Hello, Well I have been using DCC for the last 8 years, and in that time, I have seen some incremental improvements, and I feel that we are on the cusp of some revolutionary improvements. I will say after sampling just about every decoder made, I find that Zimo and Lenz are the most full featured decoders, while TCS , Digitrax and NCE are just a half step behind. This is not intended to be a knock on TCS, Digitrax or NCE. What differentiated them most in my mind are things like SUSI interfaces so that motion decoders relay information to sound decoders so the chuff rates etc can be timed to the motion of the locomotive. There is no need for Cams or anything else. This is found on what seems to be all Zimo deocders and also most Lenz decoders including the Silver Mini's I just got. On the equipment front, I saw a few weeks ago a web demo of a battery powered locomotive that was DCC controlled. I am not sure that will work out for anyone that has a lot of existing locomotives, and I wonder about battery lifetime and also the effect of diminished power has on tractive effort. ESU has the color LCD control station that has a sniffer feature to work with other systems and has released a LocoNet interface for better integration with pre-existing Digitrax layouts. It does offer more active addresses than the 120 slots on the Super Chief. Zimo offers automatic speed matching where you just run your locomotive over the calibrated length of track and it calculated the speed table to match what you want the top speed to be. With the improvement to RailSync and Asymmetrical DCC, features like reading CV values while running is possible, automatic slow zones and stops can be sent to locomotives entering a zone. It is pretty amazing. And now there is the movement for the Open Architecture system that David Harris posted on this forum several months ago. Si I was tinkering all day and thought, what is going to be next? My thoughts are the implementation of consumables if desired and I like the idea of a random generator for possible locomotive failures. I also would like to see a better integration of accessories between manufacturers. By this I mean everyone one converge on the same transport topology. This would mean the interface to all accessories. And last but not least, I would really like to see the universal adoption of RailSync and Asymmetrical DCC. What are your thoughts?
What I look forward to is macro improvements that would make the hobby easier for a beginner to intermediate participant. Decoders that are cheap enough for 100% factory installed leaving the DCC/DC decision to the user's choice of power-pak. DCC controllers with highly integrated and intuitive interfaces so that programming disappears as a process different from operations. Something like DecoderPro in the controller. To my knowledge, NCE and maybe MRC have made progress to this goal already.
Radio control DCC w/ batteries has already made the scene from NWSL: http://www.nwsl.com/uploads/Introducing_the_S-CAB-web.pdf And Tam Valley Depot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6w0niIUqA6I&sns=em These systems allow you to run trains w/ NO track wiring!
Locks with "on board" power -batteries- would be the single biggest advancement for the average user. No more wiring, no more worrying about short circuits, no more dead frog problems, no more reverse loop issues. I can only dream.......
DCC...what ever form it takes is the future. Make no mistake. I agree with David, in that this isn't as good as it get's. There are needed improvements and we sit on the threshold of better things, operations and user friendly ways and means to set-up the CV's. If such...exists. I was taking note of a computer program where you tell it what you want by answering questions and it sets the CV's for you. Darn complicated railroad, quoting my father figure. Someone needs to step to the plate and set the standard. Keep NMRA out of it and let the electronic engineers do their job.
I know the Radio/Battery is out there, it is just not widely adopted yet. I for one, do not see the ability to use it since that would require me to rework the hundreds of locomotives I have with decoders installed. In my mind, this is not a technology I am going to embrace. There may always be wiring unless you never want to do anything but hand-throw turnouts and never want to use signals. Occupancy detection would also require wiring of one sort or another. Personally, I have no issues with wiring. I was thinking things like other have mentioned, drop all of the cable interfaces and standardize on Ethernet transport protocol. Cables would be a lot cheaper and easier to get. There are so many ways to improve including the user interfaces, better throttles, and other areas of more realistic behavior of the locomotives and other devices.
Oh Rick, that was music to this Electrical Engineer's ears! Thank you, you just made my day! Let me count the ways the NMRA botched this, I was up to 136 when I decided to stop.
LOL Glad you like it. I'd sing for you but then you couldn't hear me very well and my voice is getting raspy. In all seriousness, I would like to see the electronic wizards that participate here get together to produce a better DCC system. That is if you can all get along. Grin!
