Large Scale Central

Older Phoenix Sound System replacement battery

Electronics Power and Sound
#1

Question for anyone who might know.

I have an older Phoenix sound system from the 2000’s. The battery for standing sounds isn’t holding a charge anymore. What do you know after 20 years. It is a seal lead acid battery 6 volts 0.5 amp hour (PS-605) . Well apparently that battery went the way of the dodo bird and is no longer available. Wondering if anyone knows what would replace it. Im assuming there is no smart charging going on. Rather, it just charges at a low C rate. Any help would be great! Thanks

#2

I found this as a possible solution. Just a little larger Ah or 1.2. 727-0388(6V1.2Ah)

#3

That will work better (last longer between runs that build a charge in the battery) so long as you can fit it in. Did you try Pheonix? They are real good at supporting even their earliest hardware.

#4

Jon. No to be honest, I didn’t. Wasn’t sure the response I would get during these times of lock down. The dimensions are very close to the original battery.

Kyle

#5

Kyle Schoenly said:

Question for anyone who might know.

I have an older Phoenix sound system from the 2000’s. The battery for standing sounds isn’t holding a charge anymore. What do you know after 20 years. It is a seal lead acid battery 6 volts 0.5 amp hour (PS-605) . Well apparently that battery went the way of the dodo bird and is no longer available. Wondering if anyone knows what would replace it. Im assuming there is no smart charging going on. Rather, it just charges at a low C rate. Any help would be great! Thanks

Google is your friend. I put PS-605 battery in the search box and a page of suppliers came up.

I often do this when I am looking for electronic parts.

#6

Thanks… You must dig deeper then the surface. The battery is no longer made and is discontinued. In fact no suppliers is making a SLA battery of that Ah anymore for obvious reasons. I found one that will fit which is slaa6-2st. However I think you could use NiCad as well. I would bet the board is charging at 10 percent for a trickle charge which would be 50 milliamps. Waiting for phoenix to respond with an answer.

Kyle

#7

Ok well the slaa6-2st worked. I was able to get it in there with little effort. Its a little over rated at 2 Ah but functions as its suppose to now. (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)I will post what Phoenix has to say when they return my email. There is more than likely a better solution then what I did. Also Power Sonic PS-610 would be a better solution at 2" square and 1.6" wide but no one local to me had one in stock and I wanted to complete the project.

Kyle

#8

I found a replacement at Batteries Plus, about 10 years ago, about $13.00.

Don

#9

If it where only 10 years ago. That’s where I got the battery I used. First place I could walk in and buy something for train in my area since radio shack closed up retail. I bought a bunch of Nicds’s to make a small Bachmann Davenport battery operated. For a simple loco to run around when I don’t feel like cleaning track.

Kyle

#10

Why not just use 2 of the 3.2 or 3.6 volt batteries in series??

#11

I’m assuming you mean lithium Dan? I wasn’t sure what current the board charges at or protection/circuitry capabilities it has. I did email phoenix but I have not heard from them. I didn’t want to stick a lithium battery in and see smoke after awhile. I assume it charges at a 10 percent constant current. Given the SLA was 500 milliamps, you would see a 50 milliamp charge current. So I assume I could have used a similar rated arrangement NiCd but since I found a SLA that fit. I just went with it. As I understand it, those single lithium batteries don’t have over/under charge protection.

#12

Another thought is to use super caps and charge them to 6 volts. Depending on size, this can give you sound for over 20 seconds when changing direction.

I used 7 of the 10F supercaps on a 16 volt DCC zimo decoder and with engine running, lights, smoke and sound on, I got over 10 seconds of the engine running when I picked it off the track. For just sound it would last a long time. And these do not go bad over time, My LGB mogul has the original ones fore over 15 years!!

#13

Yes, you could probably use Supercaps, and I do this with my Sierra systems. I use three 2.7 volt, 6F supercaps in series and when the power is removed, the sound system (and lighting) stay on for about a minute or more depending on the volume setting.

#14

I never thought about caps… I put them in all my lighting boards i build for passenger cars. Im not a fan of the flicker effect on dirty track or switch frogs. I can’t believe i didn’t think of that myself. I just got a response from phoenix. They said you can use nimh which means you can use nicd to. So to wrap this up you can use sla, nicd, nimh, in a six volt arrangement and super caps. My hunch must have been correct that the board ouputs a very small charging current (around 50 milliamps) opening it up to many different types of batteries. Just a thought if your sound system is in your loco and you want the add weight. The lead acid is a great option.

#15

Kyle Schoenly said:

Question for anyone who might know.

I have an older Phoenix sound system from the 2000’s. The battery for standing sounds isn’t holding a charge anymore. What do you know after 20 years. It is a seal lead acid battery 6 volts 0.5 amp hour (PS-605) . Well apparently that battery went the way of the dodo bird and is no longer available. Wondering if anyone knows what would replace it. Im assuming there is no smart charging going on. Rather, it just charges at a low C rate. Any help would be great! Thanks

Klye - I’ve installed many Phoenix sound boards on my own LGB locos and customer locos. Which Phoenix board do you have, maybe it’s the Model 97, one of the oldest made before Year 2000? You can download any of the Phoenix board’s installation guides and other helpful information from the Phoenix Website…look at each board’s pictures to identity which board you have. Phoenix is closed for business right now like all non-essential businesses in MI by order of the Governor.

You need to know specifically which board you have because Phoenix uses different rechargeable batteries on specific boards, and some are Ni-Cd and some are NiMH. I installed a Massoth DCC XL Power Decoder and Massoth Pulsed Smoker into a customer’s LGB Euro Mallet last year which already had the older Phoenix Model 97 board in it…still working after many years of use. It also needed a new battery and I checked with Jim at Phoenix who told me to use a Rechargeable 7.2 volt NiMH battery and he told me where to buy it. Sorry I don’t remember where I ordered it from.

If you have the Big Sound 2k2 board, then next generation of their boards in early Year 2000, the Installation Manual states to use a 3.6volt Ni-Cd battery.

Tom