Piko BR 204 / 298 / 199 Harzkamel conversion to battery, AirWire & Massoth sound

[Beddhist]

After my 1st attempt was eaten by the forum software here goes my 2nd attempt at what is not so much a guide, rather a log of how I did it. This is the engine:

I had to make a choice, before starting it all: Do a repeat of my Airwire conversions on my Bachmann Rail Truck and Davenport engines, using the Airwire Convrtr and a DCC decoder, or use the Airwire G3 wireless decoder and a sound card. Using an A meter, batteries and crocodile clips to power the track I tested the power consumption. Pulling two heavily loaded wagons up my 4% incline I measured almost 3A on take off and 2A continuous @ 24V. This is borderline for the Convrtr, so I decided on the G3 and a Massoth eMotion S sound decoder. The G3 was bought from Reindeer Pass, the Massoth and matching speaker from a German online dealer, who loaded the sound at no charge. Postage was negligible, as my mother happened to travel and brought it all with her.

As the range of my Convrtr setups with internal aerial is pitiful (about 2m) I decided to get the external antenna.

Right after all the decisions were taken Tam Valley released their large scale receiver, which would have given me another option.

All hand rails were removed to avoid damage. Instructions for removing the body were found in this very useful topic in the Massoth forum. This is what it looks like naked:



After taking pictures of the wiring connections for future reference I removed the circuit board, unscrewed the bottom plates from the bogies and removed the skates. The wheel pickups rest on the ball bearings, so there is no friction and I left them in. I also disconnected all the wires from the bogies, completely removing the black track wires.

Since I can`t take measurements under the body to find out how much room I have got I wanted to remove the cab. The Massoth forum instructions didn`t tell me how to do that and it`s not obvious, but I did get it apart in the end. Here is how: first, you have to remove the cab interior. Insert a screw driver into the slots (red arrows) and prise the body shell out. You can then pull the interior out. There are two lugs that engage with the body where the red circles are.



The cab is held by 2 obvious lugs on each end and two not so obvious hooks at the bottom. (yellow arrows and circles)

The speaker goes into the bottom of the fuel tank and I found 4 plastic screws to hold it in. After that the tank can be reattached.

The Massoth I attached with one screw where the original circuit board was and it rests on another lug, so is supported at both ends. This may have to move later, if I install a smoke stack.

 

[Zerogee]

This is all looking extremely good and very useful for reference, Peter - I'm looking forward to further installments....

My Kamel MAY become my first test-bed for the Tam Valley gear, as it's an early one of the type that are notorious for pickup problems due to the non-plated wheels; mine already has a Massoth XLS installed, so should just need the addition of the DRS Rx and a battery pack (plus the associated switches and gubbins of course). It currently has a smoke generator which I will probably disconnect, as I think that might push the amps limit a bit.

Thanks for posting it!

Jon.

 

[Beddhist]

Thanks Jon. Does yours have ball bearing axles?

Perhaps adding some large capacitors may help with the power probs?

CVP limit smoker use to 2 mins, but say their 4.4Ah battery should run a USAT loco for two hours. You probably don't need to disconnect the smoker just yet. In any case, you can switch it off with a button on the throttle, no?

 

[Zerogee]

Thanks Jon. Does yours have ball bearing axles?

Perhaps adding some large capacitors may help with the power probs?

CVP limit smoker use to 2 mins, but say their 4.4Ah battery should run a USAT loco for two hours. You probably don't need to disconnect the smoker just yet. In any case, you can switch it off with a button on the throttle, no?

I'm not sure about the axle bearings, Peter, I'll have to check! I bought my Kamel as a second-hand one from German eBay, from a chap who had fitted the XLS decoder, the smoke unit, some new cab crew (extracting Herr Doktor Wilfer - "they're my trains and I'm going to drive every one of them!" - from his perch), red "rear" directional lights and also a single Massoth powered coupler on the loco rear.
It was a really good deal considering how much extra gear it's had fitted, though I do think it's quite an early one.
The wheel issue (that I haven't experienced problems with so far, but it hasn't had a lot of track time) isn't my main reason for wanting to go DRS/battery on it - more the simple fact that it's one of the few locos I have that I'm sure is large enough to make fitting of the batteries and everything else a reasonably straightforward job.

