37. Battery manager (on left) and DC-DC converter.
37
38. From left, bridge rectifiers, 5-volt switching
regulators, capacitor, DC-DC up converter, 7805
5-volt regulator, capacitor, reed switch, latching relay
(top), Moteino (bottom), FET transistor (top), LEDs
and resistor.
38
As I mentioned before, this project was built to lay the ground-
work for later animation-on-rails projects. I was somewhat
surprised just how well these worked, using off-the-shelf parts
and LiPo batteries with relatively simple controls at low cost.
Battery-powered models - 15
These efforts were made to establish the viability of running
motive power at reduced voltages with small, on-board bat-
teries. The same power is used to provide remote control for
these models.
In the future, I hope to use the same platform to power roving
inspection engines which mix with normal operator-controlled
rail traffic. A small sound module would not be too hard to add,
and I might try that first. I hope this provides you with some
ideas and encouragement to try new ways to power and con-
trol your layout too!
MRH-Nov 2014
