Digitrax's new throttles

I agree many of the throttles have outdated button setups. I started out using NCE Powercab then a couple years ago Rob A introduced me to using the digitrax LNWI and a 30$ amazon fire 7" tablet running engine driver and that has been our goto DCC setup at shows ever since. Simple to setup and easy to control multiple trains all on the same screen. We've had 3 tablets running 3 trains each all day with out any problems (other than the occasional derailment or unintentional decoupling)

 

Not sure how you quoted me in this comment but it was supposed to be tjdreams.

 

is all good

 

Of course cell phone are also used for surfing the web, playing games, etc., in fact phone calls are almost an after thought on them now. If all I did was make phone calls, I would still easily prefer my old flip phone to my current smart phone - not because I'm technophobe or anything like that, it was just a simpler, more efficient interface for making phone calls. 99% of what I use my throttle for is running trains (I sometimes use it for programming, but I can use my PC for that), and in my experience knobs and buttons make for a better interface than a touchscreen. I do have Engine Driver on my phone and use it on occasion, but I still prefer my DT402, especially when switching.

 

Ask fourteen users what they want in a user interface, and you'll get fourteen different answers, mostly mutually exclusive.

I don't believe it was easier to call someone on my razor flip phone than it is with 'hey google...' today. And I really liked that Razor, in its day.

We just need to teach hey google and siri to run our trains by voice control!

 

I'm a little torn on them, visually I love them and am glad they've finally joined the 21st century, even if they're still only just in the early 2000's of it. The lack of WiFi and use of removable batteries this late in the game still makes them feel at least a decade out of date. I know on the Facebook post I saw from them their response to "Where's WiFi?" was almost literally, "Do you realize how much battery WiFi uses?" The answer is 'not much'. If a cell phone can run off WiFi all day a remote certainly should be able to. Especially if you just plug it in to charge over night.

Also for what they are, I feel they're a good $100 over priced. (But I think that about basically every throttle) I can buy an entire video game console with bluetooth and WiFi and a screen 3-4 times as large with touch controls for that price. Throttles are remote controls, they have no business costing over $100 for any reason. And even that's a stretch. If the command center + PSU is included, that's different, but it's not.

 

Actually that's basically what ESU's Mobile Controller is, and it still retails over $200. (Granted that's including the phone and software)

Using a phone seems to me to be complete overkill on computational power from my understanding. Assuming you have a separate command station, what is the throttle even computing? Shouldn't it just be a handheld keyboard basically?

Edit: I've been doing more research and apparently this isn't how throttles work, for some reason. I may need to start a new thread on this after work so I don't accidentally derail this one. For now my opinion is on hold while I may not know what I'm talking about.

 

Using a smart phone for a throttle isn't overkill, if you already have such a phone, and using it for a throttle does not preclude using it for the other purposes for which you have it.

That last point is why I started a different thread asking about DCC systems that can connect to an existing WiFi network, rather than create their own network which does not provide internet-based services. Most systems, including Digitrax, just create their own separate WiFi network, and cannot, by themselves attach to your existing wireless router or internet service on their own. From my own findings, and the responses to that thread, it appears the non-US suppliers are more likely to be able to connect to an existing network.

 

The difference between a DCC throttle and your video game console is that the market for the video game console is an order of magnitude larger, if not two orders of magnitude larger for the video game console. So their R&D, tooling, and other fixed costs are amortized over a huge number more devices. The cost of an item is not just the sum of the cost of the parts, plus some percentage in profits. It also has to cover R&D, sales and marketing, inventory, etc. costs. That is why a specialty item like a DCC throttle costs a lot more than a video game console when compared to the BOM costs.

Having said that, the lack of WiFi is just dumb. I am plenty happy with my 2 Roco Z-21 WLANmaus WiFi throttles as well as the Digitrax LNWI adapter and the phone based throttle SW. (My command center is a Digikeijs DR5000-ADJ which natively supports Z21 and has Loconet to easily add the Digitrax adapter). I am always on the lookout for another WiFi based throttle but may just end up with another Roco/Fleischmanm WLANmaus. I paid under $100 a pop and they work just fine.

And also for the record, I *LIKE* the throttles that use normal AAA or AA batteries as they are cheap, recharge fast, and I can easily have a few sets already charged ready to swap out as necessary. Though I wish they would use AA rather than AAA. A little extra weight is worth the much greater capacity. But my AAA based Roco last usually a full session or longer and I've only run out of power during a session once and a quick swap made it easy to continue.

 

Although it is apparently not available yet, according to the user manual there is going to be a rechargeable battery pack option that will be recharged in the throttle.

 

Yes and you will be able to use 3 NiMH AA batteries as well.