Stay Alive Circuitry

[TwinStar]

I emailed Tim asking for guidance on how to wire in the SoundTraxx CurrentKeeper to an LM-2S. He replied that he doesn't recommend such as it can cause problems. However, he is developing a native Stay Alive capability for RailPro.

Jacob

[KPack]

That's good news.  I figured he would do that at some point because so many people want it.  I'm curious as to how large it will end up being.  It seems the Soundtraxx and TCS units are rather large.  Trying to fit that in with everything else I have up inside a hood could prove very difficult.  However, I think the end result is worth the effort....to have trains that rarely, if ever, loose power would be awesome.  I don't have many problems with power loss, but when I do it annoys me.

-Kevin

[TwinStar]

Hopefully the solution, capacitor or battery, comes in several sizes. I'm fortunate to roster mainly E units but cringe at the thought of my GP-7's😁.

Jacob

[TwinStar]

Has their been any updates from Ring on this?

Jacob

[William Brillinger]

not that I have heard.

[TwinStar]

not that I have heard.

Maybe I'll nudge Tim with another email.

Thanks.

[TwinStar]

Tim said to check back next month and that something may be available.

[William Brillinger]

Sweet!

[SD90]

I'm interested in this too!

[William Brillinger]

There is no current offering for keep alive from Ring, but the new LM3's do support adding such a device natively.
I have not tried it myself yet, but the LM3 does have inputs for it and it should work with existing K-A technology.

[SD90]

There is no current offering for keep alive from Ring, but the new LM3's do support adding such a device natively.
I have not tried it myself yet, but the LM3 does have inputs for it and it should work with existing K-A technology.

Hmmm

[melarson]

There is no current offering for keep alive from Ring, but the new LM3's do support adding such a device natively.
I have not tried it myself yet, but the LM3 does have inputs for it and it should work with existing K-A technology.

I emailed Tim today (Monday) to ask for clarification on how to wire a keep-alive/battery to the new LM-3, given it's one new connection (simply labeled "negative" with no explanation).  Hopefully he'll send a response tomorrow (Tuesday).  I will keep this list informed.

[TwinStar]

I emailed him today asking if it will work with the LM-2's. But, now I'm wondering if there is no such hardware but only the capability with the -3.

Jacob

[TwinStar]

From Tim:

Hi Jacob,

We do not recommend connecting other manufactures products to ours.  You could damage either our product or theirs and the worst case would be that you cause a fire.  However, at your own risk, you could connect a DCC keep alive to a LM-3 since it has a negative terminal.  If the DCC keep alive can withstand track voltage you could connect the most negative wire to the 'negative' terminal on the LM-3 and the positive wire to the blue wire on the 9 pin connector.  Connecting to the blue wire will bypass some of the LM-3 internal circuit protection and can cause more damage to the LM-3 if there is an internal short (not likely - but not impossible either).

We do plan to make a RailPro keep alive but it is not expected to be available real soon. We expect our keep alive to work with all RailPro modules (LM-1, LM-2, LM-3).

Please let us know if you have any more questions.

Thank you for contacting Ring Engineering!

[melarson]

This morning I received an answer from Tim regarding yesterday's inquiry into wiring the LM-3 to a keep-alive or a battery, and my question about when he thought Ring's keep-alive would be available.

On running on battery:

"To connect a battery to a LM-3 it would be best to connect the negative
battery wire to the 'negative terminal' on the 6 pin connector and the
battery positive to the red wire on the 9 pin connector."

For me at least, since I have a steamer that I plan to run fully on battery power, and given Tim's answer, I think I'll stick with connecting the battery leads to the rail leads (red and black on the 9-pin) and not mess with the new negative lead.  That way all I am doing is replacing the DC supply that normally comes through the rails with an onboard DC supply.  I get that connecting it according to his suggestion probably eliminates one forward voltage drop (approx 0.65V) across the internal rectifier, but I wonder what else it might bypass (see next quote).

On using an existing DCC keep-alive:

"We do not recommend connecting other manufactures products to ours.   
You could damage either our product or theirs and the worst case would be
that you cause a fire.  However, at your own risk, you could connect a
DCC keep alive to a LM-3s since it has a negative terminal.  If the DCC
keep alive can withstand track voltage you could connect the most
negative wire to the 'negative' terminal on the LM-3 and the positive
wire to the blue wire on the 9 pin connector.  Connecting to the blue
wire will bypass some of the LM-3 internal circuit protection and can
cause more damage to the LM-3 if there is an internal short (not likely
- but not impossible either)."

This leads me to the conclusion that I will wait for Ring's keep-alive product.  Using theirs, unforeseen problems will be covered by Ring.  I can't afford to replace LM-3S modules because I ignored the risks.

And on the subject of Ring's keep-alive:

"We do plan to make a RailPro keep alive but it is not expected to be
available real soon. "

I am bummed that the keep-alive still doesn't have a target release date, and the release of said product seems to be getting pushed off further and further.  Any hope I had of it coming out soon is pretty well dashed.  But, they say patience is a virtue.  Sometimes, I'm not terribly virtuous.