Purchased an MTH Triplex (PS2 - 5V) (20-3101-1), and a BCR to replace the old one, to my surprise when I opened the engine- instead of a 9V battery there was 2 1.2v AA batteries instead. I checked the board which appears to indicate it's a 3v model, so I'm wondering - did MTH start silently upgrading these to newer 3V PS2 boards in 2003, or did the prior owner upgrade this? Photos attached
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I would lean towards the previous owner upgraded it. 3 Volt boards didn't start showing up until 2004 and the AA holder is not typical but it does make changing batteries with new rechargeables a bit easier.
Some locs identified as 5V came as 3V and some early ones like that version did have the 2 AA batteries. G
I'm with George, I think that's factory original.
@GGG posted:Some locs identified as 5V came as 3V and some early ones like that version did have the 2 AA batteries. G
Good to know, I have never run across this before.
My 20-3115-1 C&O Allegheny has innards very similar with the same brand of batteries. It has the 3V charging port on the tender deck under a hatch, so I always assumed it was factory.
Thanks for the help all, 3 additional questions:
- did these early gen 3v boards suffer from the same issues that plagued the 5v boards?
- is it possible to change it to the pin connector (the name escapes me) that the regular 3v battery/BCR uses?
- are these standard AA rechargeable batteries if I want to replace the unknown's that it came with?
The 3V boards did not have the issues of the 5V boards.
You can put a JST-PH 2-pin connector on your supercap battery replacement and plug it directly into the top 3V power board.
Those are NiCad batteries, but you can use NiMh batteries in place of them if you like.
Thanks @gunrunnerjohn , off to the store to get some nimh's
Thanks all for the help, bought some energizer NiMH's and it's working great after some general cleaning (But a gigantic pain to take apart and put back together)! This is the first MTH engine I've seen 1smph actually look... good, must be those 3 sets of drivers.
@H1000 posted:Good to know, I have never run across this before.
That was a common battery configuration for the early 3v boards or early upgrades to PS2 3v. I have a pile of those battery holders and disposed of a bunch of those batteries.