# radio control for beginners



## devious10 (Jun 20, 2008)

I dont know if this should be here or in the R/C section, but what my question is i would like to go to R/C i will have a couple aristo engines and a couple USA trains engines and was wondering what i need for each engine? What types of batteries i need for each? and so on.... I was in the R/C section and started to get confused,any help would be great. If it matters i will be running aristo brass track.....
Thanks


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

Can't really answer your question as there are lots of good ways to do things. Best we can do is show you how we do it, and let you pick. 

I'm a steam nut, so I put batteries and receiver in the tender. 

When I batteryized my Annie, funds were more than a little short, so it's built mainly out of junk box parts. 










This has an aristo trackside receiver, less the big plastic box, mounted in the bottom of the tender. 

My Mallet also has an aristo TE receiver mounted in the tender, but I run it with these big NiMH "IED's" 










I can swap out the battery pack by lifting the coal load out of the tender. 










So why do I use the Aristo Trackside receiver? It's cheap " border="0" />


Now that I have batteries in my locos, I don't care what the track looks like. If there are rails roughly parallel and no logs, bolders or bovines in the way, it goes.


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## Pete Thornton (Jan 2, 2008)

Takie a look at the ECLSTS seminar notes that I did a few years ago. It will give you the various options. 

http://gold.mylargescale.com/petethornton/ECLSTS-seminar/Battery%20&%20Radio%20Control2.pdf


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## Trains (Jan 2, 2008)

Easyest way to go and cheapest, is a battery car. The Aristo engines are set up for this, and USA you would have to wire in a plug,
witch is not hard.


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## TonyWalsham (Jan 2, 2008)

You definitely need to ask questions. As many as you can think of.
Peter Thorntons pdf is a good starting point.
Essentially there are two types of R/C.
1. Proprietary such as RCS, AirWire, Locolinc and TE.
2. R/C speed controllers that can use low cost 2 stick AM Radios such as the EVO brand I make and RailBoss.

Although biased to my own products these;
http://www.rcs-rc.com/index.php?page_id=1005 & http://www.rcs-rc.com/index.php?page_id=1005
should help.

You need to decide exactly what you want to do before committing to spending money. Also, try and get hands on experience with the various brands and types of R/C.


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## Stan Cedarleaf (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By devious10 on 03/30/2009 12:22 PM
(snip) I was in the R/C section and started to get confused..... (snip)



Yes devious, you certainly can get confuzzzzed...    There's so much out there today that you need a dart board. Tape pictures of all the different systems out there, stand back about 10 feet, close your eyes and throw your first dart. Whichever one it lands on, go for it.

Well, not really.... There are new and improved systems out there today. The new is the Aristo Craft Revolution. It''s not DCC but will do a great deal to control trains, multiple trains, sound, lights and smoke. The description is on the Aristo site.

Airwire is coming out with a new improved higher voltage receiver. DCC in operation but will run all different trains and sound systems. A proven, good system.

Tony has mentioned RCS which is a very good system as well. 

Then there's a new low cost, programmable system The Enhanced Rail Boss, developed by Del Tapparo that will handle 8-30 volts of battery and is a real slick system. It has station stops, will even reverse direction (all using magnets mounted on the ties). Contact him at G Scale Graphics. 

The old Train Engineer systems are still around and will work just like the C-47's did after WWII. They were still flying to supply the space program.  

Which is the best..... Depends on how you want to control your trains. 

Throw the dart..


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

Oh yes. And the tender just plugs straight into the connector on the back of the loco.


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## TonyWalsham (Jan 2, 2008)

Jason. 
I received your message via MLS and composed a quite detailed answer. 
Somehow I pressed the wrong button when adding a sig and lost the lot. 
I will take the time to answer it again if I can figure out how to access the message here at MLS.


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## Big John (Jan 4, 2008)

This is not a plug for Tony but I purchased three of his systems at the ECLSTS show this past Saturday. He has a great rep in Don Sweet and he took the time at the show to talk to me for over an hour. I have hands on experience with several systems that members in my club use. I made the decision to go battery power with 100% RCS control equipment. I am finally installing aluminum track on my elevated outside layout. I hope to have the first engine converted and running by the end of April. I will let you know how it works out. By the way I have eight steam engines and model in narrow gauge 1:20.3. 

John


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## SteveC (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By TonyWalsham on 03/31/2009 3:53 PM
{snip}[/i] I will take the time to answer it again if I can figure out how to access the message here at MLS.
Tony

If you're referring to the MLS _"Private Message (PM)"_ feature, you can access it by either...
[*] Community menu > Private Messages or...
[*] Scrolling to the bottom of any forum page, then looking to the lower-left corner, and clicking either of the links (i.e. _Unread Messages_ or _Read Messages_) located directly above the _Terms Of Use_ link.
[/list] Either of the above actions will place you on the _Inbox_ tab on the _Private Messages_ page.

