Model Railway Forum

Is it possible to slow down a 3 volt battery operated motor slightly using resistors ??.

Yes but it's better to use diodes as they will give much better voltage regulation. With resistors the voltage and therefore the current will vary depending on the load applied.

Thanks Rog.

There is an integrated circuit called TDA 7274 that is specifically designed for this sort of application. You need a few other components as well, but if you search for 'TDA 7274 example circuit' or similar you should find lots of examples.

If you have got an old cassette player you might find of of these ICs in it?

I have found out through extensive research that what i have been attempting to do, has been tried without success in this set up.

Hi Brian1951,

out of sheer curiosity... what were you trying to do?

As Rog (RJ) suggest a simple diode series network will drop the supply volts by 0.7v per diode. You opt for how many are used in the series chain.
If the supply reverses to reverse the motors rotation, you will need a second set in inverse to the first set.
I've shown both options below... Note I've shown three diodes in the series chain but there can be just 1 or more as needed. You can have more or less in one direction to the other too which then allows speed rotation to be different depending on direction.

0.7 volt is to much of a drop i think, this maybe one of the reasons the faller car system went over to Dcc control which does give you speed control and a host of other gizmos ( but at a high cost )

The 1n4001 has helped with the vehicle i was having problems with thanks Brian & Rog.

Question. Though it will obviously heat up, could resistance wire be used? (Just a theory). I am thinking the resistance wire could also be made into a smoke generator so it will do two jobs at the same time. It is just in theory.