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I’m coming into the monorail world late and have been acquiring track and parts
on Bricklink. I have two motors and both seem to run very slowly. They really
seem to labor going up-hill.
I haven’t run the engines enough to believe I might have burnt them out. All my
metal to metal contacts appear to be clean. My batteries are new. Can anyone
offer me some advice? Are there any steps I can take to clean the engine and
make it more efficient?
Felix
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In lugnet.trains, Felix Greco wrote:
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I’m coming into the monorail world late and have been acquiring track and
parts on Bricklink. I have two motors and both seem to run very slowly. They
really seem to labor going up-hill.
I haven’t run the engines enough to believe I might have burnt them out. All
my metal to metal contacts appear to be clean. My batteries are new. Can
anyone offer me some advice? Are there any steps I can take to clean the
engine and make it more efficient?
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Firstly, how heavy is your train? You’ve got a battery-powered, gear-driven
drive system that doesn’t run very fast under the best conditions, so unless you
strip it down to the bare essentials (one sled, one motor, one battery box, and
just enough lightweight parts to make it look vaguely train-like). I made a
monster 6-wide, brick-built double-cabbed monorail train that uses two battery
boxes (one for the motor, one for the cab running lights) and I eventually gave
up on 9v batteries and dropped some cash on 9.6v NiMH rechargables in a
9v-shaped package. For construction, panels are your best friend, and running
lights off the same battery will definitely shorten its runtime.
Second, what batteries are you using? I was once pointed towards Big Lots
because you can get two 9v alkalines for $0.99, but about every third battery
seemed like it was a dud, and the “good” ones were severely underpowered. If
you really want to get the most powerful batteries, you can buy Lithium (not
Lithium-Ion), but last I checked they ran about $10 each. Brand-name alkalines
are probably going to give you the best bang for your buck out of
non-rechargables, but they’ll still get pricy. Rechargables are nice for going
low-cost, but standard rechargable cells only pack 1.2v compared to an
alkaline’s 1.5v, which means that building a 6-cell “9v” rechargable would
provide a highly insufficient 7.2v of power. Most rechargable manufacturers
actually build them as a 7-cell construction, which boosts that to 8.4v, but
it’s still running a bit light, on top of the fact that to get the extra cell in
there you have to make them all that much smaller, which reduces the mAH rating
of the battery (i.e. it runs out of juice faster). And yes, that means that my
9.6v rechargables will get even less runtime with an 8-cell construction, but
I’m okay with that because I can finally actually see the lights through three
layers of trans-red for two hours minimum (as compared to sorta seeing them for
two minutes tops), and I’m getting about five hours of drive time on a level run
with a monorail train that’s probably around 75% heavier than I ever should have
made it. And there was actually a time where I was entertaining the thought of
buying some ~11v Li-Ion non-standard packs that would have required extensive
rebuilding to accomodate, but that would have run me about $200 just for two
packs and a charger, plus I would have needed to customize some wire adapters to
convert from the 4-stud 9v connector to the polarized nylon clips on the battery
packs. Part of the reason I didn’t was that I was worried about not knowing
just how much power the motor could handle (plus I figured I’d burn the lights
out regularly).
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In lugnet.trains, Felix Greco wrote:
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I’m coming into the monorail world late and have been acquiring track and
parts on Bricklink. I have two motors and both seem to run very slowly. They
really seem to labor going up-hill.
I haven’t run the engines enough to believe I might have burnt them out. All
my metal to metal contacts appear to be clean. My batteries are new. Can
anyone offer me some advice? Are there any steps I can take to clean the
engine and make it more efficient?
Felix
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Monorail trains just run slow. Just how slow depends on your perspective.
I just ran two sets of monorail at the NASM (National Air and Space Museum)
yesterday. The new monorail set I just acquired last weekend seemed to move a
bit faster than my older one, though that could have been due to the MOCish
nature of construction. On average, the trains (2 cars w/motor - standard LEGO
building) seemed to run 1 length of track approximately 2 seconds, from nose of
the train reaching a given piece of track till it reached the end of that same
piece of track. I was using brand new 9v Duracells, but the batteries could have
been any brand just purchased. Each train ran for a total of 4.5 hours (could
have been the full 5 hours, but down time for ‘accidents’ lessened the time for
each train), with no appreciable slowing of the trains. If they are running
slower than that, with the same type of conditions and the bearing that the
motor shaft runs through is clean (no hair or thread wrapped around the shaft
just above the drive gear and before the motor housing) and well lubricated,
then I’m uncertain what to advise you.
A do have a simple word of CAUTION to those who would display a monorail.
DO NOT LET IT CRASH!
I had a casualty yesterday. One motor unit had one set of the ‘nibs’ that hold
the lever connecting the train car to the motor snapped off in an unfortunate,
but spectacular crash. (All other parts were fine, including the lever.) I’m not
saying that it was manhandled by anyone. For all I know it was my own darn
fault. What I am saying is that the older ABS becomes less forgiving as time
goes on, and is likely to break in ways that are difficult to repair (even for
me). I’m still contemplating a way to restore the motor and what the
fix/replacement action will be for the ‘nibs’. I am uncertain that replacement
with plastic will be very strong (considering that the ‘nibs’ sheared off at the
motor housing, making that area completely smooth). If anyone is interested in
my progress, let me know, as you may have motors out there that can not be used,
precisely because of the same problem.
Have fun,
C-ya!
Rich
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