# New - Battery-Car Design



## izzy0855 (Sep 30, 2008)

We had a customer who asked us to design this 53ft. Dual 5C Lithium Battery-Car, so I thought I would share it with all of you. Below, we installed two 5C Single Station Smart Charging Lithium Circuit Boards with two 18.5V 5200mah Lithium-Ion Battery-packs. In the middle are two DPDT switches, the first is the main control switch which let's you charge both battery-packs at the same time, then you can switch it to "Run" and the power get's distributed to the second DPDT switch. The second DPDT switch then let's you select which battery-pack you want to power your train first. Turn it to the left and the left battery-pack will power your train; then when that battery-pack dies, turn the switch to the right and the second battery-pack will power your train. This system will only let one battery power your train at a time, and it was designed for customer who like to run all day or all weekend long. 




































Thanks,
Rick Isard
Cordless Renovations, LLC


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## SFgiantsfan (Sep 5, 2010)

Cant see pics..


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## izzy0855 (Sep 30, 2008)

The pictures are can be viewed at our website www.cordlessrenovations.com then click on battery-powered trailing cars, then select 50ft. 

Rick Isard 
Cordless Renovations, LLC


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Izzy, your post refers to images in your first class file space, but those files are not there. 

If you uploaded them, the post would work. 

Greg


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## izzy0855 (Sep 30, 2008)

Yes, I know there's no images uploaded. You can view all my images at www.cordlessrenovations.com or at www.cordlessrenovations.com/forum 

Not enough time in the day to upload to two sites, especially when I started our new forums website. 

Rick Isard 
Cordless Renovations, LLC


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Sorry you are so busy Rick (although busy should mean good sales for you I hope)...

I'll help:

link directly to the 50 foot page: *http://cordlessrenovatio...trong>** 


Here's a picture:











and another:









and a third:










Regards, Greg*


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## Mike Reilley (Jan 2, 2008)

Might not be enough time in the day for you...but I just spent 4 minutes trying to find your photos...and was NEVER sure I saw what you were describing. So...I'm done with your site searching for stuff. A suggestion...put the photo/text/whatever on your site...but LEAVE a URL here to link to it. Jees....I do like your stuff...just too much trouble finding stuff.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Rick, one thing that might be helpful, you can reference the pictures on your site here, i.e. you don't have to upload them here. 

Since your original post referenced pictures on your mls file space, I was trying to help. 

Another suggestion (that you did not ask for, ha ha!) is to make your links "live" 

It only takes a few seconds, but it's a real convenience for your customers. 

Just copy the url to the page... then highlight that text, then click the "link" that looks like an "8" on it's side (or the link of a chain), and past the SAME url into the link box... 

Regards, Greg


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## izzy0855 (Sep 30, 2008)

The pictures were removed from this site and will be added to my new forums site soon, but for the time being you can view all our of product line photo's at www.cordlessrenovations.com 

Rick Isard 
Cordless Renovations, LLC


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## Mike Reilley (Jan 2, 2008)

Huh??? You got some lawyer telling you stuff or sumtin? Makes NO SENSE to make things harder for customers. If you're worried about copyright...you're off base.


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## izzy0855 (Sep 30, 2008)

Mike, don't over think this and there's not some lawyer on my shoulder whispering in my ear and I'm not worried about copyright laws. But, it's just easier to update product photo's to my own website then to double book especially when we just started our own forums page. 

Rick Isard 
Cordless Renovations, LLC


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## Mike Reilley (Jan 2, 2008)

Rick...wasn't talking about double posting photos...I was referring to the use of a real link to your photos...one you can click on. I understand the difficulty of having to upload and insert photos. Just looking for links...instead of me having to search all over an unfamiliar web site. Simple...


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## izzy0855 (Sep 30, 2008)

Not a problem, will link in the future. 

Rick Isard 
Cordless Renovations, LLC


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## up9018 (Jan 4, 2008)

That is interesting Rick, are those boards something you have on your site, or where they custom built? 

