Leaderboard

Hi, just been experimenting with a few ideas on battery charging. I have decided that a powered siding (12V dc) and pick up through the rails suits me best, an onboard buck charger output 8.4 volts to charge an EBL PP3 2cell li-ion battery, a boost circuit raises the voltage to 12v for loco control. I have replaced the loco on/off switch with a small latching relay TQ2-L-5V this is wired to isolate the battery if the rails supply is reversed, a blocking diode protects the buck charger circuit. So the loco is run onto the powered siding and starts to charge, I turn off loco lights to save energy, the loco is still powered up and can pull out of the siding and onto the dead track at any time. When fully charged a trackside led changes from red to green. Now if the track voltage is reversed the onboard relay latches off and the loco battery is isolated. To turn everything back on again the siding is powered up and polarity selected to set the onboard relay. Loco is now active and can be driven out of the siding and onto dead track. So loco can be run, recharge and switched on and off without having to fiddle with a switch on the loco or having to remember where the magnet is. All this can be done without going anywhere near the loco. If required the siding can be long enough to accommodate more than one loco. I don't know if this has been done before, perhaps it has? I can send more details if anyone is interested.