# RC Battery control for Railking locomotives?



## pimanjc (Jan 2, 2008)

RC Battery control for Railking locomotives? 
Has anyone converted any of the Railking locos [F7, F3, D-8, 4-8-4] to battery powered RC? Have you incorporated the Proto sound and smoke?
I don't care what brand of RC system at this point. 
Thanks,
JimC


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## Stan Cedarleaf (Jan 2, 2008)

Jim... Many years ago, I converted an MTH Challenger to battery using the TIU on board in a boxcar and batteries in another box car. Worked right nicely...


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Man, the is the world's largest decoder! 

(yeah, I know it's actually the control unit...) 

Maybe just put all the batteries and electronics in one of those new car carriers from USAT? 

Greg


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## Jerry Barnes (Jan 2, 2008)

Well, MTH is 1/32, so those giant car carriers would really tower over it!


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## Stan Cedarleaf (Jan 2, 2008)

Greg, it was a real challenge to do the conversion.... The TIU in one boxcar, batteries in the second.... The system ran well except for limited outdoor range. Indoor range was not an issue... 

Running at Marty's....


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Strange, would have thought same range as "normal" setup... what do you think is the reason for the reduced range? 

Greg


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## steam5 (Jun 22, 2008)

Not sure how much the DCS bits are, but would it have been easier to gut the locos electronics and put in RC/Battery and a QSI or Phoenix sound card? 

Alan


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## Stan Cedarleaf (Jan 2, 2008)

Greg... I should have qualified the range issue... Inside, I was never "too far" from the TIU to lose reception. Outside, I could be as far as 70 feet from the receiver and we would lose contact.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Hmm... 70 foot is ok, but not really great for outdoor use. I have no experience over 50 feet with a TIU transmit range. Was wondering what kind of range it had. At 900 MHz, it has the same output power restrictions as other 900 MHz duplex systems. Luckily other systems can use multiple base stations for basically unlimited range. 

Greg


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## Stan Cedarleaf (Jan 2, 2008)

Greg, it's just my impression, but I think the DCS system was developed for use inside for layouts much "smaller" than we have available outdoors. I have a number of local club members who are using DCS on their basement or home O Gauge layouts and it works very well. 

As with any other proprietary control systems, they are developed and used for their own purposes.

I think your experience with the "50 foot" range is quite accurate. 

It's fun to see just how far we can push them "out of their box".


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Yep, I think you are right. What surprised me is that certain people were touting this for large outdoor layouts and it might have range issues. 

Thanks for the feedback and confirmation Stan! 

Greg


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## pimanjc (Jan 2, 2008)

Stan and Greg, thanks for the feedback.

I would still like to know if anyone has experience using any of the more modern RC battery units like the Aristo, QSI, RCS, Airwire, with the protosound and smoke.
Jim


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

JC, if you removed the MTH DCS hardware, you have nothing... no smoke, no sound, nothing. 

If you try to feed it DC, then you have to filter the motor output of whatever you are using to nice DC... the MTH is not tolerant of any "noise"... so there is one large issue. 

Next issue, how will you control the sounds and smoke remotely? You can't on DC input 

This is why no one is recommending other systems, since you apparently don't want to give up the MTH features. 

If I had one, I'd put a Titan or Zimo in it and go DCC for control. 

Greg


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