Emerald Night With New PF-L Motor

[Missing Brick]

Just wondering if anyone's tried this yet?

Seems like the L motor has enough grunt:

http://www.philohome.com/motors/motorcomp.htm

I've been contemplating adding a motor to my EN set - but I can't face ruining the cab with that massive ugly XL motor, and the tender with that huge battery pack and ribbon cable between. My preference would be to have motor, batts & receiver all in the tender, using a smaller motor like the PF-L, with a custom battery small enough to fit. Then just have a separate small batt and switch up front in the engine to power the lights. No mess, no cables etc. Is it possible?

[twenty6twelve]

I can't recall yet seeing anyone powering the Emerald Night with the new L motor, but I'll link you to some threads that might help you out. Here's a thread discussing possible uses for the L motor in train application, and another regarding options for powering the Emerald Night, respectively.

Good luck with whatever you decide!

[Missing Brick]

Many thanks for that first link sixoh. That's exactly what I was looking for - but google failed to find it for some reason. Thanks.

[Missing Brick]

One of the most objectionable things about the PF Emerald Night is the way the battery box and connector are so visible sticking out the top of the tender:

I'm currently looking at two possible solutions. These involve removing the battery box lid and instead soldering the lid contacts to separate black plastic AAA battery holders like these:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/aaa-size-battery-holders-31426?c=maplin&utm_source=endeca&utm_medium=endeca_search&utm_campaign=JG79L&utm_content=Battery+Boxes

So to reduce the 4-stud height of the Lego 2x3 battery box you replace it with one 2x2 holder in the tender in series with a 2 x 1 holder in the first carriage. Then just sit the lid on top and camouflage with black coal bricks.

Alternatively, if the tender is expanded to 7-wide then a pair of 3x1 holders will fit in the tender - again reducing the height allowing camouflage.

For the motor I'm now thinking of using a PF-train motor in the tender copying one of the many designs for 9V conversion. eg. http://www.carolinatrainbuilders.com/2010/01/converting-the-emerald-night-to-9v/

However, shifting *all* the batts into the first car does open the way for laying an L-motor in the tender and having some fun with the gearing.

Edited November 30, 2012 by Missing Brick

[roamingstop]

You can directly wire a PP3 (or equivalent holder as you show) to the 0V and 9V lines which are fed into the IR receiver (option: use a PF / 9V adaptor cable); this then generates the necessary C1 and C2 data. No need to destroy a good battery box; and is a lot easier if you want to reverse the decision in the future.

[Blondie-Wan]

I have two Emerald Nights but haven't built them yet (they're still unopened! - but they won't be staying that way... ), so I'm not yet familiar enough with the build to have a truly informed opinion, I admit, but I can't help but wonder whether there's it's possible to build this in such a way that the wire from the tender to the engine is lower, with the coupling, so that it just looks like part of the normal connection. It's LEGO, after all; surely it must be possible to rebuild any number of ways while still preserving most of the original look... right?

[Missing Brick]

Thanks for that tip Roamingstudio. I agree - much better to just hack a cable rather than destroy a whole battery box. I'll try it.

Blondie - I've spent some time thinking about it: Putting the battery box upside down or on its side with a hole in the floor / wall for the connector - but nothing works. The thing is just too damn big to fit without ruining the model. So it's got to be broken up and spread out.

I just noticed that it's possible to layout an array of 6 x AAA batteries on the internal floor of the tender. They take exactly 4x11 studs x 4 plates high - which opens the possibility of a flat brick-built battery box with spring contacts canibalised from a third-party battery holder. Hmm....

Edited November 30, 2012 by Missing Brick

[roamingstop]

Some time ago i tried a 9v pp3 solution in 4511 locos to see what it went like. Good for about 1hr 30 before battery drains; so multiple aaa with holder is better choice; especially since pp3 needs 3 stud internal space. Good for shunting but not continuous running

[Missing Brick]

Here's a mock-up of my brick-built battery box. (I don't actually have an Emerald Night to test with because it's been wrapped up for Christmas. So just planning ahead here :)

The grey walls represent the green side walls of the Emerald Night tender. I use short technic pins at each end to give a perfect fit to the batteries. Then wrap some solid core wire between the holes to make contact with the battery terminals. Seems to give a nice snug fit with no rattle and a solid 9.4V coming out of the corner terminals at the far end.

I will have to see how well the contacts work in practise, but it looks promising. So the whole thing is only 3 bricks high - so plenty of room for a pile of coal bricks on top to camouflage it.

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

WOW this picture looks great!

[Missing Brick]

Here's a slightly better mock-up using the exact dimensions of the emerald night tender. The other advantage here is cables to the engine can be kept low down next to the bogies where they're less visible.

I changed to copper braid to get better contact but still not sure if this will be good enough once the train is trundling along - might have a problem with them vibrating loose. I will test after xmas and report back!

[roamingstop]

If you are going down slight lego modifying path... Solderworks or 3m make conductive epoxy which could be used to attach braid to pins;

To stop ends coming loose add a few 2x2 corner plates

[Locomotive Annie]

Hey wow, this is a really good idea, thanks for sharing.

[dr_spock]

Great idea. Have you tried copper strips? I don't think they would unfold as much as copper braid.

[zephyr1934]

Here's a mock-up of my brick-built battery box. (I don't actually have an Emerald Night to test with because it's been wrapped up for Christmas. So just planning ahead here :)

Brilliant solution! With a little tweaking and a few panels, one could probably turn this into a 4 wide vertical solution for hood diesels too.

[kieran]

Hey, nice work would like to know how this works in practice with the loco bouncing around for a hour or two, let us know after christmas