We need live steamer and wind up clock engine inputs here so all aspects of asking about DCC are totally covered.(http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)
These can run on any track also!!
Boy youse dcc guys are really sensitive! I wish you could have left the ‘attitude’ back there.
The OP opened it up with his confession of basing his choices on the old tech, I offered that the newer controllers of that brand have improved.
What I find ironical is; if your system is soooo goood why do you worry what anybody else uses?
“I have been using the G-scale graphis Rail Boss system and they work great, but I have to have a seperate Rc-Transmitter for each Loco, I want to be able to have one controller that I can select which loco I want to run, plus be able to switch between battery power and Rail power if I want to. I prefer battery power and build my own Li-ion battery packs, but the local club layout if track power.” The OP.
Yep that reeks of dcc…
Please remember this is Bob’s living room!
Don’t leave out Pull String Power!
Dan Pierce said:
…when I visited a meeting in Reno this year, one person lost his house and garage due to a recharge on a battery causing a fire.
That is way more expensive than any DCC system!!
YEP…they still ignore the instructions never to leave
Lith Poly and Ion batteries alone when charging. …(http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-tongue-out.gif)(http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-tongue-out.gif)
Yeah, but you leave all your other Li-Ion stuff charging “alone”, right? Have you ever seen anyone put their cell phone, laptop, bluetooth headset, electric shaver, cordless phone in a ceramic jar or on a large ceramic surface when charging?
Those can (and have) go bad… so, I do indeed realize that our lithium batteries in our own installs might be somewhat more susceptible to failures, perhaps from either the installation, or perhaps lack of protective electronics for over/under charge/discharge, but lithium batteries are a reality everywhere now.
John Caughey said:
Don’t leave out Pull String Power!
True, but you don’t want to get the twine guys in the same room with the fishing line guys. That’s just asking for trouble. (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-tongue-out.gif)And the neon paracord guys are just insufferable elitists.
Later,
K
Jon Radder said:
I wish my battery life experience was as good as Kevin’s. I will, however, admit fault. At one time I had too many cheap (Tenergy) packs in my rotation and they sat idle for too long. Cheap packs tend to have a higher self-discharge rate and the protection circuit only protects the pack from over discharge when being used, not from self discharge. The result is that if you don’t maintain the cheap packs while in storage they will self-discharge to uselessness. I’ve also been guilty of abuse by drawing too much current, beyond the packs comfortable discharge rate, but within the protection circuits current range. This causes the pack to get hot and when LiIon gets hot it breaks down.
I recently decided to spend the extra dollars and buy a quality pack from Don Sweet last summer for my C-19. It is early yet, but so far it has performed flawlessly and holds a good charge for a long time. I was surprised to find when I put my Shay back on the track after being boxed up since TrainOps in early August that the Tenegy batteries inside were still at nearly full charge. The batteries in the Shay have been treated much better than some of my old packs.
I now use a programmable charger as well which I expect will help as it does not depend on the protection circuit to limit the charge time/current like the cheap chargers do.
“Cheap Tenergy batteries”? This one was recommended to me by a couple of BAGRS club members to slide into my USAT F-3AB units and GP-9. It sure ain’t cheap!
Cheap meaning not quality cells, not necessarily low cost. You can buy that same pack for a few dollars less from the source, All-Battery.Com (Tenergy’s site). I buy the smaller 2200AH packs - they are fine for my needs and cost a lot less. The same pack using high quality cells will only run you about $75.
My understanding is that the aforementioned Tenergy battery is of good quality. So you’re saying they’re not? Please clarify (with a link) which pack uses quality cells. Thanks.
I use primarily the Tenergy packs from All-Battery for my large scale stuff, unless there’s a specific form factor I need that I can only get elsewhere. The only “questionable” Tenergy packs I’ve used were the ones I got 3 or so years ago from All Electronics for $15 each. There was a lot of discussion here about those packs, whether they were “factory seconds” or something like that. But–hey–at $15, if they lasted two or three years, I was still ahead of the curve.
Later,
K
I’m not an expert. My opinion is based on those of experts that have posted here in the past and my experience. Tenergy cells are made in China whereas Panasonic, Sanyo and others are made in Japan. It was the opinion of experts (people in the business of making or selling packs) that the Japanese cells are superior quality. The do cost a few dollars more per cell.
I had good luck with the Thenergy packs for quite a few years, and in my post above I admit that failures have been mostly my own fault. I recently bought a high quality pack from Don Sweet at RCS New England that I believe is made with Japanese cells and a unique protection board the maker claims to be superior. My experience with this pack is that the self-discharge rate is very low compared to the Tenergy packs I have. This isn’t a concern if you charge your packs regularly, which I have failed to do in the past leading to early failure from over-discharge
I am not saying the Tenergy pack you own is junk. Properly cared for it will serve you well. I still have Tenergy cells built in to multiple locos and they are frequently charged and perform well.