Lights and Smoke Units
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Smoke Unit
Electronically Controlled with Battery Pack etc £86.00
In the quest for realism on model railways, the generation of smoke
has been subject to attempts which fall short of achieving the desired effect,
Previously the model smoke generators have been connected to the traction
supply,
so smoke is produced to the load and speed, when watching a full size
diesel locomotive starting from rest
a large cloud of smoke is ejected,
To
achieve this effect in model form we have developed a battery powered smoke
generator,
This is a natural development to our locomotive lighting units.
A short burst of traction current (insufficient to move the loco)
will start a "pre-heater",
After a few seconds the fan starts and a
generous amount of smoke comes from the exhaust.
At this time the traction
supply is advanced and the locomotive moves off,
after another delay the heater
is switched off followed shortly by the fan
This causes the exhaust to fade
slowly as it does on the full size Locomotive !
All the above is powered by on board batteries as there is
little traction current available at this stage.
(these batteries also provide
excellent ballast weight )
Now the locomotive is on the move the sensor looks at
the traction current again and adjusts the exhaust accordingly,
now using the
traction current to power the heater and fan, thus saving battery power.
When
zero traction current is detected for a period of about 10 seconds the unit will
revert back to the start
condition indicated by a tiny green LED which as with
the units on/off switch can be mounted anywhere on the locomotive.
The unit caters for continuous running with stops and shunting
moves. Both modes of operation being enhanced with an exhaust unit fitted,
shunting takes on a whole new dimension.
Combined Light and Smoke Unit £107.00
As described above in both the light
and smoke unit but shares one set of batteries
to help reduce the space
required and cost.
Smoke Unit (Fan + Heater unit only) £58.00
This
unit can be connected directly to the traction supply.
However smoke will only
be generated when there is sufficient voltage applied to the track.
Mains Adaptor /
Charger for light Smoke Units
£12.00
Set up for DCC operation
Thanks to Simon Varnam for this information
The smoke unit must be setup for stand alone operation, NOT in conjunction with its companion battery and timer/charger circuit as used on DC layouts.
Your DCC decoder must have two spare function outputs, one to drive the heater unit and the other to drive the fan.
In addition to the smoke unit and DCC decoder you will also need a zero cross over AC relay. Available from RS Components, Stock No 244-9019
These relays operate in a similar way to traditional relays, except that they are specifically designed to switch AC power which they guarantee to do at the 0v cross over point, something that cannot be guaranteed with traditional DC mechanical relays. Other advantages are:- Physically very small, almost silent in operation, no moving parts.
It is suggested that the relay is mounted on a small piece of Vero board or similar and connections made to the board rather than the pins of the device directly.
The output from the decoder that is to power the heaters should be configured to pulse mode with as long a duration as possible, preferably with a longer off time than on time.
The heaters will take a little longer to reach operating temperature but due to the cyclic action will remain warm if left on. The heaters can be switched off at any time simply by turning off the function output on the decoder as you would for lights or sounds etc.
The output from the decoder that is to power the smoke unit fan should be “dimmed” to the maximum amount possible. Failure to do so will result in the motor running very fast which may damage both the motor and decoder.
