A more powerful locomotive
The 5-volt power set-up works quite well but if you really
want to power stubborn 12-volt motors, one might want a bit
more oomph! This next loco separates the DC to DC converter
from the battery manager and allows for converting the vary-
ing (3-4.2 volt) battery voltage to anywhere from 6 to 14 volts
I adjusted mine to run at 10 volts. I
thought it was a good tradeoff for higher motor power and rea-
sonable battery drain. The converter will put out voltages up
to 35 volts but you may destroy the electronics and motors! So
please make adjustments before you connect it in your model
loco! You’ll need a voltmeter to make the adjustment. Pay
close attention to all pins and connections.
This design uses a different battery manager board as well, the
inexpensive protection circuit module at
5,
and is wired into the circuit differently. Battery manager/pro-
tection boards must always be connected to the battery. In
this circuit, the reed switch disconnects the load and the track
power (lowered to 4.4 volts) to the battery manager. This
31. Another view of the remote controller internals.
31
Battery-powered models - 13
MRH-Nov 2014