Any Feedback On "Super-Chuffer" Installations??

I think Alex Malliae (sorry about the spelling) posted about doing an install a while back, may have also been another? And of course gunrunnerjohn posted about them and I'm sure he can offer some 'insider' advice.

Rod,

   Alex M installed one in my PRR M1a. Works great, Alex is the master. My installation advice would be pack it up and send it to Alex.

JohnB

Here is a video of my 3rd Rail N1 that Alex upgraded with ERR and the Super-Chuffer.  Alex did the video, and I don't think he put in enough smoke fluid since he was getting ready to ship it to me.  It smokes great here.

Here's a few threads.

https://ogrforum.com/t.../super-chuffer-board

https://ogrforum.com/t...er-rule-17-in-action

https://ogrforum.com/t...ennings-trains-video

MartyE also posted a video somewhere, but I can't find it now.

Of course, I have posted a couple videos, here's one.  Ignore the Y3b on the inside track, my conversion is coming out of the tunnel on the outside track.

Hi Rod,

The super chuffer is awesome, I'm in the process of installing 4 of them this week.

Here's the NYC Century Club Niagara with the super chuffer installed. If you need any help

Just email me, or of course ask Gunrunner John.

Alex

John; thanks for the links.

Those help quite a bit.

I was always disappointed that my Lionmaster Challenger did not have puffing smoke.

I will convert it as well.

So as I understand things there is no need for a separate current control resistor for the LED headlight. That is handled on the PCB, correct?

Thanks,

Rod

Alex;

Nice work on the Niagara.

Looks and sounds great.

I did not notice if you used the rule 17 headlight option or not?

Rod

Correct, the LED is directly driven by the Super-Chuffer, no external power required.  The smoke unit fan also receives it's power from the Super-Chuffer, so when I do smoke unit replacements, I typically use an MTH smoke unit since I don't need the 5V DC supply.  I just change the resistors to suitable values.

You can supply the cab light from the Super-Chuffer as well, but for incandescent bulbs I recommend a 12V bulb and track power to one side.  The power from the Super-Chuffer 5V supply is limited and it's best not to overload it.  There is a diode on the Super-Chuffer to allow you to feed the bulb AC and it'll get rectified.  The cab light FET simply connects the control to frame ground to light the bulb.  It's not a problem to power an LED from the Super-Chuffer for the cab light, but you'll need a 100 ohm (or larger) resistor for a white LED to limit the current.

Good info John; thanks.

Next thing is I don't seem to have any suitable headlight LED's down here in sunny Florida.

Can anyone recommend suitable LED's that I can order online.

I seem to recall that Evans has a pretty good selection.

Thanks,

Rod

You do NOT want the Evan's LED's, they all include resistors and rectifiers for use on track power.

A plain 3mm white or warm white LED is all you need.  How about I send you a couple?

HOLY SMOKES! The wife would throw me and the trains out to the curb running that in the house!

But I want one!

I have a TMCC PRR 2-10-4 that is probably ideal for this upgrade?

The Question is Alex the Great doing these with a 4 chuff upgrade?

Simply fantastic... thanks John.

Rod,

   The super chuffer stuff is Guns Baby all the way, might want to listen to what he is teaching, right down to the LED's

PCRR/Dave

Alex has done a few, and I know he adds the 4-chuff mod in his upgrades.  I think I have him fully trained on the Super-Chuffer now.   I do the same 4-chuff mod on upgrades, it really makes a nice package.

What is the 4 Chuff mod?

Chris, that is the mod to generate four chuffs for a single driver rev to match prototypical operation.  Basically, it's usually four magnets on the driver with a reed switch to generate the chuff signal.

John;

If you have any extra stock, I would be most appreciative!

I am quite happy to pay for them plus shipping?

A warm and a Cool white would be great. I'll decide on install day which it will be.

I went to the Evans site and I see what you mean. Looks like they don't sell bare LED's.

Rod

Evan's stock in trade is turn-key LED's that you don't need extra components for.  However, sometimes you want plain bare LED's. and the Super-Chuffer is one of those cases.

Email me your address and I'll send some out.

Hi guys,

Here's one I just did today This is the Lionel Dreyfus Hudson that I upgraded with a fan driven smoke unit and the Super chuffer. There was so much smoke the BOSS AKA the wife was yelling

from upstairs, "PLEASE SHUT THAT THING OFF, I'M CHOKING UP HERE"

Here's a few pictures and a video

Alex

          OLD PUFFER UNIT

     REMOVED THE PISTON LEVER AND CHERRY SWITCH

      CHECKING THE FAN DRIVEN UNIT FOR FIT, ALSO WIRING THE SUPER CHUFFER

   ALL WIRES TRIMMED AND NEATLY TUCKED AWAY , AND ALSO WIRED TIED

    I USE ICE MAKER FERRELLS  ON EACH END, THEN ATTACH WITH TUBING

WOW!

Alex for the cherry switch upgrade, what do I need to purchase?

