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New member 13 posts ucke New member 13 posts
ucke

here -if any interest- is a you-tube-film from us with the tamvalleydepot-receiver.

i hope one can understand my "english" from germany.                     christoph

url =

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Dave O Prolific poster 1,145 posts
Dave O

Very Interesting!

When I first saw the stretch of track that was covered, I was thinking that you were in the midst of working on the scenery (and was also thinking that for the video you should have uncovered it (or picked another section of the layout)) ... little did I know that it was a key feature of the demonstration.

I liked what you showed, the system obviously works; if you can fit it into the trains.  You were running On2 1/2, would that system fit in a typical HO locomotive?  Thanks for sharing.

 
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ucke New member 13 posts
ucke

well -like ben akiba said-

well -like ben akiba said- "that depends". in the locomotive you have to store (additionally to the decoder) :

receiver (see dimensions at tamvalledepot    http://www.tamvalleydepot.com/deadrailsystem.html

1 lipo circa 250 mah (preferably with voltage-guard for security) or a more solid li-ion (more space !!)

smd-bridge-rectifier, step-down/step-up boards (platines)   are really relatively tiny

small relais (or another switching device which is smaller) to power-on/-down the accu via the decoder(aux-output)

or (manually) a reed-switch (actuated by a magnet) -- otherwise after switching-off

your digital command station  the decoder + receiver would consume power out of the accu.

christoph
 
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Logger01 Prolific poster 1,786 posts
Logger01

Batteries fit in HO locomotives

For some perspective on fitting a receiver, decoder and batteries in an HO loc. check out the picture in my comment Flywheel Dynamics and Battery Space to the Battery Power and Radio Control - post. I will be posting additional pictures in that post in the coming weeks.

Ken K

gSkidder.GIF 
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ucke New member 13 posts
ucke

direct dcc - constant automatic charging

hello, i'll try again.

we (me and my friend ralf stass from germany) have tinkered about the stanton bps, because it is much too huge for our needs.

we use  a smd bridge-rectifier  (1 amp is sufficient for our motors)

             a step-down board (with regulation by a potentiometer)  (from dx.com), regulated to 4,02 volts.

             a diode at one output (we have found out, that with this diode the lipo will always be charged-up -          

                otherwise there seems to exist a sort of "trigger" ,which causes a longer delay to lower voltage, before

                the lipo lads again.

             a (one) lipo circa 250 mah (preferably with a built-in over/under current guard)

                  li-ion (like in handys) would be more solid, but is bigger

             a step-up board with fixed 12 volts output (from pololu.com)

 

this has the effect, that charging will always happen. because of the limitation to 4,02 volts (some more or less hundreds-volts are not so critical)  the lipo interpretes each charging NOT as a charging-cycle - and therefore should last a long time.

because of this voltage the lipo is much more guarded against possible fire or other damage.

because of one cell balancing-hassle is NOT necessary.

we (ralf as soldering-artist) have crammed all into a "fleischmann magic-train" locomotive in 0 n2 1/2.

it is in size comparable to the bachmann porter.

see at the end of the youtube-film        

 

because decoder and receiver would eat-out the lipo after a session with the dcc-command station switched off,

i at the moment use a small relais, which is powered by on aux-output of my esu-decoders and mapped to the activation of sound/light. this relais switches on/off the lipo.

an electronic solution(transistor) would of course be smaller, but me and ralf don't know exactly how to built such a device.

 

we think, that the advantage is : no balancing, no charging-jack, no charging-hole in the locomotive, no extra charging-track, no charging-device and so on.

the locomotives stays on the track -- and good is it. 

this solution is of course meant for use with an existing dcc-layout for constant automatic buffering (which by the way improves the driving-behaviour to our impressions a lot), but it can be used of course also with "deadrails".

than the capacity of this solution (because the step-up from 4 to 12 volts needs 200 % more) will be circa 45 minutes with the fleischmann (series)-motor.  this time will logically heavily depend on the used motor, gear etc.

we would like to get some feedback (after writing this "article")                                                         christoph

 
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