Wow thanks for sharing this bite of news. I'm in also when it gets to N Scale. But also I hope that another company jumps on this technology along with Bachmann. Bachmann products are not the best from my experience.
Dont feel bad. Where we live there is no cell service anyways....LMAO ! We only use it when taking trips. The kids worry about us to much...
The Bachmann/BlueRail approach is “patent pending”. I have been working on an open-source version of this Direct-Bluetooth-Train-Control for almost a year now and posting here. There are is a lot of misinformation about Bluetooth. Most N scale locomotives would be doable in my opinion. For this scale the antenna would most likely be a hidden copper foil Patten on the top of the shell. Another misconception is that Direct-Bluetooth-Train-Control is only for iThings, and more conventional throttles would not become available. Open-Interface-Bob
I am still waiting for battery powered locos in N scale. Meaning no power going to the track. No more cleaning of the track, no more nudging the train, no more power loss going over frogs and no more power loss due to poor electrical contact with power routing switches.
I don't see battery power in n scale anytime soon. Sure we have small enough batteries, but they won't Last long with how we run them. You'd have to charge your locomotives every 10 minutes or so, that's just not feasible for operations. If you want to get an idea of how long small batteries last go try a small rc heli and fly it for a while. Now you could have a second locomotive permanently draw barred you could do that... But then you'd need more locomotives for less cars just because they would have to pull dead weight. As for switching you might get away with a caboose of some sort but then your run around would have to be longer... As for the Bluetooth. I'm all for it. Bluetooth is a small technology that will easily fit into almost all locomotive types. The only problem with Bluetooth is the limited amounts of locomotives you can run at one time. But would be Nice to run from your Blackberry, Windows phone, Android, iWhatever, Playstation 3/4 (they are Bluetooth capable.. Well they use BT for alot of accessories) or basically any BT device..
I would think that 7 locomotives from one throttle would be enough for most people. Open-Interface-Bob
And if you need more? Cheap android tablets are less than 50 bucks. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA3DC1F78343
Not really. While you can only connect up to seven locomotives at the same time, you only need to connect when you are sending commands. Also, multiple locomotives lashed together can act as one since you can pass commands to one locomotive and that locomotive can then pass the commands on to the others. What interests me about this is that we may finally have an easy way to implement train detection on a layout.
so what is the advantage over a wireless dcc controler ?? or controling decoderpro thru your mobile phone ?
Basically not much. From what I can gather, all Bachmann has done is move the communication component of DCC from being track based to Bluetooth based and simplified the control interface. If you have an established DCC layout, you might not make the switch. However, if you are a casual/beginner/upgrading from DC modeller, you will take interest.
How does that work of you're running at a train show? Doesn't decoder pro require a router and a PC running JMRI to be wireless? Jason
jason yes, you're right. so far any dcc powered layout at train shows was hooked up to a pc. adding a wireless router is just another simple step. range of wlan is much better than bluetooth.
How many layouts do you know where you would have to control a locomotive over 100 metres away from where you are? Edit: Also, Bluetooth repeaters do exist.
Sorry but not for me. Too many layers of technology to fail at some point. Plus I am not into operating computers to get my trains to run. Simply power up the track and advance the throttle is enough for me.
802.11 is not significantly larger a footprint on the endpoint side and has no practical limit for nodes on the network. Large club layouts could even scale up to SMB grade HW. Plus stationary decoders could be Ethernet. Bluetooth shines at near field communications, but 802.11 was built from the ground up for this scale. Again as I've said in other threads as an electrical engineer who gets paid to know this stuff, I think ethernet is the logical next step. Bluetooth strikes me as a lone wolf modeller only solution rather than one that can grow.
As another electrical engineer, I so not see any real benefit over what is available today. Seems like another VHS vs Beta Max thing. A previous poster noted that installed DCC layouts would not benefit from adding this on top of the layout and I tend to agree. To date there has been no overall system architecture for a full featured BlueTooth based system. There is also no mention of power delivery or consumption presented thus far. Perhaps it is out there, but if this was really gaining momentum, it would be much easier to find out the answers. I have zero issues with my current wireless implementation so I am disinclined to spend much research effort.
