Parkside Electronics

[Clive SteerParticipant @clivesteer55943]

I was wondering if anyone knew if Parkside Electronics, who make electric locomotive controllers are still in business. I haven’t been able to contact  them on their landline nor had a reply to an email although their website appears to still be accessible.

I’ve been asked to have a look at one of their controller that isn’t working. A circuit diagram would be helpful and especially any details of the control unit that plugs into a 7 pin DIN socket as I don’t have this to hand at the moment. I believe it is likely to consist of a speed control potentiometer plus a forward/reverse selector switch and a control inhibit switch.

CS

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Frankly, Clive … the message on the home-page doesn’t look encouraging:

http://www.parksiderailways.co.uk/index.html

MichaelG.

.

Edit: __ see also

https://gardenrails.org/viewtopic.php?t=13560

[Clive SteerParticipant @clivesteer55943]

Thanks Michael. I hadn’t noticed that on the home page as somehow I didn’t get to their site that way.

Oh well. Good old fashioned reverse engineering needed. With just one LM399 hopefully it is a simple circuit.

CS

[tmccParticipant @tmcc]

Hi Clive, did you ever find a circuit for this? I’ve just picked up a controller in need of repair and again I. In need of a circuit.

Thanks.

Tom

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Tom

I don’t know the controller in question, but here’s all you need to know about LM399

https://www.analog.com/en/products/lm399.html#part-details

MichaelG.

[tmccParticipant @tmcc]

<p style=”text-align: left;”>Thanks Michael, it a 24V 100A controller and it’s more the MOSFET side that is the issue. Not sure what’s happened to it but at least 4 of the mosfets are short and the gate resistors ore burnt out. One if the mosfets is completly blown apart.</p>

[tmcc]

On tmcc Said:

Thanks Michael, it a 24V 100A controller and it’s more the MOSFET side that is the issue. […]

Oops … no sign of the aforementioned LM399 there

MichaelG.

[tmccParticipant @tmcc]

Hi Michael, yes there is an LM339 in the circuit but hopefully that side ok but haven’t got to looking at this side yet.

 

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Aha … catching-up slowly

MichaelG.

[Phil BarberParticipant @philbarber30745]

Any more info on this topic would be interesting.

[tmccParticipant @tmcc]

Hi  Phil,  unfortunately no additional info or circuits etc. I have identified 7 out of the 10 mosfets are blown. Waiting on replacements to arrive before working out what the connections are and power it up.

Tom.

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

The 339 is probably rigged as an oscillator with variable mark space ratio with the relays providing reverse rather than a bridge setup. Check the relays aren’t burned out and work. One failing to switch when the other did might have shorted the fets.

[Clive SteerParticipant @clivesteer55943]

I’ve attached schematics of the Parkside controller I had a look at. The circuit is very simple with one section of the LM399 being used to generate a sawtooth wave which is fed to another section to convert the variable DC control voltage into a PWM signal to drive the MOSFET’s. It appears 2 MOSFET’s are used to provide braking. In my case the controller was working OK and the issue lay elsewhere in the vehicle ( a Childs electric car)

I hope this helps.

 

CS

[Clive SteerParticipant @clivesteer55943]

Somehow the upload left out sht 2.

[Phil BarberParticipant @philbarber30745]

Many thanks Clive,  this is really useful.

I’m wondering how long I can extend the 7W DIN lead, so I can “pipe through” wagons for push-pull operation.

Also, the PWM provides too much current control with the motor I have, so its difficult to maintain a constant low speed.  A small movement in the control sends the loco accelerating off.  Anyone any ideas how to make it more like a tram / DC  electric, with a notch or two slowly moving the train to a constant speed, before a weak field simulation is applied?

… also attached a couple of photos for reference.

 

[Bazyle]

On Bazyle Said:

The 339 is probably rigged as an oscillator with variable mark space ratio […]

I wish I understood how that ^^^  could be 

Are there two different devices called LM339 ??

MichaelG.