I'm really looking forward to you posting the rest of your conversion job, as I think it'll be a great help when I get round to doing mine!

Jon.

 

[stockers]

The bearings are on the new plated wheels/axles only. they do not retro fit into the old trucks.(Because the bearings get in the way)

 

[Zerogee]

Thanks Alan - even more reason to use this as my test loco for the DRS/battery, then!

Jon.

 

[Beddhist]

I do intend to post the rest, as well as logs for the other two locos. Right now I'm a little short on time, so the project is stalled.

I still haven't found the right batteries. I can get a 6 & 12V SLA which I think will fit in place of one of the weights and that is probably what I'm going to put in. Capacity is rather low @ 1.4Ah, though. I was hoping to put a protected Li-ion under the cab, but there are only 28mm height between the speaker and the cab floor. The power switch should go into the 2nd smoke stack that nobody can tell me what it's for. That leaves an inconspicuous but accessible place to be found for the charge plug. Probably under the tank.

I'm taking this real slow, think about every bit before doing irreversible things. I haven't got much to run it on yet, anyway.

 

[Beddhist]

The G3 board has been installed on a piece of plastic cut out of an old milk bottle using the supplied double sided sticky:



There is plenty of room for the motor wires to move as the bogie turns. CVP recommend in their manual to twist all wires tightly together to minimise radio interference and maximise range. (Pity they don`t tell us that in the Convrtr manual...)

The sound decoder has 2 round plugs, which I have insulated with heat shrink. They plug onto two copper wires attached to the DCC out terminals of the G3.

Some recent acquisitions:



A 13V LiFePO4 battery which fits on top of the weight with room to spare. I need to make a bracket to support it at one end.

Salvaged from a dead PC speaker board a power switch and power socket:



I can`t bring myself to cut holes into the fuel tank for them, but they fit snugly into the exhaust stacks!

 

[stockers]

Nice and beat install. Very interesting.

CVP recommend in their manual to twist all wires tightly together to minimise radio interference and maximise range.

That's a new one on me. Worth a try. Can anyone elaborate on this please

 

[Beddhist]

It's the principle behind UTP: Unshielded Twisted Pair cabling. Somehow, the radio waves emitted by the wires largely cancel each other out. Good old phone cabling is twisted pair.

After all the problems I am having with my rail truck I twisted all wires in my Davenport. It seems to have helped, although the range is still pityful.

Another tip from the CVP manual (and also not in the Convrtr manual): don't use silicone glue, or any other glue, to attach the circuit boards. Apparently, some glues contain moisture and thereby are conductive, causing all sorts of problems and can even destroy circuits. That's why I have to pull the rail truck apart again!

 

[Beddhist]

Today, a milestone has been reached: I got the loco all wired up and functional and some tests were carried out. As usual, my camera didn`t cooperate, so the movies are unwatchable.



Here it is, all wired and ready to go. I made a bracket out of a plastic sign and glued it onto the weight, to support the battery over the gap in the weight. The battery is held on to this with 4 double-sided sticky feet.



In this last pic you can see the battery wires terminated in a chockie block (which really is too small for the beefy wires), screwed onto the deck. From there the black wire goes to the G3 decoder, the green supplies negative to the charging socket in the second funnel (which I still don`t know what it is for in real life). The red goes to the 5A blade fuse (purple) and from there to the socket and to the power switch in the exhaust funnel.



The 4 wires for the switch and socket can be disconnected individually, as they need to be fed through two holes in the body shell under the funnels to install/remove the cab. I`m planning to extend the balance lead into the tank, so all I need to remove is the tank to get at it for an annual balance charge (as per Greg`s suggestion). Removing the body is not something I want to do too often.

Last night, when I ran it on the bench it worked flawlessly. Today outside on the track the sound decoder was playing up. This may have something to do with the Tx batteries going down. At least, that`s what I hope!

