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Twice now I have made "Controller Cradles" to anchor LionChief hand-held wireless controllers to a layout surface for children's layouts visited by the public.

Controller cradle 16 - LoRes   

Controller cradle 17 - LoRes

I made a comprehensive document including many photos and drawings of how to make them.  See attached document "LionChief Controller Cradles.pdf".

They are pretty complex but might also give people ideas where they might improve on it.

Also, I mentioned these in a post from a couple years ago where I had been asking for ideas.  After I made them, I posted the results there.  But the "how to" is here.

FEBRUARY 2, 2024, UPDATE:  Revised the PDF document to include Appendix A which shows how to make additional throttle rotation limiting top bars.

Attachments

Images (2)
  • Controller cradle 16 - LoRes: LionChief dedicated controller (for a specific engine) installed in cradle.
  • Controller cradle 17 - LoRes: LionChief Universal controller (can use with any engine) installed in cradle.
Files (1)
How to make controller cradles and metal bars including drawings.
Last edited by Chuck K.
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A VARIATION:  I first posted this when I made a 4 x 8 layout for the San Luis Obispo Railroad Museum.  Since then, I made another and larger "Children's Layout" for the Exploration Discovery Center in Grover Beach, CA.  I used the same controller cradle design.  While the layouts I built have a means to limit maximum speed by somewhat limiting track voltage, they wanted slower speeds than possible by that means.  They made their own top bars for the cradle to further limit maximum speed by further limiting throttle rotation.  I have no drawing, but you can see the difference in the side-by-side photo with the original on the left and modified on the right.

SLORRM and EDC Controller Cradles - LoRes

With the top bar they made, the throttle knob protrusion hits the edges created by a round feature cut into the top center of the bar.  I'm a little concerned that it might act as a fulcrum, and it might be better to have a design where the tip of the protrusion hit an edge.  But it has been working.  Also, they could have made the recess on the bottom edge a little wider to expose more of the bell and horn buttons, but this is minor.

The original bar is not meant to limit speed, although it does somewhat.  It is meant mainly to protect the internal stops of the controller's potentiometer from breaking.  Controllers have now been working for three years with heavy use on the layout I built for a railroad museum and there has been no damage to the controllers.

Just for fun, here is a photo of the children's layout for the museum and one that shows most of the larger one at the Exploration Discovery Center.  The surface mounted controllers get a LOT of heavy use.

Image 1 - LoRes

Frame from YouTube video 2 - Lightened

Attachments

Images (3)
  • Frame from YouTube video 2 - Lightened: Layout at Exploration Discover Center in Grover Beach, CA
  • Image 1 - LoRes: Layout at San Luis Obispo Railroad Museum, San Luis Obispo, CA
  • SLORRM and EDC Controller Cradles - LoRes: Original controller top bar at left, modified bar at right.
Last edited by Chuck K.

FEBRUARY 2, 2024, UPDATE:  I designed additional "throttle limiting" top bars to use with the cradles.  I revised the document "LionChief Controller Cradles.pdf" which is located as an attachment earlier in this post in the original topic posting.  Appendix A in that covers making these additional top bars and has a drawing.

Here are photos of how these top bars limit throttle knob rotation.

For reference, here is an unrestricted controller set to maximum which is about 295 degrees of rotation.

Controller Cradle Throttle Limiting Bars 20 - LoRes

Here is the original top bar which is about 235 degrees of rotation.

Controller Cradle Throttle Limiting Bars 14 - LoRes

Here is a new top bar that limits rotation to about 220 degrees.

Controller Cradle Throttle Limiting Bars 15 - LoRes

This top bar limits rotation to about 170 degrees.

Controller Cradle Throttle Limiting Bars 16 - LoRes

And this top bar limits rotation to about 150 degrees.

Controller Cradle Throttle Limiting Bars 17 - LoRes

These layouts still have a simple electronic scheme where from zero to six diodes can be put in series with track power to lower track voltage somewhat.  You could consider this selection of bars as the coarse speed adjustment and the number of diodes the fine speed adjustment.

Attachments

Images (5)
  • Controller Cradle Throttle Limiting Bars 20 - LoRes: Example of unrestricted throttle rotation which is about 295 degrees.
  • Controller Cradle Throttle Limiting Bars 14 - LoRes: Original top bar made as part of original project allowing about 235 degree rotation.
  • Controller Cradle Throttle Limiting Bars 15 - LoRes: New top bar allowing about 220 degree rotation.
  • Controller Cradle Throttle Limiting Bars 16 - LoRes: New top bar allowing about 170 degree rotation.
  • Controller Cradle Throttle Limiting Bars 17 - LoRes: New top bar allowing about 150 degree rotation.

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