I brought my new (Spring ECLSTS) Porter with me camping this weekend with the intention of adding a trail-car connection and converting the LARGE/NMRA switch to a track/battery switch.
I spent Saturday drinking beer and thinking about the job at hand. You all know that the more you think about it , the bigger a job gets. I decided that since the Porter was destined to be the Yard Goat, negotiating the tight areas that my Connie can’t go, that it needs to be self-contained.
Sunday after breakfast I began disassembly of the Porter. Had I downloaded and read the shell removal instructions first, I could have saved a lot of time and had less parts to put back on. Once I got the shell off It didn’t take long to decide that the best strategy for wiring was to gut the electronics leaving only the motor and headlamp leads. Strange that this loco has a sound trigger drum, but there are no wires from it escaping the gear box. I remedied that situation.
It looks like I will be able to get the RailBoss, Phoenix P5 and some Li-Ion batteries inside the boiler with room to spare. I test connected the RailBoss to the Porter, the P5 and a Spektrum receiver using a wall-wart for power. The check-out went well - everything worked as advertised.
Last night I hooked up the P5 to the computer and programmed a sound I liked (C16) and tested the second trigger for manual whistle. I’m going to pass on adding the P5T expansion board just to get manual bell. I suppose I could use the motor outputs of the RailBoss for Voltage regulated chuff and use the two triggers on the P5 for Bell and Whistle, but I like triggered chuff a lot better.
Now I just need to scape up a few bucks to order batteries and a charger. When this is done it will be my first independent battery operated loco.
Pictures to follow once something is actually mounted in the loco.
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The experiments continue.
