GRS Hunslett 0-4-0 kit - request for help with battery power

[andymctractor]

Hi, came back from Warley at the NEC with a GRS Freelance Hunslett 0-4-0 loco kit with rtr chassis set to 32mm gauge.
I'm planning the build and am very pleased with the purchase but I do have some early issues I'd like to sort out.

Clearly the rtr chassis is built for but not with track pick up and GRS have a pick up kit available for those who want one.  However, like many others I don't do track pick up and was looking at powering the chassis using battery power and eventually radio control.  
My issue at this early stage is whether the fitted motor is the best choice for battery power where space for batteries will need to be found.  I'd rather change it now if I have to although everything seems so well put together on the chassis I would rather avoid unnecessary changes.

The motor is an MFA 12-24vDC with 15:1 gearbox.

Has anyone, built this with the provided chassis converted to battery and is willing to advise? OR Is there an available article somewhere that I could access?

There are other issues that I can research and sort out later but I would very much appreciate any help members may be able to help me with this.


Regards
Andy

[tom_tom_go]

You can run that motor on battery power no problem.

The voltage will depend on what you want it do and the R/C gear you plan to install?

[andymctractor]

You can run that motor on battery power no problem.
The voltage will depend on what you want it do and the R/C gear you plan to install?

Thanks for replying.
That is good news.
My plan is to use it as a shunting loco and for hauling shortish trains on my almost level track at medium scalish speeds.
R/C gear has not been planned but I will put in what is suitable for the set up but certainly 2.4 Ghz if that is appropriate.

[philipy]

Andy,
I used that GRS chassis for my scratchbuilt body MW. The motor is fine on battery and I used Deltang R/C ( before Rik got his RC Trains website operational). Given a free choice I think I'd have gone for a bigger reduction gearbox, but tbh its not worth the hassle of changing it.
My build is detailed in the thread at http://gardenrails.myfreeforum.org/abou ... s&start=30

[Peter Butler]

I bought one of the chassis on ebay (new and boxed) at a great price and scratch-built a steam outline body on it with eight rechargeable AA batteries in the boiler. It has Rik's Deltang based RC fitted and works extremely well.

[-steves-]

very easy solution to this.

Use 4 x 18650 batteries, 3 if you dont want too much speed or power, and couple it with an RC Trains RX65, which requires no additional external battery source and no additional ESC as it has one built in and its tiny. I have a number of trains running on this setup and it works absolutely perfectly. Note that an 18650 battery is 3.7v (or 4.2v fully charged) and isnt much dear than an AA battery, so 4 of these would give you a total of 16.8v fully charged). Now, there are some batteries of the same voltage which are the size of an AA battery but are still 3.7v (but I cant recall there number off hand), I have recently purchased these to use on one of these chassis, as yet I have not built it or tested it, but the idea seems excellent as they are such low drain motors the run time should still be great.

The only ONE downside is charging these batteries as you will need either a plug in the wall individual cell charger, or an expensive mutli charger than can charge just about anything.

The expense of the charger is out weighed by the gain in space and performance of these batteries. It is the way of the future in my honest opinion. Plus you can use the charger for anything else as well. TX's, RX's, Li-po, Li-Lo's, Lead Acid, Nickle metal or nickel cadmium.

[andymctractor]

Thanks to Tom, Philipy, Peter and Steves and others for the info. which some will be surprised I understood most of.
Plenty to think about. Also some aspirational results to try and live up to.

Thanks again.
Andy