How much dose the Kato P42 draw in current when running (by itself). Bought me one just for the trucks and need this info for a dead rail conversion (took me forever to find one at the right price).
Very little? Stall current wasn't tested, probably because stalling a coreless motor is a quick way to kill it. It shoudl be insanely low - considering the Canon regular can motor in my Stewart Baldwins run about 25ma when running alone - half that could be the LED headlight.
Just test it - even the cheap Harbor Freight meter can handle that current. Feed 12V DC through the meter set to ma mode to the track and stick it on. Just don;t stall it for a peak test, those coreless motors are rather fragile. It's a neat concept but I wonder how many Kato will see back with fried motors.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Have not heard of any burnout problems, will reserch that.
rrebellHave not heard of any burnout problems, will reserch that.
I've been running mine on a regular basis since I bought them maybe three years ago. I'm not aware of any burnout issues, either. They're smooth running and they don't hesitate a bit with a decent sized train of Superliners or even the "lead-sled" Walthers Amfleet cars.
I thought by now we would have seen more locomotives with the truck-mounted coreless motors.
Good Luck, Ed
They won't burn out if not mistreated. I guess the price keeps them out of the hands of those who would handle them more roughly.
I would guess Kato is keeping an eye on how well these do before releasing others with the same sort of trucks. It is amazing they can do that in HO now - axle-hung motors have been around a long time for O scale, particularly traction models. There have been and still are other self-contained power trucks in HO, but nothing like these Kato ones.
These are lower profile than alot of other ones and seem alot better than the spuds I already own, much more power without adding weight and more so with added weight (testing is just starting by me). Conversion to dead rail seems easy enough and I am not the best person with a soldering iorn.