Large Scale Central

BELTROL R/C to control QSI sound

Electronics Power and Sound
#1

As mentioned in another thread I am working on a different BELTROL system that is being designed to specifically operate QSI sound equipped AristoCraft locos.
This system will be called ALPHA-Q.
The systems uses one of the low cost very long range 2.4 GHz R/C system now available.
It will feature a programmable idle voltage setting so that the QSI idle sound is maintained when the loco is stopped.
The speed will be controllable over the full 90º stick movement.
The operator will have control over the Whistle/Horn and Bell functions.
The QSI sound will control the loco lights.
The 5 amp ESC will be able to handle up to 24 volts for realistic top speeds.
There will be a very rapid stop function.

Initially the system will be supplied as a drop in kit for a box car with all cabling supplied to simply plug into a suitable AristoCraft loco.
The TX and RX will cost about US$60 for both. The one TX can be used to control all your locos.
The ESC and box car installation kit will be about US$130.
All the purchaser will have to supply extra are the box car, batteries, AristoCraft loco and plug in QSI sound.

For those wanting more than one system, an extra receiver will be about US$20 plus another ESC etc.

The ETA will be advised but should be within a couple of months.

An on board installation could be available as well, depending on interest.

#2

That’s a great idea Tony! I wish I had thought of that!

So you use the Aristo MU cables to the battery car, and no mods to the loco at all, just plug in the QSI?

Regards, Greg

#3

Thanks Greg.
It is not actually a new idea.
Well it is for Large Scale locos, but I have had the same idea working in H0 ever since QSI first started selling their technology to Broadway Ltd etc.
Why not take advantage of the products that great “innovating” Company AC has come out with, and do something they can’t do with their own locos?

#4
TonyWalsham said:
As mentioned in another thread I am working on a different BELTROL system that is being designed to specifically operate QSI sound equipped AristoCraft locos. This system will be called ALPHA-Q. The systems uses one of the low cost very long range 2.4 GHz R/C system now available. It will feature a programmable idle voltage setting so that the QSI idle sound is maintained when the loco is stopped. The speed will be controllable over the full 90º stick movement. The operator will have control over the Whistle/Horn and Bell functions. The QSI sound will control the loco lights. The 5 amp ESC will be able to handle up to 24 volts for realistic top speeds. There will be a very rapid stop function.

Initially the system will be supplied as a drop in kit for a box car with all cabling supplied to simply plug into a suitable AristoCraft loco.
The TX and RX will cost about US$60 for both. The one TX can be used to control all your locos.
The ESC and box car installation kit will be about US$130.
All the purchaser will have to supply extra are the box car, batteries, AristoCraft loco and plug in QSI sound.

For those wanting more than one system, an extra receiver will be about US$20 plus another ESC etc.

The ETA will be advised but should be within a couple of months.

An on board installation could be available as well, depending on interest.


Tony
I went looking for more info on Alpha-Q but the search function seems broken.
Should I eat more carrots as I could not find any ref. on any of your web pages.
I am a RCS owner and user for some projects…thank you.

#5

Tony, I mentioned this on the other thread, but is there a way to access the cadence/volume control of the chuff that QSI offers (in DCC, at least) and map that to the direction control? The farther out you move the direction, the louder/longer the chuff… I’m assuming right now, you’re accessing the DC-controllable functions of the QSI board (such as simulating a quick polarity change to trigger the sound), as opposed to creating the DCC code to trigger them.

Later,

K

#6

Ray.

Due to the GFC, which has affected me as much as anyone, the project had to go on the back burner.
I did some testing with an earlier 10 amp filtered DC ESC I have and it worked just fine. The problem is, that that particular ESC cannot be easily, or cleanly, converted to run on the 2.4 GHz stick radios.
When I do eventually do it, and I will, I will use a new piece of filtered DC hardware that should be ready later this year for the ECLIPSE range.
It will be an on board 6 amp fully filtered DC output on board ESC that I can also use for track side control of H0 and other locos.

#7
Kevin Strong said:
Tony, I mentioned this on the other thread, but is there a way to access the cadence/volume control of the chuff that QSI offers (in DCC, at least) and map that to the direction control? The farther out you move the direction, the louder/longer the chuff... I'm assuming right now, you're accessing the DC-controllable functions of the QSI board (such as simulating a quick polarity change to trigger the sound), as opposed to creating the DCC code to trigger them.

Later,

K


Hi Kevin.
That may be possible but would have to be done by QSI analyzing the servo output to do it. Giving the QSI parallel servo data is a snip but it would be up to them to interpret it.

I know that Greg cannot understand why anyone would want to power a sound and power DCC decoder with an on board ESC, but, believe me there are those that do.
So.
I have tried both pwm and Filtered DC output ESC’s to power the QSI sound decoder. The R/C equipment was in a trail car and simply connected to the loco, and thus the QSI plugged into the PnP socket, via the two wire cable.

The QSI will work on pwm but it is impossible to set an idle voltage sufficiently accurately to have it stopped and still have idle sounds. It is for this reason I believe it will not be possible to use the REVOLUTION to do the job.

I had great success with a filtered DC output on board ESC in a trail car.
Setting an appropriate idle speed was a snip with the filtered DC ESC by adjusting the start voltage of the RCS - BELTROL ESC. When the speed was ramped down to zero the loco stopped and the sound idled.

To control the bell and whistle I used a DPDT relay to switch the output voltage. I controlled this relay with one of the sound trigger functions. Whilst it might be simpler use a properly designed timer circuit for triggering the bell and whistle/horn I could activate a relay very accurately by quickly flipping the appropriate stick.
Eventually I will arrange for Del to rewrite the program so it would be an option to do this internally with the motor drive output, without requiring an external relay.

In the meantime, if QSI modify their system (which a little bird told me is possible) to accept external triggers, a rewrite may not be necessary. .
Fingers are crossed.