davetheroad
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Posts posted by davetheroad
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As I have about twice as much rolling stock than I need and 3 to 4 times the locos needed for an operating session I keep the extra rolling stock and all the locos off layout. Operating sessions range from early BR steam through to blue period pre 1973 diesels with about 12 to 15 locos per session.
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Referring to Reply #546 ...
Dave, do you have any links to background information on any of that stuff?
Thanks
....R
The last site I visited is here
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Apparently this applies
In general, host devices support up to 7 simultaneously connected devices and a practically unlimited number of paired.
I interpret this in model railway terms as you can only have 7 locos in a consist but you can have hundreds of paired locos which are automatically connected when the control app wants to talk to them.
Something else I just read. 7 simultaneously connected devices per piconet and up to 248 devices per piconet most of which are sleeping. Multiple piconets available so I guess enough for the largest model railway
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How does the system handle the 7 slave device session limit of Bluetooth
Apparently theoretically no limit to the number of simultaneous connections e.g. locos
Explained here
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I use a Bearmoo 3000/8000 grit whetstone that I bought from amazon for just under £20
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OK Ron, can you list all your concerns about problems and issues with battery power, or maybe start a topic on the subject in say electrics (non DCC). It would be interesting to get a range of views on the subject. Radio Control, or even Infra Red control is assumed?
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I have a lot of N scale Kato track that I ballasted. Soaking in warm water got the ballast off but the original colour of the plastic could not be achieved. My ballast was stuck with PVA.
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I have several Lima diesels converted with diesel-trains motor kits and so far they work very well with a much smoother slow speed performance than the original pancakes. They have better and smoother starting than the Hornby can motors in their single bogie drive versions of Lima models. It is also a good idea to service the gear train of the Lima drive to give smoother and quieter running.
I am currently fitting a CD motor scavenged from an old drive to a Hornby Class 25 using the original pinion gear from the Hornby pancake motor. the shaft of the CD motor is smaller diameter but I got round that by putting a heat shrink tube over the shaft.
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The published prices suggest that the economics of this solution fall apart when used for more that 3 or 4 locos, and then there is the physical size of the boards - you ain’t going to fit them into small locos or gauges below HO, and even at that I suggest that a roars wouldn’t fit most locos without a tender
The pricing of the original BlueRail boards covered the cost of producing them, about £80 each I think (current retail price about £66). Volume production will bring that price down considerably but how many years it will take to get to the £20 of a DCC decoder I don't know.
The cost of buying one unit to try it out is lower than DCC where you will need to buy the basic system for say £150 plus a decoder
BlueRails next boards will be a lot smaller, maybe equivalent to my Deltangs which are about the same size as a DCC decoder.
These radio control systems show where the future lies, decoders that will happily run on DCC leccie DC or battery and seamlessly change between them. At the same time having the ability to eliminate the common problem with existing systems, the dreaded rail/wheel interface and all those pickup problems. Removing the control signals to radio direct from the controller to loco opens up other possibilities apart from increasing reliability.
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A 1500mAh battery drawing 400mA should theoretically last 3 hours 45 minutes. You either need a power supply or rechargeables. I use 4 x 850 mAh Duracell NiMh AAA cells in some of my locos and because the manufacturers calculate the capacity in a different way to lipos one of those 850mAH cells is equivalent to a 250mAh lipo. The problem with rechargeables is they can take as long to charge as they take to discharge.
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That sums the situation up pretty well Ron Ron Ron
I have two Bluerail boards purchased for evaluation purposes and they work very well with some limitations due to physical size, software compatibility with Android smart devices, a touch screen interface I can't get on with and the lack of battery monitoring, something which Bluerail say is already on the board but not activated yet.. The visual 'programming' is a joy to use
My two boards are not in use at the moment as apart from sound which I don't need or want my simpler radio control battery powered system does the job I want. Oh the joy of no wiring at all.
The next Bluerail boards will hopefully remove these problems.
The advantage of these systems is you can try them in just one loco without compromising your existing layout use, except perhaps with DC because you need a constant voltage on the rails, something which is overcome by fitting a battery to the board as well. The board will then auto switch between onboard and rail power. Locos stalling is gone, ended, no more. No decoder resets either.
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Try a second hand Hornby Railroad Class 40 and fit an additional motor bogie in it. The bogie will just clip into the chassis. Or buy two cheap second hand Lima diesels and double head them
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Use the nuclear option, convert your 0-4-0's to battery power and radio control, they won't stall anywhere after conversion. No need to replace the setrack points either.
The simplest solution is to use a shunters truck for additional pickups, you could modify it to act as a tender as well
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There is a video on youtube about the liquid tyre stuff.
Although it is primarily for use on the grooved wheels for tyre replacement, it can also be used on non insulated wheels on the drive unit.
The amount used can only be a light covering in order for the loco to be level at the motor end.
The best option I can think of besides buying a Bachmann class 40 is to twin motor the loco you already have.
It would require purchasing another complete chassis to get the motor end and join the wires together so that the motors run in the same direction when power is applied.
I know its not a class 40 but a few years ago I bought a Hornby class 66.
Unfortunately I did not have the finances to buy a complete spare chassis to get the necessary parts I needed to twin motor it, but if I had, it probably would have been as powerful as the Bachmann 66s.
