Repowered a Weaver Alco RS3 3 railer to a deadrail, 2 railer using one powered NWSL Stanton drive and LocoFi. Locomotive operated better than expected. Pulled a 9 car consist with no wheel slip plus took videos which are on You Tube. Only major problem was that when operating locomotive on club layout using only phone to communicate with locomotive it went out of range. Added router and locomotive operates perfectly. Envy of other conventional 2 railers because, club does not have DCC, I have the only locomotive that has all the "bells and whistles" operating like a prototype without the need for conventional track power.
Now working on second phase of repower. Adding second NWSL Stanton drive and dual power source to use either battery or track power. Will control with ON-OFF-ON switch plus change speaker to 4 ohm 3 watt to have higher volume.
A friend and I tried installing LocoFi to 3 railers and it did not work. DC motor(s) drew more power than HO LocoFi board could deliver. We were able to get the motor to move by nugging with your finger to overcome high starting power draw. Have advised LocoFi of our findings and gave recommendations for a true O gauge system.
Will update this post when my second phase is complete and operational. LocoFi is going to be the best thing for us old guys who want to have "smart" locomotives without having to rewiring there layout.
Old Guys Rule !!!!!
I had a brainstorm (someone asked if that meant it was raining in my head?).
The plan below (which I had planned to implement in a G gauge GP7) could instead be used for a simple ‘one-train at a time’ layout for running various locomotives.
Without installing a LocoFi™ module in a locomotive, but by feeding its power-input and the power-input for the H-bridge from the track-power supply (instead of from the locomotive’s track-pickups); the ‘motor’ output of the H-bridge could feed the track (no need for the bridge rectifier and capacitors). With it, any one of several locomotives (even some too-small or too-cute to house LocoFi™) placed on the layout would then be LocoFi™ controlled. The LocoFi™ sound could also be used externally, and maybe input to a speaker-system. An automatic ‘back and forth’ controller, that does interest me, between the H-bridge and the track connection, might be workable with it, too.
Hey John,
Yes I'm going to order one here shortly and giver a try. I'm sure the grandson will enjoy that for sure. He kind of takes to the electronic stuff a bit more than the dial on the DC transformer.. lol
I would hook-up your LocoFi board and give it a try on the O scaler having engine sound, bell, horn, throttle control and etc. your grandson would really like using the phone as the controller. Be like a duck taking to water for him to operate.
Would be interesting to see what your G scale is drawing.
Hello All,
Sorry I should of explained a little more. The "HO stuff inside" meant that I have a bunch of HO stuff inside the house in a tote but haven't gotten it operational yet. Sorry for the confusion. lol... As far as what you see in the picture it is an Arduino with bluetooth, a DC to DC up converter and an L298 motor driver. I have tested this on an old G scale and it works fine also on the O. I found this at arduinorailwaycontrol.com. It is pretty much a build it yourself kinda site.
As far as the O scale, last night the little loco in the picture showed a load of 1.2 Amps at stall.
Dan
DDLLHA is internally limited to 3A (2A for motor) current to prevent damage to the board. The motor output will cut off as it tries to exceed 2A. There's built in thermal protection as well that will shut the motor current off in case of excessive temperatures.
My friend and I have discussed the idea of putting all electronics in a trailing car or a steam loco's tender when outfitting a conventional O-gauge locomotive with LocoFI if it did not have sufficient room in the shell. Again what is power requirement of your locomotive to get it moving and pull your calf. Size of wire from control board in calf to locomotive motor may need to be increased. Three wires for loco's headlights should be ok at lighter gauge.
You need to find the amp draw of your motor to see if LocoFi will work. It is as simple as that if it will work or not with HO LocoFi board.
I don't know what you mean by "the HO stuff inside" please explain what it is. I do see a big heavy battery and some electronics but can't make out what it all is.
Maybe look into NWSL and see if they have a G scale Stanton drive and what its amp draw is at stall and use that to power your loco with LocoFi.
We are all playing and there are no set rules only that you need enough power to turn the motor and that LocoFi board can only deliver so much and no more without designing a "magic boxes" to interface with motor and LocoFi. From what I get from Karin that is what she is trying to do. We have abandoned that idea as being costly, time consuming and temporary so we will wait until LocoFi comes out with an O gauge board to convert our conventional locomotives with LocoFi. We don't see the need to reinvent the wheel for a short time gain.
I was curious about the loading John. I have some HO stuff inside and currently running the G on DC. Right now it's just a small layout and the grandson enjoys running it around in a oval with a siding. But at 12 that wont last long.. He has been helping me build the layout and does enjoy it. I hope he learns something also. Like I had mentioned previously I've started working on the 2-rail O but the weather here in Kansas hasn't cooperated lately. The humidity has been as high as the temperature so even in the evenings it's been miserable outside.
Below is a picture of a test that I put together with blue tooth and not sure yet how I'm going to work all this yet and for which engines but right now what I was thinking was to have a trailing car with the electronics in it with a common plug. That way I could use what ever system I wanted for a particular engine. And if you notice in the background I built a crate to put over the electronics in the gondola. I know that's a heck of a battery.. Got that for the G stuff.
Thanks for the info about the current. I was concerned about that because I really like the locofi concept and would love to use it across the board eventually. It might work ok in these small engines for now without any mods. I'm not sure what the starting load is on them. And thanks I'm all for not re-inventing wheels.
I think the idea of a sound library would be great! Hope that can get that started.
And thanks Admin for posting the video.
Thank you John for sharing the details of your project. This should be very helpful to folks looking to power their O scale locos with LocoFi™.
John had in fact done a series of rigorous testing starting with chassis only and incrementally adding weights and cars to evaluate the performance. We thank him for his detailed efforts. Please find the video of his test with 9-car load here (please note that John is still working on detailing the loco):
Courtesy: Black Diamond Society of Model Engineers, Bethlehem PA
Diesel sound is generic but ok. I hope some folks start posting that th ey have sound files to offer. I would like an Alco 244 diesel engine sound file.doing our research to send to LocoFi was that there were a few O gauge locomotives that were drawing up to 6.9 amps. Granted they did not draw anyway near that when running at various track mph but that is a sizeable amount of power to get it moving. Most were in the 4 - 5 amp range and 1.1 - 1.5 amps when running. The HO LocoFi board can only handle 2 amps. The NWSL Stanton drive i fitted to my loco draws 1.75 amps at stall so I felt safe using it. Now with two drives installed it will be interesting if HO LocoFi board can handle it. Only one way to find out is to try it.
Diesel sound is generic but ok. I hope some folks start posting that they have sound files to offer one another. I would like to have a Alco 244 diesel engine sound file.
Been retired 25 years and love it. Good luck with your upcoming retirement.
Feel free to ask questions and i will answer to best of what I know and have done.
No need for you to reinvent the wheel and waste money.
Hi John,
That sounds great. I had mentioned over on the G tread that I'm working on a combined G and O 2 rail dead rail layout myself. I started earlier this year and will be retiring in a few weeks and looking forward to spending more time on it. I think one of the biggest pluses for me was the fact that it comes with sound at no additional cost. I haven't picked up a board yet but will be soon.
I have some infrastructure to take care of first. Can't run trains without the track.. lol
Trying to make the budget work is sometimes more work than building the layout. .
And yes "Old Guys Rule".. 😎