# Boosting Bluerail amperage



## perego (Feb 1, 2017)

I'm considering a Bluerail for a battery loco I can run at local garden railways. For indoor use, I currently have NCE D13SR decoders in half a dozen locos (1.3cont/2.0peak) and have never had a problem on the flat (Bachmann 2 truck Shay, Big Hauler pulling 9 cars, etc.)
But, I will likely encounter inclines at other's tracks and the Bluerail amp rating may not hack it.
Has anyone boosted the amperage of a speed controller? I'm envisioning a power transistor but am skeptical of my own idea because it seems too cheap and easy. The transistor would sit on the motor lead side of the Bluerail unit. One thing I don't know yet is the switching speed necessary - assuming Bluerail is delivering PWM.

BTW, not stuck on bluerail but I saw the Bachmann EZ implementation of it at a train show recently and thought it pretty neat.

Thanks, Bob


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## Seaboard Air Line Fan (Mar 22, 2012)

Bob,

Yesterday I installed a BlueRail board in my G-scale 4-6-0 Annie, a Gems 2" speaker board (powering the original 3" 4ohm, 3 watt speaker), a BIK-3 On/Off/Charging Jack assy (from RCS Australia, but RCS of New England also has them), and a 12v 2000Mah NiMh battery. Using my Ipad for the throttle.

So far it's working fine, nice loud sounds coming out of the 3" speaker and with 12 volts the engine moves off smoothly.

I've only test run it though, need to set up some track to see how it'll do hauling a couple of cars.

I've been using the BlueRail boards (3) in some O-scale engines (Weaver RS3, Bachmann E7, Bachmann 4-6-2). Even though the board is rated at 2 amps it's performed fairly well in these 3 engines. I have had a couple of times where the engine shut down at startup, but there's some adjustments that can be made to overcome most of those issues.

I also have 8-9 other O-scale engines running off of battery power and using the Deltang Rx65b receivers with Txs from RCS Australia. I no longer run using track power and have pulled all the wiring from my layout!!!

BobD.


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## Pete Thornton (Jan 2, 2008)

Bob,
Check out Blu Tom, a new g-scale bluetooth project by Tom White.
https://www.facebook.com/GScaleBT/
He's intending it to be usable in the plug-and-play socket with much higher current demands. Prototypes have already been distributed.


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## perego (Feb 1, 2017)

Thanks Bob. After communicating with Bluerail I may not need to boost the amperage. Apparently the over current protection is such that one can keep adding cars, and/or experiment with inclines until the board shuts down, and then just back off on the number of cars. Same goes for stall/slip current, except for a vary high current that might damage the board, it appears a stall current of say 4 amps will just shut the board down.
At least on the flat, my experience with a Bachmann big hauler is that I can pull 9 cars at approx. 1.2 amps so I think the Bluerail board will work for me. I'm planning on using a 3 cell LIPO (11.1V) which will be about the same as the rail voltage I experience with my NCE DCC unit.

Regards your GEM sound board - is this a BT receiver where you supply your own speaker? All I see from GEM are BT speakers. And, is the sound relayed from your smart phone/tablet decent?
Thanks, Bob


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## Seaboard Air Line Fan (Mar 22, 2012)

Bob,

I picked the Gems speaker up at Target a while back, $5 each.

I comes with a 2" speaker, a 1S Lipo battery, a BlueTooth circuit board, all in a round case.

I want to post some photos, but can't seem to do it on this forum. So...here's a link to the OGR forum with photos (of the assy in my Williams E7):

http://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/topic/running-bluetooth-today?reply=71397233925451869#71397233925451869

I cut the wires to the 2" speaker and battery, then removed the board. It needs a 5volt voltage regulator (7805) to protect the circuit but they're only a few cents

I have the wiring diagram but again, can't post a photo here 

And yes, the sound is generated by the Ipad app. Overall the sounds are pretty generic, but loud enough for my use. The problem with them being generated by the app is that the chuff rate is not really controllable. There's a feature to adjust the chuff rate, but I haven't had a lot of success with it so far.

BobD.


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## perego (Feb 1, 2017)

I put a bluerail board in a big hauler Chattanooga and am pleased with the results. Pulling the tender and 4 cars it draws .36 amps at half throttle and .50 at WOT on a flat 5' circle. Will try some inclines but for what I want the bluerail looks good.

I'm not sure what's with the rather expensive dead rail kits for using LIPOs. For next to nothing I made a low voltage cutoff and am using a 2 amp fuse for overdraw protection. I will charge the battery out of the train so have no need or desire to charge from the rails.

The chuff rate takes some fiddling but actually works fairly well.

Thanks for the tip on robbing just the BT part from a cheap BT speaker.


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