Thinking about DCC.

[Greg Elmassian]

I thought about battery, then realized the fact that DCC was much easier and less expensive).

And I can control 10,000 locos (addresses up to 9999) with $150 worth of electronics and I can have sound and smoke and run all day and not buy a charger and don't need room for batteries and on and on.

hello Australia

Greg

 

[dunnyrail]

This is what I use (original question), a 21 watt car bulb, about £2 from Halfords. It draws just under 2 amps at 15 volts.

View attachment 239463

That is pretty well what I have been talking about for ages, a cheep small speaker will also do the same job. Not sure the people from Venus listen us guys from Mars!

 

[Greg Elmassian]

I posted something else, and then took my own advice and saw that a 8 ohm speaker should draw about the same current.

My comment would be is the light bulbs will certainly dim noticeably if there is a bad joint.

On the speaker, you will have to know and be able to clearly determine the difference in sound output the speaker makes under voltage drop.

All the humans I know can see a light dim easily and are good at seeing the difference between bright and even a bit dimmed.

I would say outdoors with ambient sounds, it would take some training to do this well with a difference in speaker volume.

I would recommend the bulbs to a beginner, but not the speaker.

The box below will draw 8 amps at 24 volts (the more current you draw, the easier it is to find problems)

But if you can find 24 volt light bulbs, like halogen ones, you can hook up a few in parallel to draw the necessary current.

A friend of mine found 24 volt bulbs used in boats that take an ordinary socket:

Greg

 

[No72]

$200, for the whole control system and 99 chips, that is cheap, or are the trams already chipped !!

Not quite.. I use Radio Control, elchepo 6 channel $au40 Tx that can be "bound" to 99 Rx's. Each tram has a AU$10 Rx and a $6 ESC. I have only 4 operable trams but I could run 99 in batches of 5 using channel 6 as an auxiliary to control lights, smoke etc.

 

[dunnyrail]

I posted something else, and then took my own advice and saw that a 8 ohm speaker should draw about the same current.

My comment would be is the light bulbs will certainly dim noticeably if there is a bad joint.

On the speaker, you will have to know and be able to clearly determine the difference in sound output the speaker makes under voltage drop.

All the humans I know can see a light dim easily and are good at seeing the difference between bright and even a bit dimmed.

I would say outdoors with ambient sounds, it would take some training to do this well with a difference in speaker volume.

I would recommend the bulbs to a beginner, but not the speaker.

The box below will draw 8 amps at 24 volts (the more current you draw, the easier it is to find problems)

But if you can find 24 volt light bulbs, like halogen ones, you can hook up a few in parallel to draw the necessary current.

A friend of mine found 24 volt bulbs used in boats that take an ordinary socket:

Greg

My Bogie as I have mentioned before has a bulb and a speaker with a switch to make the choice of either. Use of a Bulb or Speaker will generally only prove that there is power in the first instance which is the start of geting things right. Clearly a Loco under Power is the next step and if this is hesitant there are a few reasons.

- Dirty Track
- Dirty Wheels of other parts of the pickup
- Faulty Loco
- Dodgy Rail,Connections
Once the first 3 are eliminated the final one is a case of wiggling the Track to see if connection is the issue. Track Bonding or Rail Clamps or Joint Cleaning should resolve the final issue.