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Mamod SL1 simple RC conversion

Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2014 9:59 pm
by daveyrd11
Hi,

My father recently donated his Mamod SL1 to my little railway, the line is end to end so you can probably guess the problem!

As a child I remember our fun with the loco, running around the little loop of track that came with it, it was great and a good little runner, but like all Mamod it did like to run fast, very fast! My dad considered RC, but in those days it was mega expensive!

So my plan was to upgrade the Mamod to RC and meet the following objectives!
Make it drivable
A simple conversion
No drastic cutting/re engineering
Reliable
No tender (personal choice, I don't like Mamods with tenders!)
Cheep!

My eventual solution used deltang radio gear, its cheep and very small, I mounted the receiver in the cab roof and one servo on the left hand cab floor, I used CR2 batteries because they are smaller than AA batteries and each delivers 3 volts so I only needed 2 in total, I mounted them under the cab floor on each side.

I hope the pictures make sense! I'm very pleased with the conversion and it's turned a rocket propelled Mamod into a nice drivable loco!

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Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2014 10:05 pm
by daveyrd11
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Re: Mamod SL1 simple RC conversion

Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2021 9:43 pm
by MervynW
Hi

I appreciate you posted this article a long time ago - but… please will you explain what the servo actually controls. I assumed it would be connected to the regulator wheel but it doesn’t appear to be so

Thanks in advance

Re: Mamod SL1 simple RC conversion

Posted: Fri Jun 18, 2021 8:40 am
by Andrew
Hi Mervyn,

Hopefully you'll get a reply from daveyrd11, but we've not seen him for a while I'm afraid, so maybe not.

It's been a long time since I ran my 30+ year-old Mamod, but it looks to me like the servo's controlling the original regulator/direction lever? If it's like mine, the regulator in the cab's an add-on to improve controlability, but direction's still controlled by the lever on the front. I think that would make sense in this context - you could set the cab regulator to a sensible speed, then control starting, stopping and direction by R/C?

Good luck with taming your Mamod - I must get mine out sometime...

Andrew.

Re: Mamod SL1 simple RC conversion

Posted: Fri Jun 18, 2021 9:59 am
by philipy
Andrew wrote: Fri Jun 18, 2021 8:40 am we've not seen him for a while I'm afraid, so maybe not.
5 years actually, August 2017 to be precise! So It is highly unlikely, I'm afraid.

Re: Mamod SL1 simple RC conversion

Posted: Fri Jun 18, 2021 10:55 am
by -steves-
philipy wrote: Fri Jun 18, 2021 9:59 am
Andrew wrote: Fri Jun 18, 2021 8:40 am we've not seen him for a while I'm afraid, so maybe not.
5 years actually, August 2017 to be precise! So It is highly unlikely, I'm afraid.
Or maybe even 4 years, lol :lol:

Re: Mamod SL1 simple RC conversion

Posted: Sat Jun 19, 2021 8:24 am
by Superbiker_uk
R/C control can make a real improvement to the Mamod loco 'driveability'. Merlin made an R/C conversion back in the day. You can get some more information and download the R/C instructions from here https://sites.google.com/view/peter-jon ... mamod-mods

Here is an example of a nice running R/C controlled Mamod that I put together https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T8wXTjWp5w

Re: Mamod SL1 simple RC conversion

Posted: Sun Jun 20, 2021 6:41 pm
by MervynW
Thanks for all the input. Has anybody fitted a servo to the upgraded regulator? I'd like to know what torque is needed