Radio Control Loco Conversion Tutorial (Easy Version) - Model Railway Mania
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- čas přidán 24. 08. 2024
- I made this video to explain the most basic version of a battery power, radio control loco conversion I have done.
The most important thing (that isn't in the video) is to cut the wires to the rail pickups first as you don't want any connection from the rails to the motor!
This method will work on any OO gauge loco.
Hope this is informative, let me know if you have any questions in the comments!
List of components:
Tx22 Transmitter
www.micronradio...
Rx41 Receiver
www.micronradio...
3.7v battery
www.micronradio...
Extension leads and cables
www.micronradio...
Shrink wrap (affiliate link)
amzn.to/3f7VD0P
Soldering iron (affiliate link) - this is the newer version of the one I have
amzn.to/30uziGG
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This is interesting. This is probably the future of model railways - once the batteries get smaller.
I think there is a problem with modern locomotives because of the cramming in of as much weight as possible to aid adhesion and pickup - not really an issue in steam tender locos which can have much more room for batteries but in steam tank engines and diesels, the whole inside of the body is often filled with metal, which presents a problem.
In contrast, an old Lima 37 or 47 for example is almost empty in the centre section, I'm hoping to do a conversion on something similar soon.
And more reliable/safer. It'll get here, makes garden railways easier too.
@@RailwayManiaNet Oh I read this comment the other day and it got me to thinking. I have a lonely Athearn blue box F7A and there is free space in the rear. Can you bind 2 locos together so they run in sequence? That way I can have an F7B.
@@Steamerthesteamtrain Yes you could although that would require two Receivers. Might be easier to have one receiver and solder a second pair of motor wires onto it, so it sends power to both motors at once?
@@Steamerthesteamtrain Yes. I suggest you look at Micron Engineering and Deltang websites. Giles Engineer and Peckforten Railway on CZcams are mines of information and help.
This is will be an ideal investment, especially when track power doesn't work well.
I just want you to know that your little video has completely changed my model railroading!
Thanks mate :)
Useful video! And it’s surreal to see a loco moving without the track!
Love the battery box behind the smoke box door ! Novel idea.👍
Thank you!
I strongly recommend every one switch to 2.4 g. It is incredibly more reliable and a pleasure to operate.. I have converted over 200 units and the customers love the detail operate control.. A must ..
Yeah it's great. Especially for shunting engines.
Omg I've been waiting for this, thank you so much
Hope you like it!
I have a cheap battery powered locomotive that fits on ho scale track and I wanted to make it rc, and thank goodness I found this video since know I can turn it into rc power.
You forgot to mention a screwie thing. This is a useful video thanks for all the hard work.
Interesting tutorial mate, thanks for sharing, all the best, Paul
Glad you enjoyed it!
Very nice tutorial, extremely helpful
Can't wait to see the fixed battery version
Hope to do the second one on an old Class 37 as it'll have more room inside to show the wiring layout a bit more easily.
Fantastic tutorial! Would love to see you do one on an N gauge tank engine, thats what I’m attempting at the minute! Not easy!
My hands start to tremble with fear when I think of such a task! I have done a 009 conversion but obviously have the luxury of a larger body for that.
Neat work! I'm currently awaiting Deltang parts to get RC fitted to my first loco.
Excellent! What loco are you working on?
@@RailwayManiaNet hi
I come across your video and was impressed with the idea of rc model trains, I've been toying with the. Idea with my frankinstein hornby 0 gauge models (made from parts) for garden railway and would welcome any advice.
I remember following you on IG back in the day. I never forgot about "The great realistic NWR Locos with kadees!" Glad I have found your youtube so I can continue to follow your modelling process now that I have left Instagram. Keep up the great work!
Ah thanks dude hope you are keeping well!
@@RailwayManiaNet One more question. How would sound functions work with a decoder? Seeing how easy this actually is I might try it in one of mine. How much is the equipment (Minus the loco)
@@BlaxlandRidge3 It's about £40 for all the bits minus the controller, there are links in the description :) I've seen people power a DCC sound chip with RC but with a 2-cell 7.4v battery, the setup would likely be different though and you would be paying for DCC controller + RC controller + RC receiver + DCC sound chip + speaker in theory? I think the freerails forums might have more info on DCC + RC setups. Hope that helps!
