Keepalives, O-Sized

No problem, definitely keep us posted. The more info the better!

You didn't mention is this was a 2-rail or 3-rail context, but feeding power into the closure rails on larger Ross turnouts prevents stalling. You take advantage of the Tortoise Motor "relay" contacts. Basically, you feed power into the unused closure rail (the one the wheels aren't rolling on) and energize them as a hot-lead extension, while putting the closure rail being used to common. This gives you full power through the turnout.  If this is a 2-rail situation, you can just wire the closure rails to the corresponding main running rails since the frog is insulated.

Hope this helps.

i think this diy powerpack is the bomb and one has become a permanent install on my loksound test bench fixture.

select L is the only loksound I have used. recently, I received my first loksound 5 L DCC. threw it on the test fixture, and it seemed dead. sent it back and replacement came. scared to try again with the powerpack, but don't know if that is what killed it. the 5 new L DCC claims to have "on-board" powerpack, but the manual does describe hooking to an external one, but of course the manual says only use a loksound powerpack.

has anyone used thor73's design on the new loksound?

thanks

No reason I can see that it wouldn't work with the v5, although I don't have one (yet...) to test it with. Proceed carefully, however. 

In my experience, even the XL with its onboard powerpack did not provide as much runtime as I wanted. I would expect the powerpack on the 5L would be smaller.

thor73 posted:

 I have one that I just recently put in my Lionel docksider with an HO decoder, and it is not working as expected at the moment. The cap and regulator are working (charging, etc.), but I'm not getting any run time after removal of power. Haven't had time to chase that one down yet.

Update on the docksider/HO Loksound install:

For this install, a standalone regulator is needed to charge the keepalive, because the HO Loksound does not have a 5V output like the Loksound L. In this case, I was lacking a good common ground between the decoder and the 5V regulator. Having corrected that, I now get the 4 seconds of runtime configured in the decoder, with a decent sized train behind it.

Here's a pic of the install:

Updated 2/17/20 to add 2-wire version for MTH PS3 and other decoders without an on-board 5V supply.

Thank you!