Hammant And Morgan controllers

Andy

I think everyone inherits these things at some point, I got two doubles and a single, they must seek out railway moddelers once they're bored with the current owner!

Sadly not, my leads are all missing too!

Um, if the controller takes a lot of turning to start locos put it on low, if not out it on high. With low can be handy for some locos but some will jump start the instant you open the controller.

Dunno, BUT half produces slower gruntier running, full tends to be quieter and faster. How to use I've no ideas

Sorry couldn't help more!

Ralf

In message , Ralf Edge writes

Doesn't the Multipack have to be connected to the uncontrolled DC output of the Duette? The Duette has 12 v. DC on the right and 16 v. AC on the left side of the casing (well mine does anyway), and connecting the Multipack to the wrong outlet could cause problems. Surely the Multipack has something printed on it to say what its input requirements are?

Half/Full wave refers to the rectification of the DC current. With full wave, both the up and down parts of the AC wave are transformed into DC, with half wave it's only one of them, so you get a large peak current with a smaller root-mean-square, which is ideal for getting your stock to crawl at the proverbial 1 inch per hour or thereabouts.

Modern electronic controllers can do similar things, but they can do it much better and more efficiently.

Andrew,

It's years since I had my Duette and I can't remember all the connections, so take the advice from the others.

But the resistance switch was a method for H&M to cope with the more efficient motors which started to appear on the market place - especially with the advent of N in the 60s. These more efficient motors could take off at almost full speed when you cracked open the control knob, and by switching in a higher resistance, you could possibly avoid this. It was a bit of a cludge at best and didn't really work all that well and the advent of transistor controllers with low impedance outputs did the job so much better.

Jim.

...and the Wave Switch gave half or full sine wave output, the half giving half the power and pulsing at fifty times a second instead of a hundred - a sort of crude early pulse controller. They're quite usefull on my garden O gauge but awful on 4mm. and below. Time to change scale? :)

Ken.

IIRC, the H&M stuff had the uncontrolled AC & DC outlets located at different positions on opposite sides - all you needed to connect the two together was a pair of brass pins that simply plugged the two controllers together side-by-side. DC control accessories on the right and AC accessories on the left of the principal mains unit.

Cheers, Mick

In message , Ken Parkes writes

No. Time to buy a modern controller.

Agreed. The H&M does provide a useful, if somewhat heavy, 16V AC supply, which can then feed a nice modern controller. That's what mine is for; it powers a Pentroller.

Unless the original poster is trying to collect vintage model items, I'd not bother trying to run with such antiques.

Thanks to all for your help - everything seems to be up and running following your advices.

Andy Howes

H&M had the answer - all hail the Powermaster!

I find my old Safety Minor is great with RG4s and anything but my Heljan

47 - however I haven't tested it since I adjusted the thermal overloads

These two are simple rheostats, variable resistance which doesn't give very good control.

The trouble with this, is that high resistence, ie throttle at low speed, doesn't let much current through. Typically you turn the throttle, it takes off like a scalded cat and you have throttle back to make it run slowly.

They also used to make variable transformer units - Powermaster (which had two) and Safety Minor. These were much better and gave higher current at starting.

To give two "speed" ranges.

Full wave rectification gives a smoother output voltage. Half wave gives

50 pulses a second, which can be useful to overcome sticky motors and gears. But it makes the motor noisier.

John Sullivan wrote in >Message-id:

Very true, the new controllers are are excellent but one thing they can learn from the Duette is the lovely satisfying *clunk* of the control knob when it reaches the middle "off " position. Turn to the right loco goes right, turn to the left loco goes to the left. That's the way it should be.

I don't like those reversing switches.

Also seeing the state of some old controllers on sale at swapmeets I think they should be checked for safety especially if children may be operating the layout.

Tommy