Battery-powered models - 2
batteries, but recharging them has often resulted in special
connections and more handling.
This leads to considering combinations of techniques and
technologies, eventually resulting in “KAOS”-- Keep-Alive On
Steroids. KAOS power uses high energy density, lithium poly-
mer (LiPo) batteries, a low-cost, battery manager/converter
board, and a simple scheme to charge the battery from what-
ever power is on the rails —DCC or DC power. Both work just
fine. We will explore a number of alternatives and their issues.
We’ll also consider a low-cost approach for remote control.
This lays the groundwork for more modeling possibilities, and,
of course, more fun!
Power, regulation, recharge, and conversion
This began as an experiment to see how the small but power-
ful LiPo batteries could be used for modeling. I have had some
success using them with my small mobile cranes (See
) and I wanted to
put them on the rails. There are additional complications with
charging and maintaining multi-cell LiPos used to get the higher
voltages we are familiar with – like 12 volts.
2
2. 2600 farad keep-alive capacitor with clearance
problem.
MRH-Nov 2014