Once there...
[*]Locate the respective PM and click the link in the _"Subject"_ column this will open the message. [*]Next, choose the desired reply type action, from the choices provided in the row labeled _"Options:"_ (i.e. _Reply_ or _Reply without Quote_). [/list]


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## TonyWalsham (Jan 2, 2008)

Thank you Steve. 
I did finally work it out. No fault of MLS. 
Not enough practice. I have only ever had a couple.


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## silvercity (Mar 25, 2009)

Hello -

I too am at the stage where I have to stop talking about battery and RC and makes some decisions. I have aluminum rail outside. Have been thinking of using a system like locolink where the battery comes into use only when track power fails and meanwhile the batteries charge from the track. Would like to power my main line but use battery operation in the yards so I do not have to fiddle with the electronics for routing track power through the switches.

Anyone have any experience with a system like this ?

Thanks for your help.

Charlie


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## lownote (Jan 3, 2008)

If you were running DCC, you could power each switch remotely with just two wires. There are DCC decoders which operate switches--you just wire the decoder to the track, and the decoder picks up the DCC signal through the track

But I'm not sure it would work with aluminum rail


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## Del Tapparo (Jan 4, 2008)

Posted By silvercity on 04/26/2009 8:05 PM

Hello -

I too am at the stage where I have to stop talking about battery and RC and makes some decisions. I have aluminum rail outside. Have been thinking of using a system like locolink where the battery comes into use only when track power fails and meanwhile the batteries charge from the track. Would like to power my main line but use battery operation in the yards so I do not have to fiddle with the electronics for routing track power through the switches.

Anyone have any experience with a system like this ?

Thanks for your help.

Charlie


Some comments ... (unfortunately these types of questions seldom get a direct answer, but plenty of folks trying to change your mind







)

Fiddling with routing track power is a one time task (and relatively easy at that), but track cleaning is forever (with track power).


If you are going to go to the trouble of isolating the motor wiring, why not just go with dedicated battery power? Much simpler. More reliable (in my opinion).


I wasn't aware that Locolinc could be used in a "track power with battery backup configuration". The ones I have seen in operation were all track power only. Others will chime in here.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Hmm... the last time I used locolinc, it was all battery. So I think that hybrid use of track power and battery might not be a standard setup. 

But back to the question, several people have successfully used a system of onboard batteries and track power. 

My opinion is you should consider this setup "battery power" with extended run time... basically (and I know people will tell me otherwise), from a practical perspective, you wind up draining a battery twice as fast as it charges... 

The people I have seen successful doing this basically have a "trickle" or slow charge setup, where the track voltage is fixed at a particular level, and they basically just feed it to the battery, no on board charger, etc. This also means all of your battery packs will, again from a practical sense, be exactly the same, the same cells at the same voltage. A small variation in track voltage makes a big difference in charging current. 

You cannot use li-ion cells in this configuration, I would strongly recommend nicads or gel cells. 

Regards, Greg


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## silvercity (Mar 25, 2009)

Agree with everything you have said. The attraction of track power for the mainline is to allow visitors to run their track powered equipment but that attraction is fading fast. I will have about 500 feet of mainline trackage and I am sure that cleaning it will become old very fast. 

The RC airplane people are starting to use the new battery trachnogy based on nanotechnology. Read an internet article on taking apart a power tool battery pack to reconfigure the cells for use in a model airplane. Discussions with the local RC hobby shop owner yielded the statement that his custom battery man can put together a very powerful battery in a very small package. Anyone using this technology? My experience is that small batteries producing lots of power produce lots of heat. While visiting layouts in the Phoenix area during last year's Garden Railroad Convention I saw a number of battery powered locos shut down by heat problems. 

Charlie


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

bumping up for Devioius 10 so he can continue..

Greg


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## Doug C (Jan 14, 2008)

Shucks is that a hint to Dev' after hmmm 5 yrs for some feedback !? 

And I'm quilty of that, tooo ! 

doug c 


.... owe DBodnar a big thank you on a led-flavoured upgrade of a couple yrs back !! Although the finale was off-site I think...


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## mickey (Jan 28, 2009)

Wanting to hear feedback too. In the process of doing Locolinc myself with track power. It will do either battery or track and can be switched later by just adding battery. I plan to see how it goes with cleaning and may later switch it to battery with track recharging.


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## SD90WLMT (Feb 16, 2010)

As a " former & now retired locolync " user....
What ranges do you expect to operate this within..?
I became somewhat dissatisfied with the deminishing results over time, which were never great in the beginning anyway...
The last straw was about 10'-12' start up..and 2'-3' to shut down...
Just my story. And my mileage...
..yours may vary!
But ..you've been forwarned here..
..Dirk


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