GRJ's Chuff Generator in a Lionel TMCC J, PRR Y3, and JLC Challenger

Here's a quick startup/roll-by vid on the layout:

Jeff B. Haertlein posted:

Norm Charbonneau posted:

I set up my PRR Y3 with GRJ's invention tonight:

Is that black structure I see in your photo an ash removal set up? If so are they available somewhere?

His ash pit is a Crescent Locomotive Works item. They are very well done. We have one too.

Laidoffsick posted:

Jeff B. Haertlein posted:

Norm Charbonneau posted:

I set up my PRR Y3 with GRJ's invention tonight:

Is that black structure I see in your photo an ash removal set up? If so are they available somewhere?

His ash pit is a Crescent Locomotive Works item. They are very well done. We have one too.

Thank you very much for responding. I just looked up this Company, and will go back and really check it out. The Company looks to have some great items. Thanks again.

Norm and John:  That's.....fantastic!   Very well done.

I think this is about 99% Norm and 1% John.   That's a magnificent layout and locomotive.

Perhaps John.....but someone had to develop, sell, and support such a cool product.  

So long as there are guys like you and Alex M out there, my "stuff" can be fixed....and I take great comfort in that.

Mr Norm; just completed an install of SC and CG in a JLC Challenger; want to have the work lites controlled by pin 6/J3 of the CG; did you use the CV board through the the lites and then pin 6?  Hope to wire my work lites as you did.  Thanks for help and time. Falcon70

The JLC Challenger has a totally isolated output from the CV board, so you can't return the lights to frame ground as you have to do with the Chuff-Generator.  There is a bridge rectifier at the input, so DC ground is NOT AC ground coming out of that board.

I'd wire them in series pairs and tie one end to track power and the other end to the Chuff-Generator ground light terminal.  You will be driving them with half-wave track power, so you can assume that's around 12 volts.  The lights are 6V bulbs.

That's basically what I did. I pulled work lights of the lighting power supply and wired them in two series pairs. I kept the work light on/off switch too. Here's a crappy doodling of what I did.

It just so happened that John's board supplied 12V. I like it when a plan just happens. 

Mr John and Mr Norm; just what I needed; you guys are "the pros from Dover"!  Thanks so much; Falcon70

I've visited Dover, but I don't live there.

John, remember the line from Trapper John and Hawkeye Pierce from the original movie Mash?  Dating myself!  Falcon70

Sadly, I do remember the original MASH movie.

Norm -

Looks great. keep up the good work. Looks like an investment I will have to make for a few select engines I own.

I wish Lionel would have given us some scale pilot wheels for this engine! Maybe you can score some Vision line pilot wheels? Hmm ... I may have a spare set in my parts bin...

John; hooked up the ground lites as suggested by Norm to pin 6 of J3 (parallel series from track power); the cab light goes out as it should but the ground lites stay on all the time; look great but do not go out; per chance did I damage the CG tracing?  Thanks for your time and help; Falcon70

Hmm...  I'm not sure what happened, but I'd look very closely at the Chuff-Generator and see if the two components and/or the traces to them are damaged on the board.  The red arrow points to the FET that switches the power and the green is the diode that blocks the negative AC excursion.  That's the circuit that manages the ground lights.  You can see that two leads from the processor go to the FET, ground and control, the remaining FET lead connects to the banded end of the diode.  The other end of the diode goes to pin-6 of J3 to control the ground lights.

Well done John.  I was never a fan of the magnets and reed switch.  That old setup is real bush league.  Works sometimes.  What John done is the hot setup in my book.

Thanks Marty, I always wanted something better than the magnets.  Trying to get four magnets on the drivers of some locomotives was impossible with the clearances, and I was never happy with the tender wheel solution, chuffs were not synchronized.

The right way is always the best way.

Marty

I'm just sorry it took me so long to get around to doing the Chuff-Generator, I thought about it for several years.

I'm interested in buying a few of the chuff generators from Henning's, where do you get the 5v power supply? I'm looking to upgrade a few of my older Odyssey engines.

old rattler posted:

I'm interested in buying a few of the chuff generators from Henning's, where do you get the 5v power supply? I'm looking to upgrade a few of my older Odyssey engines.

Use Gunrunner's Super chuffer which has a 5 volt supply or build one yourself.  Lots of how to on the internet.

Can you use the Super chuffer to regulate the chuffs also?

old rattler posted:

Can you use the Super chuffer to regulate the chuffs also?

Yep and the head light, cab light for rule 17 running

old rattler posted:

Can you use the Super chuffer to regulate the chuffs also?

Not really, the Chuff-Generator and the Super-Chuffer are complementary products.  The Chuff-Generator generates a programmable chuff rate based on driver rotation using a tach strip on the flywheel.  It also manages optional ground lights.  The Super-Chuffer modulates the smoke fan to give better definition to the chuffing and also provide idle smoke.  In addition, the lighting features give you Rule-17 headlight and automatic cab light control.

In the rare instance I want to run a Chuff-Generator without the Super-Chuffer, I whacked a few of these together to do that job.  This is a 5VDC power supply from track power, good for 25-30 ma.

I'm just interested in changing from 2 chuffs to 4 chuffs per revolution, so the Chuff generator and a 5 volt power supply would do then ?

Yep, you just move the wire from the chuff switch to the Chuff-Generator output and program the C-G for 4-chuffs.

One thing of note.  Make SURE you have the proper 5V power and ground connected before you power up, and note that the ground is AC frame ground as the chuff signal is frame ground referenced.  The reason I mention this is you can't use a power supply that uses a full bridge rectifier on track power for powering the C-G, it does NOT have DC ground referenced to frame ground.

OK thanks. Appreciate all the info. I'll see what I come up with for power and go from there.

I guess I should have asked, Do you ever build and sell the power supply ?

I'll sell anything for the right price. 

Send me an email to my profile address.

I'm going to install my first CG in one of my loco's. There are two wires from the chuff switch to the board. When  I unplug the chuff switch from the board , how do you  determine which pin does the wire from the CG attach to ?

One of the wires goes to frame ground, the other goes to the chuff input to the R2LC.  Once you disconnect the old chuff switch, just use the ohmmeter to measure to frame ground, don't use the one that shows continuity to the frame, the other one is the chuff input.

OK Thanks

 First one installed, worked perfect, Thanks for all your help

They go much more quickly after the first one.  You know they work for one thing, gives you confidence.

This one took a little time, but its worth it. Installed it in an E6 Atlantic. Very little room to work. But squeezed it in. That should be my hardest one

And if you don't know how to use an ohm meter to measure frame ground? You guess! You got a 50/50 shot  worst thing that can happen is you blow one up. Ask me how I know.

Actually I blew up the Chuff Generator because I didn't connect the ground. For the SC, I followed the wires from the cherry switch to board and the correct pin... which John sent a diagram for. Otherwise it was a gamble with 50/50 chance of being correct. I did hook up the other wire but it didn't work.

The Chuff-Generator doesn't tolerate bad wiring nearly as well as the Super-Chuffer.   There are only three wires, so there's not too much excuse for getting them wrong, they are labeled on the board.

I didn't get the ground "wrong"..... I just didn't hook it up  omitting the truth is not really a lie lol