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Go Deadrail with RailPro

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drisdon:
What if the flywheels were eliminated? That would make more room for a battery and associated electronics, correct?  Flywheels were added to keep a locomotive moving through imperfect track conditions (dirt) I believe.  If you are only using battery power then there are not any electrical interruptions and no energy is wasted turning flywheel mass.  Do RC cars or planes use flywheels?  I'm not an expert, but I would guess they do not.

Dan

Alan:

--- Quote from: drisdon on January 05, 2016, 04:43:52 PM ---What if the flywheels were eliminated? That would make more room for a battery and associated electronics, correct?  Flywheels were added to keep a locomotive moving through imperfect track conditions (dirt) I believe.  If you are only using battery power then there are not any electrical interruptions and no energy is wasted turning flywheel mass.  Do RC cars or planes use flywheels?  I'm not an expert, but I would guess they do not.

Dan

--- End quote ---

I believe the flywheels are needed to smooth out the PWM speed control. Keep the locomotive from stuttering.

MidnghtOwl:
a few thoughts and questions.  (and thanks for the Link Bill!).

I"m just getting started in this great hobby, and I'm a hound at research.  I have my HO layout 95% planned, and really like the idea of a true dead rail system, (why wire everything)  and the rail pro is by far the best controller I've seen.

I'm curious how serious railpro is in saying 12v DC in a dead rail concept.  I find it hard to believe their LM-2 board requires more than about 1.5 volts to send and receive data from the controller which of course has it's own power supply.  If were talking about motive power (without sound or with minimum sound) other users in ho deadrail report pretty solid results with 7.2V. 

I realize some of this discussion is about charging from power rails.  But I've also read about how touchy the Li-po batteries can be, and charging wrong (which to me a 12v rail would be drawing to much without ANOTHER circuit board on board to manage charging voltage.  Thus in some ways, it seems safer to charge from the proper Li-Pro charger?

For Batteries in HO scale diesels, and I realize this might be a "your an idiot" question since I have zero experience playing with engines. but my research, reading everything from TAM, to Dead rail user groups, to forums, here etc suggests that at normal operating speeds with an average train your using 350-500mah of draw at 7.2v.  It is also possible to pair batteries.  My thought/question would be, could a small 300- 500mah 7.2v battery fit in the fuel tank for yard/switching operations, and then a grain car/box/oil tanker be connected to the engine for operational running?  It might be a benefit if you could turn off the engine battery while connected to the battery car.    I realize this requires more recharging, but at first glace it seems that it would take care of 95% of how we use our railroads.

-Owl  (Jared)

KPack:
Jared - I can't fully answer the question regarding at what voltage Railpro will still work, though I can tell you for sure that you can take a normal 9-volt battery, stick it on the track (with track power off of course) and you can control your locomotive just fine.  Granted, the locomotive will run slower due to the decreased voltage available, but all the communication and functions work just fine.  I'm sure it could be used at lower voltages, but I'm not positive how low you could go.

Fitting a battery in the fuel tank is a possibility, but that is where the motor mounts.  So in order to have room for the battery you will need to find another way to mount the motor. 

LiPo's are indeed sensitive and require careful charging.  Like you said, a separate circuit is necessary to safely charge a LiPo from the rails....takes up space, but works.  The video above shows this.  I've had some experience around LiPo's through my time in airsoft and have heard and seen some of those scary stories.  We used high quality chargers that detected the battery's condition and charge capacity and adjusted the charging rate automatically.  I was always close by when charging as well.  The risk of fire is just too high if something goes wrong.

-Kevin

MidnghtOwl:
Thanks Kevin. 

I've been searching the various manufactures sites for SD70's and GP40's blueprints which would most likely be my primary first engines.. (since it matches what i'm modeling, UP railyard here in Iowa).  So I was hoping to find a manufacture that was using the tank as nothing more than a weight point, (or empty)  I have seen some of the frames/chassis that sink the motor as you mentioned, making using that space pretty tough.  Likely I need to make the 2 hour jaunt to my "local" hobby store and have the guys there open a bunch of boxes!!

-Owl (Jared)

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