@@RailwayManiaNet Yeah once you do the RC it makes no sense for DCC I was aware of that, I was just asking because of the sound function. I'll look into it, thanks!
How much does it all cost. I think this is the future of the hobby. No need to clean track and gets rid of all the wire work under a layout. Perfect
For the receiver, battery, switch, leads it's about £40. You can get the controller/transmitter as a kit for about £40 or as a ready-to-go version for £75ish, the controller can be paired to 12 locos. Some of the receivers have additional outputs that could be used to control lights etc. which is cool but not something I've explored yet.
I've put some links in the description to the items I used. Hope it's useful!
@@RailwayManiaNet oh that's alot cheeper then I was thinking thank you.
No worries! I personally would go for the ready-built Tx22 controller I linked to, because it's a bit fiddly to assemble, and always buy the 'wired' receivers so you don't have to do micro-soldering. Andy at Micron RC is very helpful too.
I was going to ask about that, if you had tried to build the kit Tx22. I'm no electronics expert, but it looks like just a lot of soldering.
Great explanation. I'm about to order the parts. A Lima GWR Railcar for the first attempt, plenty of room. A rough sawn end of a bit of untreated softwood make a good tip cleaner.
Ah smashing idea, will get something for that.
With the Lima railcar, if you do the CD tray motor conversion (e.g. the one available from Strathpeffer Junction) then in theory you may not need the upconverter as a lot of CD tray motors are 3-6v.
@@RailwayManiaNet You've lost me there. I'm dealing with Micron Engineering, waiting for an invoice of the parts needed. He suggested I need the upconverter to boost to 12v. That seems easier, and cheaper, than replacing motor parts. What do you think? Best wishes Tom
@@tomellis4750 Micron are great and yes if using the original Lima motor an upconverter would be good but it will shorten the amount of run time on the battery. Here is a video explaining the motor conversion, it's a pretty simple swap. My theory was that if using a lower voltage and more efficient motor an upconverter may not be necessary and you might get more playtime.
Here is a video showing the swap:
czcams.com/video/A8Pgx9IUDRM/video.html
and here is the product:
czcams.com/video/BlaFQEq8LKk/video.html
@@RailwayManiaNet Thank you for taking all this trouble to help me. I'm from the clockwork generation, so will just go with what I deem to be simplest. Don't fancy taking a motor apart. I have GWR Railcar, bought unused from eBay, so no worries on being worn out. Just going to make a small branch terminus. The railcar will only travel a few yards per operating session.
Good luck with your projects. Tom
@@tomellis4750 No worries Tom, at some point I am hoping to make a conversion of an old Lima or Hornby Class 37 in much the same way so will try to document that when it happens.
Do you think you’ll ever continue this series? I’d love to learn how to fit the larger battery as well as a charging connector
That is amazing.
Fantastic. Thank you for sharing!
I love the large coal bunker design. Its a shame they didnt have those in real life or maybe we would have pictures of e2s with passenger trains
Interesting,very nice tutorial
REALY GOOD you could do that part time for money wood love to get some done
Why did you change Thomas Allens coal bunker design?
This one is No.300 'Thomas Edward Brown' - representing a 'what if' rebuild of the bunker to improve the coal capacity.
Un tren RC, también se puede hacer RC los cambios de vías, y sectores de energización de vías, puentes elevadizos de vias, hay muchas aplicaciones, estaria excelente si lo pasas a un software de esambladores en una computadora o aplicaciones o tablet...
Very cool idea. 👍👍
Thanks 👍
I would love to try this in O scale for my garden railroad I'm building.
Hi there, I'm a bit late to the game on this and my question is, you put a booster on the battery to 12v then plugged in before the receiver. I looked on the site linked and it seems to say in the stats that its up to 6V. am I reading this wrong. Also how long does the 3.7v lipo last before recharge?
This is a really interesting concept, think it has huge potential! Just think, put a N gauge motor in a OO loco & you've got some serious room for batteries haha! Could you potentially do a "hybrid" system where when the loco picks up the power from the tracks, it charges the battery? I know of capacitors being used in locos to get over dodgy track work, admittedly I don't know much about these sort of electronics....
