Review of the PowerSpijk-S
Alright, a bit overdue, but being essential has it perks and drawbacks. Aside from that, I got to test the PowerSpijk (however that's pronounced is beyond me), and now I get to review it. For starters, it has two lighting outputs and one always-on output, and it utilizes eight different lighting settings (last one's experimental, and is a twist on #6) for various lighting preferences. So with that all said, let's go down the list.
1. Variable Brightnes: it's as is sounds, the brightness is controlled by the amount of throtle you give, and divides the two lighting groups across the forward/reverse axis.
2. Swithed Forward/Reverse 1: an always-bright setting that works best for trains, leaves one light group on after selecting a direction and applying throtle. Will stay illuminated until you apply power in the reverse direction. Best paired with the driving motor.
3. Swithed Forward/Reverse 2: another always-bright setting, this one only works when throtle's applied.
4. Vehicle Lights 1: brake and revers lights, the brake is always on (bright when stopped, dim when moving), and the reverse lights illuminate when reversing (birght).
5. Vehicle Lights 2: simply put, they're turning signals. best paired with steering.
6. PF On/Off: basically uses a single forward/reverse signal to toggle the two light groups.
7. PF On/Off Dual Brightness: same as #6, but with two brightness settings that are consecutive (Ei: dim, bright, off).
8. Experimental: this one's like #6, but there's a catch. Firstly, the control only permits you to turn on and off the two lighting groups sequentially. This means if you want to illuminate lighting group 2, you need to illuminate group one first, and the same applies for turning them off. Secondly, when using a PF train controller, there can be a lot of give in the knob before the control sets in (namely when you turn the knob too far).
Alright, that's pretry much the just of it. Hope this review has been helpful!
Happy building!