I will be the first to admit I don't read much of the instruction book when it comes to new trains. I am more of the person who puts the train on the tracks and runs the heck out of them. Don't get me wrong I know who to get through the DCS system to change things etc.
But maybe because of the lack of reading I really do not see what the difference is between my PS2 and PS3 steam locomotive. To me they are both the same.
What am I missing out with on my PS3 locomotive?
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One of the great things is that you can't tell the difference easily. The PS3 board has been made so that it runs with the older PS2 boards. The future will allow more changes with the new board and hopefully expanded soundsets. They have to work with existing ones.
Some of the changes that were made were:
no more battery
no polarity switch needed for two rail
larger file capacity I believe? (and flash loading?)
set up for LED lighting with more realistic lighting effects
I'm guessing on some of these. Other guys will add what else is there.
It is a funny thing you mentioned battery. Last week I was doing a battery check on the three engines that I was running. MY PS3 locomotive showed low battery. I thought that was weird since it is under one year old and runs eery day. So I let it run for an extended amount of time. I check it again and it is still low.
So I take it off of the tracks and figure I will just charge the battery. Needless to say I could not find a place to plug in the charger.
After a quick search on the internet and after 11 months I learn that the PS3 does not sue a battery. Some where along the line I never picked up on that.
This begs the question - Wonder why you are getting a "low battery" reading then?
I believe it's been mentioned in the past that this may happen with PS3 locomotives, it means nothing.
See this thread: https://ogrforum.com/topic/ps3-status
It reads "LOW" because it's actually reporting the state of the battery charging circuit, not the battery. "LOW" means that the circuit is doing light duty trickle-charging the engine's (battery substitute) super capacitor.
This and a whole lot more is all in MTH’s “The DCS O Gauge Companion 2nd Edition", available for purchase as an eBook or a printed book at MTH's web store!
Really. All that bold type makes it seem as though you are cursing. Certainly not very good etiquette. Everyone here should know about your book. No need to raise your voice or curse about it.
Forest, Come on
Barry, Will you do me a favor. For PS-2 Disconnect a battery from an engine and then do the battery test. You will see high. The reason is the voltage is 5VDC at the charge port. Even though there is no battery charging.
Place a battery back in and you would read about 2.5V and get a Normal with a battery test.
Place an uncharged BCR in the port and run the test and you would get low, as the BCR drags the voltage down starting at a few mV as it charges. Once it gets to 2.5V it would be normal and as the BCR completes the charge it sits at 5VDC and would read high.
The Battery test is really a health of the whole battery back up system. It does this by measuring voltage not current flow. Low or High can mean different things. A shorted battery would cause a low. No battery a high, normal battery normal. A failure of the battery cutoff circuit or the trickle charge circuit can also cause low or high readings.
In most cases, a LOW reading from a dead battery with no voltage which would drag down the buck voltage that normally sits at 5V at the battery terminal.
A new battery fully charged battery would not read LOW ( not needing a charge or low trickle charge as you stated). It would read normal. If you put a good but discharged battery (resembles a BCR) then it would read low, even though we know the battery is getting a maximum charge. G
Really. All that bold type makes it seem as though you are cursing. Certainly not very good etiquette. Everyone here should know about your book. No need to raise your voice or curse about it.
Really!?!?!?! I did not see any cursing about anything and new people sign up and come to the forum boards everyday so I am sure not every one knows about Barry's book. You need to have some thicker skin.
I did buy your e-book when it first came out. I even read some of it. I didn't enjoy printing it all out. The book was ok though, I am not complaining.
Not having to deal with a battery is a plus, at least I think so. But is there any real cool features of PS3 I may be missing.
My understanding was that PS-3 was an upgrade of PS-2 in that it has no battery, and comes DCC compatible, otherwise there was little to no difference on the DCS features. But then I only looked once and at the time it was released.
There's more potential for new features with the PS/3 boards, it's just that those additional features have not made it to most of the products at this time.
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