I have twin motored Hornby locos before, mostly 37s, 91s, 92s & hst power cars but its well worth doing.
Once the 2nd motor is added and the chassis is tested I then replace the original Hornby weight with old roofing lead surrounded by brass or plasticard to prevent accidental skin contact with the lead.
The wires connecting the motors must therefore be long enough to reach over the weight box and still have some slack in them.
Have a look at this twin motor Lima having a tug of war with a Bachmann
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Another possible option would be to fit a power bogie under a brake coach to give a little extra power to the train. The idea has been done elsewear on this site if you want some more info.
Are power bogies for MK1 coaches available? Or do you just use a DMU one?
My issue with traction is because all my locos are converted to battery power and radio control. Old Lima or Hornby Railroad ones are good for conversion because there is basically empty space inside the body. This means you have a power bogie with 2 or 4 traction tyres. Luckily all my locos including the steam outline ones can pull the loads I want them to. The problem with centre motor designs is there is so much metal in there that you can't find room for the batteries.
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Thanks I looked at that but it looks as if it could foul on the plastic in the centre of some bogies/chassis. The DCC concepts one looks more versatile and hopefully stocks will reappear in a year or so!
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Thanks for the replies gents.
The haulage capacity isnt an issue for me, the loco will only be shunting 3 Bachmann guv's at most. In the ideal world I'd get a Bachmann version, but at half the price the railroad model is tempting.
In which case it will be fine pulling those GUV
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I recently bought a rake of 12 Bachmann MK1 coaches and, even after removing the weights found their rolling resistance inferior to Hornby Railroad MK1's. .After testing about 30 coaches in an effort to improve matters ,both Hornby and Bachmann, I found that the rolling resistance for a large majority of them depends on which direction they are rolling! for example test a coach several times in one direction and then turn it round and test again. The distance is different and sometimes the first runs give a longer distance and sometimes the second runs. It varies by coach.
does anyone understand the physics or mechanics of this phenomenon?
edit - the test slope is 30mm high at the end and blends smoothly to horizontal at about 750mm. Then there is a horizontal run of over 3 metres.
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I presume the class 40 doesn't have traction tyres, so, rather than bulfrog snot, why not use spare traction tyred wheels from someone who has converted something like a class 31? (Assuming of course the axles and wheel diameters are consistent, and they aren't available as spares).
Mike.
It already has traction tyres on 2 of the powered bogie wheels. I bullfrog snotted the other 2 wheels. Fortunately for me power pickup is not an issue as I use on board battery power with radio control.
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Cynical me again. The reason there is no colour standardisation is the large manufacturers don't believe they would gain any commercial advantage from it!
a small scale niche manufacturer might want to colour match a product to a big manufacturer as it would make selling easy.
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And the actual width between the bearing cups/length of the axle to the pinpoints; a very small variation will make a big difference between 'tight', 'loose and floppy', and 'just right'.
And a deeper mystery is why do the coaches have less rolling resistance in one direction rather than the other? A large majority of Bachies and Hornby's that I have tested (30 coaches) exhibit this.
Another mystery is why do Hornby RR Mk1 plastic wheels have the least rolling resistance?
apologies for going off topic
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I have a RR Class 40 and a Lma version.
The Hornby version has lower profile wheel flanges but as I have code 100 track I can't comment on code 75
Slow speed running is inferior to my remotored Lima class 40
It could not manage to pull 12 Bachmann Mk1 coaches which IMO are too heavy. I removed the weights from the coaches which helped plus adding weight to the loco and adding traction tyres with bullfrog snot.
The dummy bogie has the same chassis fitting as the powered one so having 2 powered bogies is a viable option?
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Little update....
I tried binding the Rx to a different setting on the Selecta, but this wouldn't work and I got only the double flash.
Then I tried the Rx on a 12v motor - no running away! Perhaps this is the issue, that the 3v motor draws too much current as you suggested?
I have some 6v motors on order which may split the difference, definitely something to try.
So far I haven't had to re-bind the Rx and Tx but I'll try leaving it for a while and test again later.
Actually it was DavidT of Deltang that suggested this on the FreeRails site and I just confirmed that a small battery can have surprising voltage sag under load. Anyway it appears you have found the problem, the motor in the loco.
I have a 0-4-0 Hornby Smokey Joe that uses a Deltang RX and a single lipo. It uses the standard motor and I get a top speed of about 20mph. I improved slow speed performance by using low off throttle control and adjusting the PWM frequency to 120Hz. The 70mAh battery lasts about 30 minutes with is fine for its normal role of shuffling gypsum wagons on and off layout.
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To put it cynically it may not be in the manufacturers interest to have matched colours. Take those B/G coaches as an example. They don't match? Well don't run a mixed rake then, buy them all from us!. I recently bought a 12 coach rake of B/G Mk1's from Bachmann at twice as much as the equivalent would have been for Hornby Railroad but the Hornby range was incomplete.
It goes further than that. Those Bacchie Mk1's are too heavy for my Hornby Class 40 to pull. Why? when I went to considerable trouble removing the weights it almost solved the problem. They still have more rolling resistance than Hornby's. Cynical me would say because Bachmann would suggest that you buy one of their super heavy locos that can pull the rake.
Options for connecting power across baseboards
in Electrics (non-DCC)
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I used some of these, you can chop them up and they can take lots of amps, works well.
Can't remember where I bought them though.