Two books and two cds with instructions of installing DCC. Amazing after so many claim it is so easy to do. It will have to wait a while and I think I'll only do it for the HO engines I have. The N scale engines are all DC. OH WELL!!
Not too bad. Still vented and unable to speak . Also still fighting an infection, lungs I think, gotta ask about that. Think that, because I get suctioned, when I request it. Or shortly after shift change. But, so far, I'm hanging in there!! Still have love and support from immediate family and friends who know of my situation. Can always use more. Hopefully it'll help more, even if it's a snails pace faster!! I thank those who have offered well wishes, prayers and more during this continuing ordeal!! Keith[/QUOTE] Praying here for you! Been in ICU struggling to breathe before, Hang in there!
Well, these were in the mail today, a Kato built 4-8-4 from Con Cor, some B&O cabeese and boxcars and some Kato Unitrack pieces for the layout. The 4-8-4 will go into correct GN colors, just gotta decide if I want to go with the Green locomotive shell or just stay basic black.
Really nice stuff, Deacon. The loco is a beauty. I don’t know very much about the GN but I think the green steam engines are quite attractive. That said, if it was my locomotive I’d go with basic black because it’s a lot easier.
The red white and blue eagle truck dropped this off for me today. I tried it out with my command station I use for shows and a test track and wow, it really works good and is easy to use. I will give it a more detailed workout at the show next weekend.
TCS offers two DCC command stations, and two WiFi throttles. They have a handheld throttle/command station (wired), a conventional command station, and a booster. The conventional command station has build-in WiFi interface, but AFAIK, only supports the LCC protocol over WiFi, not Wi-Throttle. Both throttles will work with LCC or Wi-Throttle protocols over WiFi (not simultaneously, but user-configurable). The UWT-50 throttle is smaller than the UWT-100. The TCS command stations do not support Wi-Throttle protocol, WiFi throttles directly. You'd need a computer running JMRI, etc. for that.
I am not trying out their command stations at this time, I am currently using a Digitrax DCS210 With a UR92 (for Digitrax Throttles) and a LNWI for WiThrottles such as a phone or this TCS-100. I also use a RR-CirKits LocoBuffer USB for the computer interface but I didn't try out a JMRI interface with the new throttle yet. I may, but we don't use that with my command station setup at shows. The command station box I am going to build for N-Trak will have a JMRI based throttle server built in most likely powered by a Raspberry Pi. I am still in the collecting parts phase for that project.
The R-Pi (or practically any computer) can handle far more WiFi throttle connections through even a wireless connection to a dedicated WiFi router than it can acting as it's own WiFi hot spot.
Sure wish I had something of an understanding of all that. Think I'll just wait until I get my new glasses and start reading the stack of books and watch the videos.
Easy to do with DCC-EX for very little money and depending on how many throttles you want you could build the command station to run alone with the $10 WiFi additional board. I think 5 or 6 throttles that route. More if you use the Pi JMRI. I like that as it is easy for me to also do my programming. With your skills the DCC-EX command station would be very easy to build. Basically also true for someone with no skills. No wiring, soldering, computer programming involved and they have an 'auto-installer' for the software. It is also fairly easy to setup automation if you had a module that would be good for using that at shows. It is its own WiFi hot spot with either the $10 add-on board or with the Pi. DCC-EX Sumner
DITTO HERE I recently discovered "Streamlined Backshop" may have finally found a TCS decoder that fits my two 'ole Walthers diesels(yikes "CURRENT STOCK: 1")
It depends on what part of DCC you are looking at to determine how easy or hard it is. HO or N can be challenging to install decoders depending on if the locomotive was designed for DCC or not. Athearn Blue box locomotives have a ton or room inside, but no good place to put a decoder, let alone an easy way to do it, you have to hard wire them. I have done several. A similar era Kato or Atlas and even some of the Proto 2000 locomotives you simply removed a jumper or jumper plug and plug in the decoder and you are golden. N scale is much the same only smaller. But each one has it's own challenges. Installation of DCC on a layout on the other hand is pretty straight forward... Unless the layout was designed for block control, then it becomes a challenge... or at least slightly more difficult. A layout with a well organized block control that isolated both rails can easily have the blocks turned into power districts, but with common rail wiring this becomes a bit more of a challenge. For a layout that was designed from the beginning as a DCC layout you are simply hooking up 2 wires to the rails and running trains. Things can get much more complex, but it doesn't have to be that way. If you are talking signaling and transponding, well that gets just as complex in DCC as it was in DC. I have seen layouts in DC that had a CTC office and the dispatcher knew whenever a train was in a block due to the red light in that block on his board. I have seen this in DCC as well. I have also set up a layout I built once upon a time ago that was able to have someone on the other side of the country operate trains with me at the layout. I had a Virtual Desktop client running on the computer and JMRI to control the trains. MS Net Meeting was used as the video conferencing software so my friend could see the trains through a couple of web cams. Net Meeting was the only way I knew to get more than one camera on the screen at the same time. It took us a few to get the timing right as there was a slight delay between what my friend seen and what was happening at the layout. We eventually mastered it and would hold operating sessions remotely. This was well before all the virus that shall not be named stay at home software like Zoom and what not. So it can get complex, but it doesn't have to.
Got a new but in need of repair already Rapido TTX caboose. Man, it's nice Also got some additional decoders
In order to progress on the Indio side of staging I needed four more Cobalt IP Digitals, so I pulled the trigger on a box of 12 from DCC Concepts. Nobody seems to have them in the states. It may take a spell to arrive, but that's ok. It forces me to keep working toward making room for the rest of the mainline on my SP in the IE project.
Picked up a nice Kato model of eBay, of the 'Katy' liveried UP unit for £35 (currently about $42 US) the other day, arrived in this mornings post! Please to discover its fully working, perfect condition. It adds to the couple of other UP 'liveries' that are already in the fleet .. still someway to go, but up to 17 locos now (all Kato, FVM or ScaleTrains) need a TCS DCC drop-in decoder for it, but that can wait for a bit!
These were waiting in my mail box when I got home this afternoon. Might be the most I've ever paid for Micro-Trains cars, but first impression is that they are worth it. Tomorrow these will get a run on the layout our Ntrak group currently has set up at a nearby air museum.
