My first step into the World of Radio Control for Small Trains.

There is a small but growing interest in Radio Control (RC) with on board batteries and no track wiring for indoor train layouts. When I first thought about putting RC in small scale trains I knew of no RTR systems being sold.  Parts were being used for HO to O scale were coming from RC car, plane, ship models etc.  N scale may be possible but I don't know anyone that has done RC for "N" scale. 

The first thing that is necessary for an RC conversion is a very good running motor in the locomotive being converted.

I have thought about adding RC to a locomotive for maybe 9 months. I have had most of the parts for two conversion's for some time but thought this was going to be a big deal to get working. I was very wrong, it turned out to be very easy.

My First Radio Control Train - McKeen Motor Car - Team Lois Receiver

Friday I decided I would start on one of my McKeen Motor Cars.

I am using a Team Losi Micro-T receiver with a Team Losi 7.4 V Li-Po battery.  After I installed everything I took the car to my Local Hobby Store (LHS) RC department to show them and to buy a Futaba Attack transmitter.  The transmitter they had was a 75 MHZ AM and they said I needed the 27 MHZ version.  The LHS put one on order and said they should get it 14 days or less.

When the installation is finished the battery will sit on top of the Receiver.  I have been running the chassis on RC and it runs very well.

Here are a few pictures:
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Cont.


R/C planes, cars etc each use a (crystal / frequency / channel) that is different or should be so that problems don't occur.  The crystal is a plug-in and can be changed sort of easy.  Every controller (Transmitter) would have a different frequency (crystal or with some transmitters a controllable way to set or change a frequency). 

The nice thing about a train on a track is that all I really need is a way to control its speed or on / off.  That only takes one (crystal / frequency / channel) or what ever word is the easiest to understand.  The Futaba transmitter I am getting should let me control two different trains (individually) on the same set of track at the same time.  The radio receiver on my Locomotives (Team Losi - Micro T) all have (on / off) power switches so I could use the same crystal on several different locomotives if I wanted to park them in the "off" power position on a siding while I was running two other Locomotives.

As I build more Loco's with RC I will test additional transmitters / receivers.   I have two different sets of hardware to play with.  One big question I will need to consider is just how many Locomotives can I run or do I want to run on my layout at the same time.

This first transmitter is the Futaba Attack (2-crystals) on sale for $39.95.  You can get a Futaba that has from 2 to 14 crystals but the price goes up accordingly.  You can buy a hand held transmitter that can be programed with 1 to 9999 address or frequencies but the receiver that goes in the Loco is larger than the one I am now using and also requires a larger size battery.   

There are a number of RTR - RC train items being made for "garden" size trains where size is not to important.  For HO - O scale most or maybe all is what you might call custom applications made from the smaller RC Plane and Car stuff.