Hi John,

You need a reed switch and two magnets, which i installed on the trailing truck wheels

GRJ; address sent.

Alex; nice work, and great pix. Those help a bunch.

I especially like the ferrel and tubing idea for smoke unit hookup.

That eliminates the whole time consuming exercise of a custom SMU mount bracket.

Have you ever had an issue with a kink in the plastic tubing?

I am thinking this maybe a great idea for the Lionmaster challengers and Bigboys

Rod

Hi Rod,

Glad the pictures helped, most of the time i don't use the tubing and ferrell's .

I usually mount the smoke unit to the shell, right up against the stack. But with

this engine i couldn't do that. The R2LC was right in the way, and i didn't feel like

relocating any circuit boards. So i had to use the ferrell's and the tubing, and to answer your question. You must be very careful, or the tubing will kink. I try to make the tubing as short and taught as possible.

Thanks,

Alex

Rod,

Another thing i forgot to mention. I never have to make a smoke unit bracket, which like you said is very time consuming. What I do is use JB WELD STEEL STIK, it holds so tight and can resist pretty much any amount of heat.

Alex

Wow Alex!!! I don't have any TMCC steamers, but based on the work I've seen I need to find one for you to modify! 

I like the idea of the tubing, makes the alignment easier.  The only issue I have with bonding the smoke unit in place in the possibility I might want to take it out for service.  OTOH, it probably is much quicker than the aluminum brackets I make.

Jeff, thanks for the kind words.

John, the steel stik is very strong, but if you need to service the smoke unit. Two or three soft taps with a small hammer releases the unit, then when reinstalling just use the steel stik again.

I use to make brackets to, it took triple the time and if i had to service the unit, i had to take apart all the brackets to get to the smoke unit. Much easier with steel stik.

Now on to a few more installs

Thanks,

Alex

Alex;

I definitely agree its easiest to fix the smoke unit into the boiler if you can. That has worked well for several K-Line upgrades I have done.

About 2 years ago I spent a stupid amount of time trying to convert my LM Challenger to puffing smoke.

My logic was simple enough: Retrofitting the semi-smart SMU 8085-200 with the ACRGE01 as used with later puffing Lionels should make it work, right? I knew the R2LCC08 was used with puffers, so that should not have been a limitation.

Long story short; it would not work no matter what.

I tried a different ACRG, different wiring configurations, different reset codes, you name it. Jim Sanden and I spent hours on the phone and emailing back and forth; to no avail.

Eventually I just gave up (which is not like me at all).

Now with John's super chuffer, that all goes away, and its relatively simple to convert an older non-puffer to puffing smoke. Ya gotta like it.

And the only new part you need is the S-C board. You can generally re-use the older (non-smart) 8057 fan driven smoke unit, which eliminates the need for custom mounts etc.

And you get the rule 17 headlight operation, and the cab light switching off when in motion to boot.

Hats off to gunrunnerjohn; this is a great thing to have available. I am sure a large number of hours went into development and prototyping, I recall the long thread that was running during the development phase earlier this year.

What a great hobby!

Rod

I'll have to give your method some thought Alex, because making the brackets does take time.  My usual stack extension is soldering a brass tube onto the smoke unit to extend it into the stack, never thought of just using the tubing.

Hi Rod,

Yes hats off to Gunrunner John, for creating the awesome super chuffer. It's an absolute favorite of mine. !!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks,

Alex

John, Your idea might be time consuming, but it is still a good method. The tubing method might be a bit simpler, but one kink in the tubing and it blocks the smoke from exiting. So it becomes trail and error. My favorite method is mounting the smoke unit right to the boiler, if there's available space .

Thanks,

Alex

I have mounted several right under the stack exhaust and used a large spring to just hold them in place.  This works well for brass locomotives that have a totally enclosed boiler, just position it in there and job done.  Taking it out is just compress the spring a bit and pull it out.

John;

To extend your spring idea to die cast world; I wonder if a person could just use a suitable spring compressed between the smoke unit and the truck frame when re-installing the boiler onto the frame? Should work?

Rod

Rod, it does.  I did one like that, actually one of mine.  I have the K-Line Allegheny that I put a fan driven smoke unit into using a spring.  I just used JB-Weld to attach the spring to the bottom of the smoke unit under the stack and when I put it together, I just make sure it's setting on the stack and set the chassis on. 

I later discovered it was even more useful in the brass locomotives where you can just take the boiler front off and stick the smoke unit in.

A very well done video by: Alex M • A lot of steam power action.

Gee Larry, what kind of locomotive is that one?  Is that one of those transparent shell models that you see all the working parts?

grj;

As a followup, I am just wondering if you have a .pdf version of the instruction sheet insert that comes with the S-C that you could maybe post here for all to access?

Also if you have been collecting a bunch of user notes like those you have added above to this topic, that would also be real handy to have all in one place?

Thanks,

Rod

Here's a PDF of the Super-Chuffer instructions.  As far as stuff like smoke unit installation tips, that's not really a S-C specific thing, so I just store them in my head.

Thanks John. 

Rod