Showcase Miniatures Ballast Regulator

[u18b]

hahaha

But, man, I'm neck deep in EP-2!

But hey.  I do already have a motor.

I was in a R/C hobby shop a while back and bought a TINY motor that goes in these mini helicopters.

Might be fast, but it would be interesting.

[DKS]

I was in a R/C hobby shop a while back and bought a TINY motor that goes in these mini helicopters.

You can get low-rpm gearhead pager motors... I've got a few, might do the trick...

[u18b]

You know.... when I had my iPhone 4 apart, I thought---- Wow.  What a motor.  Just take off the eccentric weight and adapt the shaft width.

[Denver Road Doug]

You know.... when I had my iPhone 4 apart, I thought---- Wow.  What a motor.  Just take off the eccentric weight and adapt the shaft width.

I was thinking along the lines of the Kato mech that you used in the hi-rail vehicle.

[DKS]

You know.... when I had my iPhone 4 apart, I thought---- Wow.  What a motor.  Just take off the eccentric weight and adapt the shaft width.

I tried that for my hi-rail. Fitted a worm on the pager motor shaft. It could barely haul itself along a dead flat grade.

[peteski]

How about the self-propelled truck (and associated electronics) from Kato's PORTRAM LRV?

[DKS]

There doesn't look to be much room at all in this thing:



I have a feeling a gearhead pager motor might be about the only practical solution: it might be able to fit within the frame under the cab; plus, you'll want something really slow, since obviously these things can only crawl at best. But, we'll know better when we receive our respective kits.

[Ian MacMillan]

since obviously these things can only crawl at best.

Ours does about 30. tops.

[Hyperion]

You could more than likely "cheat" and stick something in the broom box.  There's at least ten times the volume of space under there than under the cab.

[peteski]

There doesn't look to be much room at all in this thing:

I have a feeling a gearhead pager motor might be about the only practical solution: it might be able to fit within the frame under the cab; plus, you'll want something really slow, since obviously these things can only crawl at best. But, we'll know better when we receive our respective kits.

The PORTRAM truck is a pager motor with a worm and bunch of tiny gears.  The circuit board contains the headlights and a circuit which reduces 12V to something the pager motor can deal with.  It might be usable (for those gears and worm).

[sirenwerks]

Any idea on the era of the prototype?

What Lou asked... what's the era on this particular model?

[ljudice]

What Lou asked... what's the era on this particular model?

Probably 1985 or so to present...

[ljudice]

No pretensions here on motorizing, but it might be nice to put flashing amber LED's in these things...

[Philip H]

No pretensions here on motorizing, but it might be nice to put flashing amber LED's in these things...

While this screams for some SMD mounts (flasher, flood lights) I gotta ask - if this is a white metal kit like all of Showcase's other cool stuff, how do you insulate the thing?

[wbvrail]

Hi all...

The kit includes MTL wheels to insulate it from the track.  Also, the front and rear tool assemblies (which are metal) can be positioned up and down so care still needs to be take to make sure they do not touch the tracks.

It will be difficult to power this model without sacrificing some of the scale accuracy.  Possibly re-gauging the Searails PowerMax is an option.  We are considering producing our own power truck at some point that could be gauged for both N and Z Scale as well as with a variable wheel base.  Searails may be working on this too.  We'll see...

Some of the upcoming models of the Knox Kershaw equipment (like the KBR-875 or KBR-925) may facilitate a power truck since the cab is larger than this one.  Likely we could design two versions - one with a scale accurate cab and one with the idea of housing a power truck in mind. The KBR-925 is also a unique model since it can facilitate different attachments to the front or rear of the machine.

We're listening (and working)...

Walter