Subject:
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Re: DCC slowing?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.trains
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Date:
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Mon, 25 Aug 2003 13:24:42 GMT
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Viewed:
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2585 times
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> > I was thinking that as long as we are modifying the motors in a manner to
> > perform better, I was looking at the possible places we could open the motor box
> > to allow ventilation for the motor. Perhaps we could cut a hole on the bottom
> > directly under the motor I suppose we could easily seal the edges of the hole with
> silicone or gasket goo.
I was thinking that one could make the seal with a thin foam gasket to allow air
to still move somewhat freely
>
> How about mounting a heat sink to the bottom of the motor, cutting a hole in the
> case to accommodate and ventilate it, and sealing the case around it? Granted, it
> would have to be a very shallow heat sink--no thicker that a LEGO plate.
I was thinking of this as well...just a matter of finding such an item.
> >
> > Another thing as far as DCC, if the decoder is overheating, could we mount the
> > decoder outside of the motor box to keep it cool?
> I thought about that, too. Even if the decoder isn't overheating, I'm sure it's
> adding heat inside the case, making the motor overheat sooner that it otherwise
> would. Having the decoder external provides another benefit--we can use larger
> (hopefully cheaper) decoders than the N-scale ones that have been used so far. It
> could also provide an easy way to easily switch a motor between DC and DCC operation.
>
> I "retouched" one of Tom Cook's images from
> http://www.lgauge.com/trains/dcc/dcc.htm to illustrate the confusion that
> follows. See http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=54412 (deep links
> http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=496917 and
> http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=496910)
>
> How about: cut the accessory connector's contacts in half, making two pairs of
> contacts (illustrated by red lines). Inside the case, connect the rail pickups to
> one pair (call it pair A) and the motor to the other (pair B). Now, to run this
> motor as a DC (direct current) motor, just "jumper" the contacts by snapping one
> end of an 9v wire or the end of a 2x4 electric plate
> on top of the accessory connector. To run this as a DCC motor, connect a decoder
> to two 1 x 2 electric plates as follows. Connect the decoder's rail pickup pair
> to one plate (plate A) and the decoder's motor leads to another plate (plate B).
> Snap plate A to the half of accessory connector connected to pair A and plate B
> to the half of the accessory connector connected to pair B.
>
> An (probably better) alternative to cutting the accessory connecter is Steve
> Hassenplug's mod:
> http://news.lugnet.com/org/us/indylug/?n=492.
> Though in this case, I think I would have the motor lead exit the case further
> forward so as not to interfere with bogey rotation.
Sounds good to me!
I did some testing on my train (not having DCC all I can really test is wheels
and normal run time)...I ran my train with three cars on a track that was a loop
with four straights on two sides and none on the other two. With the "gray
wheel sets" of unknown origin, the train operated for a somewhat limited time in
a room that was 74 degrees. After switching out the wheel sets, the train ran
for twice as long before experiencing slowing. Then I discovered a problem with
cat fur wrapped around one of my steam drive wheel shafts..whoops! I placed a
fan near the track to blow on the train as it passed and the train operated for
a greatly extended time...so long that I had to turn it off to leave. This
leads me to think that wheel friction is a part of it and that opening up the
motor for cooling may help. I think having the bigger layout and cooler
conditions at GATS this October will also help.
I had also thought about the mounting the decoder outside, and even if we were
able to mount it to the front (or back) of the motor housing, I think it would
help...but if you can figure out the wiring as you have listed it above that
would be cool!
Are we planning on converting more motors prior to GATS?
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: DCC slowing?
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| (...) After we cleaned the tracks with steel wool, disassembled them, transported them to the road show and reassembled them, the coupler magnets still picked up a copious amount of steel wool fibers. I certainly wouldn't want to get *that* stuff (...) (21 years ago, 22-Aug-03, to lugnet.trains)
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