Best all round DC controller

[AndyID]

8 hours ago, Tony270145 said:

Thanks for the reply , but i did not want a lecture in wiring , i am starting from scratch with the wiring i have stripped out all my DCC Bus  wires, and the reason i have decided to go to a simple DC layout is that i am 76 with poor health , i just want a simple DC Layout where i can run my few locos , i was asking for advice on good DC Controllers thats all not to be questioned on my motives.

Tony 

Tony,

I think you might have posted this on the wrong thread.

AndyID

[ejstubbs]

On 27/03/2021 at 16:32, Barclay said:

The DIY controller works very well. It has a soft start facility and is very pleasant to use, with the motors running nice and quietly. At about £6 + a tenner's worth of bits to make it user-friendly (box, DPDT reversing switch, cable and grommet) it's well worth while getting one to have a play with - all you need is a 12V DC input.

 

Can I ask where you sourced the box from?  I'm having difficulty locating one that's an appropriate size and not from a far east seller on eBay (sorry, just been burned too many times - from items taking much longer to arrive than stated on the listing to obstructiveness and awkwardness if the item turns up damaged or not working, or doesn't turn up at all).

[Barclay]

1 hour ago, ejstubbs said:

 

Can I ask where you sourced the box from?  I'm having difficulty locating one that's an appropriate size and not from a far east seller on eBay (sorry, just been burned too many times - from items taking much longer to arrive than stated on the listing to obstructiveness and awkwardness if the item turns up damaged or not working, or doesn't turn up at all).

Hi all the bits except the grommet (and the device itself of course) came from Cricklewood Electronics. They don't do those so that did come from a random ebay source. 

Edited May 19, 2021 by Barclay

[mikesndbs]

Couple of questions, do we have a wave form picture for the ZD controller output please?

 

For good motor control under PWM the output should be a very clean square wave.

[Sophia NSE]

Got my power source and upon connection whenever I turn the knob I get an error on screen. I don't know what I've done wrong and any assistance will be gratefully received

[mikesndbs]

14 minutes ago, Sophia NSE said:

Got my power source and upon connection whenever I turn the knob I get an error on screen. I don't know what I've done wrong and any assistance will be gratefully received

Polarity? 

[Sophia NSE]

17 minutes ago, mikesndbs said:

Polarity? 

Polarity going in is fine and wires match colour inside the box

[Barclay]

On 19/05/2021 at 16:39, Sophia NSE said:

Got my power source and upon connection whenever I turn the knob I get an error on screen. I don't know what I've done wrong and any assistance will be gratefully received

Have you tried pressing the control knob? A short press turns it on or off but a long press allows you to enter the set up mode to adjust low and high values and the frequency of the PWM. Then another long press returns you to normal mode. I don't think I have ever had an actual error message though - if the polarity is wrong it just doesn't come on. Definitely using a DC power source? 

Apologies if these are obvious .

[ejstubbs]

On 19/05/2021 at 08:45, mikesndbs said:

Couple of questions, do we have a wave form picture for the ZD controller output please?

 

Here you go.  The first set of photos are with the PWM frequency set to 10kHz, with my Bachmann Jinty as the load:

 

Waveform at 10% duty cycle

 

Waveform at 20% duty cycle

 

Waveform at 30% duty cycle

 

Waveform at 40% duty cycle

 

Waveform at 50% duty cycle

 

Waveform at 60% duty cycle

 

Waveform at 70% duty cycle

 

Waveform at 80% duty cycle

(The third 7-segment indicator on the controller's display is blank because the LEDs strobe slightly and I managed to catch it at the precise moment it was fully off.)

 

Waveform at 90% duty cycle

 

Waveform at 100% duty cycle (i.e. straight 12V DC)

 

This photo is again at 10kHz, at 40% duty cycle but with no load:

 

Last but not least, a short video clip showing the slow start sequence, from 0% to 100% duty cycle.  Again, PWM frequency set to 10kHz, load provided by my trusty Jinty:

 

 

Interested to hear what you think of these.

 

(What was the other question, by the way?)

Edited July 29, 2022 by ejstubbs
Wrong photo, corrected.

[ejstubbs]

On 19/05/2021 at 08:39, Barclay said:

Hi all the bits except the grommet (and the device itself of course) came from Cricklewood Electronics.

 

Apologies, you did answer that question earlier in the thread.  I think I just assumed it was your local electronics shop

 

On further investigation I discover it's a bit of an online Aladdin's cave: a good range of useful and/or interesting stuff, but not such an overwhelmingly huge and almost-impossible-to-navigate-without-losing-your-sanity choice as the bigger outfits like Rapid or RS.

