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Our garden railway group has encountered a number of third generation lithium-ion battery packs. These are the packs distributed earlier this year that are not compatible with the TE. The red (power) LED on the TE will light up and then fade away when you try to use these battery packs to power it. To date we have four of them: two from a dealer and two from our Canadian Distributor.
Today while bench testing a 75 MHz receiver, I decided to try one of the third generation battery packs to power it.
The motor block and LED headlight (programming light) ran fine with it. I tried the other two third generation battery packs and they worked as well.
So if you are planning to install a 75 MHz on-board receiver, you can use a third generation lithium-ion battery pack. These packs may also work with other on-board receivers.
Our group has also encountered problems with the power switch on new TEs when using them with lithium-ion battery packs. After the switch has been used a while, the red (power) LED will not light and the TE will not function. Or the red (power) LED will light, but the green (signal) LED will flicker and the transmitter and receiver will not link. This is especially true if two lithium-ion packs are used in parallel to power the TE. A large flash (arcing) is evident when the switch is thrown.
We are now encouraging our members to install a toggle switch rated at 5 amps (at 125 volts) between the TE and one lithium-ion battery pack, and use it instead the slide switch on the TE. When two lithium-ion packs are used, a four-pole double-throw switch with diodes should be installed.
We are currently using a standard sized, four-pole double-throw, center-off toggle switch rated for 15 amps (at 125 volts) in our Evans power cars.
The large screw terminals make it easy to install the heavy wiring used on the new TEs and lithium-ion battery packs. The TE and battery pack connectors are replaced with number 6 loop terminals.
Today while bench testing a 75 MHz receiver, I decided to try one of the third generation battery packs to power it.

The motor block and LED headlight (programming light) ran fine with it. I tried the other two third generation battery packs and they worked as well.
So if you are planning to install a 75 MHz on-board receiver, you can use a third generation lithium-ion battery pack. These packs may also work with other on-board receivers.
Our group has also encountered problems with the power switch on new TEs when using them with lithium-ion battery packs. After the switch has been used a while, the red (power) LED will not light and the TE will not function. Or the red (power) LED will light, but the green (signal) LED will flicker and the transmitter and receiver will not link. This is especially true if two lithium-ion packs are used in parallel to power the TE. A large flash (arcing) is evident when the switch is thrown.
We are now encouraging our members to install a toggle switch rated at 5 amps (at 125 volts) between the TE and one lithium-ion battery pack, and use it instead the slide switch on the TE. When two lithium-ion packs are used, a four-pole double-throw switch with diodes should be installed.

We are currently using a standard sized, four-pole double-throw, center-off toggle switch rated for 15 amps (at 125 volts) in our Evans power cars.

The large screw terminals make it easy to install the heavy wiring used on the new TEs and lithium-ion battery packs. The TE and battery pack connectors are replaced with number 6 loop terminals.