HO Scale Smoke Units

[Anonymous]

Does anybody know if there is a way to install a smoke unit in my HO scale diesel locomotives? If so, could I turn it on and off using DCC?

[Don Gibson]

Not recommended.

They 'puff'.and require a chimney
they are HOT and will melt plastic.
they use too much current tor DCC board

Very un-diesel like

[rrinker]

You can. The most common ones are made by Seuthe. To control one with a DCC decoder normally requires a relay, as they draw too much current for most function outputs on the decoders. A relay will require a diode connected across the coil to prevent the back-emf when the relay releases from destroying the decoder.

This will likely lead you to think it would be a whole lot simpler to connect it directly to the track - don't! When the smoke generator runs out of fluid it gets very hot. And usually destroys itself - the instructions caution you against running them dry.

I'm not a big fan of smoke generators because of the oily residue they leave on your layout, but if you do want to put one in, either install a small on-off switch so you can switch off the power when not in use, or use the relay and connect it to a decoder function output.

--Randy