Ps2 3 volt early vs later

Some of the later boards have more memory (2MB vs, 1MB) which allows for higher quality sounds. Whether or not they took advantage of that is hit and miss.

The number of pickup rollers is unrelated to the electronics though. I think what you’re referring to are the Proto-Scale 3-2 trucks. https://mthtrains.com/proto-scale-32
Not all “late 3V PS2” locomotives got these type of trucks.

I was just referring to the early version of the single pickup rollers vs when they came out with the double pickup rollers. Was there any improvement in electronics that would make the later 3 volt better than the first ones. Myself in operating them I can not tell. Maybe better pickup if you happen to have a bad track connection somewhere, two rollers per truck allow for better pick up I suppose.

The only difference with one pick up roller is if you're switches miss the one roller when going through a switch curve which can cause a temporary power loss. some Tech's have added an extra pick-up roller on the other truck!

Alan

@a1hobo posted:

I was just referring to the early version of the single pickup rollers vs when they came out with the double pickup rollers. Was there any improvement in electronics that would make the later 3 volt better than the first ones.

As mentioned there was a difference at some point with the memory on the board. That is the only “improvement” to the electronics that I’m aware of. Whether its an improvement or not depends on the sound file that is loaded on the board.

The pickup rollers are wired together and aren’t related to the boards inside and AFAIK do not indicate anything about the electronics inside.

Myself in operating them I can not tell. Maybe better pickup if you happen to have a bad track connection somewhere, two rollers per truck allow for better pick up I suppose.

Sure, more rollers means more points of contact with the center rail, and more points of contact means less chance of losing an electrical connection. But again that is unrelated to the version of the electronics inside… All of those pickup rollers are tied together at some point along the circuit path.

So what I am gathering here is the only difference in the early vs later versions of the ps2 3v is possibly more memory on the board. Nothing substantial to say one functions operationally better than the other.

Correct for PS-2 3V boards.  There really was not an early or later board.  Though the increase in memory to support more sound functions produced with later models.  Only the memory chip was changed.  The power supply board did have a chip change for battery control, but that was based on the older chip going obsolete.  No effect on performance.  The only other difference but it spanned early to last was the flash chip.  Some models needed different flash code to support, panto graphs, coors, small smoke, etc...  This was MTH loaded flash only and flash chip could have been used with just the generic diesel/steam code.  Again no performance change.

Pickup roller are model specific, not time related.  G

Thanks for all the input everyone.