Keep us informed

This sort of stuff is fascinating - not sure I'd want to do it on my own, but you never know - you may end up creating a new deadrail standard.

The ball-bearing locomotive trucks sound fascinating.

@ Jeff

This is more of an experiment to see if it could be done without using the LiPo batteries. Still a lot to work out such as charging the battery pack. Do I leave it in the engine or take it out. I'm really interested to see how long the engine will run on the batteries. The two "A" units will be quite heavy carrying those batteries.

I'll update as I make progress on the project.

Bernd

Track power

What would be interesting is if you could use "charging tracks" like engine tracks in a yard to charge up the batteries - nothing to plug in.

Charging from the track

Jeff,

I added wipers to the "B" unit so I could test out the drive system. So I have a way to get power from the track. I was also thinking about charging off the track and how that would work too. The one thing they recommend when charging the batteries is that the temp probe be taped to the batteries. The batteries do get warm when charging. I don't think you'd want to leave the charging unattended. Something to look into when I get that far.

Bernd

Progress report

I started this project back in November 2017. I’ve worked on it on and off as I got fits of ideas to try out. The first was a new R/C system from FlySky FS-GT2E 2.4GHz 2-Channel Transmitter. LINK: http://flyskyrc.com/Scroll down a little past half way and click on the FS-GT2E transmitter for specs.

Here’s the package I was going to install and try out. The one thing with this R/C is that it’s 6 volt. No problem, I was going to change the motor and drive system anyway.

The receiver, electronic speed control (ESC) and a six volt battery pack would fit in either an A unit or B unit.

Here’s a comparison of a Deltang receiver, ADD-1 (higher motor current drive) and a bridge rectifier and voltage regulator compared to the Fly-Sky Receiver.

After I got the Fly-Sky R/C set up and hooked to a six volt motor I discovered that the Fly-Sky R/C is built for R/C cars has basically two speeds, stop and fast. Not very much control in between like you would expect for running a locomotive. I did some research on another forum where a couple of members said they were using this R/C system, but, there needed to be some electronics changed to give the speed range needed to run a locomotive. I relegated the Fly-Sky to the back of the closet. I didn’t want to get involved in adding parts to make it function. The Fly-Sky is cheaper, but was more trouble than I wanted to deal with. I’m staying with the Deltang line.

I spent many hours on getting the Eddy Current Transmission drive to the point where I was satisfied with its performance. Those interested in what this is can read about it here: http://www.kingstonemodelworks.com/ECDtb.html

The B unit will have the motor in it. Here a couple of pictures showing the motor with a speed up pulley, the eddy current flywheel and for testing I added wipers on all eight wheels for pickup to test the drive system out. The wires from the pickups have plugs on the end to facilitate the disconnecting of the motor from the wheels without have to solder/unsolder every time I need to take the trucks off or remove the motor.

Two pictures as the project stand’s today.

Next part of the project will be the A unit that will carry the 12volt battery pack. First I need to figure out how I’m going to use ball bearings on the trucks and metal wheels of the A unit.

Bernd

Video of the Chassis under Power

I made a video of the completed chassis under power. The shake you see a low speed is the coupling to the left of the motor. The airplane fuel line's hole is not directly through the center, plus the shaft has a slight bend in it causing the shake.

Bernd