Just do a youtube search on lipo batteries and you may not be too excited to have these in your train room. There is a valid reason why the FAA banned carrying these types of batteries in aircraft cargo holds. If one decides to go this route I strongly suggest at the very least, have a fire extinguisher in the train room. Also, never leave a charging LiPo battery unattended. Yes I do have Lio batteries in my house (cordless drills, cameras, etc.) but they are never left unattended when the batteries are being charged. They are also infrequently cycled as compared to this application. I don't see a way it'd ever fit into an N scale locomotive anyway so it's a double non-starter for me. Brian
Now adding a capicitor to the standard DCC system sounds like a good idea. Would you wire it between the pickups and the DCC board ?
Thing with these LiPos is not just the charge, fast, slow, what have you. Any LiPo over one cell requires a balancer to make sure both cells are charged and peaked equally. I've been flying RC planes with LiPo's for six years now and in everything from the most simple flat foamy 2 cell 350mAh to 1/4 scale planes with 6 cell 4500mAh. No issues, but I do take care of the batteries. Balance charge them and store them in an Ammo can as is standard practice. Some things to consider regarding LiPos. Don't short or puncture them, don't set your charger on NiCd setting while charging them and they don't last as long in cold temperatures. The concept is good, but I would think the Life or A123 batteries would work better here.
I'd just hate to see someone's layout ruined by a damaged LiPo going up in an engine. It's not something to be taken lightly.
...OR their home (above the layout?) with danger of injury or loss of life - to have a cool loco? A tad alarmist, perhaps...but the potential is there indoors. Bob C.
"....... store them in an Ammo can as is standard practice". I got a charge (no pun intenended) of the visual in my mind. Wife .."Why the he## are u tearing down your display cases?" Me.. "so I can store my locomotives and not risk burning the house down." :tb-biggrin: Brian
That is what most of the pilots of electric RC airplanes do. Those that do not treat the packs with respect, balance charge, and handle correctly, are rewarded with less the stellar flying performance or worse, a very destructive fire. Now that said, the little batteries in HO locomotives are smaller. The one in the video looked like a 2 cell at best. As RR modelers, we have a few things going for us. An HO Mikado will put much less stress on a LiPo than say an all out 3D Extra 300 performance plane. I would hope anyway, our locomotives are less likely to "crash" than our airplanes and subject to cut wires, punctures etc. Most importantly, Most Railroad modelers tend to be better in the instruction portion of modeling. If the instructions say to remove the battery when not in use, and not to charge with 12V direct current, we generally don't. Since they are small, visions of a "Die Hard" like explosion coming from our pike are just not realistic. I have purposely blown up a 350mAh 3 cell pack and it was akin to a small 1/2A model rocket motor. Yeah it's a hot flame, yeah your tender is going to melt and burn, but with a smaller than a 3 cell 350 pack, most of your damage will come from smoke. Most of us have a nice AC/Heated areas, unlike planes that have to deal with high heat and low cold, which affects the LiPo's performance. As with anything, yeah there are dangers. Just as there are dangers with solvent paints, electrical currents, and some of the tools we use every day. Not sure I see the logic in "tearing down display cases" When not in use, simply take the batteries out like we do our airplanes, and honestly guys, these aren't that explosive if you take care of them.
No, that wouldn't work. Capacitors are good for holding DC, and the DCC waveform on the track is a modulated square wave. Putting a capacitor in a DCC circuit would probably cause it to not work very well. Some sound decoders come with capacitors, but they put them later in the circuit and make provision for them on the board.
I'm sure I'm not alone in my lack of interest in handling my engines. The better ones have lots of small, fragile parts, and the idea of picking them up, opening the shell and replacing batteries doesn't sit too well with me. I built a dual-use programming track with a DPDT toggle to go between running and programming, so I didn't have to pick engines up and re-rail them just for programming. Even worse, the idea of a battery overheating and melting a detailed and weathered shell strikes me as a non-starter. I drove to the big show in Springfield last weekend. If I had an all-electric Nissan Leaf, I would have run out of power long before I got there.
