Future home of the Northern Pacific and Black Hills Ry.

This weekend, Dorothy of the Ruby Red Slippers spent time running her Silver Streak around the layout, and learning about setting switches and changing routes, etc. Me, I worked over the T1, installing the new ESU Loksound 5. I also replaced the tender pickup wires, as I think the originals did not have the ampacity to conduct enough current. I also added more pickup on the tender trucks, as the wiper system it comes with only picks up from one rail, per truck. Anyway, here's some pics, And it works! A detail of the pickup wire I added with .015" PB and 32 ga flex wire,
The new larger pickup wire,

And a video of the first test run, you will see a touch of smoke! Caused by the loose brush holder seen in the next pic. Email off to BLI and wait for another "fix."



The offending brush,


I did try to make a brush hold down wedge out of a piece of styrene. It worked well enough to get this quick video, then the smoke started to escape again. So time to wait, uggghh!n

 

So, I tested the motor by itself this morning on my DC tech 2 power pack. On straight 12 VDC it cogs badly and is very rough. Most likely needs a new motor. Dang. BLI sure has a troublesome locomotive here. First a decoder. Second, poorly designed tender pickups. And now the motor has gone bad? It doesn't even have many hours on it, maybe three or four at the most? It sure is purty, though.

I emailed them for a motor this morning, will see what kind of response I get.

 

Did you pull the motor or was it still connected to the drive? Unusual for a motor to cog on 12 volts with no load. The internal torque requirement has likely required this motor to run near stall. Causing it to run hot & fail.
Larry

 

Yes, pulled it out of the frame and off the gearing. All of the wheels rotate nice and the worms are clean. Smoke was coming out of the upper brush holder at one point. This loco is a frustrating one....

 

So, am looking at little replacement motors. Here's a link to one of them, https://nfpshop.com/product/10mm-dc-motor-20mm-type-model-nfp-ts1020-suitable-for-train-toys . And to a second one, https://tramfabriek.nl/motors.html . I figure a new coreless can motor will do a better job than the factory open frame thing. Anybody have experience with any of these? Or any other?

 

I have done some work with the Tramfabriek. I was testing in HO engines & its torque level was to low to be useful there. It also ran a bit fast for my 12:1 gear ratio. I have since settled on some larger coreless motors that are a better match. These are used for tattoo guns.
I think the two your talking about would be reliable enough. The torque & speed levels are the key. Do you know anything about the design specs on the motor your replacing?
Larry

 

No, it is BLI's motor in the T1. I wish I did, but can't find much info.

 

This weekend, I got to spend a few hours in the trainshed. The GS4 got tore down and started on it's Loksound install. The assembly is 'interesting' and creative. A bit of online help and guidance and I was on my way.

Finding these screws was a bit of fun, as they were hidden behind this firebox plate,

Disassembled a bit,

And then, after applying a bit of force, in gently increasing increments, the motor carrier popped out,


This little clip helps to keep it all together, and insulated from the framework,

And the motor, at last. Have to get to this so we can solder wires to the brush holders, which is a trick in itself

But, here we are,

And ready for the next step.

 

This KATO steam has been the most complex disassembly, the Mikado is also this difficult. I have a much easier time on every other brand I have worked on. But now I have it figured, it will be easier.

 

So, a new motor from Tramfabrik is on it's way. In the meantime, I finished up the GS-4,



I left thefactory headlight and MARS light in place, added the firebox LED,
A backup light and a TCS speaker,

The finished locomotive,

With a crew, the engineer's hand is visible,

 

And, we have a fun video! Pure D fantasy, but hey! It's my little fun world, and it is exciting to get the GS-4 making sounds! Now to get my programming track set up.............

 

Nice! Looks like you are using the kato SP morning daylight cars? The kato GS4 is probably one of my favorite locos (see avatar lol)

 

Please sync the chuff sound 4chufs per driver rev .


Sorry it's a pet peave of mine . No disrespect .......Mike

 

It is mine too. But I have to set up my program track and then the Loksound 5 manual. Then sit and set a lot of CV's. Flash rate on the firebox, dim the reverse light, Adjust the speed curve and top speed, etc, etc...

It has a nice slow crawl just now already, so I hope to not mess that up.

 

Both of my GS4's are setup with the soundtraxx or I'd give you the settings for the ESU chuff settings. Most important is to get speed step 1 sorted so the performance is the what you want then and only after that start changing the chuff settings via CV57 and 58. Measure the time for a full rotation of the drivers in seconds of speed step 1 then divide by 4 rounded to the second. Enter that value into CV 57 then adjust from there. That setting will not interfere with performance. CV58 is used to offset chuff speed at higher speed settings. Lower value will space out the chuff where a higher number will increase the speed. Section 13 of the ESU loksound manual explains all of this for reference.

 

I hope you use JMRI to adjust the CV's, without it I would not still sane !

 

Have set the chuff on all of my Loksound units and am super happy with their settings. Haven't had as much luck with the Econami or Tsunami 2's I have, but there we are. I set my firebox flicker to the 'smart flicker' setting, so the flicker varies with load and speed. I can turn it off with a function key, depending on which brand.

Thanks for all the feedback!