BEFORE AND AFTER SMOKE UNIT

We have two guest rooms but one is exclusively Allan Miller's. Don 

Don I'll take one guest room and Allan can have the other LOL LOL 

 

 

Alex

Alex, Only one thing. Lucy our lab is getting older and you have to take her to this lagoon we found only a couple weeks ago. She loves it there. She's getting older and loves the warm water. Then you can work on the smoke units. Don

I dont know whats cheaper? Fly Alex to CA or ship all my TMCC engines to him? Hmmm

gunnerjohn theres another secret that most guy dont know..Why did TAS called there smoke units turbo for?!..Id added that mod to my lionels and mth and it does improves more smoke out put..

Don, I'm a dog lover so this would be my pleasure to take Lucy to the lagoon for a swim. Then we can get some smoke units pumping !!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Alex

Hi Doug, ship them to me and I'll have them smoking out the entire train room

 

Alex

Alex;

Nice work on that 3751. She smokes really well.

One question for you; how did you change it to 4 chuffs/rev, if you don't mind sharing?

 

Thanks,

Rod

Hi Rod thanks very much for the kind words

 

I would love to share how I upgraded the chuff rate. There's a few ways of doing this upgrade but I find this the easiest way and if it needs to be worked on or repaired it's quite simple.Thanks, Alex

 

Here's the link

https://ogrforum.com/d...ent/7906207229853027

So, JoseyWales...  you said:

"gunnerjohn there's another secret that most guys don't know.. Why did TAS call their smoke units "turbo" ?!.. I added that mod to my Lionel and MTH locos and it does improves more smoke output.."

 

What's the secret, what did you do??????????

 

Best,

Dave

Great job,

I have one of your General Stores and it looks great.  I also have a Vision line Hudson 5344 that as we speak is in for "Smoke Repair" (4 th time) will probably be out of warranty when the smoking stops the next time.  Do you work on "Vision line" These problems may be operator error.

 

Brent

Alex;

Have you ever retro-fitted a puffing "smart smoke" unit in a non-puffing TMCC engine?

I am just playing with such a conversion on a 2003 Lionmaster challenger.

 

Rod

I'll be interested in how you make out Rod.  You do know they have a totally different value of smoke resistor, and are designed to run with the regulator board, right?

Brent, I can work on Vision Line, no problem.

 

Rod, I never tried that yet , but I'm very interested seeing how you do it. So keep us informed.

 

Alex

Hi John;

Yep I know they run an 8 or 6 ohm resistor, and they are designed to run on from 3 to 8 VAC variable to the element, as regulated by the 8VAC regulator in response to engine load.

I surmise that the puffing is initiated by the serial data link, or maybe connection to the chuff SOS switch to pin 17 of the R2LC.

So far I have got the element to work just fine, but I can't seem to get the fan motor to puff.

Got sidetracked, but I will have to get back to the project soon.

 

Rod

 

There's an 8 pin unidentified chip on the board, it looks a lot like a small uP, probably what is managing the fan.

Alex,

 

I guess that is what a smoke unit on steroids would look like!  As always, great job.

 

Ed

K-line can be improve with some mods..I did 4 videos..1 mth...1 lionel.. and 1 K-line smoke units..all have the same mods done to them..accept kline..it used to be the deisel unit that id converted to steam..oh one video of my S2 turbine with a mth unit in it..on that one im still thinking on trying a G scale smoke unit in it..needs a stronger fan unit to really throw out the smoke for a 4 stack funnel...Alex thats if you dont mind me posting those videos on your thread?..Im up loading them now on you tube..

Thanks Ed for the nice words

 

Alex

joseywales I don't mind at all, I would enjoy seeing the video's

 

Alex

heres all 4 videos..firstone is mth,then k-line then lionels and my s2 turbine.

So Alex, are you going to share your "secret batting" for us DIYers, or do I have to burn a couple houses down trying to figure it out?  (It's cool, I rent.)  

 

Everything in my collection is older piston-style smoke units anyway, so batting and resistor stats (and source) are really all I've got to work with.