Thanks Matty, I did use an N gauge motor in my little Bagnall loco which did free up room for batteries. People often ask about charging from the track but in my honest opinion there is no point. If you make any connection from the track to the battery/motor you introduce a risk of shorting, or overcharging, or if it's on 12v DC that's constantly going up and down as the controller is being used then how do you regulate the charge, or if the connection drops out when you go over joins then how does the battery deal with that. Remember that on the normal RC system the charger is outside the loco, mine is a USB plug about the same size as a memory stick, but that would have to then be put inside the loco. So any hybrid system would have to have complex electronics that would take up valuable battery space inside the loco, when it's easier to just plug it in to a charger, or in this case remove the battery and swap it for a new one. I personally would not want any connection from the wheels to the motor/battery due to the risk of overloading the battery or short circuiting potentially leading to thermal runaway (boom), plus if you did that then it would be as restricted as a DC/DCC loco in only being able to run on one kind of track. A normal RC loco can run on anything :) Sorry to be a downer but honestly it's better to keep it simple, the charging doesn't take too long!
@@RailwayManiaNet no need to apologise, makes perfect sense! Thanks for taking the time to explain it though, feel like I know a bit more about the subject haha! I do think it's the future though, just think in the future, potentially having things like charging ports under the loco & huge batteries in tenders! No need for metal tracks, no track cleaning, no wiring.... Sounds dreamy.
I've seen some people add the charging port under the water filler cap - would be neat if it could be charged by a water crane!
@@RailwayManiaNet yeah I like that idea. What about wireless passive charging built in under an engine shed? Now that would be pretty cool!
It’s beautiful.
Cheers Arthur :)
Railway Mania I have request!
At first, i worried about the conversion being too big for the bachmann thomas, but seeing as you managed it with a modified ertl bill/ben, i see this as good, however, im umsure where i can get these things other than the website in the description
Unfortunately Deltang shut down but Micron are making an equivalent replacement.
Fantastic tutorial! Do you happen to know if a sound decoder still work if used with an rc powered engine. I assume it would need a more powerful battery to compensate.
I have seen battery powered DCC systems in use, I think it may have been Tam Valley who makes them? It’s essentially just using a DCC system but with power on board and transmitting the instructions wirelessly. The challenge is that you have to find space for the DCC and speaker, and the receiver and battery on top of that, so for 4mm scale it’s incredibly difficult especially with modern locos being full of cast weight.
I have three questions.
1. Would this work on Bachmann Thomas engines?
2. Do you need to buy a separate control for each engine?
3. What happens if you have more than 12 engines?
Yes it would work on any DC powered locomotive. Your third question answers your second one though, a controller can control up to 12 locos at a time. But you may be able to bind more than one loco to a point on the selecta, so as long as they aren’t switched on at the same time.
Would there be any way of remote controlling? Similar to this but each engine is powered by their own controllers?
@@carlmatthews8338 Well yeah but buying a controller for each engine sounds expensive.
Suppose so:) Thanks for answering. Btw I don't mean controls like the one in this video, I'm picturing something similar to the DC controls but with a separate engine linked to each one.
Would it be possible to add various sound functions, lights, and a smoke generator on battery power? If so, how would this be done?
Yes I think by using the Tam Valley system it plugs into the DCC decoder and gives you those functions.
Hmm, this would be a nice alternative to dcc as each loco can have its own controller. Is it possible to continue using track power instead of battery but still convert to RC?
Potentially you could (though you'd need to use the Rx6x type of receiver as these ones don't like that many volts, although if you have DCC anyway then could you not use multiple DCC controllers? I guess it depends how many individual controls you'd want to have.
That said, my preference would always be BPRC as I just haaaate wiring track.
The problem with multiple Dcc controllers connected to the same track is the output. If say a negative terminal from controller B came loose than the power from A and B would be traveling though the negative terminal on controller A, which I would imagine would fry things. The other problem is amperage, if you have 3 or 4 controllers putting out 2 amps of 16v dc power, that turns into 6 to 8 amps very quickly which will absolutely burn up any 2 amp dc motor. (I think). What would be ideal (for me) is a DCC system that allows me to have one knob per address so that I can slow stop speed up or reverse any two or 3 or 4 locos at the same time. Mainly for switching mining and hump operations it’s very useful to be able to control multiple locos at the same time without having to change addresses. This is especially important with double or triple heading trains as I often run locos with very different top speeds and gear ratios, which makes running them all off the same address when in consist nigh impossible. I think I need to bite the bullet and commission a custom DCC controller from some guru.
Would it be possible at all to have HO/OO be converted to remote control with a separate control for each engine?
