I did not think the smoke unit is fan driven? Modulating the heater will not make it puff... it's a resistor that has thermal mass... it will not switch on and off rapidly like an LED.

I pulse a fan motor, leaving the heater pretty constant, lowering and raising the heater current with speed somewhat.

Ahh, the Shay was "dcc ready", but no socket.

On the K27, the earliest "socket", I do see that the smoke heater is indeed switched with a transistor, which should be in the current range of most function "outputs". The transistor is an 8550, which is a high gain PNP.

But, you have to supply voltage to a PNP to conduct, so the logic may have to be reversed from a normal function output, just like the chuff needed to be.

So, you are indeed correct, thanks Stan.

Thanks Stan. Is it safe to say all current production with the socket have logic levels for lights and smoke?

Is there an easy way to tell this? (I suspect the first locos with the socket, which I think was the shay, did not have this).

Greg

The motherboard takes care of the LEDs, logic level current.

I think the smoke unit might also be in the same way... but direct wiring will be more tha 300 ma... I'd ohm it out....

if it is the same as the dash 9 (meaning it has the socket) then perhaps it works the same:
J1-8 Smoke Activation 11.2mA  The smoke unit itself draws up to around  0.6A. but this current is funneled through the + and - connections and not through the function pin.



Greg

if you are buying one, and cannot see it in person, ask the seller to make a short video of it running.

Lately the secondary market has had a lot of locos with lots of broken parts. It's not just the trucks that can break, they are just the most famous.

I'll be interested likewise if Loco Bill can find some statistics. Very popular loco, one of my wife's favorites.

The oldest ones have their trucks disintegrating, so you will see lots. A very popular loco which can be repaired with a new set of trucks in most cases.

Notice there are about 3 versions (off the top of my head) of this loco, and the value directly depends on the version.

Maximum is actually vague:

full stall rotor locked
full stall wheel slipping
heavy load on rails
light load on rails
load on rollers.

I'd set it to 2 amps (2,000 ma)

Greg

The loco has a custom sound file, and is DC and DCC compatible with a special setup for the pantographs I believe.

Greg

The guys at USAT have had no clue about this issue (it's a setting in the DCC decoder that affects DC), fixed this long ago in Nick S's GG-1

I guess you don't believe me... ok... a single DCC setting... I tried to help.

Mark, Would you consider running the DCC Revolution system? Then you could leave the QSI installation alone, reprogram the top speed limitation, run on batteries of your choice (or power of your choice).

You would have all the great sounds and functionality of the QSI, all the functions would be accessable from your remote.

The only downside is you need the DCC Revolution and have to run that loco from that transmitter.

There's a lot of cool functions in that GG-1....

Greg

So you don't even have sound? I think you could also control the pantographs.

It's not likely that the voltage would drop under heavy load, it would just overheat the revolution.

The GG-1 can draw current, but this does not sound right. My friend that had one was complaining about the low speed, and the CV setting even affected DC top speed... can you check the voltage while running?

This guy does run Bridgewerks, so he could be running over 24 volts...

Greg

Mark, the GG1 came with a programmed in speed restriction. Change the max speed CV in it, it will go much faster. Been there, done that.

Greg

Both, but mostly stay in the transition era, to run both, so only older diesels, and later steamers.

mikado, pacific, consolidation, mallet, 0-6-0 switchers, etc.

diesels, everything up to about the early Geeps, although I do indeed have a NS Dash 9 to go with a NS high hood SD45. (the Dash was a present from Scott Polk).

A fun time to model, with a lot of unique looking locos... I do class 1 railroads, so no logging and all is 1:29.

Greg

Yep, I gotcha, not cheap, but sometimes the only answer. For more complex parts, GLX can be a godsend.

Anyway, looks like all options are up.

We had a lot of discussions about parts during the heyday of large scale, and often it was cheaper for the "distributor" to cannibalize full locos for the parts. I know it was common for motor blocks.

Note that often USAT has shells for sale... (they sold the motor blocks)

Regards, Greg