I think I started a thread about battery powered locos a couple years back..I do think if battery power was perfected enough to allow us to run long or short trains and up whatever grades we have , for a good long ( say a month ) time , this would be truely liberating ..Yes, no more track wiring...trains following metal rails like the real ones do...We could have live/dedicated track to park engines on ( at the shops or round house, say ) to ' re-fuel ' I.E. where batteries recharge..This/these tracks could be on , 24/7. No different than charging up your cell phone..Park engine(s) and go to sleep..Pick up RC, enter address for a particular engine and roll..I just got into DCC with NCE and only (so far) one digital loco, a Bachmann 10 wheeler..The digital is truely a fabulous improvement, but I believe the final frontier lies in battery/RC...cold rails throughout RR except for charging-tracks ( re-fueling )...
Before that happens, you'll have decoders that keep track of run time... for Diesels between fueling stands, and for Steam, between water towers and coaling stations... run your steamer too long without stopping at a water tank, and it stops. Very cool, and if someone hasn't already done it, should be just around the corner.
Why stop w/ just refueling & water? How about routine engine maintenance thru major remanufacturing. Then there's freight & passenger car maintenance, track, signals etc. LOL
LOL can you believe those two? Ahh, guys....no thanks. The trains I have don't need an excuse to stop and cause me more grief then I already need. Heck, I don't want it planned for me. My big hook aka "Hooker", works overtime as it is. Sheez, let's not get carried away here. Easy on the throttle.
The digital control of model trains is continually evolving. Besides the NMRA, DCC, some other digital systems are on the market right now that were not in anyones mind a couple years ago. Rich
I can see the battery loco working. To convert existing stock you can have an extra car trailing the loco with the battery pack. Heck I'll bet you can get a battery one from an old remote vehicle that uses batteries. You just need to find one small enough to fit in your trailing car/s. Then you could use exiting parts of your track and leave it powered or power with a charging circuit and give it a little charge while it passes over it....Humm..... ponders if he can locate the proper battery with the correct output and size....
If I were starting today, I would back the battery idea. But with over 20 years worth of locomotives, the idea of conversion to batteries is not attractive. I believe that continued enhancement of software, and possibly some modifications in the signal specification would help out a great deal. I really like the idea of distributed command processing, where boosters are not just power supplies, but actually a controller that is working cooperatively with other controllers. This was as you scale in power, you also scale in processing ability and also possibly remove any limit to the number of trains running. And as I have said in the past, consumables and random failures would be kind of cool to temper the running of trains with another dose of reality. Diesel or Steam smoke generators not withstanding, other sensory improvements like better lighting packages on locomotives, sound improvement and even finer control of the motors is what I hope to see.
Anyone ever work with "CTI," a firm operating in Florida. Explored their approach a few years ago after being put onto it by 1st explorations at LHS. Never seen in practice, only one dude who planned for it. Approach features "train brains" and occupancy detection. Believe the trains are followed buy the "brains" and controlled w/o decoders. Could start w/$100 but soon got to big$$$ as trains and trackage build up. So, not for me. Much less, couldn't understand it. Not a train brain anyway, only "a bear of little brain" here. Anyone?
From the way back machine-"I won't ever change from DC to the new fangled DCC. I have too much invested to consider it."...Now it is "change from DCC to onboard batteries and r/c because......" There are some modelers who have embraced the "dark side". I know one fellow who runs ancient Athearn diesels with OBB & R/C on his otherwise DC layout and has a blast doing so. Imagine running that through freight on a large layout while you do local switching WITHOUT any twisting of rotarys, toggling of toggles, or even cleaning pesky sidings with brite boys. Just running trains and having fun. And he doesn't have trailer cars with battery loads, the stuff fits into a dummy GP which is coupled to a powered GP. The same could be done with an HO switcher with a tender. Maybe I am just wishing about all this, surely it can't be done by anyone. Woodie the troublemaker
I would think that you could operate battery powered and track powered locos on the same track, so would there be a need to redo your 20 years of locos? Of course, you could also have said the same thing with regard to DCC ......
