Thoughts on using Reed relay for chuff

"Practice" the positioning reeds with goo-ish adhesive, tape, ties etc. before  permanent glueing.  Stay out of or be aware of the motors fields (once powered, they are electromagnets and can effect the reed senstivity.)

Solid /magnet wire can act as a bendable bracket(some already have long legs); along with that, it will pretty much stay put once bent to where you like it. Protect the painted coating at rub areas. A layer or two of e-tape under winding wire is enough(maybe even thick/hardshell paint).  

Thoughts: It works and costs little. You will want to disconnect the switch in the engine from the R2LC. For 4 chuffs you will need two magnets 180 degrees apart.

Downsides are you will not get exact synchronization with the drivers and can be a bit fiddley to get right but well worth a try.

Pete

There's always the elegant solution.   Programmable chuff rate and no magnets glued to the wheels.

 Chuff-Generator

Pair it with the Super-Chuffer II, and you have a complete smoke control solution, great appearing chuffing, smoke at idle, etc.  You'll also get automatic Rule-17 LED headlight control and automatic cab light control as part of the package.

I tend to like setting up the reed switch and two magnets up on a tender's wheel if they are fairly close to 1/2 the diameter of the drivers. The exhaust rate will be close enough, at least for me. The Lionel sound motherboards in the tender have a terminal location for a chuff switch input (ref'd to ground) if you are dealing with their hardware.

Appreciate the comments.  

Norm, Great idea on the tender truck I will have to remember that for other installs.

On this upgrade, I think I am stuck with the trailing truck of the engine as I also installed the super chuffer as part of this effort (first time using this) and need the reed a relay to trigger this as well and still plan to use the IR connection between the tender and the engine.

I thought had a plan to install the relay tonight on the trailing truck, but cracked it on accident in the process of building a mount on the truck where it was more protected.  They seem extremely fragile with the small glass tube.  Wonder what the reed relays other use look like?

Thanks,

Mike

Yes, the reed switches are pretty fragile.  Happily, they are readily available and inexpensive, such as:

https://www.amazon.com/Cylewet...4?ref_=fsclp_pl_dp_1

 https://www.mouser.com/Electro...ed-Switches/_/N-5g2l

Thanks Bob, just ordered from your link above.  Hope to have them by the weekend.

Mike, I always test the switches first by manually passing a magnet close and making sure I get a chuff before gluing them in place.  You could also bench test them prior to installing them.

I bend one of the leads along the reed switch and then heat shrink it. This makes it a little more robust. You can experiment with pointing it at the magnets as they can actually be triggered axially. Sometimes they can get a little hyperactive if you try to set them up perpendicular to the magnets. 

I'm always sort of fascinated by the fact they can trigger as well as they do for chuff input. I have a few of GRJ's nice chuffers too but most of my reed switches are set up in my 3rd Rail conversions where I wanted to keep the original 4 wire tether.