Johnnny_reb Once a word is spoken it can not be unspoken!
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Yes, but battery life will be halved of course.
Karl
The mind is like a parachute. It works better when it's open. www.stremy.net
Why not use a 9v tranformer, like a wall wart? Then you have no battery worries.
Rotor
Jake: How often does the train go by? Elwood: So often you won't even notice ...
Trynn_Allen2 wrote:Because ultimately it must be portable for shows. Our club rare thinks far enough ahead to bring all of the cords that would be needed for everything we need powered. That being the case I figure a 9 volt battery is usually on hand, as the DT400R's go through them like water. I thought I could at least attempt to recycle these cells that still have juice in them and since LED's draw next to nothing they would last long enough.
This makes since.
Have you or your club looked into rechargeable 9-volt batteries?
Thought about, purchased, tested, evaluted and still bring in the non-rechargables. We found some issues with the rechargeables.
1.) The cost to purchase the batteries was a bit steep but not insurmountable, the cost to keep enough of them on hand was.
2.) the 9 volt rechargeables that we purchased hold enough of thier charge for two hours of operation with a DT 400R and 3 hours with the UT(r)-4's. That is alright for most test setups. For shows there are 4 people on at all times, with 2 trains in the wings for opeational casaulties (rare but has occured) This requires at least 4 throttles. Each operating session is 1 hour long with some being 2. The 400's get used a lot. Each battery takes 4 hours to charge. Each show generally has 7 to 8 hours of operation. This doesn't include branchline activities on modules, so the base is 21 to 28 hours of operations. Call it 8 batteries to get you through one day, minimum and it goes up from there.
3.) No way to bleed off the charge once the battery loses the volts to stop radio control. Each non-rechargeable 9 volt we can get about 5 hours of operation out of. Each rechargeable is 3 hours. The problem is that once you drop below 6.9 to 7.1 volts you lose radio options and have to rely on IR. (How many clubs have modulers set up for IR?) If you don't want your rechargeables to pick up a memory you need to nearly deplete them. No way of really doing that a show.
I admit that this building lighting project is actually a means to chew up that lower voltage, but I don't know if the LED's are going to be enough to actually drain the voltage low enough.
On a side note: Has anyone worked with the fuse style flouresent lighting that is available?
Just a thought but how about a lighting decoder like a TCS FL4. If the buildings are removeable like mine on my modules then run a feeder off the track buss with a conector to the decoder and control the lights from a throttle.
Pete
I pray every day I break even, Cause I can really use the money!
I started with nothing and still have most of it left!
Trynn_Allen2 wrote:3.) No way to bleed off the charge once the battery loses the volts to stop radio control. I admit that this building lighting project is actually a means to chew up that lower voltage, but I don't know if the LED's are going to be enough to actually drain the voltage low enough.
3.) No way to bleed off the charge once the battery loses the volts to stop radio control.
A 9v nicad usually consists of six cells at 1.2 volts each. (yes, not really nine) To prevent memory effect you should drain the battery until the volatge is below 1 volt per cell. (below 6 volts for the battery - lower is better but not critical). You really don't need to go to zero. So your idea of an LED load should work well as long as no more than two LED's are in series. I've used this idea to modify fire department HT chargers. It worked great and added a lot of life to the batteries.
Good luck,