When to change to BCRs

The 3 volt PS2 boards don't die like the 5V boards did due to dead batteries. That being said 10 years is a long time. I have all ready started to replace all of mine just to be safe, whether they hold a charge or not.

Given that you have already purchased the BCRs, why not use them to replace all the batteries right now? Some of mine have been in place for at least 15 years and I have never had to replace one. If your engines are PS2 3-volt, you should be replacing them with BCR2s.

MELGAR

From a point of personal preference, my 5v PS2 engines don't get BCR's. Every time you power up a 5V PS2 with a BCR the charging circuit has to work as hard as possible to get the super cap fully charged whereas a battery holds charge for quite a bit longer and a daily ran 5v PS2 engine with a battery doesn't work the charging circuit very hard.  Capacitors lose charge in a few hours and the board has to charge a dead "battery" the next running session.

Will a 5V PS2 with a BCR outlive one with a battery... not likely. 5 Volt boards die due to defective capacitors used in many electronics from the early 2000s.

As for my 3 volt boards, BCR's go in when the battery can't do the job anymore.

I'm a little reluctant to put a supercap in a 5V PS/2 board locomotive.  I don't have any real evidence that the charging circuit can't handle it, but I'm like H1000, I tend to try to baby those as much as possible.

I've had no issues with BCR's in my 5vPS2's. The BCR holds a charge for about a week off the layout, takes less than a minute to charge up. Any that die will get a Soundtraxx Tsunami installed and the problem will be gone.

@Darrell posted:

The BCR holds a charge for about a week off the layout, takes less than a minute to charge up.

There isn't a BCR anywhere that will hold (reasonable) charge for a week. A fully charged BCR doesn't have much capacity to begin with, about enough to complete the shutdown sequence two or possibly three times before the voltage drops below the minimum needed to operate the board. After the board powers down, the voltage continues to drop off even without anything drawing power. It will never reach absolute zero but you'll be under 1 volt easily overnight. This is why it is important (especially in PS1 engines) to let the BCR fully charge for 60 seconds (J&W's conservative number) to guarantee there is enough charge for the next shutdown sequence. About 45ish seconds is what it takes to charge a de-charged BCR back to full power.

I have 10 5vPS2 engines and am in the process of converting them all to BCR's.  The first 6 done...so far so good!  But, I realize the component cap quality issues, so the worst may yet happen someday.

In making the conversion to the first six, I noted that some of them have the characteristic round socket external charging port.  Of course, I won't be using this feature after the conversion to BCR.  But, I can't recall whether mention has been made as to whether this port should now be removed or otherwise made 'null and void'.  I wonder about the next owner of the engine.  If someone plugged a charger into the port now, would this cause damage to the charging circuit, the BCR,...whatever?  I can't recall this step having been discussed in prior threads/responses regarding the 5vPS2 concerns.

Or, should a sticker be placed over the charging port with some sort of comment, like 'BCR enclosed.  Do not externally charge!'.  That way, if someone wanted to revert back to battery (but why?) they could remove the sticker and resume external charging.

Counsel?

KD

BTW...I have about a dozen PS1's that have all been converted to the BCR.  Still running/sounding just fine.

And, IMHO, I think bringing any engine slowly up to about 10v (idle) for at least one minute when first applying power for operation is a good practice all around.  After all, in the 1:1 world I sincerely doubt the Super Chief would depart the station if the locomotive had just been powered up within seconds!  Pressures, temperatures, etc., probably need several minutes...minimum...to reach stable optimums.  Besides, I know it's also a good practice in starting the family car.

Leaving the charging port connected shouldn't hurt anything if a charger is plugged in.  The Super Cap will just get charged up when plugged in.

I like to leave mine hooked up because then I can plug in a homemade connector to my multi-meter to watch the charging & de-charging rate of the Super Cap without removing the shell.