Motor RPM Meter
An ANEmode DCC Motor Test Rig was modified by
adding self adhesive aluminium foil to one half of the
circumference of the flywheel on the motor shaft; the
other half being coated with matt black paint.
A reflective sensor was then aligned with the drum so
that as the motor rotated the sensor picked up a
square wave signal. The output of the sensor was fed
to a PIC microprocessor system to measure and
display the speed of rotation.
Several DCC decoders were compared. For these tests
all the decoders had their CVs set to run at their
minimum running speed for speed step 1.
The equivalent mph in the table will of course depend
on the gearing of the loco; the values relate to a
modern Backmann Steam 4F.
Measurements at Speed Step 1
Decoder RPM Seconds Equivalent
per rev miles/hr
ESU Lokpilot Micro V4 12 5 0.7
CTelektronik DCX75D 12 5 0.7
TrainControlSystems M1 26 2.3 1.5
Lokpilot Basic 1.0 49 1.2 2.7
Lenze Gold+ mini 79 0.8 4.4
Bachmann E-Z RA 161 0.4 9
Bachmann E-Z Command 189 0.3 10.6
RPM Measurement system comprising a ByPic BV504 controller &
display being fed a square wave 5v signal from the OPB703 or
OPB704 sensor circuit added to the ANEmode DCC Motor Test Rig.
Close up of Optek Sensor
and Vero-board circuit.
The software I developed for measuring
RPM to run on a ByPic BV504 can be
downloaded here as a PDF file
or as a BAS file .
Full details of the ByPic Development
System can be found on the ByPic site.