Ride On Railways

Electrics

Electrics

The wires from the control board to the motors must be of at least 6mm². Anything less will cause overheating and possibly cause a fire. If you intend to run the loco excesively hard then it may be worth investing in 10mm² wire for the battery leads.
On the motor leads connect the two black wires to one wire and the two orange to another. Which ever style connector you use make sure no bare wire is exposed which could come in to contact with the chassis. Wires should be tied back to keep them away from any moving parts. The two supply wires then run under the rear motor support bracket and up to the control board.

6mm wire is not designed for 120amp but can cope with it for short duration's. The wire should be left in exposed locations to allow for cooling. Do not tape wires together or run then in conduits or they may overheat. Please read and follow recommendations made in the control board installation instructions. - 4qd website has copies of instructions - www.4qd.co.uk - and gives full guidance on electrical systems.

Right- Showing the now standard dash board / controller mount. The slot on the left is for the 4qd LED battery condition meter.
	Left -showing battery isloator switch and the position of the control board. Before monting the control board, cleanoff the paint around the inside of the mounting holes where the heatsink (aluminium block) will come into contact with the steel mount. this will help with heat transfer to the steel.

Make the battery connection leads the same length. i.e. distance from control board to the battery terminal (including battery switch if fitted). Put a loop in the lead for the closest battery terminal so the leads cannot be connected the wrong way round.
Also tie the lead for the far terminal to the front part of the battery tray. Again this is to help prevent the batteries being connected up wrong.
Always disconnect batteries before charging

Left - Although this picture has featured on other pages, it does demonstrate the wiring under the loco. The wires from the front two motors are connected to 6mm² wire using an electrical connector block wedged under the central cross strut. The wires from the rear two motors are long enough to pass through the deck and are joined again to 6mm² wire just before the control board (see picture above).

If you have to purchase wire then please do not follow our bad example, buy two different colours, eg red and black.

Speed Restrictor / Govenor

After a little incident with one of the neighbours children driving we have had a little re think about our engines. The incident involved a Bulldog on greasy track which was allowed to wheel spin at full throttle for several seconds. The result of this was a large flash and a loud bang - then end of a 70amp controller.

Again shutting the gate after the horse has bolted (deadmans switch after a run away train), we have fitted a 10K potentiometer in series to the hand held controller potentiometer.

By simply turning the pot on the engine you can restrict the top speed from anything from 100% - 0%. We have also replaced the circular knob on the hand controller with a pointed knob. This makes it harder to accidently turn up the speed as the motion is in the wrist rather than the fingers.

The Trojan dash now has a hole cut out to allow for the fitting of a speed govenor pot.

We have cut down the spindle and marked the top with a slot. By placing the old circular knob on the spindle and not tightening it up, you provide protection against little wondering fingers. To adjust the pot we simply lift the knob off.

Maplin - pointer knob

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