Lister Power Supply

With no electricity to pick up from the rails my new loco in 16 mm scale relies on battery power. As I'm still a novice regarding battery power and eager to get the loco rolling, I have equipped my Lister with a single cell standard camera type battery. Battery technology and the associated circuits is a new game for me, so to cut down on mistakes, loss of hard earned money and avoid getting myself too challenged I chose a type of battery I'm used to handle.

Lister on its side. From left to right: Battery under rear foot plate, wires for receiver in seat/figure, motor and transmission (big word for such a simple thing!) charging socket and two pole switch mounted under/in bonnet.

The battery is a Li-ion Japcell JC123R 3.7 V 650 mAh.  It may not be cutting edge technology, but the battery has turned out to be able to provide power through my helplessly executed circuit to the Lister's motor and actually make the loco move. I consider that a success.

While I was shopping batteries I bought a BC-4123 charger as well. Battery and charger set me back 35 €. Not much for starting a gentle learning curve and should I continue using JC123Rs or other 16340 type batteries, the charger will see plenty of use.

'But if you have installed the battery permanently under your loco, how do you fit it in the charger' the attentive reader may ask. The battery is permanently fixed and it will not fit in the charger. To be able to charge the battery in the loco a socket is installed under the bonnet. A matching socket's two leads were soldered to a pair of crocodile clips. On one of the four stations in the charger I soldered small brass tabs on the contacts. I can now easily attach the crocodile clips to the tabs on the charger and charge the battery via the socket under the bonnet. May sound very old fashioned but it does really work.

Soldered tabs from scrap brass on one of the charger's four stations.

Crocodile clips are now easily attached. Charging can begin.

With a fully charged battery all I have to do is to flip the 2 pole switch next to the charging socket from charge mode to work mode, switch on the Tx-22 controller, select loco no. 3 (my only one so far), turn the speed knob and the loco moves. And I don't have to clean rail heads or wheel treads!

All the bits that make my Lister run.