 

And quick with it: I ordered my project box & a few other sundries yesterday afternoon, and they turned up this morning 

Edited May 21, 2021 by ejstubbs

[mikesndbs]

8 minutes ago, ejstubbs said:

 

Here you go.  The first set of photos are with the PWM frequency set to 10kHz, with my Bachmann Jinty as the load:

 

Waveform at 10% duty cycle

 

Waveform at 20% duty cycle

 

Waveform at 30% duty cycle

 

Waveform at 40% duty cycle

 

Waveform at 50% duty cycle

 

Waveform at 60% duty cycle

 

Waveform at 70% duty cycle

 

Waveform at 80% duty cycle

(The third 7-segment indicator on the controller's display is blank because the LEDs strobe slightly and I managed to catch it at the precise moment it was fully off.)

 

Waveform at 90% duty cycle

 

Waveform at 100% duty cycle (i.e. straight 12V DC)

 

This photo is again at 10kHz, at 40% duty cycle but with no load:

 

Last but not least, a short video clip showing the slow start sequence, from 0% to 100% duty cycle.  Again, PWM frequency set to 10kHz, load provided by my trusty Jinty:

 

 

Interested to hear what you think of these.

 

(What was the other question, by the way?)

 

Wow that is really not too bad, a bit sharp at 10% but almost proper square wave later, noise levels could be better but for the money not bad at all, thanks

[ejstubbs]

You're welcome.  My locos don't seem to respond until the pulse width is up to around 25% duty cycle, so I can set the lower limit to that and not have to worry about the ragged waveforms at settings below that.

 

Note that the photo I originally posted for the 40% duty cycle on load was actually the off load one (which therefore appeared twice).  I've now corrected that.

[Sophia NSE]

9 hours ago, Barclay said:

Have you tried pressing the control knob? A short press turns it on or off but a long press allows you to enter the set up mode to adjust low and high values and the frequency of the PWM. Then another long press returns you to normal mode. I don't think I have ever had an actual error message though - if the polarity is wrong it just doesn't come on. Definitely using a DC power source? 

Apologies if these are obvious .

I can cycle through all the long press options, not that I have a clue what settings to have them on, and upon return I either get an error message or it won't turn up past 10. Have I broken something on it?

[Barclay]

On 21/05/2021 at 20:16, Sophia NSE said:

I can cycle through all the long press options, not that I have a clue what settings to have them on, and upon return I either get an error message or it won't turn up past 10. Have I broken something on it?

Hi I would try re-setting the options. The PWM frequency is not critical but somewhere between 10 and 30 seems to be OK. I have followed some of the advice on here and got it on 15 or 16. The L is the low setting and can be set to zero for testing purposes. The H is just what percentage of maximum you want it to top out at. Because my Hammant & Morgan Clipper produces more than 12 volts I set High to 85% to prevent the controller giving out more than 12V. having said that the error message is still odd. No wires touching inside?

[mikesndbs]

Question, does anyone use Gaugemaster Feedback controllers and if so can you put it on a scope and share the waveform you see please?

[Sophia NSE]

On 24/05/2021 at 09:23, Barclay said:

Hi I would try re-setting the options. The PWM frequency is not critical but somewhere between 10 and 30 seems to be OK. I have followed some of the advice on here and got it on 15 or 16. The L is the low setting and can be set to zero for testing purposes. The H is just what percentage of maximum you want it to top out at. Because my Hammant & Morgan Clipper produces more than 12 volts I set High to 85% to prevent the controller giving out more than 12V. having said that the error message is still odd. No wires touching inside?

I had a play with the suggested settings and it works! Thank you for your help 

[mikesndbs]

Good morning, my ZK-MG arrived today and initially I am impressed.

The settings are confusing or the online manual I found are at least.

1st setting is duty cycle low, so that gets set to zero, next press is duty cycle high, so I set that to 80% (speed control)

Next press is frequency, well a lower frequency gives better control but with horrid noise so my compromise is 12K.

Then when you press again you get L00 then H80 which I assume is duty cycle again, then F12 then back to L00.

Is there a display brightness setting?

 

[Barclay]

I don't believe so. Just do a long press and it will come out of settings mode.

[paul 27]

On 25/05/2021 at 23:21, mikesndbs said:

Question, does anyone use Gaugemaster Feedback controllers and if so can you put it on a scope and share the waveform you see please?

I use the DF can not show the wave form,  but looking for a controller to replace

this due to the motor buzz from using the DF  tried there normal D  but the crawl

slow speed was not good unless i received a faulty one,  is the Vector Crawler 3

as good as the Gaugemaster Feedback for this purpose.