Greetings. I am working on installing a LokSound XL & Battery power in a USAT GP7, and I had a question about the circuitry. I purchased this one new, so its the latest electronics. There are 2 voltage regulators, one on each block/heatsink. I don’t need to retain those when I pull the main board out, right?
Appreciate any help!
I beleive these are the LM317 devices and are used for the smoke units and the engine weights are the heat sinks for these regulators.
So, not needed if you do not use the USA Trains smoke units and control boards.
Scott,
I completely gutted my factory wiring and associated heat sinks when installing the ESU V5XL. I also pulled out all the lighting circuits as well.
Craig
I guess if you are going battery power then I would remove those items, as the battery will replace the weight needed for pulling cars, etc., if you are using track power I would probably leave them there for weight, or add other weight.
trainman
Craig Townsend said:
Scott,
I completely gutted my factory wiring and associated heat sinks when installing the ESU V5XL. I also pulled out all the lighting circuits as well.
Craig
Ah I’m glad you posted, since you have first hand experience. I pulled out the wiring for lights today too. That will be a fun side project to create a new assembly so it’s fully controllable with normal leds.
How did you end up handling the fan powered smoke units? Were you able to retain and drive them off the decoder?
Fat fingered it and had a duplicate post.
Scott,
I completely removed everything. Including the smoke units. I would imagine if you direct wired them it would work?
I should say I kept part of the number board/class light circuit boards just to be able to keep the lights in position, but I completely cut all traces and hardwired. I’m probably going to remove then anyway but it was quicker and easier at the time.
Like Craig, I gut everything and recycle the PCB that hold the lights in place sometimes. Battery guys tend not to play with smokers… That said if your going to run the smokers you may want to consider an AUX battery for same or buy a LARGE battery! Also will the decoder be able to carry the current demands of the smoke units or require an ancillary relay for same? Or you could operate smoke manually with a switch. The voltage regulators may or may not be required dependent on how you power the smokers. I’d leave the lead weights in place regardless, more ballast is often added to our engines and the batteries don’t weigh much in the scheme of things.
Michael
Michael - Thanks for those ideas.
I’m not doing a GP at the moment (probably will soon) but I did wire up the smoke on my two recent C-19 installs. Even though the C-19 is designed for DCC to control the smoke (the current is not switched, a control circuit is grounded) having a second battery source is a great idea should I ever decide to actually use the smoke. The C-19 is wired from the tender to make that easy. The only drawback is that all lights would run of the Auxiliary battery too, so there would need to be a way to change the source to the primary when smoke wasn’t desired.
I’ve never been impressed with USA or Bachmann’s smokers, so I’ll probably never run them anyway.
When I install a DCC decoder in the GP7/9 I rewire the heater elements in series. This reduces the amps required to 1/4th. (Example…if 20 ohms, in parallel it is 10 ohms but in series it is 40 ohms)
My decoder does have 2 separate fan drives, but only one heater element control.
Dan,
Good suggestion… How do the smokers perform in series verses parallel configuration?
Michael