DalaGStanator's Customs, Mods and Experiments

After the first button battery holder I showed two posts ago, I've been designing compartments and looking for support methods for other battery types and varying voltages; mainly for cases where I feel AA, AAA or other 1.5V types would be too big, overpowered or not as efficient (depending on voltage and purpose).



Having found out that mass produced devices with button/coin cells (typically) have the positive terminal touch the rim of the battery and not the top/bottom, I made a second CR2025 holder from a plastic cap and used two screws for the terminals (after trying other conductive metal bits that didn't quite work with the design). The battery stays in fairly well even when turned upside down, yet can be taken out just by pressing it. Soldering the wires to the screws proved a bit difficult and I just left the wires wrapped around them with little to no solder.



For a 9V battery, I thought I'd have no choice but to get an existing connector or make one from an old unit to make it function correctly. Lo and behold, I have three tiny nuts that perfectly match the inner geometry of the negative terminal and can even get stuck in it. For the positive contact, I only had to find a screw with a head that fits in the terminal. They were originally joined using a piece of packaging plastic, but the soldering iron melted it and the remains had to be thrown out. Both of my 9V batteries are nearly dead and I'll have to wait before I could use one for anything. Regardless, I'm glad I won't have to look for a connector now that I've worked this out.



Nearly everything I've seen with LR44s uses three of them to generate 4.5V (normally in a row), so the same goes for my own compartment for them. The contacts are flat, round metal bits from a forgotten source, which were likely made as rings for screws. This compartment could be small enough for lights in one of my vehicles, a signal/traffic light or a very small structure (like another phone box), but likely wouldn't last long trying to power a motor.



The belt drive on the tender drive chassis started malfunctioning all the time, so it had to be reverted to a crown gear with the motor facing the gear train again. For better capacity, the AAA pack was also replaced with the AA one used for the OG loco drive setup. When properly coupled, it successfully pushed the 2-6-0 chassis without derailing it and even the crankpins moved without slipping. It will still need traction tyres even though it did well without them. Sadly, the crown gear makes it much noisier and the batteries could be tricky to handle when the tender body is built (unless I'll make it removable). The on/off switch was hot glued through the slot the pack's OG cover would lock into, but the spring on the front negative terminal is long enough to help insert the battery on that side. While the current drawbar in the images looks eerily similar to a TOMY loop coupling, it actually isn't; it was a wire holder from an old table fan. The loco end will (of course) be further away from the rear wheels to fit under the cab overhang.