because the early block has small evenly spaced wheels and going by what dunnyrail has just posted, the newer block may have plungers instead of wipers.

Piko 38100 and 38101 0-6-0 tank locos - a good buy or not?

The main loco the SHA (Seaport Harbour Authority) railway use is an LGB Spremberger tank engine, but I have been on the lookout for an 0-6-0, either an LGB BR80 or one of the Piko USA tank locos. A pair of the latter cropped up in a Vectis auction recently and I left a bid of £130 for the...

www.gscalecentral.net

 

[Greg Elmassian]

Thanks, that makes sense, I seem to have remembered there were brass wipers on the axles.

Greg

 

[Paradise]

Thanks, that makes sense, I seem to have remembered there were brass wipers on the axles.

Greg

It begs the question of whether the wheels on the newer motor blocks are plated or not if they do indeed have plungers.
I think dunnyrail can answer that, as he said previously that he did a motor block changeover on his camel. One lump or two? I'm not sure.

Edit: The 0-6-0 doesn't have plungers. They must be on his other Piko engine mentioned above.

 

[dunnyrail]

I have updated my Red Loco thread to show the inside of the chassis.

 

[Greg Elmassian]

Yes, you have plated wheels, and the plating is peeling.

I think this was the reason they changed to sintered wheels with not plating.

Still not a great track power solution, but he wants to know to convert for battery, and unfortunately, your picture shows the loco with all the track pickups removed.

do you have a picture with the bottom cover off but all the guts intact?

 

[dunnyrail]

I bought a Piko 0-6-0 motor block from Topslots and I want to convert it to RC. They also sell the RC control unit used on their Circus Roncali starter set separately. I thought I might use the two together. Has anyone tried this before?
I assume you need to remove the pickup shoes, but do any of the wheelsets pick up track power as well? I will probably use unpowered track but it would be useful to know if I could run it in RC mode on powered track.
On the top of the block there are electrical pin connections. 2 marked M - motor? Also 2 marked S - shoes? Any ideas would be welcome. Thanks Steve M.

Ok so you want it Battery RC and track power, entirely possible but need a “Double Pole Double Throw“ preferably with “Centre Off” as well switch to swop between the two.

Cant show you my Piko with pickups intact as they were removed for my battery conversion.

If going down the on-board battery route removal of skates and wheel plunger pickups will give you longer battery running time.

Ought to be possible to use RC on powered track, but would likely need a stable power supply not an Electronic type but experts on RC are likely to chip in on that.

Without doubt IMHO on-board the loco battery power would be a better bet.

My Piko 0-6-0 conversion has an 8aa NiMh pack and lasts 4-6 hours per charge.

 

[Greg Elmassian]

I missed the dual use sentence, so sorry for my misunderstanding, so he will have to use a switch, and leave all the track pickup parts alone.

So, a bit more complexity to switch from track power to battery power, and I agree, need to be sure of how the r/c system would work with track power, if there are any issues with interruptions to the power supply. This would also mean you need to run a constant voltage on the track.

Normally there is very little if any advantage to doing this, unless it's ok to leave the track at a constant voltage (no other "normal DC" locos can run), and you get an R/C system that can handle brief dropouts.... and by the time you engineer all of this, it considerably more bother and expense and work.

And don't try to go down the "track recharges the battery" route, i.e. paralleling the track power with the battery. There's an entire raft of issues why that does not work. Just stating this if you were thinking in that direction.

I'd go pure battery with R/C, or normal track power, or DCC.

Greg

 

[JimmyB]

I'd go pure battery with R/C, or normal track power, or DCC.

Greg

Greg, agree (I think this is twice now ) either battery R/C or track power DC/DCC, but mixing track with R/C would seem a no-no, though I know dunnyrail does battery R/C which is also DCC

 

[dunnyrail]

Greg, agree (I think this is twice now ) either battery R/C or track power DC/DCC, but mixing track with R/C would seem a no-no, though I know dunnyrail does battery R/C which is also DCC

That is right Jimmy, the system uses a card that interfaces to DCC Chip giving most of the benefits of DCC but no track issues. I honestly cannot see the point of having a track powered Radio Control System that is not DCC or one that acts like a controller that is RC like the old Revo system that you used to use. There are other similar systems about.

 

[Greg Elmassian]

I have seen people want a "multi-power" system many times over the years, but the only time I have seen it work ok is with a loco that has lots of power pickups, and a "forgiving" R/C system.

I have seen battery/track powered systems that use a DCC decoder, that can be switched between RF control and track power, and the DCC decoder can be programmed (and most are) to accept a temporary interruption in signal (track power pickup glitches), but from a practical point of view, trying to have an "every power" loco has not been worth the compromises or eccentric behavior.

In my opinion, R/C systems are on the most part designed to depend on constant, uninterrupted power, and an 0-6-0 on track power outdoors is really not able to supply that. I believe that is the fundamental "philosophical" design hurdle.

Perhaps switching from R/C battery to "normal DC" operation would make sense, but then what have you gained really from an operational standpoint?

Anyway, sorry to beat this to death, but I've seen this "innocent" request many times, but not successfully realized very often.

Greg