Fixing the LionChief Remote

The knob - I found it super plasticy feeling, imprecise. The pointer shape is really the only grabbable area, and twisting it while pinching is pretty uncomfortable. That fix is easy, replace the knob! I chose a Davies large skirted fine 1600BM since it fits nicely in the well on the top of the remote. It’s made of quality phenolic resin material, is super easy to precisely grip in a variety of ways. You can even one hand the remote and use your thumb to slide roll the knob on its side. 2 bucks well spent.

Making it easier to find center off can be done a few different ways. I thought the easiest path would be to replace the pot with one that has a center detent. The no-name pot that Lionel’s sub contractor uses is a linear 10k, and luckily the same size as commonly available Alpha (Taiwan) pots which have center detent versions in a variety of values. I don’t believe the value to be critical, I used a 25k in mine. The combination of having a center-off detent and the smooth usable knob means you can really operate the remote one handed, without having to look at the remote or even the engine which helps in throwing switches, etc. It feels really good.

Finally, I found it very hard to find the slowest speeds, without hitting a dead stop or having the engine take off. To fix this requires adding resistors to the pot, one from each end to the wiper. This changes the tapered response of the linear pot to an inverted “S” curve which is pretty weird for normal use of a pot, but for a control which is center off, exactly what I wanted. Here’s a plot of how the response curve can be modified by simply adding resistors:

You can see how the slope is flatter around the center position, gradually gets steeper, and then sharply steeper at the extremes. This gives you a little dead zone around the off detent, and allows you to ease into that first speed steep, let’s you get to medium speed through most of the rotation, saving the highest speeds for the end (personally I never run that fast and would actually consider adding resistors to the ends of the pot, reserving its resolution for my actual usable range of speeds). Anyway, I like this changed response. Here’s where I added the resistors:

The result of these three changes, at least for me, completely transforms the experience of using the LionChief remote. I have a Lionel Universal Remote on order, I’ll definitely be taking a look at that one when it arrives.