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Low Battery Voltage Warning
When NiMh or NiCad batteries start running down, they usually give a noticeable decrease in speed before giving
out completely. Plenty of time to get the train back home or to the desired charging location.
With lithium batteries, things are different. They need protection from over discharge, so many lithium-ion battery
packs have a built-in protection circuit that shuts off the battery when it discharges to a predetermined voltage.
This happens with no warning, and your train stops instantly; in the tunnel or on the mountain, etc. Lithium-
polymer batteries don’t usually have the built-in protection, but must have some protection to avoid damage.
The purpose of the low voltage warning function is to give you full run-time on your battery pack, but warn you
when you have only a few minutes left to get the train back to the desired location under power.
Low Voltage Warning: The throttle setting is automatically reduced by 50% and the Front Light starts flashing.
This gets your attention. You can then restore full power by first reducing the throttle to zero, and then to the de-
sired setting. The front light will continue to flash reminding you the battery is very low. This setting is programma-
ble via DIP switch parameter 7. It may take some experimentation to get the desired result; i.e. X minutes of run
time before the battery circuit shuts you down.
Hard Cutoff: If the battery voltage falls below 3.0 volts per cell, the RailBoss will shut off power to everything it has
control of (motor and lights). The receiver and sound system will still be drawing power. This setting is intended
for use with Lithium-Polymer batteries, or Lithium-Ion batteries without built-in protection.
This function can be disabled or customized using DIP switch parameters 6 and 7: i.e. number of cells and volt-
age level.
Warning:
Neither the Low Voltage Warning nor the Hard Cutoff will function until programming parameter 6 is
properly setup. It is the user’s responsibility to determine the proper number of lithium cells in the battery pack
being used and select the proper option, thus enabling both functions.
These functions serve as a warning only! It the user’s responsibility to intervene promptly after the warning and
safely disconnect the battery pack to avoid damage.
