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What about the BCR or BRC?
Considering using a BCR in your ProtoSounds1 Locomotives?
A note of interest to all such owners.
The two Sound System designs provided by QSI:
Proto
Sounds 1 sound systems were designed by QSI and originally used by MTH.
These 2-board sound systems came with a coil coupler drive on the
bottom board, with the traces layed out for installing the components
for a 2nd driver.
QSI also made 3 board sound systems for both
the Retail and OEM markets. This system is a sophisticated minimalist
design. Coil coupler operating ability is provided by an external coil
coupler driver board.
Use of a BCR or BRC runs the risk of destroying the minimalist design Power Supply, PS-1.
Warranty is voided if a BCR or BRC is used with this product.
STR has done a study of the B.C.R. (Battery Component Replacement) made by J & W Electronics,
And a follow up on the BRC by Dallee Electronics.
The goal was to determine the suitability of the BCR for QSI products.
Conclusion:
These devices are, conditionally, an acceptable replacement for a Ni-Cad battery in ProtoSounds1 (two board) systems.
The condition is in 2 parts:
1)
That the ProtoSounds1 bottom board has had the power supply Update
installed to make it stable at power turn on without a battery (The
production design relied upon a good battery to keep it stable at power
turn on.)
2) That battery charging resistor should be changed to a
higher Wattage unit. Just state that "this unit will be used with a
BCR" when you have the Update done and STR will include the battery
charging resistor change.
3) This same change is recommended when using a Ni-M-Hydride 8.4 Volt Rechargeable battery.
Why is power supply stability important when using a BCR?
When
the BCR is connected to a ProtoSounds1 bottom board that has been
Updated, there is no power supply instability problem at initial turn
on, (defined as BCR discharged).
However, when the BCR is
connected to one that has NOT been Updated, the inherent instability at
any "initial turn on" has an opportunity of causing a memory scramble.
The instability problem is in about 20% of the entire run of
ProtoSounds1 systems.
The design of the BCR necessarily has to
have an internal discharge circuit, which within 12 hours of no power
completely discharges the unit. This returns the unit to the same state
as it was when it arrived, the same state as an empty battery.
Hence there is no way for a BCR to remain charged in an unused locomotive.
For
an initial charge, i.e. it has been over 12 hours since the last
operation, allow at least 1 minute for the BCR to come up to full
charge before interrupting the power to the loco.
Note: It is not recommended that the loco be set up to start moving at Power Up, as the random, even suppressed spikes could have a wide open back door to disrupting the µProcessor writings to erasable memory, which is dependent upon the capacitor's ability to absorb the noise spikes, which will deteriorate with advancing age.
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