Wish me luck... I'm going in!

5H17

5H17

Railways and Diesel preservation, American cars
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After all, how hard can it be? (He said, convincingly!)
Quick trip to maplins in the morning as I`m out of solder and heat shrink, and then I`m going to give this battery power malarkey a go.
 

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But what about battery charging? How many sets do you need to keep charged.

Separately - is 7.2 Volts going to be enough?
 
stockers said:
But what about battery charging? How many sets do you need to keep charged.

Separately - is 7.2 Volts going to be enough?
Click to expand...

I can't imagine for one minute that 7.2v will be man enough for anything useful. That's just a battery pack I nicked from a mate at work to judge the size.
As for how many sets of batteries I need, well that depends on which way I decide to go. Batteries in the loco, or batteries in a trailing car. Personally, I would prefer them in the loco (along with individual receivers), but that could get expensive. This is a trial really, to prove I can do it and to help me make some decisions.
 
OK, Have fun experimenting anyway - thats the main thing. :D
 
7.2 volts may be sufficient if you only want to run slowly (20kph).
As the first experiment, before you have taken to the loco, turn your track power off and connect the 7.2V battery across the rails and see what speed you get from the loco.
I only have one LGB loco and it's powered from 5 NiMH cells.
 
7.2v actually is enough for a steady pace in many locos. Problem is often if you need rc the kit wants more. I have a 7,2v 040 with nothing more than a dpdt switch to control. It has turned out to be very well used when you just fancy running something!
 
I run all of my LGB small locos on 10.8V -12V and that is plenty of voltage for them, they do not break the sound barrier but at top speed look to be going at a fair clip.

Most of mine run at about 75% throttle or less and look like a real train pulling a load.

I have a battery car disguised as a tender for my Stainz which houses all the R/C gear and batteries with leads connected directly to the motor using a socket on the loco and plug on the wire from the tender.

As for sets of batteries mine stay in all my locos and I use a On/OFF/Charge switch to connect my charger and I use a low charge current.

So when one needs a charge then another takes its place, just like a real railway, but I use 2700mAH batteries and they will last for quite a while before a charge is needed.
 
I this is a trial..
Do you have a powered tender? - just whip the top off, and use it as a test-bed to experiment with, before trying to fit all in a Stainz.

You may find a Stainz a challenge to far to fit all in for a first attempt.
 
7.2v should just be enough, I use a 3s Lipo at 11.1v and that's a gives a good range of speed, from slow to sensible quick speed.

And if you want everything to fit in the stainz cab, the trick is remove the firebox moulding and you can make it everything fit (just)

What make of RC gear are you using out of interest?

Dan
 
It all depends what you're converting to battery power.

Bachmann motors tend to have very low current draw, but 7.2 volts may not have enough grunt to haul a decent length of train.

NiMh batteries, especially the LSD (low self discharge) type, don't like providing low end power, they like motors to spin at a fast rate on lower gearing.

You can sometimes do better with a higher voltage using AA cells. My Bachmann 45 tonner runs on 14.4v of AA cells rated at 3000 mAh and will run for about 4 hours. You don't therefore need spare sets of batteries.

I reckon that you could get two packs of 7.2v subCs in a Connie tender - that should make it run all day............... and some ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
 
I wish you well. The trickiest part of the Deltang kit for me was drilling the holes in the case.... the electronicky bits went together really easily. Mind you, I discovered I had one resistor left over - took me a while to figure out where it went......

Rik
 
Just for interest, the current issue of Model Railroader (the US one) has an article - predominently featured on the cover - on the various types of battery R/C available at the moment, predominantly aimed at using it in O gauge and smaller.... some interesting reading, with some applications to fitting in smaller G scale locos with limited space (eg Stainzes etc.). Also covers the radio-DCC applications of the sort that Cliff has been experimenting with, using the Tam Valley kit and controls like the Stanton S-Cab.

Jon.
 
Some good advice and food for thought here so far. Thanks everyone.

Yesterdays task was to build the transmitter (Deltang TX21 kit) and prove that it worked. I did document the process in pictures, so i'll post that at some point. It's a fairly simple kit to assemble (helped along with a little profanity from time to time), but I will say that if I made the mistake of following the 'example' photos on their website rigidly. The instructions are a little vague, to be honest. If I build another I'll do it slightly differently next time (and what on earth is the point of the direction switch, when the motor control pot has a centre off position?)

Anyway... That 7.2v pack was completely flat, and some numpty forgot to buy a charger. Duh...
Fortunately I had a 10 cell AA battery holder to hand, so I tested it with that and both transmitter and receiver work a treat. Result....
 
5H17 said:
What on earth is the point of the direction switch, when the motor control pot has a centre off position?)
Click to expand...
Hi Dave
Well done. Worth it in the end!

Deltang receivers can be reprogrammed to be operated with the direction switch and the knob controlling speed through its entire sweep. Alternatively, the direction switch can be used to control accessories - eg on my diesel loco the switch controls the soundcard (start/stop sound), and on my railbus, the switch turns on/off the interior lights. The bind button is also used to control accessories - I use it to sound the horn or whistle.

See - http://youtu.be/8FS0ZMbZn7o and http://youtu.be/RXZEaZoFsCA

Rik
 
Ahh yes that makes sense I guess.
 
Zerogee said:
Just for interest, the current issue of Model Railroader (the US one) has an article - predominently featured on the cover - on the various types of battery R/C available at the moment, predominantly aimed at using it in O gauge and smaller.... some interesting reading, with some applications to fitting in smaller G scale locos with limited space (eg Stainzes etc.). Also covers the radio-DCC applications of the sort that Cliff has been experimenting with, using the Tam Valley kit and controls like the Stanton S-Cab.

Jon.
Click to expand...

That is the May Issue, I managed to pick up the April issue then the June one and saw this article advertised. Dooh. But got lucky in Alton in a local Paper Shop whee he had a load of the May Issue still unsold. Worthwhile buy if you can find it.
JonD
 
Yes, Mike (Beavercreek) has already pointed out to me that it was the May issue of MR that I was referring to - to be honest I hadn't taken a lot of notice of the cover date, I'd assumed it was "current" because I'd only picked it up off the shelf at WHS the day I made the posting (Saturday 30th)..... it seems that in some shops they do tend to lurk on the shelves for a while if unsold, unlike some other titles that get sent straight back to the distributors as soon as the next month's issue comes out.

Jon.
 
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