I forgot to mention that I sprayed the inside of the cab with some flat black so the windows would not show as much of the wires and decoder. If you do that as well, be sure to not only carefully tape off the outside, but also the small section for the backup light.
I'm modeling a small "space-restricted" industrial railroad, so switchers are all I am running and having seen my dad go through all the iterations over the past 40 years, I wanted to go dead rail. When dad decided to go battery he landed on S-cab, and knowing how he did things that was good enough for me to follow in his path. Fast forward: Neil made me up a couple of S-cab assemblies using essentially this same gear, except we settled on a D14SR decoder because the wiring departs the decoder vertically and in the middle of the PCB (as opposed to off the end of the board with a plug full of wires that adds to the required length) which makes it possible to put the decoder/receiver assembly fully in the cab, oriented sideways. That frees up something like 15-20mm of additional space under the hood. I'm installing in an ALCO HH600 (the high hood has so much room I may add cup holders) and an EMD SW8 (with a little tweaking) for the moment, and when I get my hands on a Lackawanna S4 I'll do one of those as well. Thanks for doing this video!
@@StanFerris I have S-CAB in my GP9 currently, going on 5 yrs, and with ditch lights too! Would love to connect with others who are using the system. Thanks!
Amazing video, I remember finding your channel via this video years ago and have been watching ever since! I'm currently working on a layout powered via overhead wire and may need a diesel to run around on the layout in certain situations, how is the performance of this locomotive after all these years? Did you ever try to run it off of DC or DCC and not use the separate throttle? The system seems like it offers the most flexibility overall, it just seems like almost no one is using it and there isn't much documentation on it outside of your videos and their website.
I've currently got 2 of the S4s running on battery, plus the little Plymouth (which needed the electronics partly in the attached coal car). I noticed a year or so ago that one of the battery packs was getting a bit puffy, so I replaced the batteries in the two S4s. Another S4 is still running on DCC at the back of the layout, but due to so much dust here in the desert, it is currently stuck in one of the two tunnels-- I get tired of cleaning that track. 🤣 I bought a second controller. I agree that the S-Cab website is not for the faint of heart-- sort of technical overload, but I wanted a system that could self-charge itself without fiddling. I just make sure I park the locos on a few clean sections of track. Steven, if you have any specific questions, send me an email. That way we can exchange a few pics of what we might be discussing. stanfm@aol.com
Would love to see someone combine this with blue rail. Having the charge from the track and a voltage converter allows a single-cell battery and the ability to use a Bluetooth controller would be the target. EDIT I guess you beat me to it. Have you tried running just the Blunami or Tam Vally receiver with your BPS? What is your run time with that small battery?
No. You could have just a short section of track with DC or DCC power in the rails, and the circuitry will charge up from there. My track already had DCC everywhere, so as long as the locomotive can find a bit of clean track anywhere it will automatically charge the battery. I've never had to specifically charge the batteries, just turn on the layout once in a while for 20 minutes or so.
Hi Mike! The little power supply does a couple things... it boosts up the voltage from the 3.7v of the small battery, and also it picks up power from the track to recharge the battery. In my case, since I already had NCE DCC in the rails, the system I got from S-Cab is NCE compatible, so it takes the pulsed power in the track and adapts that. The battery has a small protection circuit to prevent over-charging. So I don't have to do anything other than run the train or at least switch the track on every once in a while to keep the battery charged. That's one of the reasons I like the S-Cab system! 73's K7SBF
I forgot to mention that I sprayed the inside of the cab with some flat black so the windows would not show as much of the wires and decoder. If you do that as well, be sure to not only carefully tape off the outside, but also the small section for the backup light.
