LGB/G Scale Controller

[ccordner]

As part of our Christmas display on our railway we have an LGB layout, consisting of three circuits. One is an oval, with a tender loco (loco and tender both driven) pulling an open wagon and the other two are just loops with random trains. However we seem to have an issue with power and control.

 

The oval is designed so people can throw coins in the open wagon (it raises a lot more money than you'd think) which adds a lot of weight - so much so we have had to fit roller bearings to the truck. The other problem we face is length of operation - around eight hours per day, for about fifteen days in total, means a lot of wear and tear on the models.

 

One of our volunteers built a PWM controller, but this doesn't seem to work with all the LGB models.

Are there any really good controllers out there, perhaps with feedback (for the oval one, so we don't have to keep turning it up as the truck gets heavier)? Is it practical to build our own? I quite like the idea of a controller for all three tracks, with perhaps with three sockets, so you plug a wander lead in, set each circuit going then unplug it so it can't be fiddled with...

 

Thanks

Chris

[PaulRhB]

You need 1 amp per motor really for Lgb so your loco and tender will need 2 amps if pulling a load. A friend tried the Gaugemaster units but they don't put out as much as quoted in our experience. We only read 3 amps from their 5 amp one so went with the LGB 5 amp unit but they aren't cheap and no feedback. I reckon you're going to need at least 5 amps and just hide the controller under a building. Certainly I've run three big locos (twin motored), on a 5 amp with light loads so as long as only one is being heavily loaded it should be ok.

For building your own try asking on G scale Central as some of the guys there might be able to suggest a cheaper home build option that works well with LGB locos.

[DCB]

You may be looking at the wrong end of the problem, Electronic controllers with feedback work well with heritage motors such as the old low torque Triang and Hornby 00 motors at the expense of heating the armatures.  For more modern motors applying a constant voltage will provide an almost constant speed irrespective of load or gradient.   As you are looking at constant speed rather than a range of variable speeds and drawing a lot of amps I would try a 5 volt computer PSU output through a 2 or 3 amp resettable circuit breaker or maybe a car flasher unit.  PSUs are widely available from obsolete tower computers  If it is too fast put it through a couple of 4 or 5 amp diodes to drop the voltage.

[Brian]

This one perhaps? .... http://kentgardenrailways.com/index.php?route=product/product&filter_name=Controller&product_id=411

[PaulRhB]

This one perhaps? .... http://kentgardenrailways.com/index.php?route=product/product&filter_name=Controller&product_id=411

Note you need a power supply for it though it's not a plug in and go with just that unit.

http://www.gscalenews.com/review/piko-g-35002-analogue-throttle-5a

[JeremyC]

When I had a garden railway a few years ago I seem to remember there were warnings about running LGB with PWM controllers because it could damage the electronics built into the locos. The Aristo Train Engineer was a popular controller at the time and it could be switched between PWM and Linear. The advice was to only use it in the latter mode with LGB.

 

Jeremy