RailPro > RailPro Specific Help & Discussion
Keep Alive installation w/ Railpro
KPack:
--- Quote ---The performance issue is something Kevin may be able to shed light upon with his battery deal.
--- End quote ---
Here's what I've noticed so far with a battery:
1.) The top speed is a bit lower, but that is no big deal for me....like others I lower the top speed on all my locomotives to somewhere between 60-70%. That leaves me plenty of room to play with it, but since this locomotive and it's sister unit will be running locals and switching industries, I really don't want them to go fast.
2.) Start voltage is affected. I had to up the start voltage in order to get the locomotive moving.
3.) Pulse width modulation is affected. I couldn't put my finger on it while testing my rig, but Alan identified it. I noticed the locomotive wasn't starting as smoothly as it did before and would require a bit more "umph" to get it rolling (you can see this in the video). Once moving, it will glide along as slowly as I want. But getting everything moving initially takes a bit more power. It has to be that the motor is only given 12V instead of the normal 14.8V, and this doesn't quite overcome the friction of a static locomotive as easily as 14.8V does.
I run on a friend's DCC layout periodically and for whatever reason he has his Digitrax set up to give something like 16-17V to the rails. I'm at the upper end of Railpro's safety net when I run there (constantly getting a overvoltage warning). The locomotives take off immediately upon minimal throttle, whereas on my own rails they crawl along smoothly.
-Kevin
TwinStar:
--- Quote from: KPack on February 15, 2017, 03:06:53 PM ---
--- Quote ---
I run on a friend's DCC layout periodically and for whatever reason he has his Digitrax set up to give something like 16-17V to the rails. I'm at the upper end of Railpro's safety net when I run there (constantly getting a overvoltage warning). The locomotives take off immediately upon minimal throttle, whereas on my own rails they crawl along smoothly.
-Kevin
--- End quote ---
That's too high. Does he have it set to O scale? I know an N scale setting will give under voltage alerts.
--- End quote ---
Alan:
--- Quote ---I model the Twin Star Rocket. She would hit the top of the siding at 100mph and still make the platform for her station stop! I like to be prototypical.
--- End quote ---
Too funny
KPack:
No, I checked and it's set to HO. I flipped it to N a few times while I was over there running and that put it right on target. Problem is when I do that it messes with all his settings on his reverse loops. So I just run on the high voltage and keep an eye on the module temps. Never had an issue with it, which speaks to Ring's engineering on the LM.
-Kevin
Alan:
--- Quote ---Never had an issue with it, which speaks to Ring's engineering on the LM.
--- End quote ---
Agreed. It also speaks to the general robustness of today's electronic components. Manufacturing marvels they are.
When I was designing/testing my benchmade power district circuit breaker design I put an LM through an electrical torture test. I bought the module just for that purpose fully expecting it to fail or be damaged from the abuse. The poor thing was exposed to probably hundreds of short circuits, fully stalled motor tests, and at a wide range of breaker trip currents. Once, a component choice mistake of mine caused the breaker to go into oscillation. The LM was being turned on and off at a pretty high frequency for several seconds before I realized what had happened. It came through all this unscathed! It is in an operational loco today doing just fine. RP LMs are bulletproof.
Couldn't help but think of all the forum posts where someone says they fried a DCC decoder. I now know the only way to fry a LM is with a torch!
http://www.lkorailroad.com/circuit-breaker-and-block-detector-final-units/
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version