Yes you could do, would probably be expensive to have one controller per loco on this system, though. The controller/transmitter is the most expensive bit.
How well does this work with an Electrotren Chassis? I have a small loco my Friend made me, which i paid for, and I would like to try this out with it. it uses the Electrotren chassis and the only available space is the Cab. Looking at the solder points on the motor, they are at the back near the Cab, so would it be easy to have it all there?
I'm going to be converting the Hudswell Clarke I did to RC soon so will be able to answer a bit more knowledgeably after that, but there's no real reason it wouldn't work other than space. If you drop me a message on the Railway Mania Facebook page and send me some pics of the model then I might be able to help?
facebook.com/railwaymanianet/
@@RailwayManiaNet put a post on there so you should be able to get an idea on Space. 😁
Excellent work! How safe are the batteries? I've seen, on some phone batteries, balloon and get very hot (even with factory/OEM parts). Thanks, keep up the good work!
Yes only as safe as any other LiPo but they do require handling with care. One must be sure not to pierce or short circuit them (exploding LiPos are no joke) but people carry them around in their pockets all the time anyway so with respectful handling and use they should be ok. I have short circuited a few due to careless working practices which is why I emphasise this point.
@@RailwayManiaNet Thanks, sage advice. As I say I've seen phone batteries treated well, but 'balloon', I can only assume that was due to poor quality components. Sadly they all seem to be produced in the same country, so judging quality is an issue. I know of your supplier and their products are excellent in all other regards though. I'd like to use LiPo batteries in my 0-16.5 locos, but with some of the resin kits it's hard to fit a motor, let alone a battery and Rx.
VERY INTERESTING - you say at about 00:25 " All the links to buy these will be in the description" Please tell me where "The Description" is - Thank you
Thanks but not sure what you mean - it's in the same place on all youtube videos? Just above the comments section.
Really enjoyed your video and learned a lot. Did you make any further videos about r/c in locos, I've searched Railway Mania but can't seem to find any
Hi mate, glad you liked it. I've not had the chance to do any more yet but I would like to
Time has moved on a bit - has there been any moves forward on being able to replace the Deltang TX22 transmitter with a mobile phone or tablet?
I'm not sure, I guess the challenge is that the Deltang system is an RC one rather than a Bluetooth or wifi one which is what the phone/tablet would output. Although Phil Parker mentioned in Ep.18 of the podcast that there are easy to install wifi controllers for large scale so it's surely not long until that tech is available for OO?
Hi, I love what you have done but its far too complicated for me to attempt. Im going to build a simple garden layout and I really like the idea of RC. Do you take on commissions by any chance? I would love to run an Evening Star loco with probably 8 carriages with sound/smoke. What are your thoughts please. Thanks, Steve
Hi Steve, I'm sorry but I barely have enough time for my own stuff these days! To be honest I think learning to solder wires is about all you need to be able to do. You probably want to be able to fix it if anything goes wrong so it's a skill worth learning :)
@RailwayManiaNet thank you for your reply, much appreciated. Bought a soldering iron as we speak and going to have a go once lve bought a 0 gauge loco.Would you suggest one with a tender for the battery etc. Do you have a web site taking me through all the things l need to complete a battery powered remote control locomotive...lm a complete newby👍
Hey, I have a question, I'm working on a custom, and the chassis is from a new Hornby Terrier, Would I be able to fit or make it into Radio controlled engine?
Yep I should think so!
I've had problems with the male end of the charging wire, for my Bole Laser Craft Ruston 44. They modded it to make it easier to unplug, but its still too stiff and I don't want to pull the socket out of the loco, so is taking the tabs off easier?
That's pretty much why I did it, yeah, it's way too difficult to unplug otherwise
@@RailwayManiaNet Fair enough. Bole recently sent me an experimental lead with the end have a handle bit further up the lead, and its brilliant.
Makes unplugging so much easier
One simple question, is the speed on the engine apologue (can go at varying speeds) or just on and off
It's analogue like a normal DC controlller
@@RailwayManiaNet Great!
Don't mind me asking but where's the second video?i couldn't find it
Need to get around to making it but need an appropriate project!
Screw dcc and power packs just remote control it
We're in the future now Marty! Could the engine still run under the standard DC/DCC power after its been modified?
It can but only if you modify it back and remove the RC gear. You have to cut or remove the pickup wires as you don’t want to risk putting 12v DC or 15v AC into a 3.7v battery!