I'm modeling a small "space-restricted" industrial railroad, so switchers are all I am running and having seen my dad go through all the iterations over the past 40 years, I wanted to go dead rail. When dad decided to go battery he landed on S-cab, and knowing how he did things that was good enough for me to follow in his path. Fast forward: Neil made me up a couple of S-cab assemblies using essentially this same gear, except we settled on a D14SR decoder because the wiring departs the decoder vertically and in the middle of the PCB (as opposed to off the end of the board with a plug full of wires that adds to the required length) which makes it possible to put the decoder/receiver assembly fully in the cab, oriented sideways. That frees up something like 15-20mm of additional space under the hood. I'm installing in an ALCO HH600 (the high hood has so much room I may add cup holders) and an EMD SW8 (with a little tweaking) for the moment, and when I get my hands on a Lackawanna S4 I'll do one of those as well. Thanks for doing this video!
Wow that sounds great! Thanks for the details on the D14SR option.
Awesome! You'll be able to rust up some of them sidings now :)
Yes, I'm already planning on adding more vegetation now that I won't remove so much of it by accident trying to clean the track!
Awesome video! Is there an S-CAB forum?
Hi Roger. Thank you. Haven't seen a forum for S-CAB, but there is a Dead Rail group that features a number of platforms for battery power.
@@StanFerris I have S-CAB in my GP9 currently, going on 5 yrs, and with ditch lights too! Would love to connect with others who are using the system. Thanks!
Great project. Looking nice, thanks for sharing. Dave
Yes, I'm having fun messing around!
I really appreciate this video.
Very kind words, thank you!
Amazing video, I remember finding your channel via this video years ago and have been watching ever since! I'm currently working on a layout powered via overhead wire and may need a diesel to run around on the layout in certain situations, how is the performance of this locomotive after all these years? Did you ever try to run it off of DC or DCC and not use the separate throttle? The system seems like it offers the most flexibility overall, it just seems like almost no one is using it and there isn't much documentation on it outside of your videos and their website.
I've currently got 2 of the S4s running on battery, plus the little Plymouth (which needed the electronics partly in the attached coal car). I noticed a year or so ago that one of the battery packs was getting a bit puffy, so I replaced the batteries in the two S4s. Another S4 is still running on DCC at the back of the layout, but due to so much dust here in the desert, it is currently stuck in one of the two tunnels-- I get tired of cleaning that track. 🤣 I bought a second controller. I agree that the S-Cab website is not for the faint of heart-- sort of technical overload, but I wanted a system that could self-charge itself without fiddling. I just make sure I park the locos on a few clean sections of track. Steven, if you have any specific questions, send me an email. That way we can exchange a few pics of what we might be discussing. stanfm@aol.com
Cool! Quite the project!
Thanks! It is a bit tiny!
Would love to see someone combine this with blue rail. Having the charge from the track and a voltage converter allows a single-cell battery and the ability to use a Bluetooth controller would be the target. EDIT I guess you beat me to it.
Have you tried running just the Blunami or Tam Vally receiver with your BPS?
What is your run time with that small battery?
Hi Ernie. No, I've only used the S-Cab units. Here's the run-time test I did: th-cam.com/video/jQlVLg-fa1U/w-d-xo.html
I think I might try that combination, once I have gathered all of the parts.
THANK YOU...for sharing. Very nice install.
Thank you.
Do you have to take it apart every time the battery needs charged?
No. You could have just a short section of track with DC or DCC power in the rails, and the circuitry will charge up from there. My track already had DCC everywhere, so as long as the locomotive can find a bit of clean track anywhere it will automatically charge the battery. I've never had to specifically charge the batteries, just turn on the layout once in a while for 20 minutes or so.
How do you charge the batt?
Hi Mike! The little power supply does a couple things... it boosts up the voltage from the 3.7v of the small battery, and also it picks up power from the track to recharge the battery. In my case, since I already had NCE DCC in the rails, the system I got from S-Cab is NCE compatible, so it takes the pulsed power in the track and adapts that. The battery has a small protection circuit to prevent over-charging. So I don't have to do anything other than run the train or at least switch the track on every once in a while to keep the battery charged. That's one of the reasons I like the S-Cab system! 73's K7SBF