Chris


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## izzy0855 (Sep 30, 2008)

Hi Chris, 

Yes, I will have them uploaded later this evening. Those are single station charging circuit boards and in this design our customer wanted two 18.5V 5200mah in parallel to operate two K27's all day long. The first battery powers the first K27 and the second powers the second K27, or if you wanted to have dual battery-packs power the same loco with a SPST switch that toggles between both battery-packs, so when one battery fails you just switch the SPST switch to the other battery-pack and away you go. 

The single station charging circuit boards can be designed to operate any Nimh battery-pack from 12V - 18V or any Lithium battery (4, 5 & 6 Cell) pack from 14.8V - 22.2V. 

Rick Isard 
Cordless Renovations, LLC


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## Del Tapparo (Jan 4, 2008)

Two seperate chargers for two batteries? How about one charger for two batteries? Or better yet, how about two batteries and one charger on the bench that will charge the whole fleet? Sorry ... obviously I'm jealous.


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## izzy0855 (Sep 30, 2008)

Del, we do have dual station charging circuit boards, but they take up alot of space and there only made for two 12V or two 14.4V Nickel battery-packs. One 30V charger charges both battery-packs at 1 amp at the same time.










Here's a picture of one of our first installs in a gondola.










Rick Isard
Cordless Renovations, LLC


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## Del Tapparo (Jan 4, 2008)

Rick - When I go to your website, apparently you dont' have any "single station" chargers available yet. But the "dual station" charger is $129 ? I can charge ALL of my locomotives with a $25 charger sitting on my bench. If I need ballast in my cars, I use lead.


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## TonyWalsham (Jan 2, 2008)

Two x $25 chargers on the bench would do the same thing as the dual on board wouldn't it? 
But then you don't get all the fancy electronics.


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## izzy0855 (Sep 30, 2008)

All of our chargers are Smart Chargers, they will automatically shut-off after your battery has been fully charged, indicate when you have a defective battery, and will go into trickle charge mode when your battery needs to be charged. We also have three & six station analyzer / chargers just like our CR-2 that will indicate the milliamps and voltage of your battery-pack while charging and discharging, and also tell you how much life you have left in your battery during analyzing. These are not a $25 charger. Soon, we will have a list of all of our chargers on our website. 

Rick Isard 
Cordless Renovations, LLC


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## Del Tapparo (Jan 4, 2008)

Posted By izzy0855 on 09 Sep 2010 09:43 PM 
All of our chargers are Smart Chargers, they will automatically shut-off after your battery has been fully charged, indicate when you have a defective battery, and will go into trickle charge mode when your battery needs to be charged. .....

Yes, my $25 charger does that as well. No analyzer functions, but I don't see any displays on the boards in this post either.


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## izzy0855 (Sep 30, 2008)

That's because the case won't fit into the car. 













Rick Isard 
Cordless Renovations


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## TonyWalsham (Jan 2, 2008)

Is someone still using those old Motorola analogue phone batteries shown on the left?


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## pagosarr (Jan 5, 2008)

Where can one purchase a lithium ion smart charger for $25? Would it be available for only specific voltage and mah ratings? Would like to find one for 14.8V/5200mah rating; but, would rather have one for a range of voltages and mah ratings if they exist.

Many thanks for any suggestions.

Roger Bush


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## Del Tapparo (Jan 4, 2008)

Posted By pagosarr on 10 Sep 2010 10:10 AM 
Where can one purchase a lithium ion smart charger for $25? Would it be available for only specific voltage and mah ratings? Would like to find one for 14.8V/5200mah rating; but, would rather have one for a range of voltages and mah ratings if they exist.

Many thanks for any suggestions.

Roger Bush 

This is what I use. 14.8V Li_Ion Charger

I'm not trying to cause trouble, I just don't understand the concept. I have no doubt Rick's charger is an excellent device, covering multiple chemistry, multiple voltages, etc. So why would you stuff it in a boxcar dedicated to one specific battery? Put it on the bench where you can use it on all of those different batteries in all of your different train applications. One or two $25 chargers on the bench, instead of ten or more expensive chargers in each of my trailing cars? Just my opinion. There are different ways to do everything. If you only have one trailing car, and never want to run more than one train at a time, it works.


