# motorized DC rotary plow, How to make it work for DCC?



## tkruger (Jan 18, 2009)

I have an Athearn BB Rotary plow kit that I motorized to turn the blade. Worked great on DC as it just turned small motor. Other than by adding a decoder and running as part of a constant with a locomotive is there any way to turn the blade? I want to avoid the belt drive methods. It looked cool going down the tracks with the blade spinning. 

Just looking for options. If I do have to add a decoder then it will get lights too. Currently it does not have lights, perhaps now is a good time for that.


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

If the wheels are not powered, why couldn't you just use the
decoder motor wires to power the blade motor. It would
have it's own address and you could turn the blade and
the lights on and off.

If the wheels are motor driven you'd probably have to find
a decoder with capability of handling the amps of the
blade motor. 

Don


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## tkruger (Jan 18, 2009)

The rotatory is a dummy but there it draws track power to turn a can motor used to spin the blades. I was attempting to not need a decoder just to turn the blades but I cannot think of anyway around it. I an hoping to find a simple cheep circuit that just converts the ac to dc and spins it at a constant speed. Then again a cheep $15 decoder may just be easier.


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

A bridge rectifier of cheap diodes and a resistor
will do what you want on your DCC track. You
would need to experiment with the resistors to get
one that turns the blade at what speed you think right.
About 3 or 4 $ at Radio Shack. You might want a
mini switch so you can turn it off.

Don


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## Lemonhawk (Sep 24, 2013)

Just put a diode between the motor and where ever it getting power now. Just a single diode rather than a bridge ( 4 diodes in a package will probably be enough as that will half the voltage going to the motor. May take a a resistor also to slow it down. DCC with a bridge rectifier would run the motor and probably 15v way more than you were using driving it around on your DC layout, so just a single diode will give you about half that.

With a cheap decoder you could turn on the motor and lights treating the unit as a stationary decoder(only functions - no motor control), so no reason to consist it.


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## Cycleops (Dec 6, 2014)

Couldn't you just use a loco decoder to control the motor speed and lights?


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## tkruger (Jan 18, 2009)

Cycleops said:


> Couldn't you just use a loco decoder to control the motor speed and lights?


That was one thought. I was just looking at what other options there were since essentially it would always by used spinning the blade at the same speed and lights on. If I could build a simple circuit that allowed it to due just that I would.

It is starting to look more and more like a cheep $12 NCE decoder is the best choice.


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## tkruger (Jan 18, 2009)

Found out how to do it. Thanks for all of the suggestions. They helped me allot. For the NCE decoder that I used I had to set the following 3 CVs to the same value, in my case 80 was the just right. CV2 is the start voltage, CV5 is the max voltage and CV6 is the mid voltage. Basically what happens is the curve of the voltage applied is adjusted based on these three parameters. Setting them all the same makes the starting, middle and end voltage applied to the motor the same at all throttle positions. In addition I can now add this to a consist. As soon as power is applied the decoder in the rotary translates every speed step to put out whatever the value of 80 is in volts to the motor. The locomotive's motors get whatever their decoders putout. 

Thanks all again for the help. So far the old Athearn blue box plow is motorized and converted to DCC. Next steps will be to add a tender (thinking of using a Mantua 12 wheel tender or something similar) with power pickups and LEDs for lights.


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