# Battery-powered MTH DCS !!



## fildowns (May 17, 2008)

I just got my first MTH DCS PS2 loco but as a true battery-fan  I run a dead-track railroad. so to get all the bells, whistles and other noises, and allow full programmability of sound volumes and so on, I installed an MTH Track Interface Unit (TIU) in a box car. 


 


It just fits in a 1/29 box car. I have glued guides to the floor and roof to keep it in place. 


 


and on one side is a power switch and fuse. 


 


I use flat cars and similar to keep the 1/29 boxcars away from the 1/32 tender! Several of my cars have 'thru-wiring' so I don't have the same battery cars next to the locos. The battery car for the train above is in fact off the picture to the left, and the TIU is in the blue stock car. From the 4.5Ah battery I get 2.5+ hours Challenger runtime with sound and lights, including about 30mins of smoke. 


I lengthened the antennas on both TX/RX as per help on Raymond Manley's pages and it all works great. Many thanks to Ray for his help with the loco last year to get it running smooth. The only sound I heard before was in H0 scale and I wasn't impressed with the weedy sound there. These bigger speakers sure help. I'm diggin' this DCS sound, I put my deposit down for a triplex /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/whistling.gif but don't tell household management.


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## fildowns (May 17, 2008)

...so the challenger now has a switch in the cab to select battery or track power. Just in case I ever get a friend with another garden railroad /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/sad.gif (within traveling distance that is!)


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## cabforward (Feb 18, 2008)

What voltage battery are you using and what kind of battery 
Matt


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## Stan Cedarleaf (Jan 2, 2008)

Well done, fildowns. Great job. 
Here's some posts by a couple of us on this side of the pond who did this last year. The MTH stuff is wonderful... I used Bachmann 1:29 boxcars for the conversion as well. They look right nice behind the 1:32 locomotives. 

http://archive.mylargescale.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=47101 

http://archive.mylargescale.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=47642


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## fildowns (May 17, 2008)

Posted By cabforward on 05/19/2008 8:14 PM
What voltage battery are you using and what kind of battery 
Matt



Hi Matt I have various battery cars...but now I come to think of it they are all 17 NiMh cells so that's 20.4v. 


I have 3.3Ah, 3.5, 3.7 made from sub-c cells, and 4.5Ah from C cells. 


They come with tags and I solder them up... 










(okay so this one has 16 cells...I added another cell later )


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## fildowns (May 17, 2008)

Posted By Stan Cedarleaf on 05/19/2008 11:06 PM
Well done, fildowns. Great job. 
Here's some posts...

http://archive.mylargescale.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=47101 

http://archive.mylargescale.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=47642



Hooray! I am not alone in my madness /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/crazy.gif 

I did a search on DCS & Battery but came up with nothing. Thanks very much for those links Stan. 



addendum: ah I see they are in the 'ARCHIVE' ?


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## Stan Cedarleaf (Jan 2, 2008)

Hooray! I am not alone in my madness 


No, you are not alone in madness. That's a side effect of wanting to delve into the darkside.... /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/tongue.gif 


DELVE - *D*ata for *E*valuating *L*earning in *V*alid *E*xperiments /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/wow.gif


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## cabforward (Feb 18, 2008)

Was reading some of you other post and yu said that the battery car is five cars back 
Do you notice a loss of power with it being this far back? 
What kind of plugs do you use to connect the cars before the battery car? 
Also on stans post he used two switches for the battery or track mode how did you do it with one? 
Matt


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## fildowns (May 17, 2008)

Hi Matt, I run the standard battery connector, fits to Aristo engines: 














I lose less than 0.1v per car (it was 0.3 something volts over 5 cars...anyway not much!) 



Stan uses a switch for each motor block, I used one. The wires from the motor block are very tiny whereas the ones I put in (from the switch to the PCB) were bigger so there's not a current problem, and it is a 5A switch. I don't have 'centre-off' - but I don't have track power at all, so 'track' is 'off' for me!


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## fildowns (May 17, 2008)

...and now I have my camera back from warranty repair I will take pics when I add weights....the front wheels slip like mad with only 8 cars!!


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## Rayman4449 (Jan 2, 2008)

Great job Phil! Also nice to hear the Challenger is finally up and running on your layout.  The Challenger in Greyhound colors looks great also. After the week or two it was it was here I almost made the leap to get one myself. 

Putting those weights back in the front of the boiler should fix up your front engine slippage problem. This is one big reason MTH went with an all cast metel frame and added a weight transfer suspension between the boiler and the front drivers on the Big Boy. Made all the difference. 

Sorry, back to the battery topic. Thanks for sharing your work. 


Raymond


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