There remains the fiddly job of installing tail lights and wiring up all the lights. Then the G3 has to be tuned.

 

[spoz]

Why didn't I realise that I could fit the plugs in the exhausts? Grrrrrr......

(Well done though, glad I didn't get to post my much less elegant solution)

 

[Beddhist]

I forgot to say that they are just jammed in there and padded out with strips of rubber mat. Once the cab is fitted they won't be able to move at all.

If I want to add a smoker later I will have to find a new home for the power switch. Perhaps a reed switch?

 

[PhilP]

I forgot to say that they are just jammed in there and padded out with strips of rubber mat. Once the cab is fitted they won't be able to move at all.

If I want to add a smoker later I will have to find a new home for the power switch. Perhaps a reed switch?

You might find it difficult to find a reed switch with the current rating you require.. Though it could be used to fire a relay..

 

[Beddhist]

Found it! On the bottom of this page. Now I just have to find an NZ supplier.

 

[Beddhist]

I`m almost there! I think ...  ???

The wiring is complete and it even works:



I was able to re-use the Piko pickup wires to make up common positive wires for all the LEDs, including the new tail lights. These have small plugs, so almost no soldering.

The ribbon cable terminates in an IDC connector which is plugged into a jumper block cut out of a PC board. This is a quick connect for the lights. I snipped one of the unused legs off and pushed it into the connector, so now it is keyed. 

Last night I developed an F-key standard, based on Zimo`s Advanced Standard for Sound Projects.

For the lights I have decided that I will not use the G3`s lighting functions, because it will not give me the control over the individual lights that I need. My reasoning is that when shunting, both headlights should be on and no tail lights. When the engine is leading a train the tail lights must be off and when it is trailing the h/l must be off. The G3 can do that only by means of CV programming. That is out of the question. So, I have ignored all the h/l stuff on the G3 and wired the lights to the 4 aux. outputs, called Elite 1 to 4. These I have mapped to 4 keys. Amazing: it works! Except for two niggly problems: the rear tail lights are too dim (I think it`s the LEDs, rather than the resistor). I may re-do them at a later stage.

More worrying: the rear h/l doesn`t stay on. After posting in the Airwire mailing list and downloading new manuals it turns out that the T5000 throttle has F2 hard coded as non-latching, for use with a horn. Ok, my standard will have to be revised and then it all works.

Still to do:

• 
  [li]Verify the charge socket wiring before connecting the charger[/li]
  [li]Balance charge the battery[/li]
  [li]Plug in the balance lead extension and leave it in the tank.[/li]
  [li]Try to put the body back on...  ???[/li]
  [li]Tune the G3 motor functions. (Lots of testing! Yes!  )[/li]

Future plans:

• 
  [li]Fit body mounted knuckles[/li]
  [li]Make new buffer beams[/li]
  [li]Install cab lights[/li]
  [li]Convert the bogies to narrow gauge[/li]

 

[Beddhist]

All but the battery charging completed I put it back together and this morning started testing. Up the track, lights work, sound works. Clear a little vegetation and return to the station. At the entrance it picks the first point and the leading bogie derails. The electrics go dead! Bummer, I wonder whether I have made a mistake and the G3 is fried...

Luckily, it turns out that it was just my shoddy wiring: the main negative had slipped out of the clamp. Pfewww!

Now that it's open again I have to fix more wiring. Soldering irons and I don't get along... :-X

 

[Beddhist]

It is done and I've made a short video of it running: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3p4dbyfoqsM

I still need to do quite a bit of tuning. To my great surprise it seems that the G3 doesn't have PWM, except on takeoff. I have played with that a little, but it's not that good yet. On the other hand, I cannot run the motor in, as I don't have a loop.

The sound needs syncing on takeoff and stopping. It's especially annoying to hear the brakes squeal while the engine is still working hard.

 

[PhilP]

I know it won't be 'on load'..
But can you not put the loco up on blocks, and clip power to the skates to run it in?

 

[Beddhist]

Good idea - except that I won't need clips. The skates are gone...