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Just Love Those SuperCaps!

7K views 138 replies 5 participants last post by  Nick Jr 
#1 ·
Years ago I fitted my Sierra sound systems with supercaps replacing the gel packs. With no open houses last year, I've not run the trains in over 2 years now.


The other day I started to clean the wheels for the upcoming open house and as soon as I supplied power to the wheels, the sound systems came alive. The 6 volt gel packs would never do this, nor would they have lasted the 2 years unattended.
 
#137 ·
Playing: using 7V input, after the initial charge takes minimum 60 sec to get a full charge, longer had no effect but shorter lessened the time out. Using the uxcel Variable Resistors 10K ohm 5W from Ebay. (ref the pic) from factory A-B is 55K, B-C50k, pretty close to the 60 sec I wanted. Found 2 revolution of the adjustment screw changed the release time by 4 seconds, up or down depending on which connections you used and what direction you turned the screw.
B-C CCW raised, CW lowered resistance----- A-B CCW lowered, CW raised. Hope that makes it easier for those doing this. 19 days and a wake up.
 

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#138 ·
As I mentioned I advanced the Super Cap circuit to the Sierra board using the existing battery leads, leaving the I/O switch as ONE way to turn it off.. Using this option gives an instant start as long as the switch goes OFF within the 90 seconds of full discharge. Second option using the timing circuit. This caused the sound board to give a very short grunt while the caps on the timeout board charged. Either way is totally acceptable. This will be my last posting on this subject. Toddalin, again thank you very much for your time and expertese. I will continue to play with these circuits and convert my other Sierra's to this system.
 
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