Response about charging from Ring Engineering

[Antoine L.]

This gives me the feeling of having a really high quality product in my hands and in these times, quality is rare.

Never had issues with battery life, except when downloading from website it seems to consume more.

Antoine

[nodcc4me]

My HC-1 was upgraded to an HC-2 two years ago, and I doubt the battery was changed. I don't get nearly that much running time but I usually don't run for more than a couple hours at a time anyway. If I fully charge it and let it drain down without running anything it will last for about eight hours.

Downloading and copying/deleting files will run the battery down very quickly.

[William Brillinger]

Loading files will drain the battery quickly.

You may find it's not as bad as you think, if you drain it fully, then fully charge it.
It can be on the last bar, or red bar for a very long time if the meter is out of sync.

I hope the CI-1 will eliminate the need to use the throttle to load files!

[KPack]

I hope the CI-1 will eliminate the need to use the throttle to load files!

^^^This.  That would be 100% awesome.


Glad you had such great results with your running time Bill.  The HC-2 will continue to work long after you think it is going to run out of batteries.  If the bar is low you won't be able to load files, but you'll be able to run trains without an issue.  I ran for 3 hours the other day and the HC was down to a 1/4 power before I started.  It ended about the same.

-Kevin

[nodcc4me]

Loading files will drain the battery quickly.

I hope the CI-1 will eliminate the need to use the throttle to load files!

That's an interesting thought Bill. It would require a laptop/tablet and a radio equipped input device (CI-1?) in order to load files directly into the modules.

Kevin, you're right about the HC-2 lasting a long time when it is near the bottom of the battery meter, but it seems like I always want to copy or delete a file at that time. 

[William Brillinger]

From the description, the CI-1 will be a RailPro Radio that attaches to your pc by USB.

http://rpug.pdc.ca/index.php?topic=166.msg830

So a programmer seems logical to me.
Not to mention controlling trains from the PC.

But right now, this is pure speculation.