Author Topic: Controlling Smoke Unit based on load  (Read 1428 times)

Tom Roehl

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Controlling Smoke Unit based on load
« on: October 03, 2021, 08:56:05 PM »
A member of our local large scale club has an engine that uses a linear potentiometer installed in the tenders coupler that controls the smoke unit so that the more drag on the coupler the more the smoke is generated. It creates a really effective look to the smoke generation as the engine starts up with a lot of cars. I know that the RailPro has the ability to monitor the current draw of the motors to speed match trains in a consist and I was wondering if this same ability would be able to control smoke units as well?

G8B4Life

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Re: Controlling Smoke Unit based on load
« Reply #1 on: October 04, 2021, 09:12:22 PM »
There's no functionality in the LM that I know of that can do that, though I imagine Ring could program that ability in if enough people wanted it but I would guess that it depends on the brand of smoke generator as well. I would imagine that many smoke generators are simple on/off devices that it wouldn't work on.

- Tim

Tom Roehl

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Re: Controlling Smoke Unit based on load
« Reply #2 on: October 05, 2021, 08:27:18 PM »
The control of the smoke unit was what initially got me thinking about it but there are a lot of other ways that it could be used now that I think about it. For example, what if the sound could be modified based on the load? An engine struggling under a large load can sound very different from one under light load. Think going uphill versus downhill for example.