Hi, since so many of you seem to be moving to PS3, is there anyone with a stash of BCR's that I can start swapping into my PS1 locos?
I'd be interested in up to 8 of them at the moment.
Thanks!
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Hi, since so many of you seem to be moving to PS3, is there anyone with a stash of BCR's that I can start swapping into my PS1 locos?
I'd be interested in up to 8 of them at the moment.
Thanks!
Replies sorted oldest to newest
Jeff - I presume you are trying to find some "used" ones to save some $$.
If you don't end up finding any used....
I'm sure you know the firm in Pennsylvania still makes them - I just bought a new one
for an older PS-1 engine I have. I have them in all my PS-1 (and PS-2) engines -
as you know, they are worth every penny!
I actually make my own, they're pretty simple. I just use two series supercaps and a Keystone battery clip. Heatshrink the whole assembly and you're done.
Why do you put them in series?
Because you need higher voltage rating than 5V.
I'm not afraid of a little electricity. Is it really that simple, just 2 capacitors?
Got a number for the caps that you use?
I use AVX or Nesscap 5.0V 1.5F caps. The battery clip is made by Keystone. I buy the caps in quantity for some of my products.
Yes, it's really that simple.
I will be making several of GRJ designs for my older PS1 units. Very simple and great idea he came up with.
gunrunnerjohn posted:Because you need higher voltage rating than 5V.
Right. It was early this morning and I didn't notice the decimal point in the voltage rating in the picture. Thanks for the reply. I have no experience with these supercaps. Does the voltage equalize well across the series pair. In the old days putting electrolytic caps in series required a high value resistor in parallel with the two caps to equalize the voltage division.
If the caps are matched, there is no need for balancing. There's no harm in adding a high value resistor, say 10k, across each cap. You could use a very small resistor, 1/8W would be plenty. Since I buy name brand caps in quantity, they're all coming from one lot, and they're matched. Note that the 5V caps are really two 2.7V caps internally, and they don't use any balancing for those. I'm guessing they're thinking any small imbalance will be covered by the .2V margin they allowed.
gunrunnerjohn posted:If the caps are matched, there is no need for balancing. There's no harm in adding a high value resistor, say 10k, across each cap. You could use a very small resistor, 1/8W would be plenty. Since I buy name brand caps in quantity, they're all coming from one lot, and they're matched. Note that the 5V caps are really two 2.7V caps internally, and they don't use any balancing for those. I'm guessing they're thinking any small imbalance will be covered by the .2V margin they allowed.
GRJ, thanks very much for the details. It is great that you are willing to share your knowledge and experience on this forum.
Thanks a bunch GRJ. I'm going to try my hand at a couple of these.
Just to be clear, the Positive side of the series of capacitors goes to the "button" part of the snap connector (just like a normal 9V) and the negative side goes to the "cup" side?
Correct, you want them to look like a battery.
Hay John,
I'm not trying to stir up trouble, but Marty Fitzhenry always said that BCR's shouldn't be put into PS-1 engines. Apparently he had a bad experiance with that combo, and I never found out what that experiance was. Can you explain, if any?
Steam Forever
John
I have been using a BCR in my PS-1 engine for some time with no problems.
Hay Ron,
Appreciate your answer on the BCR, but it doesn't explain why Marty F. was against using the BCR on PS-1. If anyone like GRJ can give me the reason, then it satisfy's my inqisivetiveness. I'm not saying it won't work, I just want to know why (Marty must have had a reason, and I respect it) he didn't approve of it!
Steam Forever
John
I don't know why Marty didn't like them, and sadly we can no longer ask him. My only precaution is not to put them in the early 5V PS/2 boards, I've gotten a number of them dead with a BCR. I don't know that it was the BCR, but it gave me pause...
Hay John,
Thank You for your response! I guess I may have to learn through experience as time goes by, only hoping that it's not too costly of a lesson to learn!
Mistakes lead to a gain of wisdom!!!
Steam Forever
John
All my PS-1 engines have BCRs or equivalents. I have not had any issue with them that I can trace to their presence.
