I acquired this controller in a bundle from an auction. Curious to see if it worked I fitted a plug. No sparks, smoke or electric shock and according to my voltmeter an no load ooutput between 9 and 19 volts, which seems a bit high but electrical theory is not my strong point.

As it has screws holding the case together i thought I might as well look inside. What I found was the most peculiar layout i have ever seen. The rheostat is very strange. I took some pictures which are below,


This is the back of the rheostat on the control panel. Coil at the bottom is the overload cut out and comb piece on the side is the low/high resistance mechanism. As I could see that the square coil would come away I took it off.


On the left the front of the coil. It is turned through 180 degrees. The brass plate is downwards on the right side of the contact rings. One output is connected to the corner of the coil, the other to the centre of the ring and it reverses the supply when at the centre position shown. How the contacts rub the coil can be seen.

I assume there must have been cost benefits in this layout which looks very crude. It obviously works. I have yet to try it out with a loco on a layout as this was carried out in the garage. Crude it might be but i reckon it could last forever. Overload cut out works and resets. Not sure what effect the high/low resistance is meant to have though. Hardly affected the output.

I followed this by dismantling a basic 0-4-0 Triang Rovex chassis. Cleaned it up and got it going. Three more to go including a Hornby Dublo Bo-Bo diesel which I thought was missing the centre contacts. Reckon on inspection it is a two rail version, but they have obviously used the stock of three rail chassis.

David, certainly an oldie - many were like that years ago.
The high/low can really only be detected when a loco is in use - a voltmeter on the output is not much of a load to give the effect needed.

Hi David,

You wrote =

No sparks, smoke or electric shock and according to my voltmeter an no  load output between 9 and 19 volts, which seems a bit high but  electrical theory is not my strong point.

The no load voltage is exactly that and if you were running the train and measuring the voltage, you would see it as being around the 12 volts. There are several reasons  why this happens and I am not going to blind you with science but that is OK. Chances are your great grand children would conceivably be able to use it… they are pretty bombproof!

Cheers

Trevor

Built like the proverbial brick kahzi. They go on forever but check the state of the insulation on the mains lead. The rubber might have perished a bit.

Wonder if it would pass a PAT test :hmm



Ed

Serious question. What are the PAT tests? I know about them in general and that the kit and the courses seem to be very expensive. But I cannot find out what they actually are. Obviously insulation tests with something like a modern Megger line tester, but how and what seems to be very vague.

As for the controller the lead while red and black wires looks like it is of the post rubber era. Obviously I had to fit a plug and to be honest the wire was as good as new.

A Portable Appliance Test is like an MOT for small portable electric appliances. I think Ed knows the answer to that one, haha

Bill

I thought the PAT test was to give it a sharp rap with a hammer and if it still worked it was ok!!!

It used to be called a "portable appliance test" is now called" in service inspection and testing of electrical equipment"equipment

At its basic level is a:
Visual check for
 damaged flexes, plugs, and equipment,
Correctly wired plugs and correctly rated fuses.

 Then
 an earth continuity test
An insulation test.
A polarity test
And an earth leakage test.

 Not all the tests have to be done as on some equipment you can't do it, or it may damage equipment.

 Class 1 equipment is metal cased or has an earth point then you can carry out most tests
Class 2 equipment is double insulated so there is nowhere to connect up to do the earth tests.

 There is no legal requirement for it to be done!!
 But in certain circumstances you need to be able to prove your equipment is safe.

 Eg If you are a landlord,
 And the one that gets most of us at an exhibition, if the insurance company and therefore the show organisers says so.

 This is a very abbreviated explanation, there are ifs, buts and qualifications to all the above but I ain't typing it all!!

There was some discussions going on last year in the press and various websites about whether portable electrical appliances should be PAT tested before selling at a boot sale or the like.

Example

http://www.patinfo.co.uk/pat-testing/selling-used-electrical-appliances.html

Think it was mainly to ensure that if something was sold and the buyer was injured, the seller wouldn't be liable.

Don't know what the outcome was, or whether this controller would pass with a screwed rather than riveted case.

That said, you can still buy uncased transformers :???:


Ed

What's inside the case has and how the case is assembled has no bearing on the P.A.T. as long as it looks safe on the outside. Going inside the Equipment is not part of the P.A.T..
I work at a site that produces thousands of pieces of electronic equipment, ranging from under a hundred pounds  to Several Hundreds of thousands of pounds, they are all held together by screws (and bolts)


You only go inside plugs and extension Sockets.


And a pet P.A.T hate of mine…..

Some P.A.T personnel have claimed that wooden boxed transformers are incorrect as;

A, they may get damp

B, They may catch fire.






To which my answer B******X,

 Firedoors are made of wood because it's actually quite hard to get wood to catch fire. (harder than a cheap Chinese plastic Brick PSU)

Every Marshall Mixing desk / powered Speakers / Amplifier is in a wooden box and they have FULL C.E approval.

Just wondering what applies to domestic as  opposed to commercial equipment Q.

Used to have to have PAT testing done yearly on all the PCs and associated extension leads etc. when I was at work.

Was some years ago, but a right pain with disruption to over 500 users and took a week, even getting some done out of office hours.

Also remember the old transformer/controllers used to have a label with something like 'No user serviceable parts inside' on the riveted case.

Was that just to stop anyone being inquisitive and voiding any guarantee ?

 
Ed

No it was to stop inquisitive fingers getting rather warm by touching live equipment. Although I know some manufactures of equipment have fitted fuses inside and made themselves a lot of money for someone coming out to change it. (you know everything blows up just after the guarantee runs out)
When the P.A.T. arrived companies pushing it and in house Health and safety officers went overboard insisting on everything needing testing every year. The advice from  H.S.E  is somewhat different.
http://www.hse.gov.uk/electricity/faq-portable-appliance-testing.htm
Desk Computers for instance don't need testing every year, you plug them in and leave them there are not carted around and  damaged.
 A portable computer PSU should be tested every year as it is carted around and could be damaged, the computer itself doesn't need testing it's not mains powered. The PSU is almost certainly Class 2 (double insulated) and only needs a much shortened test
There is no" Domestic " P.A.T. the one at your site was on a commercial premises, (Selling Education?), A landlord is carrying out a commercial business selling Accommodation, A model railway exhibition is selling the viewing of our railways.
P.A.T. is not required on Home Equipment, unless it is being sold, (giving away for free is counted as being sold).
 I Calibrate 9 major equipments at work, requiring a total of 52 major 3 day calibrations ( plus lots of smaller items mostly resistors and shunts) the P.A.T. I do is exactly the same as required anywhere else, and it is done annually due to the value of the items. Not because they need it. plus I also P.A.T our M.R.C.
We did have an outside contractor come in recently as they decided to P.A.T. everything,  we don't have the time, and other departments don't have the qualified staff,  he succeeded in blowing up some very expensive equipment…. !!!

I bought this one from an auction and they always chop the plugs off to indicate that as far as they are concerned it does not work and has not been tested. You then use any electrical item at your own risk. Obviously boot fair sellers do not always do this, but then how traceable is a boot fair seller so I assume that at boot fairs caveat emptor does apply to electrical goods. I am sure if there had been a problem then boot fair organisers would be coming around with big snips for all the leads with a plug on them.

Thanks for the PAT test info. It came in just before I retired and we were subjected to a lot of jobsworth b******t. I think all the extension leads failed first time around, probably being plastic they failed the earth test!!!!!!!!!