Handheld Battery?

Yep, time to stick new batteries in.

It's not normal, as you mentioned  your   batteries are getting low. Yes, a charging jack would be great.

I use NiMH rechargeable batteries.  Having 4 remotes and 6 grandchildren, I have 2 extra sets so when a remote goes dead, there's a fresh set sitting in a rack on the control panel.  2 of the sets are 15-minute rechargeable Rayovacs which, beleive it or not, are over 10 years old and still working well.  If these were rechargeable, I couldn't get a grandchild back on line in 2 minutes.

If you use the backlight, batteries go down pretty fast.  Nonrechareables get expensive.

RJR. thanks for the post. I didn't realize you could get a 15 minute rechargeable battery.. I suppose you still  could have the option of swapping batteries with a charging jack.

Rayovac no longer makes it, but I think Eveready does.  They use a special charger.  MIne has a blower in it to keep it cool.

Bob Delbridge,

   Yep its time for some new batteries and to answer your question about making the DCS hand held remote a fully rechargeable entity, I already invested in that particular upgrade.  Bill Ingraham (willygee) here on the OGR, with his electrical engineering skills, did a great upgrade job on 2 of my DCS hand held remotes, making them fully rechargeable, and I love the way they work now. Recharge in just minutes and the batteries stay charged 10 times as long.  This upgrade is not real inexpensive, but well worth the cost in my opinion, works like a million bucks, it one of the best upgrades I have ever done.  My sanding joke is that Lionel needs to employ Bill Ingraham's engineering talents to re-engineer their Legacy Cab2 remote control, so it recharges as well as my DCS remotes do now.  The man knows his engineering and technical work both.   I just switch mine back and forth on the recharger every so often and never have a DCS hand held with low batteries any more.

PCRR/Dave

That's the ticket Dave. Good stuff.

Dave that's mighty cool and makes perfect sense

Thanks guys.  I've had the battery indicator come on before while running trains, but never have I seen it come on ONLY when the back light button is pushed, then go off when the back light is turned off.  I've got a drawer full of batteries and a fair amount of rechargeable ones so I'm good to go.

The backlight is probably the most power hogging component, so it stands to reason it would first show up the issue.

Hi John isn't there some kind of battery charging mod that can be done on the DCS remote and it charges threw the patch coil phone cord? what kind of parts are needed and is there a print of the mod schematic!

Thanks for any help as i agree the aaa batteries do run down fast especially when using the LCD light on!

Alan

Dave has had his modified for a charging jack and rechargeable batteries, but I know of no charging possibility through the tether cord.

I don't think it's particularly difficult, if you can find a jack that can be wired to disconnect the electronics from the battery when you plug in the output from an NiMH 4-cell charger (If you can find one that can charge 4 cells in series; most of those I've seen have separate circuits for 2 or 4 batteries). 

However, I would also question whether the heat generated from charging, especially rapid charge batteries, has the potential to shorten the life of the remote's electronics.  My rapid charger has a blower to cool it, and the 15-minute charge batteries have an internal temperature sensor and current regulator.

It's so easy to open the cover and pop in a freshly-charged set of batteries.  So I wonder if it's really worth the effort; sort of like when you drop your gum on the floor of the chicken coop.  You know you can find it, but is it worth it?

I popped in some new AAA batteries and all is good so far.

I measured the old ones and got .85-.87 volts, the "new" ones only measured around 1.0 volt, but no BAT indication.

My ex-brother-in-law used to keep batteries in his refrigerator, claiming they would stay at their full potential longer, any truth to that?  I tried it, but didn't see any great results one way or the other.  I would think as long as they're in a controlled climate (not too hot/cold) that would be the best thing.

  The "Bat" comes on at 4.16 vdc on my remotes.

  Normal DCS current draw while operating is 20ma.

  Back light adds 100ma draw.

Bob I use the rechargeable batteries (2 sets).  When you get the battery low, just swap out with the new, and charge the old.  Way we operated at the LHS.  No issues.  G

Bob, a voltmeter test is almost meaningless unless the batteries are placed under load.  If your new batteries are rechargeable, they should be around 1.2 volts, no load.  If alkaline, 1.5.  If you only get 1.0, I would suspect the accuracy of your voltmeter.  I assume you have a digital meter.  Old analog meters would sometimes, if poor quality, apply a meaningful load.