I think the point of the thread is information sharing, so how about describing your modifications?

john remember when id asked you about that small 1/16 hole in the back of the fan housing on that TAS unit?.found out other TAS smoke has that too...Well it helps to let in more air for the fan..fan blades are curved..=that helps to suck in more air form that hole..I did do the mike reagan mods plus id driled the smoke outlet bigger too because id made custom smoke funnel for my S2 turbine...On the TAS the fan runs faster then lionels and MTH..TAS unit has the bigger holes on intake and smoke outlet,plus the small 1/16 hole on the back of the fan housing,plus faster fan speed=turbo smoke unit..On my S2 turbine had the MTH unit,But I want to try a G scale train USA smoke unit..has alittle bigger smoke unit and faster fan..got to figure out how to make it work off of ac power..im am almost to the point to maybe go dcc.....

WOW!!!  Wonder how many bottles of fluid it will take to keep that much smoke output going???

 

Alan

That's the downside of improving the smoke output.  

 

Cobbling together a regulator for the USA smoke unit shouldn't be much of an issue, then it'll run off AC.

The reason that Josey's clips were less than a minute long is that after 65 seconds, he has to reload with another 6 ounces of smoke fluid!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Great job Josey!  Nice videos too!!!!!!!

 

Best,

Dave

Good point Dave, that had me wondering.

ha ha ha very funny guys..I fill half an eye dropper of mth smoke fluid..just think what magasteam would do in one of my mod smoke unit....john if i get that smoke unit for trains usa..think you help me/show me how to make that reguator? If I make the video long.it will take longer to unload to youtube from my android phone..

I have a couple of the USA smoke units, so I can take a closer look and tell you exactly what you need.  The smoke units themselves are totally bare, just a resistor and a fan.

 

I actually have the USA regulator boards for them, but I'm not impressed with the board, it's very touchy for the one I put in a building, keeps shutting down for no reason.  I tried the other board, same thing.  I think it's because it is expecting the chuffs to drive the smoke unit, but I'm just turning it on.  I haven't gotten around to putting a plain supply that I control in them yet.

let me know what you come up with...that might be the ticket smoke unit for my S2..id even put a defuser.in the center of the 4 smoke stacks..try to split the smoke better to go go threw the 4 stacks..just need more fan power or boost..

Truthfully, I don't find the USA smoke units to have better smoke volume than the MTH PS/1 units.  If I had it to do over again, I'd have put one of the PS/1 smoke units in the building.

wonder if there away to speed up the fan alittle bit on the mth..TAS runs fast..i tmyest  fans with a 9 volts battery,,amost sounds the same speed as the TAS turbo unit..

Simple, instead of 5V, give it six or seven volts, it'll run a lot faster!

which on handles the voltage to the fan the square 3 prong or the IC1  the D looking resiter?.

Well, the "D looking resistor" is a voltage regulator, it is probably an LM7805 or similar.  With a small board mod, you could use an LM317L and adjust the voltage to your liking.  It'll take a board hack, but it's possible.

 

Note that for really changing the smoke volume, I feel you may have to do more than just increase airflow, you probably also have to adjust the amount of heat by changing the voltage on the smoke resistor or changing it's value to a lower value for more heat.

the mth already puts out the heat as is..just like to speed up the fan alittle bit for my S2 smoke stack..it the smoke was going out of 1 or 2 stacks it would really throw the smoke out alot..but doing 4 stacks is abit of a challenge

Yes, for the MTH, a little extra fan speed might be the ticket, I was thinking of other smoke units.

 

You just need to add two resistors, I'm pretty sure the any necessary capacitors will already be present.

 

Here's a LM317 Calculator Page to make it easy to compute the resistors.

 

 

lionel and K-Line dont have those ..they only have the D resiter and a capaster..

I'm not sure what point you're trying to make here.  Lionel and K-Line are smoke units that you'd doubtless want to "enhance", and yes, they have a LM7805 regulator that is a fixed 5V output.