@@RailwayManiaNet ah yes very true, I didn't think of that lol
Sorry to bother you but I have two questions:
1. What do you do if you want two engines to run at the same time?
2. How do you so this process with a basic double bogied diesel or even a garrett engine? Do you do this two both motors or just the one?
Hello there, no bother at all, apologies its taken me some time to get back to you. With two engines, I believe if you have one running and switch to a different one, the first one will keep running until you switch back to it.
With two outputs such as on the garratt, my plan is to use a voltage step-up to maybe 8 or 9v, then take the output wires from the receiver and split them into two, with one going to each motor. Hope that helps!
Is that Thomas? Or a different engine?
This one is No.300 'Thomas Edward Brown' - representing a 'what if' rebuild of the bunker to improve the coal capacity :)
Oh
I'm looking to do something like this on two engines that I have at the moment. One from New Bright being a 2-6-0 and one from Bachmann being a 4-6-0. my new Bright engine runs on 6 C cell batteries (9 volts) and I"m looking to use Rail pro (since my new bright engine likely has a sound card already built in) same with my Bachmann big hauler. How would I go about working on my Bachmann big hauler when it comes to it's tender?
Hiya, I guess the larger scales are a bit easier to wire up but it depends on how much of the electrical gear is going in the tender? I'm not too up-to-speed on the sound aspects of RC.
Forgive me if this has been addressed already but I noticed you put a 12v booster inline with the receiver. On the link the receiver says it takes up to 12v only. How does the higher voltage effect the longevity of the component? I am hoping to add a booster to my build as the motor needs a boost. Thanks!
Hi Tom, I've not noticed any problems with the Rx even when running at full chat for sustained periods. Since doing this video I've redone the install but found I had to fit diodes to bring the voltage supply from the Rx to the motor down as I had lost so much slow-speed control. So I would recommend a 6v or 9v booster rather than a 12v.
Do you think this would work on an HO scale Bachmann loco with a slightly higher current draw?
I should think so, would need a high capacity battery and probably a voltage step-up.
Very interesting. But two questions. 1. Can the battery not be charged from the track? 2. How is this better than DCC?
Thanks! Charging from the track is something a lot of people ask about. For me I can't be bothered, the reason I wanted RC is because I hate cleaning and wiring track as well as messing around with pickups, the effort of charging the loco is far less to me than all that. At some point hopefully we'll be able to have reliable induction charging which won't require all the plugs etc.
In some respects RC is better than DCC, in others DCC is superior. Importantly, RC runs on anything. It doesn't even matter if the track is wired up at all, it'll still run. There are some RC setups that enable lights, s, DCC over RC with sound is also possible but they are quite expensive. I'd like to do lights on a future model but personally I think DCC Sound is not at a stage I'd be happy with anyway, I don't like the way the sounds work or the 'tinny' effect you get from the small speakers. I'm sure it'll get there eventually.
My stepdad and I are building a large DCC layout and I honestly wish we'd not bothered and just gone RC from the start. The amount of wiring we have to do is just not fun at all, we could have been running trains and working on scenics by now, and the RC conversions wouldn't have been much different in cost to DCC ones.
I hope this helps answer the questions! Let me know if you have any more.
The 12v booster? The receiver is max 6v so should the booster go after the receiver? You made a big deal of putting it BEFORE the receiver.
Yes logic would suggest it would go after the receiver but when I tried, it didn't work. Might have another go but I found it only worked before the receiver. The receiver seemed to work ok on 12v. Ideally I suppose I could put an Rx6x in instead of an Rx4x but not had an issue yet.
Thanks. I was trying to get an rx6 but it seems they are in short supply.
I think I know why it won’t work after the rx. The rx will put out less than the 3.7 v and that may not be enough to fire up the dc to dc converter. As you reduce the voltage in it reduces the amps out but the bolts stay at 12v... not what we want to run the motor.
@@cavalierkingcharlesspaniel7867 You can't run a DC/DC convertor with a PWM signal as comes out the receiver plus the polarity will invert in one direction. The RX41 will eventually collapse with 12V.
Is there any way to use another controller?
Also do you think there could be some way to have a DCC controller as an alternative?
