I am aware the necessity of using a BCR in PS1 engines, is there a reason to do this with PS2 engines? I'm referring to the OEM 9V rechargeable battery. It one thing for the engine to not save preference options, I'm concerned with damage to the boards or scrambling.
Rich
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Rich the reason i like Bcr 9v style in my older ps2 engines is that i do not worry about when they were last run ,how old battery is or if it may be so weak it may damage the electronics.
With bcr installed in our ps2 engines i just charge for a minute and it is ready.
Problem is that the 9-volt PS2s boards are near the end of their lives. If it goes, a BCR is expensive way to ornament a shelf.
Some 5V boards will run for a very long time, so you can't assume they're they're all at the end of their useful life. OTOH, a fair number of them are indeed living on borrowed time. 
RJR posted:Problem is that the 9-volt PS2s boards are near the end of their lives. If it goes, a BCR is expensive way to ornament a shelf.
So even with the BCR being fully brought up to charge, the older PS 2.0 boards still die? What exactly happens in most cases to the board when it goes? I have several older PS 2.0 engines and I would like to try the BCRs.
I've seen several failure modes that seem to comprise a significant portion of the "sudden death" of 5V boards, though certainly not all of them. One is they just do nothing and draw no current. The other is they're a dead short and immediately trip the breaker. Given the construction of the board, it's very difficult to get to the components that are the likely failure candidates, so they're normally "toast" when that happens.
Bad batteries have never really damaged a PS-1 board. Just can cause a software scramble, which can occur with a BCR if you forget to let it charge fully and try a direction change when it is only at 3-5Volts. Only about 1 % of the PS-1 boards I have worked on had a battery related hardware fault. Usually motor over current can burn a trace, or rectifier diodes go bad.
I am not convinced bad batteries kill PS-2 5V boards either. I have seen plenty with old batteries that still start up and run fine once the battery is replaced.
There are rectifier diodes that short, a power fet that can short, processor can go bad. It is old and complex, but as John stated plenty still run fine regardless of whether they were early Rev G or Later Rev K boards. But there are some models that that seem to have a much higher failure rate, Like the FEF Northern, and the r17 Redbird subway. So maybe those batches of boards had some substandard components.
The PS-2 3V was a much more robust design, and also can come apart so it is easier for component repairs. G
I'm not sure I understand. I have some questions for clarification if anyone can help:
I guess this would be the green BCR for the replacement? If I understand one of the replies correctly, installing a BCR is only insult to injury? Can a schematic to home brew a 5V BCR be found anywhere, or is this not an ethical question?
Sorry for all the questions. I'm pretty bummed right now!
Smokey, if you are referring to my post, my point is simply that I wouldn't spend that many dollars for an engjne that could fail and leave me with a bcr for which I have no other use. I would just use a battery which is much cheaper.
All of my old 5-volt boards have been replaced with 3-volt, amd I do use supercaps instead of batteries
Smoke Stack Lightnin posted:Is it that there are no replacement parts if they fry, or are 5V systems inherently flawed and bound to self destruct in a matter of time regardless of taking any action?
A little bit of both. There are obsolete components on the 5V boards and even the 3V boards. However, the big issue with the 5V boards is the two boards are permanently connected together so you can't get to most of the components for replacement and/or testing. It appears that the 5V boards also run some of the components closer to the design limits. Finally, I believe that at least some of the 5V boards likely have the defective electrolytic capacitors that flooded the market in the 2000-2003 window when they were manufactured. The Capacitor Plague was a well known issue that affected many types of electronics in the early 2000's, so it's quite possible that the 5V boards may have had some of these bad parts as well.
Smoke Stack Lightnin posted:Can anyone suggest a link where I can catch up on 5V board issues? I'm worried because some of my favorite engines are 5V PS2's, and I have a number of them
Lots of links have talked about it, but I don't know of a dedicated thread.
Smoke Stack Lightnin posted:Is a bad OEM battery an absolute cause for damaging the system? In other words, is replacement prudent considering the expense?
If you have a bad or old battery, it's absolutely prudent to replace it.
Do be aware that one is not wedded to the MTH battery. Any "9-volt" rechareable battery that produces 8.4 volts (7 cells) is acceptable. Most "9-volt" rechargeables are actually 7.2 volts (6 cells) . The batteries you want have to say 8.4 volts.
Actually, nowadays, most of the NiMh batteries I see are the 7-cell variety.
"Most"
NiCads are also acceptable
Thanks so much for the help understanding this. Sounds like I should do some price checking for a 7 cell NiCad that puts out (exactly?) 8.4V.
This is a nominal voltage, yielded by a 7 cell battery. There can be slight fluctuations due to various factors. If it Says 8.4 volts, that should be adequate.
I've a GP-38, MTH engine, in which the engine sounds are now very low volume and garbled. Tried all the resets with no change. Is this fixable or is the PS-2 board shot? All other sounds etc are normal.
Kerrigan posted:I've a GP-38, MTH engine, in which the engine sounds are now very low volume and garbled. Tried all the resets with no change. Is this fixable or is the PS-2 board shot? All other sounds etc are normal.
An MTH part number would help out. It sounds like you have a bad speaker.
I wouldn't go for NiCad, I'd look for the NiMh batteries.
GRJ, I agree NiMH is preferable, but if I still had a 5-volt board, I might opt for the cheapest.
Kerrigan, distorted sounds wouldn't mean a board is shot -- i.e., to be disposed of. The sound components of a PS2 board are repairable. GGG does it often, at a price less than the price of a new board.
I still have a few of the amplifiers in the 5V boards, and the speaker is often the offender.
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