radio control

ACLR · Post by **ACLR** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 10:47 am

Ive tried to add radio contol to my mss loco but all I can get is 90 degree turn from the servo which isnt enough to open the steam valve I would like to ope atleast 360 deg

any ideas out there

grumpfuttock · Post by **grumpfuttock** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 3:14 am

I am not a sure of the MSS steam regulating valve setup, but I am a little puzzled by the need for 360 degree movement on your loco. I thought that it was basically the same as the Mamod steam loco setup, with the steam reversing and regulating valve behind the front buffer beam which only needs to be turned by the same amount as the movement of a standard servo. Does your loco have a seperate regulator valve?

As for increasing the movement of a standard servo I seem to remember seeing mention of a small electronic device that can be added to the R/C system which can increase the servo movement greatly and I believe one can set it to the desired amount of movement. I have seen it mentioned on a forum a while ago, not sure which one (oops!) and I am sure it was mentioned a while back in the "Garden Rail" magazine under "new products", I will have a look through some back numbers tomorrow, and see if I can find it and more info.

I managed to increase the movement of the servo attached to the seperate regulator valve which I added to both my mamods, by removing the potentiometer in the transmitter from its joystick, and cutting away the area of the transmtter casing where the joystick was, I then fitted a flat panel over the messy hole, and pushed the potentiometer spindle through a pre-drilled hole in the flat panel, and then clamped the servo lever to the potentiometer spindle at 90 degrees to the spindle. Thus instead of a restricted up and down or side to side movement I had a rotary movement. Not a neat solution by any means, but it meant that the servo would move the same amount of degrees as the potentiometer would turn, which was far more than the joystick originally moved, (I hope all that made sense!)
That was a few years ago, on an Acoms 27Mhz system, I am not sure if it is possible on a newer R/C system, there have been a good deal of refinments developed since then and some R/C transmitters don't allow one to remove the joysticks very easily.

ACLR · Post by **ACLR** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 5:21 am

this is what i have to control my mss loco the original controle is for forward and reverse now. im using a ip enginering steam valve

I need more than 90deg turn to operate the valve
cheers Graham

steamyjim · Post by **steamyjim** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 9:17 am

While planning one of my Mamod loco conversions i planned RC. (decided not to in the end) But was think what about having the servo mounted in the roof with a bigish wheel on it. Then have a belt down to the regulator acting on a small wheel. Then for every 1 turn of the big one youd get several on the small one

grumpfuttock · Post by **grumpfuttock** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 2:59 pm

A good solution Jim. I've seen photos of a US Accucraft loco with a similar sort of setup.

Well I found the device in Garden Rail No.146 Oct 2006. It is a 2 channel servo smoother which can be programmed to allow the servo on ONE channel to turn up to 180 degrees. There was no info as to how one programmes it ! The cost in Oct 2006 was £29 + postage. It is from a model engineer named Peter Spoerer.
Its available from:-
White Horse Works,
Fakenham Road,
Morton O The Hill,
Norfolk, NR9 5SP
England.
Tel. 01603 260562.

If it's possible to send my a private message via this forum, I can email you his email address. The email address given on my website has been temporarily closed down due to a deluge of spam recently.

Of course adding the smoother to the system will require even more room which could be a problem, unless you use a tender for the R/C.

BTW, Graham, a very nice photo of the loco. With so much movement of the regulator needed, I guess you will have very fine control of the loco.

ACLR · Post by **ACLR** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 9:36 pm

thanks for that John I do have a tender for the train
will pm you my email addy
g

grumpfuttock · Post by **grumpfuttock** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 12:39 am

Graham, I am wondering if you PM'ed me, as nothing has shown up, it seems to work OK as I tried PM'ing myself, and that got through.

ACLR · Post by **ACLR** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 1:30 am

Sorry John I havent yet have gotr distracted with other things
will pm now

mhlr · Post by **mhlr** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 9:08 pm

I have a R/C Mamod called Columbine. The R/C is on the reverser at the front, and it's extremly effective and less complicated. Pull the trigger on the control and the servo pushes it left, and vice-versa for reverse. It works well. The servo's in the cab, with a rod at the bottom of the right-side tank going to a joint on the reverser. The receiver and batteries are in the tender with coal on top of a cover to hide it all. I haven't mastered adding images, so go on my site: www.freewebs.com/mhlr

Maesffordd-paul · Post by **Maesffordd-paul** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 9:43 pm

if you're looking for servo's try Hobbystores
www.hobbystores.com
They have a whole raft of different servos to choose from, and basically everything you need for radio control. the prices are also a lot better than most high street model shops.

Paul.S

Maesffordd-paul · Post by **Maesffordd-paul** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 9:44 pm

oops, that should be
www.hobbystores.co.uk

very sorry
Paul.S

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