Hello! Thanks for the video, this will be very useful for my future layout. Only one question and I don't know if this one has been asked already...what if you want to power from the rails? Like have no battery, but the RC to works. Would it fry the receiver? Cause I have a Stirling single that I would like to run on the same track as a couple of shunter engines. And how the table is set up is you plug it in and powers up the transformer than rails. Like the older trains i.e. American flyer. Thanks again and God bless.
Hmmm, isn't that just DCC? I don't see a way of doing it with DC powered track, because you are varying the input voltage by powering up the track.
@Railway Mania Hmm... what if it was cranked up to max power would it work then? Cause I also do O gauge and a friend of mine has a diesel that is remotely controlled out of the box by Loinel. And he had it set up with an old transformer to supply power to track and controlled the speed with the remote.
@@blackburnthe1st956 But if you did that then wouldn't the other locos on the track zoom off?
@Railway Mania True. So maybe throw them all on remotes each on varying frequencies? Cause I am planning on getting no more than three to run on it.
So could this be charged off the rails?
People often ask about charging from the track but in my honest opinion there is no point. If you make any connection from the track to the battery/motor you introduce a risk of shorting, or overcharging, or if it's on 12v DC that's constantly going up and down as the controller is being used then how do you regulate the charge, or if the connection drops out when you go over joins then how does the battery deal with that.
Remember that on the normal RC system the charger is outside the loco, mine is a USB plug about the same size as a memory stick, but that would have to then be put inside the loco. So any hybrid system would have to have complex electronics that would take up valuable battery space inside the loco, when it's easier to just plug it in to a charger, or in this case remove the battery and swap it for a new one.
I personally would not want any connection from the wheels to the motor/battery due to the risk of overloading the battery or short circuiting potentially leading to thermal runaway (boom), plus if you did that then it would be as restricted as a DC/DCC loco in only being able to run on one kind of track. A normal RC loco can run on anything :) Sorry to be a downer but honestly it's better to keep it simple, the charging doesn't take too long!
@@RailwayManiaNet I agree. I pop the batteries out of my tenders and charge them while watching tv. My two and three cell lipo's are getting two hours of operation
I heard batteries are a fire risk or that's what RailPro told me. I want to give my locomotives batteries so I can have balloon loops.
Are the batteries you're wiring up safe to use on live DC track?
They absolutely are a fire risk and that is why they must be treated with respect and care, they are the same kind of batteries that are in your mobile phone. Great care must be taken to avoid a short circuit (which is why I emphasise not cutting two wires at once).
To be clear, the battery and radio control system operates completely independently of the normal DCC or analogue control, it's not like a stay-alive capacitor because there is no electrical connection to the track, the pickup wires have been cut and the pickups preferably removed.
So to answer the question 'are they safe to use on live DC track' the answer is yes as long as there is no connection from the wheels/pickups to the motor. RC locos will operate on anything because all their power and control is stored inside. Hope that helps!
@@RailwayManiaNet Ah thanks for the info, I first came across battery power in a RailPro video czcams.com/video/uLlfPXIOXBk/video.html
The reason why I ask this is because my Tyco General is practically impossible to have this, because, the motor is drive shafted from the Tender to Loco. There have been videos on DCC conversion but it involves permanently attaching a piece of rolling stock to the loco and I don't want that "It would have to be the same for batteries". So my solution is to have my other locos battery powered and have my General on plain old DC.
I think it would be cool to use this concept for a cran tank
I agree! Hopefully one day I can work out how to!
Out of curiosity what size of battery would you recommend for a 4-6-2 with a larger tender?
I've only done one tender loco so far but I put the biggest battery I had in there, think it was 1200mah or something?
@@RailwayManiaNet I am rebuilding a Mantua 4-6-2 and I plan to have it my testing ground for a battery powered tender engine.
Great video. I'm new to this. I use a 3.7v and as i throttle up. There is no power. I noticed you use a booster. To go 12v. Where would I get one of these please
Thanks Kevin, I got the booster from Micron Radio Control. I think it's made by a company called Pololu?
@@RailwayManiaNet Thanks for getting back to me so fast. Please do a vid. On how to wire the up.
I'm putting together an online exhibition on 20/21 Feb. Do you mind if I link to this video from the 'Demonstrations' area? Thanks
No problem at all :)
@@RailwayManiaNet Thanks. The show will be at www.kenavon.btck.co.uk/Exhibition on 20/21 Feb.
What booster did you use for this illustration?
