Faller Tomix Brochures

[bill937ca]

Brochures in German for various Tomytec & Tomix products, mainly the tram system and the bus system.

 

https://www.faller.de/App/WebObjects/XSeMIPS.woa/cms/page/pid.14.18.153.830/lg.en/Current-TOMYTEC-2017.html

 

Tomytec / Tomix 

 

https://www.faller.de/xs_db/DOKUMENT_DB/www/allgemeines/TOMYTEC_Flyer_2017.pdf

 

Tomix Track Cleaner car

 

https://www.faller.de/xs_db/DOKUMENT_DB/www/allgemeines/TOMYTEC_Schienenreinigung_2017.pdf

 

[AllScales]

The one I have is in (bad) English... 

 

This is interesting as it would appear that Faller has done a deal with Tomytec in the same way that Noch has done with Kato.

 

This then becomes even more interesting in the U.K. where our Noch and Faller distributor is the same company (Gaugemaster) who have a very close working relationship with Kato....

[AllScales]

Note: The new Faller stuff also includes bus stops suitable for most of the world, i.e. for buses driving on the right... So this might be of interest to our North American friends too (and anywhere else where they drive on right)...

[bill937ca]

1 hour ago, AllScales said:

The one I have is in (bad) English... 

 

This is interesting as it would appear that Faller has done a deal with Tomytec in the same way that Noch has done with Kato.

 

 

 

The Faller Tomytec was announced in April 2016.

 

https://omnibus.news/spurgefuehrter-citaro

[AllScales]

On 7/21/2018 at 8:12 PM, bill937ca said:

 

The Faller Tomytec was announced in April 2016.

 

https://omnibus.news/spurgefuehrter-citaro

Curious! It was only when I was chatting with a friend a few weeks ago and he found the link on Faller that we knew. When I pointed it out to my local fixer, he was quite surprised! I gather the rep from the local (virtually anything non-British) distributor was too. 

 

It has certainly caused a whole new brand name to appear on their website!

[bill937ca]

There are two more European trams coming through Japanese sources in November 2018 and later through European sources like DM toys,  The Minz tram will be double  ended or two-way (in Euro lingo).

 

AmiAmi

http://www.amiami.com/top/detail/detail?gcode=RAIL-25533

http://www.amiami.com/top/detail/detail?gcode=RAIL-25535

 

Hobby Search

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10548099

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10548103

 

[bill937ca]

There is a beginner tram set, the German Tram Basic Set which pops up from time to time when Googling.

 

http://www.singrails.com/images/tomytec_93014_german_tram_basicset.JPG

 

Its available from DM toys.

 

https://www.en.dm-toys.de/produktdetails/items/Faller_970143.html

 

Also common on eBay I am told on Facebook.

Edited July 23, 2018 by bill937ca

[mr bachmann]

to be honest the let down I have had with Tomix bus re-chargeable  battery's - I would not waste my money on their products .

[kvp]

1 hour ago, mr bachmann said:

to be honest the let down I have had with Tomix bus re-chargeable  battery's - I would not waste my money on their products .

What was the problem? Did you manage to deep discharge the batteries? Unfortunately lithium batteries die from full discharging. Aside this, i don't see any design faults in the Tomix bus system and the tram system is not even battery based.

[gavino200]

4 hours ago, kvp said:

 Unfortunately lithium batteries die from full discharging. 

 

Interesting. I didn't know that. I guess I should never let my laptop completely die then.

[chadbag]

3 hours ago, gavino200 said:

 

Interesting. I didn't know that. I guess I should never let my laptop completely die then.

 

Your laptop will usually turn itself off before the cells get below their critical voltage level (deep discharge).  The battery management systems know all about that feature of the lithium cells and should not allow you to do that in normal use.

[kvp]

1 hour ago, chadbag said:

Your laptop will usually turn itself off before the cells get below their critical voltage level (deep discharge).  The battery management systems know all about that feature of the lithium cells and should not allow you to do that in normal use.

The Tomix bus battery management system does that too. Unfortunately if you fully discharge a laptop and put it on a shelf for a couple of months, its battery will be as dead as the tiny one in the Tomix bus. This is due to self discharge. The management system turns off the power when there is still enough charge present to keep the battery alive for a few days, so you have time to charge it up. If you don't, then the battery will die slowly over the next few weeks.

 

The simple solution is to store these items fully charged  and top off the charge every month. For longer storage, fully charge them and then disconnect the battery so the atx power management system doesn't drain it. This allows around a 2 to 3 years of shelf life for a fully charged battery. (a laptop and the bus has the same single pushbuton soft on/soft off atx power control logic and the charging circuits are similar too, only that the bus has a tiny single cell battery, while laptops ones are usually multi cell)

[chadbag]

I've heard that due to their chemistry, you want to do long term storage of Li-Ion at around 60% and not full charge.   Is this not so?

