I just posted a 6th YouTube video featuring LocoFi in a Dead Rail/battery powered operation.
The New Video is Titled:
Making and Using a Portable Dead Rail Demonstration HO Layout - Part 6
Part 6 explains why the 3S LiPo powered Dead Rail conversion was changed to use a trailing battery car for an IMR Lithium-ion 3S 350mAh pack, and why it is a “better” way to convert to Dead Rail in HO scale locomotives. The LocoFi™ system was used for locomotive control and sound for this battery powered, Dead Rail, conversion.
My Webpage has a lot more information on this and related topics.
It is titled, “A Journey Into HO Scale Model Railroading in the 21st Century”.
The page has been updated and contains information that is NOT in the YouTube videos. It also contains information that has has been garnered since the videos were posted, including several corrections. At times, there is also information on the Webpage that I have not shared on YouTube yet.
It was fun to put the two Dead Rail Converted LocoFi™ controlled locomotives on the layout and run them together with their battery cars. The low speed capability of the LocoFi™ decoder still amazes me.
Ken Myers
Thanks again for your very kind comments.
In the first draft, for the video, I did have a comment about having a trailing battery car limiting the possibilities for consisting, which it does, as it makes it more complicated for sure, but I thought of ways to actually do it, so I dropped the comment.
Both ways of doing it, that I thought of, would cut the run time in half, but I'm getting ready to check the feasibility of using a 3S IMR Lithium-ion 650mAh battery pack. If that proves out, then cutting the run time in half wouldn't really matter, as it would still give the consisted locos, that I've been using, at least 30 minutes.
To me it seems that real world consisting is used mostly for "over the road" long distance hauling, but not always. That might be important for large home layouts or club layouts, small to moderate HO size layouts, in my opinion, would not have the need to run multiple locomotives in a consist, except for demonstrating to visitors that he/she has some long haul capability in their livery. Also, a consisted loco takes up space that could be used for another piece of rolling stock that could be delivered or retrieved without making the train seem a bit too long for the available space.
Thanks,
Ken