Roundhouse battery loco, pre-purchase questionnaire
- Thread starter Mobi
- Start date
Gizzy
A gentleman, a scholar, and a railway modeller....
14-18V is quite high, so no surprises there, given that LGB is 22V DC!Mobi said:I have already tried the "concept" by connecting skates of my Stainz with a cordless drill battery (14-18 V) via wires.
The wheels rotate at full speed
Have you tried a 7.2V R/C car type battery?
Should run at approx. half the speed of the drill battery....
ntpntpntp
Registered
Mobi said:
Running the loco with it's wheels in the air is putting no real load on the motor and low current drain on the battery. 18V for a 20-22V motor is high. As soon as you run the loco on the track you have the weight of the loco and rolling resistance etc. which will slow it down.
My only battery R/C loco is one of the Newqida 2-6-2 tank locos. I know this brand tends to arouse both good and bad sentiments on this forum, but to be honest I find it's a good little loco for what it is if you can find one cheap (less than £100). It does have proportional speed control though not over a wide speed range. Most of the time I just set it going round using the switches inside and don't bother with the transmitter.
CoggesRailway
Registered
I have to say I think this is a very good post: 
But really you are worrying too much!
Find a cheap loco you like the looks of, and have a go.. Minimum to get going is a set of AA batteries in a holder, wedged on the loco, and the wires from the holder stuffed in the socket (if the older round ones). If you get serious, a DPDT switch would allow you to go forwards, and backwards. - All admittedly at one speed, with no control.
BUT, you could then see how fast it would go with what voltage, AND you have 'proved the concept' of battery power.
Guarantee if you try this, on a circle of track, and it raises a 'smile' you are on your way.
PhilP.
But really you are worrying too much!
Find a cheap loco you like the looks of, and have a go.. Minimum to get going is a set of AA batteries in a holder, wedged on the loco, and the wires from the holder stuffed in the socket (if the older round ones). If you get serious, a DPDT switch would allow you to go forwards, and backwards. - All admittedly at one speed, with no control.
BUT, you could then see how fast it would go with what voltage, AND you have 'proved the concept' of battery power.
Guarantee if you try this, on a circle of track, and it raises a 'smile' you are on your way.
PhilP.
3Valve
Railways; Air cooled VW's; Soul Music
CoggesRailway said:I have to say I think this is a very good post:
But really you are worrying too much!
Find a cheap loco you like the looks of, and have a go.. Minimum to get going is a set of AA batteries in a holder, wedged on the loco, and the wires from the holder stuffed in the socket (if the older round ones). If you get serious, a DPDT switch would allow you to go forwards, and backwards. - All admittedly at one speed, with no control.
BUT, you could then see how fast it would go with what voltage, AND you have 'proved the concept' of battery power.
Guarantee if you try this, on a circle of track, and it raises a 'smile' you are on your way.
PhilP.
What Cogges says
Zerogee
Clencher's Bogleman
Mobi - I'm only pointing this out as you seem very unsure of what you want to tackle yourself, so here's one where someone else has already done all the work.... it's quite expensive for what it is, and I'm sure could be done much cheaper as a DIY job, but it looks like it's all ready to just put on the track and run.... (and it's still a lot cheaper than the Roundhouse or similar locos you were asking about back at the start of this thread!):
http://www.grsuk.com/R_C_Battery_Van_and_Stainz_SMD_R_C_System-M7572
Jon.
http://www.grsuk.com/R_C_Battery_Van_and_Stainz_SMD_R_C_System-M7572
Jon.
garrymartin
My Family,Railways, Beer and the Seaside
LGB Caterpillar 0-4-0 diesel , superb loco and should be easily convertible to battery.
be careful of Multi Sockets on Chipoed Locomotives. They are there to supply Lighting Power to Coaches, not take Power In to the Locomotive. But perversley it will work in that way, but not reliably and without the possibility of trashing the Electronics.Mobi said:
JonD
Mobi
Registered
I recently asked RC conversion question to some retailers, and the replies I got:
GRSUK will charge £300-£400 on top of loco price, they are able to convert most locos (as long as space is available inside the loco)
TrackShack can only convert Baguley and will charge £500 (incl loco). This doesn't seem a bad price (compared to Roundhouse price) but Baguley is out of stock at least till next year!
