This PB4 includes a number of heatsinks on both the drivers and the supply diodes. The driver transistors are different from those in other powerbases (using IRLR024 & IRLR9343). The drive circuit to the device has been significantly simplified, using just the output of the MCU and a single transistor network.
PB4 powerbases use 15v power supplies, but in this case 2 series diodes to 'waste' about 1.4v of that. This places about 13.8v on the track (no load) which is greater than the previous PB4 version. The car bridge rectifiers therefore provide a motor voltage of about 12.5v, arguably higher than analogue cars.
 PB4, v6.0, internal |
Ian Harding, Christchurch, New Zealand