If you use a car battery a smaller charger will work. You will however eventually deplete the battery and will need to give it time to recharge.
Banks, Proud member of the OTTS TCA 12-67310
All,
Here is what I tried to do with no success:
1. I used a co-workers homemade 12 V DC power supply. It plugged directly into the wall outlet and I hooked up the two inverters (one was 150 Watt and the other 400 Watt) directly to it. Don't worry, I did not hook up both inverters at the same time; I tried one first then the other. The inverters both gave me low voltage readings. I still attempted to hook up the CW-80 to the inverters but the power light only came on momentarily and then went out. The CW-80 was not getting any power.
2. I obtained a car battery charger that plugged directly into the wall outlet as well. The charger had many different power/battery settings and I used them all. I hooked up both (separately) inverters again to this charger and neither one of them received power from the charger. It appeared to me the charger was not recognizing the inverters and it wanted to be connected directly to a battery.
Someone suggested the charger was not powerful enough, but it was rated for all kinds of batteries. Plus it is the only one they sell here on base. I need to reach out to the UK and European folks again to see what they specifically devised for the solution. A friend of mine contacted Lionel's Customer Service and the reply received he received was that Lionel's equipment and trains are designed for 60 Hz and the only suggestion they offered was to buy an inverter but they didn't guarantee that would work.
Joe
Joe here is a long shot but let me give you a couple of links and see what you think
http://www.harborfreight.com/interests/solar-power/45-watt-solar-panel-kit-90599.html check this out and see if it don't peak an idea
Life's hard, even harder if your stupid John Wayne
http://rtssite.shutterfly.com/
You would have to see if they would ship via usps and how much or I could see if they don't want to and see how much to ship 50 lbs and wonder how big of a box it would be
"You're going to need at the very least a 10-ampere charger, which will cost in the $100 ballpark. Its output voltage may very well be unfiltered, which may mean that you will need an actual 12-volt battery between the charger and your inverter."
What is the rating of the charger when charging a 12-volt automobile battery? Did you have a battery connected to the charger?
Bob Nelson
Bob your probably right on all accounts but thought when I saw it hey maybe this would work I do believe they say you need the inverter and a battery
Joe,
When trying the DC power supply with the inverter, hook up a test load of a floor lamp or something and measure the DC voltage output of the power supply with the inverter under load. Chances are it will be low, as will the inverter outputs, as you seem to get. The power supply may not have a high enough wattage rating to do the job. Next, try getting a car battery hooked to the inverter, and see what results you get then.
It seems that the car battery charger will not output until it sees a load. Try having a load on the inverter turned on before hooking up the battery charger.
Lastly, you may need to have the charger hooked up to a battery, then to the inverter to get everything to work, and output the proper voltage.
Larry
"What is the rating of the charger when charging a 12-volt automobile battery?"
I did not have the charger connected to a battery; straight to the inverter. I also plugged the CW-80 (and raised the throttle) into the inverter prior to turning on the charger and inverter. I suspected neither the charger nor the power supply was providing enough power.
I returned both items already and I did not notice the rating of the charger when it is charging a 12 V battery. I sent Lionel an email myself but since we just put up the Christmas decorations and trains I will not be able to conduct any more testing until I build a layout under my son's bed. I hope to do that by the end of January.
In the meantime I will start looking for a better battery charger.
Thanks again for all the help.
Just remembered something you said your just going to be there a couple of years most likely well maybe for the time being a couple of conventional Williams would be the ticket till you get back I now remember you said you didn't want to spend a lot just for a couple of years so that eliminates my previous idea right away ( temp forgot about that when suggesting it) no there not easy to find but Williams by Williams had some crown edition which the B-unit had a engine sounding sound board and would do something like train 13 56 requesting to depart then you would hear engine 1356 permission to depart all clear but they stop making them like late 80 or early 90 I think Phillyreading is more up on them.
Just some more ideas and not sure if they would work on 50 or need the 60 cycles we have.
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