Why so much extra for R/C?

[Busted Bricks]

I've been into the R/C hobby for 20+ years so have a good grasp on what equipment is available and at what cost. I struggle to understand why a loco fitted with R/C costs £300 more than a non-R/C loco. The kind of R/C equipment needed for a loco can be bought for less than £50.

[cncmodeller]

I think it might be because its really a conversion job and not just popped in like an almost ready to fly RC plane, there are linkages that are peculiar to each loco and last week I fitted RC to a manual loco and took me a day to get it installed, admittedly I had to CNC out a brass bracket for the servo but getting the 'throws' correct for the regulator took some doing.
John

[TonyW]

The kind of R/C equipment needed for a loco can be bought for less than £50.

Hmmm...

4 x AAA battery pack : £13
Switch harness : £5
2 x HS82MG servos : £32

That comes to £50 just for the basic stuff, with no transmitter or receiver!

[Busted Bricks]

Those prices are very high. You can buy very good metal geared servos for a lot less than than. Also I would assume the manufacturer is not buying at retail prices.

What rechargeable cells are included? I can get Eneloop packs for less than that.

Even if you did spend £100 on equipment, £200 to fit it is very high if it is done at the factory.

Just my opinion of course but I have the feeling garden railway enthusiast are paying over the odds because they may not have a lot of experience with R/C equipment.

[TonyW]

Those prices are very high. You can buy very good metal geared servos for a lot less than than.

Can I ask where? The price I quoted was from servoshop.co.uk who offer keen prices. The HS82MG servo is the usual choice as it commonly matches the brackets provided by the loco manufacturers and is known to cope with heat, oil and vibration.

What rechargeable cells are included? I can get Eneloop packs for less than that.

Price I quoted was from strikalite.co.uk for a sealed 4 x AAA pack with Futaba lead and allows a bit for postage. I too can buy loose eneloop batteries for less but they'd need a holder and lead to use and the sealed pack takes up far less space.

[Busted Bricks]

We are not quite on the same page here. I am talking about factory fitted R/C equipment. The new Accucraft Bagnal is £300 more with R&C fitted.

[-steves-]

I use these servo's, work perfectly, even in planes which are much harsher on them than trains. 4 servos for £14.65 delivered!

http://www.banggood.com/4X-TowerPro-MG9 ... mds=search

RX, maybe around £15, around £30 if I want one with a built in ESC. All this stuff comes from China, so why not buy it unbranded, it really does all work!

As for why is costs so much to fit, try fitting out the Accucraft Mannin and see why they charge so much!! I am 2 weeks in and still working out where I am going to put it all and connect it, I would love to see a factory fit one that I can copy (When I say 2 weeks, thats probably only 2 hours as I am always very short on time, but thats how long its been on the shelf in bits!)


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[90733]

I believe Accucraft locos are fitted with RC in the UK rather than in the factory in china but I may be wrong.

[cncmodeller]

I've got an Accucraft Lew and that's got a special little metal linkage bolted to the cab floor that transmits horizontal movement to vertical. That little item is not available anywhere I've looked.
John

[GardenRail]

There are several things going on here - and the first of them is of course the economics of scale. i.e. - if everyone wanted to have a live steam loco in the same way as 'everybody' want s buy a phone, the price would plummet. Fact is however that we are here talking dozens and not millions. The building and fitting is done entirely by hand and one only needs to look at the hourly rate charged by garages for a motor mechanic's services to see where the money goes.

Secondly there is a market economy working here. There are several people who will fit radio control for you - check 'em out.

Thirdly, the cheapest way is of course to do it oneself. Servo brackets etc are available from suppliers such as Swift Sixteen and I have fitted R/C to several locos - although I largely cannot be @rsed to do it on a new loco and would rather pay. Accucraft locos have R/C fitted in the United Kingdom and so of course, have to be partly stripped to do this – and all the time the clock is ticking.

Oh yes - if you are doing it yourself, Roundhouse can supply an RC kit for their locomotives – but again it is simple enough to do it all oneself. Don't forget the Roundhouse use a different steam regulator with smaller throw for their RC locos so you would need to buy one of those...

[-steves-]

I've got an Accucraft Lew and that's got a special little metal linkage bolted to the cab floor that transmits horizontal movement to vertical. That little item is not available anywhere I've looked.
John

Could you not make one of these John? Do you have a picture of your fitting on the Lew, though I think the Mannin will be very different, but we shall see.

Cheers
Steve

[cncmodeller]

Oh yes I could make one easily! My point was ( Sorry for not being very clear) that to fit radio control is not a quick and straightforward job and does require some special parts. I remember also Alan at PPS years ago and explaining to me the small markup dealers have with live steam models which us understandable as they are a lot of work to build, so if they have to fit RC in the UK and can make a little of extra cash all power to their elbow I say.
John

[-steves-]

Well after some weeks I did eventually get around to putting rc into my Accucraft Mannin. I ended up making two servo mounts, both tapped out top and bottom, one new regulator arm, tapped and braised up, and one funny little joiner to link into the existing links, plus of course the new linkage for the regulator. For such a large loco, there was actually very little room in it, but thanks to the RC Trains RX102 I was able to squeese it all in, although the batteries have ended up under the roof and thats actually a pet hate of mine, but I had no choice but at least they are AAA, s and not AA, s. The RX 102 also made it easy to do the end point adjustments required, so its all running off an RC Trains TX 24. The servos are cheap metal geared servos from China at about £2.50 each. The switch, standard switch and they actually provide a location for that, though the switch wouldnt go in until I got some snips in the for the brass poking through that was in its way.

If anyone wants to attempt to RC one of these, then honestly, get someone else to do it, lol  :lol:

P.S. I tried it today and it all works a treat

[-steves-]

A few more details on this plus a video can be found here for anyone interested in trying to Radio Control their Accucraft Mannin, not the easiest of jobs to do.

http://www.16mmforum.co.uk/viewtopic.ph ... p=256#p256



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