I believe it was a little Pololu one
So is thomas edward brown thomas allen's brother? (I know this as nothing to do with the video but i some times wonder things)
Yep it's a classmate :)
Hey there , where can these bits be bought , I have a hornby class 08 that I’d like to try convert !
Hi mate, in the description there should be links to the shop I got my stuff from, hopefully I'll do another vid on how to wire up the charging port and switches etc.
@@RailwayManiaNet thank you
@@RailwayManiaNet that would be great , I’ll keep an eye out for it
Do you have any tutorials on how to do this conversion with a larger loco that has 2 motors?
Not yet but it shouldn't be any different other than splitting the Rx output into two and sending them to each motor. When I eventually wire up the Garratt this will be the method I use, probably with a 9v booster and using an Rx6x or similar receiver rather than the Rx4x one, because of the higher voltage.
Railway Mania thanks for the info. I’m assuming I need to have a receiver that can handle enough amps to service both motors comfortably at the required voltage. Right?
@@shaynut6 Yeah I think the larger Rx6x series from Deltang can handle it, it's worth checking. Andy Rutter at Micron RC is very knowledgable about them.
Is it the same thing with tender loco’s and do you keep it remove the engine pickups ?
Tender locos are easier to fit bigger batteries in for obvious reasons. The one tender loco I have converted so far had the Rx, battery, charging plug and on/off switch all mounted in the tender, with just two wires going to the motor in the loco. I would remove all pickups and pickup wires where possible. On this loco I found that it was not the grease that was the issue, the pickups were pressing on the wheels so much that they could barely turn. You also want absolutely no connection from the track to the motor.
Railway Mania so for a tender engine will the battery go in the body or the tender or is it different for certain models . And what battery can fit inside the model ?
The one tender loco I have converted so far had the Rx, battery, charging plug and on/off switch all mounted in the tender, with just two wires going to the motor in the loco. The size of battery you can fit depends on the size of the loco/tender and the space available. There are lots of different sizes of batteries available so it's worth getting a few to try out.
Railway Mania what about a model like say a Hornby A1 Great Northern ? Will the battery go into the tender ? And how will the wiring work ?
Yes, as long as the tender has room inside it. The wiring is a bit more complicated to get the charging system and on/off switch in but I will cover it in a future tutorial
Would the Hornby railroad 0-6-0 chassis have enough room for this?
Well the chassis isn't the issue it's whether the body has room. The other E2 I've done uses the Railroad 0-6-0 chassis and the same (ish) RC gear
@@RailwayManiaNet I think the body I want to use does have the room, it's my 3d printed LMS 1831 body which is pretty much a box on wheels
@@chielvanderkolk4830 You could probably fit something quite big in, like a 240mah or larger battery. The railroad chassis is quite narrow so you could tape the Rx and battery to the inside of the body?
@@RailwayManiaNet thanks for the help! I'll see what I can do
Your 3D model looks great so far BTW
What’s the maximum range from the controller that the loco can operate from?
Good question, I've not had the chance to test it as my flat is too small!
90 feet usually with del tang usually not a problem
What solder do you use?
I've just had a look - it is Silverline multi core solder (60% tin, 40% lead)
@@RailwayManiaNet thanks, I'll be picking some of that up later today then
Is it similar to hornby railroad models ?
In what way?
Railway Mania the whole prodded I’m making the model radio controlled
I’m not sure what you mean. It’s the same scale as Hornby models if that helps?
Railway Mania no what I mean is that if I want to make a hornby Railroad model radio controlled do I do the same process like in the video or is it done differently ?
Ahhh sorry I misunderstood. Yes it would be a very similar process just make sure you remove the wires that connect the pickups to the motor. I’ll be showing another version of the installation where the battery stays inside the loco soon.
Neat, but I find flux always helps with tinning wires
Yep fair point
2:23 Don't cut towards yourself, otherwise great video.
Quite right!
Great video but technology keeps changing. Radio control is now old technology. I now use bluetooth with android apps
Sounds interesting, is that battery powered and in OO gauge?
@@RailwayManiaNet Mine is 12v battery powered gauge 1. I used an esp32 development board that has built in blue tooth and wifi with an L298N chip for the motor driver but I guess 00 would be limited for space. You could use an arduino nano and a HC-05 instead of an ESP32 for limited space . I did make a video if you look on my channel but I do need to improve my filming skills