Chris
LVHR
GRJ,
I'm a little nervous now. I'm using a BCR in a couple of 5V PS/2 engines. So far - so good. Let's hope that the issues you ran into were due to something other than the BCR's.
Ron
Hard to say Ron, I'm leery of the 5V boards in any case, they die for no apparent reason way too often! I may have just been a coincidence, but several of the boards had charging issues after the BCR was installed.
I just got a PS-1 loco from an eBay seller. I put in a BCR and a resistor the board started smoking. Having said that, all my other PS-1 engines do just fine with a BCR.
The engine that smoked got a Dallee reverse unit with series connected motors and a Lionel Locosound system. Works and runs great!
Me too. I have a half dozen MTH 5 volt engines with BCRs.....
someday I will get to run them and see if they fail... a PRR 2-8-0, 4-4-2 and a 2-10-0 that will probably get the 3/2 conversions...
Tom
Marty had told me he has seen many times the cheap bcr's blow the micro processor !
The several PS1 locomotives that I run have BCR-1s. I also have them in two engines with 5-volt PS2. Never had a problem with any of these 20-year-old engines by MTH.
MELGAR
Wow LOL. Didn't mean to cause such a ruckus.
If I may, what are the "Cheap" BCR's vs, I assume, "Not Cheap"?
Also, would the homemade version we're contemplating fall into the former or latter category?
Do I need to rethink my plan of building a bunch of BCR's for my old PS1 engines? Is there anything that WON'T scramble, smoke, or otherwise destroy my trains that I just want to watch go around the track someday?
Seems like such a chore... Maybe just rip it all out and put in a rectifier and hope for the best?
Hay Alan,
Thanks for bringing to light the reason for the BCR's being a problem for the PS-1 (the cheap ones). I'm embarrassed to admit this but Marty did tell me at one time and honestly, I forgot the reason!
Steam Forever
John
I don't have a problem with BCRs in PS1 locos as long as the operator understands that they must be charged up prior to pressing the direction button, otherwise you run into the same problems as operating a PS1 loco with a dead battery. The processor shuts down prematurely before code is written to memory and the board is scrambled; i.e., the three clanks of death (which can be corrected with a reset chip).
Jeff_the_Coaster_Guy posted:Wow LOL. Didn't mean to cause such a ruckus.
If I may, what are the "Cheap" BCR's vs, I assume, "Not Cheap"?
Also, would the homemade version we're contemplating fall into the former or latter category?
Do I need to rethink my plan of building a bunch of BCR's for my old PS1 engines? Is there anything that WON'T scramble, smoke, or otherwise destroy my trains that I just want to watch go around the track someday?
Seems like such a chore... Maybe just rip it all out and put in a rectifier and hope for the best?
I build my 9V models with two AVX or NESSCAP 5V supercaps. They're higher quality caps than are used in the "real" BCR, so I'd say the brand name one is the "cheap" one. The thing is only supercaps and a battery clip, pretty hard to go wrong.
All I can say is the couple PS-1 locos I have with BCRs in them run fine. I do remember reading that there are a small few locomotives, PS-1 and PS-2 that just don't work with BCRs in them, and the only way to find out which locos didn't like them was to put one in. Never heard of the locomotive not working once a MTH rechargeable battery was installed afterwards.
The only other issue I can think of is that there is a possibility someone doesn't let it sit after power up to charge the BCR because either people they are impatient, don't know they need to, or forget they need to and it scrambles the boards.
If you are still looking for some BCRs I have about a half dozen in stock at the shop, White Rose Hobbies, and I can get them shipped out today. Give the shop a call, and we can get you hooked up with them. Ive installed quite a few in the engines we get into the shop with a bad "white" battery in them and they run great after replacing. I do remember seeing a post about why not to use them, but again, I cant remember where I saw that as, but in my experience I haven't had an issue using them either for customers of for my personal collection of old PS1 steamers. Like I said if you are looking for some, ive got them instock at White Rose Hobbies in York PA
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