Peter Spoerer has only one RC loco (Class 03 diesel) which costs £750 (thus approaching Roundhouse price)
Other dealers have not reverted back.
I have seen the Stainz RC battery loco on GRS site. But as this is done via tender it didn't interest me (if I do it myself then OK but won't pay that much for a tender conversion).
For me the main difficulty is to open the loco (once I guy one) to remove all the power pickups (and then reassembling it back). As long as I can grab a proper donor loco, I am ready to do the experiment.
I could find lots of LGB locos on Ebay but most of them either comes with DCC/MTS (making matters more complicated) or old locos without power socket.
But anyway, thank you guys for all the support and encouragement.
My main frustration is that even in 2015, when we are talking of driverless cars, trains, aeroplanes we are unable to buy a simple RC locomotive for garden railways!
There is one from Playmobil @ £100
and the other one from Roundhouse is @ £1000
The market is crying for something in the middle.
PS: Why the Newqida loco is no longer available? Is it a good hauler? Are the wheels made of metal or plastic?
GRSUK will charge £300-£400 on top of loco price, they are able to convert most locos (as long as space is available inside the loco)
TrackShack can only convert Baguley and will charge £500 (incl loco). This doesn't seem a bad price (compared to Roundhouse price) but Baguley is out of stock at least till next year!
Peter Spoerer has only one RC loco (Class 03 diesel) which costs £750 (thus approaching Roundhouse price)
Other dealers have not reverted back.
I have seen the Stainz RC battery loco on GRS site. But as this is done via tender it didn't interest me (if I do it myself then OK but won't pay that much for a tender conversion).
For me the main difficulty is to open the loco (once I guy one) to remove all the power pickups (and then reassembling it back). As long as I can grab a proper donor loco, I am ready to do the experiment.
I could find lots of LGB locos on Ebay but most of them either comes with DCC/MTS (making matters more complicated) or old locos without power socket.
But anyway, thank you guys for all the support and encouragement.
My main frustration is that even in 2015, when we are talking of driverless cars, trains, aeroplanes we are unable to buy a simple RC locomotive for garden railways!
There is one from Playmobil @ £100
and the other one from Roundhouse is @ £1000
The market is crying for something in the middle.
PS: Why the Newqida loco is no longer available? Is it a good hauler? Are the wheels made of metal or plastic?
CoggesRailway
Registered
At the end of the day battery g scale is a niche within a niche within a niche so its going to be expensive if you want ready to run- playmobil is a toy so has a separate market and therefore volume and therefore cheap...
Hal Farsed
D.P. Gumby.
http://roywoodmodels.co.uk/pilgrim
Robert Howard
Registered
Another option for you;
http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/291477643825?nav=SEARCH
http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/291477643825?nav=SEARCH
Mobi
Registered
Hal Farsed said:
That looks impressive for the price
! I have dropped an email to them requesting further details.It was discarded as explained in reply #56 in this thread.
How can it be so niche? Lots of us use battery power. May be the manufacturers invested so heavily in DCC/track power that they don't want us to move away from that?
Tony Walsham
Manufacturer of RCS Radio Control.
Mobi.
Perhaps you have answered your last question yourself.
Perhaps you have answered your last question yourself.
ge_rik
British narrow gauge (esp. Southwold and W&LLR)
Certainly one I would have considered if I was starting out in battery power myself. Also includes the Mtronics sound system which is very good indeed. I've put one of their small diesel modules (from Peter Spoerer) in my IP Engineering diesel - https://youtu.be/LfKq9esr0Jw They do a range of diesel sound modules, all using digitised recordings of real diesel engines.Robert H said:
Personally, I've not found any problems with the Piko mechanism but then I have only one (an 0-6-0 motor block) - it's one of my best runners.
eg - https://youtu.be/rQs0dmT--1A?list=PLdi6HQkndZEoDL0i35D-1uQkefWOZFY84
Rik
ntpntpntp
Registered
Gizzy said:
Actually mine's quite a decent hauler - certainly more than 3 coaches.
There's a german ebay shop offering an upgraded version of the NQD loco with metal wheels, better battery and R/C fitted and other things "sorted out". More expensive of course. Can't link to it while I'm @ work unfortunately, but if no-one else finds it for you I'll try and remember to post a link this evening.