Hi Butch,
As a follow-up, Neil Stanton reviewed my web site article yesterday and
commented that there is nothing factually wrong in it. He did, however,
mention that I had forgotten to mention that there is the two-battery
option for those engines with higher current draw, if you can fit two
batteries in the engine. This would not extend the running time but
would rather keep the same goal of 1- to 2-hour runs without recharging.
The battery I show in my article is a 1000maH 3.7V one that the battery
circuit board converts up to 11V (or thereabouts) at 300mA. The 300mA is
for driving the motor and the LED light, if applicable. The two-battery
solution provides the same 11V but produces 500mA. Note that if you use
the Tsunami, it is going to eat up a lot more juice than the NCE
decoder. Everything will work, but your run duration may be shorter if
you are running on unpowered track (depending on how many of the sound
features you use and the volume). I'll update my article with some of
Neil's additional info, probably this weekend, if I have time.
As an aside, Bernard Kempinski, of Alkem Scale Models, converted one of
his Civil War-era O-scale engines to S-CAB with battery power and
Tsunami decoder, so the system works with (presumably bigger) O-scale
motors:
http://usmrr.blogspot.com/2012_09_01_archive.html
I have gutted my NW2 so far. It looks like the battery will indeed fit
flat, horizontally inside the body. I had previously tried it in the
center of the body and it didn't fit. What I found out is that the body
shell is slightly narrower (bowed-in) in the center as compared to the
front end. I am able to fit the battery in the front of the engine (with
the speaker removed). With that resolved (theoretically, at least),
fitting the other two boards shouldn't be a problem. I will write an
article when I have it done.
I have not opened up my RS-1 (kit by Railmaster), but just from holding
the battery outside the body, it is clear it won't fit, unless I can get
it in at an angle, but I know things are tight in there, even if I
remove the Tsunami and the speaker. That one is going to be a real
challenge.
I have the ABA configuration of American Models' FA-2 engines and those
are cavernous. Fitting two of the batteries in each of the A units along
with the other two circuit boards (even a Tsunami with speaker and
external capacitor) is not going to be a problem.
One of our club members had me do some work on his SHS F3/F7 a while
back, but if I remember correctly it is a bit tight in there. Your
approach of using a semi-permanent hook-up with a dummy B would
definitely work. Another idea is to consider removing part or all of a
weight. I know I had to do that to some of my N-scale engines back in
the day when I tried to get a DCC decoder in those. It was a real
challenge with an N-scale SW9, but I did it. Judging by the pulling
power I saw the SHS F3s demonstrate at Bill Lane's earlier this year,
giving up a little bit of weight should not cause any operational problems.
- Peter.
On 12/19/2012 12:34 pm, up148 wrote:
Way to go Peter. I'm very interested in this technology so I'm glad to see you took the
plunge. The BPS board sounds like the way to go if it will handle the amp load of
"S" scale locos.
Very interested to see how your installation goes. I found the info and product
explanation on your website to be very helpful (as always) and you actually
explained some items better than the S-Cab website.
I figure if the BPS isn't large enough (amp wise) to handle a SHS F3 loco and if there isn't enough room
inside the "A" unit for a larger battery, board and speaker, I'd just make a dummy out of a
"B" unit and put the battery(s) in it and run jumpers to the "A" unit. I'd like to run an
ABA or even ABBA and I don't care if they all carry the same address as they'll be a permanent consist on my
layout.
Look forward to your progress.
Butch Holtgrieve
--
Peter Vanvliet ([email protected])
Houston, Texas
My Model Railroad Site <http://pmrr.org/> (RSS feed
<http://pmrr.org/rss.xml>)
Fourth Ray Software <http://fourthray.com/>
Houston S Gaugers <http://houstonsgaugers.org/>
N.A.S.G. <http://nasg.org/>
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