Cruise Commander Lite, motors series or parallel?

It cares. Parallel is the only way. BTW while a Cruise lite will work you will want to fuse it. It was made for a single small motor, not two small motors. For an engine that will pull long trains a Cruise Commander is recommended. ERR couplers will bolt right on. I prefer to replace the 2" couplers with 1 3/4" unless you run on 027.

Pete

Norton posted:

It cares. Parallel is the only way. BTW while a Cruise lite will work you will want to fuse it. It was made for a single small motor, not two small motors. For an engine that will pull long trains a Cruise Commander is recommended. ERR couplers will bolt right on. I prefer to replace the 2" couplers with 1 3/4" unless you run on 027.

Pete

Thank you for the response. I did actual measurements, running the heaviest train I plan to pull uses about 1.6 amps total motor current, total for both. Fuse isn't a bad idea though.

The issue is stall current which is 2.35 amps/motor. If for some reason the engine gets hung up the current draw will be over 4 amps. FWIW I have put a Cruise Lite in a two motor Williams NW2 and it works fine. Fuses are cheap and worth installing for that 1 in 100 chance.

If you wanted to you could check out the stall current by simply jamming a toothpick in the spur gears with the Williams E unit still in place. The E unit is rated for 6 amps so a few seconds at stall will not damage anything.

Pete

Norton posted:

The issue is stall current which is 2.35 amps/motor. If for some reason the engine gets hung up the current draw will be over 4 amps. FWIW I have put a Cruise Lite in a two motor Williams NW2 and it works fine. Fuses are cheap and worth installing for that 1 in 100 chance.

If you wanted to you could check out the stall current by simply jamming a toothpick in the spur gears with the Williams E unit still in place. The E unit is rated for 6 amps so a few seconds at stall will not damage anything.

 

Pete

Sounds like a perfect application for a 3 - 3.5 amp self-resetting fuse.

Use a lower value PTC for the CC-Lite, I speak from experience!  I cooked one of my early beta units, the locomotive stalled on a switch and took out the board in seconds.  I use a 1.9A trip PTC for CC-Lite installations nowadays.  I've never had an issue with it tripping, and I've also never lost another CC-Lite board.

Quite frankly, I'd put a full Cruise Commander in that unit unless you're pulling 4-5 car trains with it.  The CC-Lite was designed for small motorized units, and other lightweight uses.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Use a lower value PTC for the CC-Lite, I speak from experience!  I cooked one of my early beta units, the locomotive stalled on a switch and took out the board in seconds.  I use a 1.9A trip PTC for CC-Lite installations nowadays.  I've never had an issue with it tripping, and I've also never lost another CC-Lite board.

Quite frankly, I'd put a full Cruise Commander in that unit unless you're pulling 4-5 car trains with it.  The CC-Lite was designed for small motorized units, and other lightweight uses.

Well, I already ordered it, so I think I will give it a try. I will use a smaller PTC fuse as you suggest. That is one reason I was pondering the series vs. parallel connection, the series would give less motor current, and speed is not usually a problem with Williams. But, I will follow the lead of experts to start, and once it works correctly I will continue to putter until I break something. At the end of the day this is a science project for me, as is the whole hobby!

I think you will be OK with the Cruise Lite. like John if I was doing this for someone else I would recommend a Cruise Commander but for myself I like to experiment. I can tell you my Williams FM pulling 30 cars never drew more than 2 amps and did so for over an hour on the club layout. These were all modern cars with needle point axles. Post War cars or a dozen 18" heavyweights on grades would probably bring you closer to the limit.

Pete

Others have used cruise light in small motor steam with no issues either.  You should be fine.  An Lionel or MTH coupler will work, as long as mounting works.  G

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Use a lower value PTC for the CC-Lite, I speak from experience!  I cooked one of my early beta units, the locomotive stalled on a switch and took out the board in seconds.  I use a 1.9A trip PTC for CC-Lite installations nowadays.  I've never had an issue with it tripping, and I've also never lost another CC-Lite board.

Quite frankly, I'd put a full Cruise Commander in that unit unless you're pulling 4-5 car trains with it.  The CC-Lite was designed for small motorized units, and other lightweight uses.

The 1.9 amp trip is more than the 1.5 amp one we have listed on the PTC reference. Should I update the list with a different part or leave it as it is? Previous info:  750mA hold, 1.5A trip for ERR Cruise Commander Lite - Digi-Key: MF-R075-0-99-ND

Also is one needed for the full Cruise Commander? There is nothing listed for the full CC in the list. Would be happy to add it if you have the info for one.

Here's a link to the other PTC info: PCT info thread

I'd probably leave it.  It's a bit safer, and you'd likely never see that much current unless something is wrong.

I've never added one for the full Cruise Commander, it has pretty robust drivers and I've never lost one after probably 75-100 installations.

Ok, thanks. I will leave well enough alone.

Well, I finally put this together. Works very well, although that is what everyone predicted. Hardest part of the job was finding a place for the Run/Program switch. Did not realize that the fuel tanks on the WBB GP-9 are full of steel weights!

I started out with the motors in parallel, and after that worked successfully I changed them to series just to see what terrible things would happen. Nothing terrible happened, minimum speed was a bit lower so I left the motors in series; the lower current on the Cruise Lite was an added benefit. Added a 1.85A PTC fuse to the motor circuit.

As an aside, I also purchased a Sound Converter; sounds are not important to me but I thought it would be nice to have the whistle/horn. Learned that the standard cable supplied with the Sound Converter does not match the connector on the Cruise Lite. Spoke to ERR about a solution and we are kicking around a couple ideas.

All in all, a successful project. Cruise control in TMCC is impressive, but the minimum speed in conventional is still somewhat high. Will add some electro-couplers when I get up the gumption!

Hacking out the spot for switches is sometimes one of the more time consuming parts of a project, especially if you have a number of them.  I've been tempted to buy a properly sized square hole punch for the little switches, but I haven't so far.

I believe the Sound Converter comes with a cable for the full Cruise Commander, but you can use the cable from the CC-Lite and just pull the pins and swap them to the correct sized connector.  You have stumbled on the reason I bought all the connector pins and shells for the various sizes of Lionel connectors, as well as the crimp tool.  This happened to me one too many times.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Hacking out the spot for switches is sometimes one of the more time consuming parts of a project, especially if you have a number of them.  I've been tempted to buy a properly sized square hole punch for the little switches, but I haven't so far.

I believe the Sound Converter comes with a cable for the full Cruise Commander, but you can use the cable from the CC-Lite and just pull the pins and swap them to the correct sized connector.  You have stumbled on the reason I bought all the connector pins and shells for the various sizes of Lionel connectors, as well as the crimp tool.  This happened to me one too many times.

I am going to get some teeny toggle switches for the next time. One round hole is not too bad. If it were up to me, I'd just glue a reed switch somewhere inside the plastic shell and use a "magic wand" to program it. Probably too practical, though... 

Yes, I will need to break down and get a few connectors as I get into this stuff. That connector on the Cruise Lite is tiny!

Actually, I have a few motorized units that have reed switches for the program switch.  I stick a little magnet on the frame for when I want to program them, that works great and is a very practical solution.  It doesn't work so well for switches that you want to have the option of long-term settings in both positions, but it's perfect for the PGM/RUN switch.

The JST EH family connector are the 2.54mm connectors for Lionel, the JST PH are the 2mm connectors, and the JST ZH are the 1.5mm connectors.  If you happen to need the 1.25mm connectors used for some Legacy connections, they're the Molex PicoBlade connector family.

I buy all of these and the mating pins on Digikey.