I agree with Bill. The Lionel set up would be the simplest as far as the electrical portion goes. the hardest part of it would be to rig up the piston to the drive of a g scal loco.
Ten years ago, there was a product called “Puff ‘n’ Chuff.” The guy who made them went to work for Lionel, and his company was bought up by Lionel, Inc. You might look in that direction for ideas.
http://www.largescalecentral.com/forums/topic/4697/puff-n-chuff-from-tas
Also, the piston and linkage would be subject to wear.
On pulsing the fan, I think the cool thing would be to use dynamic braking between pulses, that should really make the pulses as distinct as a piston.
Greg
Have a look here for interest/ideas.
http://www.scale4x4rc.org/forums/showthread.php?t=25024&highlight=smoke+generator
One of the mentioned Heng Long units has a piston arrangement. Must admit I have never got it to work properly.
…and amazingly…at the bottom of the posts is a reference to George Shreyer’s pages!
I have heng long smokers in my tanks. They are ok at best. Not bad for tanks that don’t put out large volumes of smoke like a loco. The heating element and piston work off the same power source. The downside is they are very, very loud.
Terry
Didn’t the old Arisotcraft Pacific channel the smoke through one of the pistons to make it puff ?
My pal here in Florida didn’t like the system in his Bachmann C-19 so he made his own. It works off the chuff sensor in parallel with the sound system. He is waiting for Bob to approve his application for LSC. In the meantime, his little piece of electronics is described over on that other site:
Pete Thornton said:
Didn’t the old Arisotcraft Pacific channel the smoke through one of the pistons to make it puff ?
They did route some of the “steam” down to the pistons for some effect or another. But in service all it did was dribble the smoke fluid out of the pistons.
I have also used Heng Long smoke units. Very inexpensive on Evilbay, about $8-10.00. Here are some examples of what I ahve done. I rund battery power. I cannot say how much time the smoke unit draw decreases my running time on one charge of the 14.8 volt Li-on battery, but I know that I run out of steam before any given battery does.
This last example is a USA smoke unit powered by a separate li-on battery.
^^^^^^^^^^
And that is what I am looking to try and do.
Terry
Greg, that looks great. How will it perform at higher speeds? I mean, I know the real thing puts out almost a steady stream of smoke at high speed, so I suspect your smoke unit will do the same.
Greg Elmassian said:
USAT smoke unit running from QSI…
puts out plenty of smoke
Greg
Greg, that thing sound like it has a severe case of asthma. Perhaps you should consider having it give up smoking?
did not tune the sound unit… was just testing the “direct smoke” setup from QSI.
I do tweak the “voltage” setting to the heater to keep it from overheating… the metal bodied USAT seem sturdier to me than the Aristo units.
I also have several MTH units, and may do the dual heater setups that Dan and Raymond Manley do… but you are adding more heat with 2 units, but 2 heaters/wicks should operate at lower heat than one for the same smoke output. Eventually the wick gets gunked up and does not draw fluid as well, and you should replace the wicks.
I don’t run the smoke continuously for hours on end, and I pay attention to running out of fluid.
for the price, the USAT are good, just wish they had a larger reservoir…
Greg
p.s. when you have the unit necked down to a smoke stack, it’s even more impressive…
Greg, what voltage are you using for the wick and what voltage for the fan?
Terry
Greg Elmassian said:
did not tune the sound unit… was just testing the “direct smoke” setup from QSI.
I do tweak the “voltage” setting to the heater to keep it from overheating… the metal bodied USAT seem sturdier to me than the Aristo units.
I also have several MTH units, and may do the dual heater setups that Dan and Raymond Manley do… but you are adding more heat with 2 units, but 2 heaters/wicks should operate at lower heat than one for the same smoke output. Eventually the wick gets gunked up and does not draw fluid as well, and you should replace the wicks.
I don’t run the smoke continuously for hours on end, and I pay attention to running out of fluid.
for the price, the USAT are good, just wish they had a larger reservoir…
Greg
p.s. when you have the unit necked down to a smoke stack, it’s even more impressive…
Back in the mid nineties, I read an article on how to entend the smoking time of an LGB Mogul. The writer placed a brass model airplane gas tank in the cab, under the roof. He ran 1/16" reubber tubing from the tank to the smoke stack. Very, very carefully, he drilled a hole in the side of an LGB stock smoke generator. He then attached the tubing to a brass nipple he had soldered into the hole on the smoke generator.
I copied his design and it worked well, extending the smoking time to at least an hour or more. Obviuously, tank size dictates the duration of smoke time.
Dan Padova said:
I copied his design and it worked well, extending the smoking time to at least an hour or more. Obviuously, tank size dictates the duration of smoke time.
We want pics of this!!(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-foot-in-mouth.gif)
Terry, fan pulses from QSI 5v supply.
Heater is PWM from the unregulated supply, which is rectified track voltage, in my case about 19 volts, then adjusted down with PWM… I think the “good” effective voltage was about 9 but can run about 12… although I think a bit too high. I “tune” the voltage such that the unit does not get so hot that it can melt plastic.
I have the whole thing written up on my site, search for “QSI smoke” and you will find the page.
Regards, Greg
Sean McGillicuddy said:
Dan Padova said:
I copied his design and it worked well, extending the smoking time to at least an hour or more. Obviuously, tank size dictates the duration of smoke time.
We want pics of this!!(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-foot-in-mouth.gif)
Sean, in those days I did not own a didgital camera and failed to take any photos with my SLR. The article was in Garden Railways Magazine, 1995. I cannot recall the month however. I’m going to do a google search of the magazine to see if anything comes up.
I just checked 1994,95 & 96 without any results other than the 12/5 issue page 38,39 mentions Smoke unit modification.