How do you control your railway?

[Toeffelholm]

... i have seen what happens if they slip out of range. (poor man, a friend of mine completely totaled a fully scaled down live steam triplex, ouch) so im still a wee bit skiddish ...

Trainboy, you may know it from school, that it is not very clever to crib from someone whose knowledge isn't better than yours.
Looking for  RC and "fail save", you surely will find some interesting information.

There are receivers that already provide this function or additional modules if your receiver does not. With a 2,4 Ghz system like the Spektrum that I'm using, this function is included as well.

Juergen

[trainboy]

hmmm fail safe, i will look into that.
and i would love to post pics... i just need my home computer back (stupid virus)

[Toeffelholm]

Trainboy, you are taking your photos directly with your computer?
Amazing, but isn't that rather uncomfortable?

Would think it would be easier to take photos with a normal digi-cam and load them onto the computer you are writing your posts at the moment?

Juergen

[trainboy]

unfortunately i do take them with my digital camera, its just the computer im using is a laptop piratically older than i am, an it running ubuntu which doesn't support anything that hasn't heard of linux.

[Emettman]

You lot are making me feel seriously old-fashioned.  But since many of my locos have solid side-tanks and boilers filled with plaster, addng chips and batteries is not a simple affair.

Herewith 50% of the controls for my entire line, the second control position being almost identical.
The controller and 16v feed are detachable, the rest lives outside, under another truncated plastic flowerpot.

[Ferd]

I do all my engines either on board battery RC using MAc5 controllers or by boiling water and running on steam.
cheers Ferd

[Bill Wray]

So, am back again and trains are rolling again.
brought Theodor (the penguin) bach to the shepherd, were he usually lives.
A bandage with a tincture of Stupidiumoxide and the leg will qickly be ok.

Back to the topic. Would be very interested what esc's (motor controller) the RC guys among you use?

Juergen

Wie geht's, Jürgen.

Here's a link to an article I just posted on another forum about a battery/RC conversion of a Locomotive. The R/C gear is all from Hobby King (in Hong Kong)- about the cheapest 2.4 GHz gear available. The ESC is made by Turnigy.
http://continental-garden-t.motionforum.net/model-locomotives-and-rolling-stock-f13/kit-bash-battery-rc-conversion-t605.htm#7424

[Toeffelholm]

Ferd,
I have had a look for the Mac5 controller on the Brian Jones Website http://www.brianjones.free-online.co.uk/ .
It's very interesting, especially as it is provided for model trains.
The esc's I'm using are from the car/ship-RC segment
http://www.lasergang-shop.de/kreativmeile/node/175
as you can get them incredibly small.

@Bill
really good report on your conversion!
But your statement there, that esc's with reverse are only available for brushless motors is not right.
Sure there are such esc's for brushed motors, as they are used in cars and ships, as well as for model trains as you can see in the example of the Mac5
or e.g. here http://www.antenna-models.com/

Brushless motors are upcoming more and more in the RC segment, but the bigger part are still brushed motors.

Juergen

[otherunicorn]

I use digital control - I poke 'em mit my fingur. (live steam)

[bkbates]

I use a small whip and chair to keep my engines in line. In truth, the battery powered engines, that aren't free running,  have an Airwire controller. My favorite, a Bachmann 2-8-0, also has a Sierra Sound card in it. The live steamers are of the "set teh throttle and pray" variety, as one chases them down the track.  - B2

[Bill Wray]

Bill
really good report on your conversion!
But your statement there, that esc's with reverse are only available for brushless motors is not right.
Sure there are such esc's for brushed motors, as they are used in cars and ships, as well as for model trains as you can see in the example of the Mac5
or e.g. here http://www.antenna-models.com/

Brushless motors are upcoming more and more in the RC segment, but the bigger part are still brushed motors.

Juergen

I stand corrected.  In my defense, when I googled,  I was unable to find any ESC for a brushed motor with reverse built in. In addition, the Turnigy brushed motor ESC is small and like most of Hobby King's stuff, cheap at $5. The servo and DPDT switch together add another $6, so I have the equivalent for $11.

I have also converted two other locomotives using those key fob remotes the Chinese sell on eBay. One uses a "Critter Control" module from G Scale Graphics, the other uses a homemade controller. Both require more space than the gear from Hobby King.

[Toeffelholm]

Bill,

there is nothing to say against your solution itself. If it works and is additionally that cheap, you found a good solution.

As far as size is concerned, there are really big differences in the stuff, provided by the different producers.

But you can get forward/backward esc's on the RC market, that are as small as your thumnail



Juergen

[adrian]

G'day All
Regarding controlling my railway(s).
First you must realise that I prefer building to running. So I tend to build small layouts that I take to exhibitions to bore the paying public with.
As such they tend to normally be automated so that I can sit back, watch the trains do their thing and talk to the punters. ( Preferably the pretty ones !)
As such I have in the past built railways that run on conventional DC but controlled with computers.......
Vic 20, PC ( the original 'transportable'), A 'TIGER' module ( an industrial OEM controller) and a things called 'PicAxe'.
I tend to use home brewed controllers which do not have a control knob but a computer interface.
I have also built a number of 'manually controlled' layouts and these tend to use either pulsed DC or DCC.
The DC for 'conventional' layouts and DCC for those with animation on the train itself (like a loco and operating tipper wagon or a working model crane)
I have recently purchased a couple of modules that allow automatic control of DCC layouts. These I have yet to experiment with.
I am also looking at building an outside layout using 45mm track and I have a number of 433MHz radio modules which I intend to turn into 'train controllers' sometime in the future. These will have a special homebrew transmitter which will be switchable between different locos and also control points and signals. The trains on the garden layout will have batteries on board but will also have chargers connected to the track so that they are constantly recharged and can be a lot smaller than normal for the same duration.
I do have a couple of locos that run on 32mm track which rely on a couple of pencell baterries and a switch.
The last exhibition layout, which I have just finished, uses a conventional DC controller which plugs into a multi way connector around the back which will allow me to upgrade the control system to either a computer controlled DC system or a DCC controlled system.
So it depends upon what the layout is to used for (and how) that governs what I control it with.
Cheers
Adrian

[Oztrainz]

Ummmm....
Adrian - you haven't mentioned your tin-can controllers   
Them you have to see to believe.........
Canned Analog??

[adrian]

G'day John

Yep.....forgot that one....unfortunately now gone to the great exhibition in the sky and no photos that I know of.

Just for those who had the good fortune not to see it......
An N scale layout about a foot long.......single track between station at one end and tunnel at other.......colour light signal....all buildings from "Fiddlers Green".....tram ran from tunnel to station and then back again.

Tram and signal controlled by a switching mechanism constructed from a instant mashed potato container which looked like a tin can but which had card sides. This was mounted on an axle and driven by a motor and gear box at about once every 30 seconds.

On the side of the 'can' were a series of strips of self adhesive copper strips ( from lead light suppliers ) which made contact with a series of brass rubbing strips. The circuits that were made and broken by this controlled the tram and the signals while the mechanism itself was a good way to get the punters talking.

Not an original idea. First saw a similar device in a 1960's Railway Modeller !

Thanks for reminding me of that John,

Cheers

Adrian