Let’s try a 5 pole 12k RPM motor!
This is a great blog! Thank you for sharing your journey!
LEDs seem to want to shine through the red shell. Little black paint should fix that!
Think I found a good spot for the MD13S board!
A few checks before first fire-up.
Try putting a heat shrink tube around the LED just enough to cover it.
How did it go?
Works great! Only one issue tho..
The motors I selected to run with this setup created too much heat at the 3s input voltage I was running in this hi current configuration. The loco was much faster than with the original motors I used with just the DDLLHA but got way to hot. So I’m trying to find a RS-365 can motor option with an rpm greater than 10800 at 24vdc(DDLLHA only setup) but still remains cool. Also going to try 2s and take more measurements.
DDLLHA requires a minimum of 9V. So, 2S may not work in this case.
Well after a lot of modifying, testing, trying different setups, DDLLHA alone, DDLLHA paired with Cytron MD13S, different motors, different voltages I believe for my application I’ve settled on a final configuration:
1. DDLLHA unit Stand-alone. Due to the load of the final motor selection this is the simplest and most reliable config.
2. RS-365RH-11240 5-pole Motor. This motor fits all the required criteria of dimensions and shaft length plus operating at 24VDC(6sLipo) at full stall only draws about 1.3A(DDLLHA is rated for 2A). I found with a no-load 24V RPM of 11,800 this motor remains very cool and the Locomotive top speed is about the same as before when it was running the stock configuration. One of my goals with these projects was to make the top speed faster and I was able to do so with different available RS-365 brushed motor’s however not only did these motors require the additional Cytron board but they produced ALOT more heat than the settled on motor and with only a plastic gear case that cannot sink heat away that is not good at all.
3. I decided to use all the LocoFi kit provided LEDs. Two for headlights and two for ground lights. I think they look awesome and I can turn the ground lights off/on easily. Again I’m not a scale rail purist, I’m just having fun with these kinda-scale units!
4. I ended up using both of the previously mentioned 50mm speakers. Three of the silver looking ones in the New York units and two of the black ones on the Santa Fe units. These speakers make these units THUNDER! I love it! I can feel it in the floor when they pass! The black ones thunder the most but unlike the silvers are a bit less pronounced on the highs of the bell/horn. I will be posting a video of all five units running together. Hopefully the full sound of these things comes across ok.
5. Done. For now..
I’m a modeler at heart. And I seldom leave thing’s completely alone. I always revisit and modify. Who knows where I’ll take this project from here but for now it’s time to just run ‘em!
Awesome! Well done! You really took this project to a whole new level. You did it so methodically and executed it like a project from start to finish. That too in a relatively short period of time! We created a possibility (LocoFi™) and you’ve realized it in a unique way just like many others who have done it their own ways. Kudos to you and thank you for sharing and documenting it so well in this “blog thread”. We hope that it provides inspiration for others.
Looking forward to those amazing sounds!
Thank you sir!
Ok so probably a final post for this project.(Time to start prepping airplanes for spring!) Anyway, here is a video that I uploaded with my final updates to this project. It’s been a challenging and fun ride! Take a look/listen and see if there’s some extra fun stuff!
👏 Awesome! Amazing prime mover sounds and horn as an observer would listen from a prototype at a distance. Your work has been a source of inspiration for us as well other modelers. A happy ending to a great story!
1. Curious as to how you got the “air dryer” sounds working.
2. Did you “consist” the locos?
So to get the extra functionality I don’t consist the locomotives.
This allows me to setup as follows:
Lead engine is setup as normal(gets long blast horn and looper txt file and bell.)
Middle engine gets short blast horn with no loop(txt file set to 0,0) and the “bell” file contains brake whoosh(double press or it loops).
Rear engine gets long blast horn with looper txt file(for now..) and the bell file is the air dryer sounds. This will also loop if left on which can add a bit of a random feel depending on how long you let it loop.
This works well for me so far. And because the locomotives are always running together and unless you’re directly on top of them, it’s hard to tell which engine the sound is coming from specifically.
Obviously, without the consist, there’s considerable more workload with the manual notching and all these extra functions, but I enjoy it.
That is very clever! Indeed, you have to be working with 3 throttles at the same time keeping the speeds in sync. Thank you for sharing the details.
