On 26 Jul,
Stefan Gerris wrote:
>> Has anyone yet investigated in detail to see what the components
are?
>
> I didn't investigate, but I suspected it to be nothing more than a capacitator, resistor (to regulate the charging current) and
a diode (to bypass the resistor when drawing current from the capacitator). The
Lenz representative couldn't deny that that was all. What I don't know are the
specific values and ratings...
As has been mentioned here before... Bearnd indicated at the NMRA national that in addition to
the capacitor, there are a couple of power inverters (one to change the
capacitor input voltage to about 2.7V and one to change the capacitor output
voltage to about 7V) and there is some kind of circuit that controls when the
capacitor is in the circuit.
From what Bearnd said, the capacitor is out of
the circuit if the locomotive is on the programming track, so you don't have
the programming issues people experience with some sound decoders.
Paul
> Has anyone
yet investigated in detail to see what the components are?
I didn't investigate, but I suspected it to be nothing more than a capacitator, resistor (to regulate the charging current)
and a diode (to bypass the resistor when drawing current from the capacitator). The Lenz representative couldn't deny that
that was all. What I don't know are the specific values and ratings...
Cheers, Stefan
Hi Koos,
> Did you see yet the Zimo
webside
> http://w3.zimo.at/web2003/pdf/MX63E.PDF
>
> on page 20
Yes, I was aware of that, but thank you for making the link available to
the group! It's always good to have a graphical representation of what you're
talking about. What I'm wondering about is whether or not the Lenz Gold
decoders are dsigned the same way internally. The
internals of the decoder determine the maximum current the SUSI interface can
provide for charging the condenser, hence the value of the charging resistor.
So until someone rips one of these "new" "Lenz USP for Gold
decoders" apart, we won't know exactly...
Cheers, Stefan
I had two of
these units from Mackay's in the UK delivered on Thursday and fitted them to
two 16mm scale NG locos on Friday night. Fitting is fairly difficult as trying
to solder the connections to the decoder is not for the faint hearted. You need
an iron with a small bit and a steady hand.
The performance is pretty impressive though. The Gold decoder has always
been smooth, but I covered the track with lengths of masking tape and drove the
loco up and down. This is a 4 wheel loco with a wheel base of about 45mm.
Running over a 4 inch length of tape and even reversing the loco off the tape
was described by one of my non-DCC enabled friends as 'just not natural'.
The GBP price is £28, which seems a lot for what the unit it. But bearing
in mind that I have a layout which involves the movement of loose sand I think
they will be a good investment.
David
Cambridge
Ø I spoke with Debbie Ames at the National Train
Show Saturday and I got the
> impression it would still be a few weeks before they are available in
the
> US. The bad news is that the price will be high, somewhere
around US$30 to
> US$45 according to Debbie.
I too talked with the Lenz crew at the national train show, and got the
same basic information. Not having an expectation on cost, the US $30-40
did not seem so bad to me. Considing the other
options...Adding wipers, weight, etc to locos which may not have room....the
price tag seems reasonable to me.
> That is in addition to the
decoder. Also, they
> would offer 8 seconds of power per charge (it's a capacitor), not very
much
> if your track is very dirty although it should get you across those
sticky
> frogs. I have to say I was somewhat unimpressed after all the
hype.
8 seconds seems like a long time to me. Should get most of my locmotives through frogs, points or not so clean track, or rough tracks which causes the wheels to lift off ever so
slightly. Like Trevor, I model the
Debbie had a sample of the USP power module. It was not as flat as
the decoders, more of a ball/tube, shinkwrapped with
three wires coming out of it. Trevor, I think there is plenty of room in
my Sn2 locos for both decoder and power module.
I also got the demo of the USP. Some of you may already know this,
but I did not. In order for the USP decoder to
receive signals, the decoder/locomotive must have access to one rail.
Their demo had a "G" scale loco running on 6" of plastic rail
(one rail only). The loco can stop, reverse, etc...
It seems Lenz or Lenz
Dave K.
Today I installed the POWER1 in my HAG
Re4/4III (new generation HAG) and it worked perfect and if you have a small
soldering iron there is realy no problem in attaching
the leads to the Gold decoder.
Since Hag has one motor truck (with 4 rubbers, and
no fly wheel) the POWER1 gives much much better
driving characteristics over switch points etc. it even runs over a sheet of
paper (loco length).
Maarten
----- Original Message -----
From: Nigel Emery
To: DigitalPlusbyLenz@yahoogroups.com
Sent:
Subject: [DigitalPlusbyLenz]
Re: Lenz USP power storage modules
Nigel Emery wrote:
> I think I'd go further than fairly
difficult! I'd say I'm about average
> in the soldering stakes with access to
small bits plus an optivisor etc.
> and I can't get close to doing the
soldering successfully. I suspect
> this is going to be a problem for a
large proportion of the potential
> market.
Following up my own
post I've now invested in a smaller soldering iron
(Antex
M12) and have managed to do the soldering. I still consider it to
be a poor design as I think it's way too difficult.
Performance on my test loco (Roco - OBB class 1016) is good although not
as spectacular as some have reported. I'm
getting between 2 and 3
seconds of power, more than enough for a bit
of dirty track but not long
enough to be able the loco onto a masked rail
and drive it off again!
At the current price I wouldn't equip every
loco in the fleet but it's
certainly worth it for short wheelbase
shunting locos. If in the future
decoders become available with USP built in
then I'd be interested
provided the price delta was no more than say
£10.
Nigel