 

Full charge is fine for regular use and short term storage.

 

I know with my car (plug in hybrid), if we are going to be gone for a longer trip, I'll get it to somewhere between 50-70% charged and unplug it and leave it.   (Talking days to a few weeks being gone).   For normal use, I keep it full charged, even if I stay home a few days.

 

It is also possible to "revive" dead Li-ion but it is only for the experts who ignore all the safety warnings.  My neighbor, who is an applied physicist, electronics hacker, everything else hacker, etc. does it but I do not recommend it without a lot of knowledge of what you are doing.

 

 

[kvp]

3 hours ago, chadbag said:

I've heard that due to their chemistry, you want to do long term storage of Li-Ion at around 60% and not full charge.   Is this not so?

Full charge is fine for regular use and short term storage.

I know with my car (plug in hybrid), if we are going to be gone for a longer trip, I'll get it to somewhere between 50-70% charged and unplug it and leave it.   (Talking days to a few weeks being gone).   For normal use, I keep it full charged, even if I stay home a few days.

It is also possible to "revive" dead Li-ion but it is only for the experts who ignore all the safety warnings.  My neighbor, who is an applied physicist, electronics hacker, everything else hacker, etc. does it but I do not recommend it without a lot of knowledge of what you are doing.

Actually it's more like around 80 to 90% where the ideal charge level is. On the other hand, getting it to 100% before a really long storage period could give you a few extra weeks. Also it's very hard to charge the Tomix buses to 80% though as there is only a 100% charge indicator and it shuts down just a little bit before getting completly flat. Sadly lithium batteries degrade over time, depending on the number of charges, so it's not possible to store them for a longer time even when fully disconnected. The shelf life of a fully charged and fully disconnected lithium battery is only around 10 years, assuming you top it off at least once a year. For a lithium battery that is connected up to a device that is turned off, the shelf life is around 3 to 5 years, assuming it's reguarly charged but not used. With daily usage, it could be as little as a few months (small rc batteries) to usually around 3 years for a phone/laptop battery.

 

The deep discharge reviving is done with overvoltage and a controlled overcurrent, where the heat shock is used to get the isolating crystals off the electrodes. The lost capacity won't be restored though, but at least if the process is successful some of the remaining capacity could be used. This techique is like cleaning a used fuel tank by throwing in a lit match. The thing might explode or you might have a slightly charred but clean tank that could be refilled. Imho it's better to just replace the battery as the revived one will have so little capacity remaining, that it's not really worth to use it. Not to mention the danger of the whole thing blowing up in your hand.

 

The ideal long storage batteries for these rarely used buses would be some Sanyo/Panasonic NiMh low self discharge batteries, but the size/weigth would be larger and charge times as much as the running time. If Tomix decided to add a physical battery disconnect switch to the bottom of the bus frames would also help increase storage times, but even their battery motors are just ATX push to start ones, so i have to remove the non rechargable batteries too before packing a bus away. (the new wifi camera cars also have to be charged and then the battery disconnected for storage, only some of the older tomytec battery lights/sounds and speed controllers have a physical on/off switch)

Edited July 30, 2018 by kvp

[mr bachmann]

On ‎7‎/‎29‎/‎2018 at 6:58 PM, mr bachmann said:

to be honest the let down I have had with Tomix bus re-chargeable  battery's - I would not waste my money on their products .

 

bus set and spare chassis bought new a couple (2) xmas's ago not played with due to family bereavement , then 18 month later could not re-charge after initial run around - later find that it is problem with this type of battery - surely the button cell type was much better ?

 

[kvp]

10 hours ago, mr bachmann said:

 

bus set and spare chassis bought new a couple (2) xmas's ago not played with due to family bereavement , then 18 month later could not re-charge after initial run around - later find that it is problem with this type of battery - surely the button cell type was much better ?

Yes, getting a new mobile phone, discharging its battery then storing it for two years gives the same results.

 

So i would strongly suggest not to buy the following things that have the same technology:

-mobile phones

-tablets

-laptops

-rechargable rc toys

-new Tomix camera car

-newer Tomytec buses

-newer Faller trucks

-Lego rechargable battery packs

and pretty much anything that has a rechargable battery inside them...

 

Now the question is does anyone make modern laptops or phones that take AA batteries?

 

ps: For those who would like to use the new Tomix bus with a non rechargable battery, it's possible to hook up a 3.6V disposable coin lithium cell instead of the stock battery. Just don't try to recharge it using the usb port as it will expolde. Also if you could get the very small standard 1.5V coins (used in cheap chinese led lighters), using 3 and small series silicone and germanium diodes will get you 1.5*3-0.6-0.2=3.7V and also work as an accidental recharge protection too.