[ see data-sheet linked earlier ]

.

Edit: __ Don’t worry LM339 vs LM399

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

The control lead will probably be all low voltage low current so you can probably extend it as far as you like. Beware a loose unconstrained lead though as they have a lemming like desire to leap under the wheels.

The sudden start problem may be the control potentiometer just not providing a smooth progression from a low value which is not uncommon. Assuming all 3 wires from the potentiometer are used try putting a resistor, say 1k between the wiper connection and the connection at the end when it is stipped, probably battery -ve. This will help the voltage be lower at the start.

[Phil BarberParticipant @philbarber30745]

Hmm,  the pot on mine is a centre biased joystck,  with fwd and brake.  The additional analoge board is possibly a level shifter / brake control circuit?

My reading of the MOSFET stage is a simple pull to ground transistor (4-9) with 10 & 11 as flywheel diodes.  The relays can switch this to either motor wire.  The other switched to positive.   If the relays are not delivering power, then they short the motor … reheostatic brake.  This is pretty neat!

00  – short motor

01 – FWD

10 – REV

11 – short motor.

[mjbarrattParticipant @mjbarratt]

I know that this is an old thread but I recently came across it and, because I have a Parkside controller like the one being discussed, I thought that the following might help.
My controller system consists of a ‘Power Unit’ – like the one pictured – housed in a die-cast enclosure and a separate, remote ‘Control Unit’ that provides both Forward:Reverse and Drive:Brake control functions. This contains two PCBs and appears to be similar to the one shown in PhilBarber’s post above…mine differs in that it also provides a ‘Horn’ function controlled by an eighth wire in the DIN plug. I have traced out the circuit diagrams of the two PCBs and they are attached below.

The OpAmp Board provides two mutually exclusive control voltages both of which idle at 0V when the Control Pot is centred. As the Pot (joystick) is moved in either direction – Drive or Brake – the respective control signal (Drive:Blue Wire / Brake:Black Wire) ‘lifts off’ 0V and rises toward its maximum value of about 24V. On my unit the joystick output voltage ranges from about 9.6V (full Brake) to about 15.0V (full Drive) with the Neutral position giving about 12.2V. This approximately +/-2.5V swing is amplified by about x10 by the two op-amps to provide the two separate 0-24V outputs to the Power Unit.

The Logic Board provides the circuitry for the Direction Change Control Logic shown on Clive’s SHT3 drawing and works as follows:-
The Direction Control switch and its pull-up resistors (2 x 10k) provide the ‘D’ inputs to the two halves of the CD4013 flip-flop – a logic low in the selected position, Fwd or Rev, with the level at the other gate at a logic high. With the joystick centred – and so both the Drive and Brake control voltages are at 0V – the flip-flop’s CLOCK inputs are at a logic low. Moving the joystick a fraction in either direction lifts one of the control voltages off 0V and causes a positive-going clock pulse. This latches the current state of the Direction Switch and provides a mutually exclusive drive to the direction control relays in the Power Unit. Additionally, because the positive-going edge of the clock pulse can ONLY be produced as the joystick leaves the Neutral position, motor direction changes can only be actioned under conditions of ‘zero-drive’.

A couple of points on Clive’s drawings:
1. I think that the ENABLE switch shown on SHT3 should be connected to BATT+ not 0V. When closed this would apply 24V to the base circuit of TR1 turning it on, closing RL1 and so applying power to the MOSFET stages.

2. I think that the left-hand end of the 100R:1k resistor pair feeding RL2 and RL3 shoud be connected to the cathode of the upstream reverse polarity diode. The relays used have 12V 90ohm coils and the resistor-pairs (100R||1k = 91 ohms) are used in series with the coils to permit operation from a 24V supply. As an aside, the 100R resistors dissipate about 2W and both of them show signs of overheating in my unit – two 180R in parallel would probably have been a better choice.

I hope that some of this helps.

Martin.

PS: I’m sorry that the images are not particularly clear but I hope that you can read them OK.

[Author]

Posts