For Gunrunner John

It sounds like you wish to operate the trains via battery power. Although the TMCC may operate with the track powered down and the loco electronics powered by a DC inverter,  the Railsounds need a DC voltage on the rails to sound. A relay and battery circuit may have to be designed and tied into the command system to operate the sounds with unpowered track.

Larry

Larry, do you mean AC on the rail or DC? I thought Rail sounds draws whatever it needs from the TMCC or ERR module. That is what I want the DC to AC converter to provide.

Check this thread: https://ogrforum.com/t...nel-af-on-dc-current

The statement is made that the S-gauge stuff with TMCC runs on DC.  If it's possible to do it there, there must be a way.

If you can run the loco and TMCC electronics with the inverter, then the Railsounds will be activated by the command remote. A DC voltage to activate sounds would be needed when run in conventional mode.

Larry

John, thanks for the thread reference, but the summary was it doesn't really work well.

Can you make a miniature of the piece if I fund it? I will test this big unit to see if it works first.

Ron

Are you sure the supply output is AC? Typically laptop supplies are DC outputs.

Depending on what you want to do, a lot of trains will actually run on DC.

Yes it is an inverter dc to ac.

If you are serious about wanting to run your OGauge train on battery power, check out my article in the October 2014 issue of LCCA's magazine The Lion Roars. The article will show exactly how do do this at a low cost. There is also an on-line video showing the battery powered train in action. Have fun.

Bob did you retain use of the Tmcc and railsounds? I'm not an lcca member and have no desire to join. Is your video on you tube? What is the title?

Regards, Ron

If you're patient, it'll be posted for public view.  I'm not an LCCA member either, but I can read the The Lion Roars Archive of issues up to Feb 2014.

I still think a better way to accomplish this is to figure out how to do it with DC power, a DC-AC converter looks like the hard way.

John,

I was thinking about it this morning and I believe you are right. Lionel/ERR take  basically a DC system and then modify it to receive AC and then convert to DC. There must be a converter system on the board which could be wired around. I'm sure there must be a way.

I'm a little impatient because I was about to ballast a lot of 3 rail in two large yards and would prefer to rip it up and go 2 rail then ballast. Oh well there are always other projects.

The only thing that's AC is the input to the rectifiers.  The carrier for TMCC can still be impressed on the rail with DC.  This is a topic that I haven't really pursued as I have no need to run on DC.  Maybe Bob can toss you a hint as to how it's done.

I appreciate that, but I don't want any track power at all. Just the signal. I can preserve all my 3 rail uninsulated wheeled brass scale locos and upgrade my 2 rail brass locomotives. I don't think Lionel realizes how much extra profit would be available to them with such a system.

Track DC or battery DC, same issue.  You still need the TMCC signal on the rails to provide one half of the signal.  I do think this is quite possible.

I'll let Lionel answer the comment about the extra profit.

wont fit???

Get a bigger hammer!!!

Popi, where did you get John's Picture?

The video of my battery powered train is on youtube. Search for: Bob Walker's Battery-Powered, Wireless Train Control System. It is also on the LCCA website (lionelcollectors.org). Click on LCCA Galleries, then on Video Gallery and it will pop up.

You do not have to be a member to view the videos. 

Bob,

Thank you very much for the responses. I watched the video, but that is not at all what I want to do. I want to power the Tmcc and railsounds system by battery.

Thanks Again,

Ron

You would have to, at the very least, redesign the motor driver boards. They use Triacs which are switched on and off at various points in the AC cycle. If you kept the triacs you would have to invert the DC to 60Hz if you wanted variable speed.

You would be better off tossing TMCC and replacing it with DCC. 

Pete

An option would be to take the present inverter with a suitable battery and mount them inside a box car behind the tender. Run a tether to the tender pickups for sounds, and to the loco pickups for loco and TMCC power. Suggest trying this for proof of concept.

Larry

The Cruise Commander and Cruise Commander Lite use FET's for motor control.  The stock TMCC does indeed use triacs.

I use cruise commanders by ERR.

I'd send an email to ERR and ask them about running the Cruise Commander on DC, if anyone would know the pitfalls, they would.