Who out there among all of you knows someone who has and will convert an LGB Mikado from track power to battery power without ruining the existing electronics and beautiful sound?
I do them occasionally for Australian customers.
http://www.largescalecentral.com/LSCForums/viewtopic.php?id=5905
and
http://www.largescalecentral.com/LSCForums/viewtopic.php?pid=138801#p138801
This is what I did to a few LGB locos, including the Mikado.
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You have to remove the sliders and brushes.
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Put your battery and receiver in a trailing car and plug it into the accessory plug in the back of the tender.
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Run the train and enjoy the sound.
Disclaimer: You will not be able to blow whistles or ring bells in real time without more “electronic work”.
The engine will work like it is on track power with the track magnets. If any or you doubters say the “wiring is too small”
from the accesory plug to the electronic components, it isn’t. I’ve run LGB sound equipped locos like this for years without any prollems.
I was skeptic too at first, waiting for the smoke to appear. It didn’t.
That sounds too simple, John, but I’d love to see it work. Trouble is, I don’t seem to have an accessory plug in the back of the tender. Then what?
Art,
All Lgb engines have a plug. It’s a little black square thing.
You will need to find the matching male. I’ve used the ones that you can buy from LGB for their lighting kits.
I don’t have any laying around right now, or I would send you one.
I think this is the one:
In the middle of the back of the tender the accessory socket will be covered up by a small plug. Just pull the plug out.
If the loco has a DCC decoder in it be sure and take it out and set the dip switches appropriately. Otherwise the pwm signal from the ESC in the trail car may mess up the DCC decoder.
If you are using a Revolution receiver in a trailing car, you may want to consider adding a PWC to Linear DC Board (CRE 57091). The locomotive will run just like it did with clean DC track power.
(http://ovgrs.editme.com/files/LGB-PC/PWCBoard.jpg)
If the locomotive has a square plug like this on the back,
(http://ovgrs.editme.com/files/LGB-PC/Header.jpg)
you can use half of a 2-wire connector (All Electronics CON-240) as the power car MU plug.
(http://ovgrs.editme.com/files/LGB-PC/CON240F.jpg)
Cutting off the wings will allow it to plug right into the back of the locomotive. http://ovgrs.editme.com/files/LGB-PC/Wings.bmp If you want more information, there is an article on preparing an LGB locomotive for battery power on our club web site, http://www.ovgrs.org/LGB21780 and another on building the power car. http://www.ovgrs.org/LGB-PC
TonyWalsham said:Tony, Mine had the factory installed decoders (MTS) and I didn't do anything but plug in and run. I did slide the board of the Mike out of the smokebox and change the chuff rate to 4 per rev.
In the middle of the back of the tender the accessory socket will be covered up by a small plug. Just pull the plug out. If the loco has a DCC decoder in it be sure and take it out and set the dip switches appropriately. Otherwise the pwm signal from the ESC in the trail car may mess up the DCC decoder.
Paul, good tip on the plug. I didn’t know one of those would fit.
The CON-240’s from All Electronics are a great deal. They fit directly to Aristo MU plugs as well. I use them on my trail cars and loco conversions. I cover the wire with shrink wrap to hide the red conductor. You can also use them to make jumpers to go between MU’d locos. When I do that I carefully remove the pins from one connector and solder them on the pigtail from the other so I don’t have a lump in the middle…
(http://lsc.cvsry.com/Post3/M-11-14.JPG)
That one is marked with yellow shrink to indicate that it is a polarity changing cross-over cable as opposed to a straight through.
Paul Norton said:Great timing on this post as I am in the process of building a 'Revo' batt car now...I will hold off and order a linear board first.
If you are using a Revolution receiver in a trailing car, you may want to consider adding a PWC to Linear DC Board (CRE 57091). The locomotive will run just like it did with clean DC track power.
You guys are great! You forgot more in your sleep last night about electronics than I ever knew, although I did manage to convert my K-Line speeder to battery power last week. And I did take a second look for the accessory plug on the Mikado. It is at the rear of the tender, disguised as a water cap. It took quite a bit of force to pull it out.
Tony, I must study your conversion in some detail. I am really afraid of trying it myself, so I may refer your procedure to a friend who is much more skilled and knowledgeable with these things than I. Your instructions and pictures are exquisite.
Paul, your club’s elegant and detailed instructions about removing the sliders and brushes don’t pertain to the Mikado. Would it be sufficient just to remove the sliders? Or must I tear into the loco to take out the brushes, too? It would be slick if I could just take out the sliders and then to go John Bouck’s step #2 and build a trailing car that will connect right into the accessory plug.
The reason for removing the sliders AND brushes is to electrically isolate the loco from the track. The brushes work with the sliders to pick up track power. If you don’t remove them your battery will be trying to power anything else on the track.
What Jon said.
That will be the hardest part of the convert.
Your loco must be on its back for starters.
Sliders lift right out after you remove the motor covers.
However, to properly remove the brushes, the axles should be lifted.
You could end up “Out of Quarter” with the gears when you drop them back in.
You could reach down between the wheel and the motor block and try to break the brush with
a tiny needle-nose pliers, but myself, I like a clean complete removal: Even the buss bar that connects the brushes together.
If you don’t remove them, the battery will still power the rail.
LGB didn’t make a “battery/Track” switch like Aristo does now.
Actually, with most LGB locos, you only need to remove the buss bars to isolate the loco from the track.
Or, if you are gaining access to the interior of the loco, just unplug the track pick up wires from the internal pcb.
That’s true, Tony. It’s been a while. I believe some had a thin stainless wire acting as a redundant jumper, as well.
If the brushes don’t look like they are physically connected after removing the buss, Art, you are in business.
John is correct about not getting the wheels out of quarter. They must be exact, otherwise here will be a bind in the drive.
Because the sliders would cause a slight drag you might want to remove them whilst taking out the buss bars.
The stainless steel wire may be the spring for the center axle(s) as shown in the following picture.
(http://ovgrs.editme.com/files/LGB21780/Finished.jpg)
The plastic center sleeve isolates axle halves from the spring.