Bill, a couple of suggestions regarding speed control. You may be near the limit of what the Beep can pull so its stalling. Also both GRJ and I found there is some sort of issue with the axle material and bearings. We both tried an earlier LC board without Bluetooth and many false sounds were being triggered possibly by some sort of electrical noise. Try applying some contact cleaner to the axles at the bearings.
That board has sound. Do you plan to add a speaker? There should be room.
Pete
Pete, I think you and GRJ may be onto something with the sleeve bearings in that they are not bronze. Further, I had trouble with good continuity between the plate and bearings with this BEEP when I got her. To resolve the problem, I had to add narrow strips of thin metal cut from battery contacts to the area where the plate contacts the flat face of the bearing:
You have to be very careful with the strip thickness, however, because binding of the bearings will result if the strip is just fractions of a millimeter too thick. I really wish the BEEP frames had been diecast, even if just the gearbox enclosure.
Regarding the loading, however, she's pulling the consist shown in my previous post at absolute minimum throttle position in "transformer" mode and runs exactly the same way unloaded at the same throttle position. Under LionChief control, she runs somewhat more smoothly and at much lower minimum speed.
I've got 8-ohm Railmaster Hobbies DS1440 speakers in enclosures on order for this and the other 3 BEEPs I'll be doing. I hope I don't get the false sound triggering you mention above! If I don't, I'll assume the plate-to-bearing continuity is good.