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## pagosarr (Jan 5, 2008)

Del - thanks for your link to all-battery.com. I have been to their website numerous times and never did find the item you referenced. Hope it is still available. 

Roger Bush


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## izzy0855 (Sep 30, 2008)

Tony those are not Motorola two-way radio batteries. 

Rick Isard 
Cordless Renovations, LLC


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## TonyWalsham (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By izzy0855 on 11 Sep 2010 12:27 AM 
Tony those are not Motorola two-way radio batteries. 

Rick Isard 
Cordless Renovations, LLC 



Rick, that is not what I said.


The one on the left looks remarkably like an old *Motorola analogue cell telephone battery*.
If that is not what it is, then what is it?


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## izzy0855 (Sep 30, 2008)

That's an old version of the P400, before we made a lithium version. 

Rick Isard 
Cordless Renovations, LLC


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

That is indeed a large capacity battery for the old Motorola flip phones... they came in 3 "thicknesses", and the gray color was more rare than the black. I think they were called "MicroTac". 

I believe they came in nicad and nimih. 

I just threw all of those out about a year back, still functioning! I still have some of the next gen "StarTac" too... which you still see in some movies... 

I recognize the generic "camcorder" battery on the right, they just usually hung on the back on the outside. The one in the center I cannot place.. has a belt clip, but I don't know all the 2-way models. That appears to be the complete unit, since I can see the screen and the belt clip. 

Regards, Greg


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## East Broad Top (Dec 29, 2007)

Roger, if all-battery is out of stock on those, Batterspace.com has a virtually identical one for the same price. At either retailer, if you click on any 14.8 volt battery, the chargers will usually show up at the bottom under the "related products" heading. I've had good service from both retailers, though Batteryspace has instituted a $25 "hazmat shipping" charge for shipping Li-Ion batteries. All-battery thus far has not done that, so they get my All-my-business now. 

The one Del links to is a 14.8 volt charger that charges at 1.5 amps. They also make a similar charger on which you can select your voltage from 3.7, 7.4, 11.1, and 14.8 volts, but it's a slower charger, at 0.5 amps. 

 Variable Voltage Charger 

On my first order, the 1.5 amp charger was on backorder, so they e-mailed me asking if I wanted the variable 0.5 amp one instead. I said "yes," and now use it to charge my locos and lighted caboose that use a 7.4 volt battery as well as my 14.8 volt batteries when I need to charge them all at once. The flexibility is a good thing. 

One important note on these. They call them "smart chargers," and they are. On many chargers I've used (including Li-Ion cell phone and camera battery chargers), if you put a fully-charged battery back on the charger, it's going to switch to charge mode if only for a few minutes to top things off. These don't. If you put a fully- or even mostly-charged battery on this charger, it does nothing. It won't charge the battery until it's been discharged a certain amount. It was a little disconcerting discovering this the day before an open house, mind you. I put went to charge four of my packs, and one wouldn't take a charge on either charger. It didn't dawn on me until the next day that perhaps the "smart" charger was really a "smarter than you are at the moment" charger. (Of course, in the mean time, I had already ordered a replacement PC charging board for the battery, thinking somehow that got fried. Well, now I've got a spare... and two more 7.4 volt packs. If you're gonna order, you may as well grab an extra battery or two.) 

Later, 

K


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## izzy0855 (Sep 30, 2008)

Or just buy a Smart Charger to begin with! 

Rick Isard 
Cordless Renovations, LLC


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Umm... Kevin does say it is a smart charger. The link says smart charger. Kevin's recommendation is a smart charger. I don't see any confusion on this point. Did I misunderstand Kevin? 

Regards, Greg


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## pimanjc (Jan 2, 2008)

Rick,
You have an email from me.
JimC.


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