Airwire Products

[two tone]

Im hoping for a bit of help from both UK and USA I run Bachmann G gauge 2-8-0 and want to change to DCC keeping track power.     Question  I know the airwire 5000 transmitter will do what  I want but can not see asuitable board to install in loco, any one any ideas.

[kstrong]

When you say you're "changing to DCC," are you going to be buying a full system like NCE, Massoth, etc.? If that's the case, the Airwire transmitter will do you no good. DCC itself is an open architecture, but the "black box" and the handheld controller are proprietary relationships.

If you want to use the Airwire transmitter with DCC decoders, you'll need to use an Airwire receiver. The "G-2" is their current production board. It's got a very good motor control built into it already, so there'd be no reason to have to add a second DCC decoder. It's also got a 3-amp capacity DCC pass-through which you can use to run sound and lighting control boards, or even another motor control/sound decoder like LokSound, Zimo, QSI, etc. if you were so inclined. Most folks are content with the Airwire's motor control and a sound system of their liking. The Airwire can control digital, DCC, and analog sound systems.

Later,

K

[Greg Elmassian]

Kevin apparently has not looked at the CVP web site (who make AirWire).

Look at the "easy DCC" product line... you can use your Airwire transmitter, to a CVP base station and you are running "traditional" DCC on the rails.

http://www.cvpusa.com/easydcc_system.php

Then you can use ANY DCC decoder in your locos.

You'll be saving money when you run sound, since you can buy many "combination" motor and sound decoders for much less than a Phoenix PLUS the G2... and get more features and sound that changes according to the actual load on the locomotive.

By the way, the Airwire system has limitations in what it can do to control DCC decoders, especially sophisticated ones just like the ones he mentioned. (ESU Zimo can be problematic)

Greg

[cacole]

An AirWire receiver/decoder is for BATTERY power only, not track power.  

Since the OP indicated that he wants to retain track power, he should check out the CVP EasyDCC or North Coast Engineering PowerHouse Pro 5 or 10 Amp DCC system.

Large scale decoders are available from Digitrax, Lenz, NCE, Zimo, and QSI, among others, and all these brands will work with the EasyDCC or NCE systems.

There are, of course, other systems available such as the AristoCraft Train Engineer for those who want to use track power.

[kstrong]

Forgive the oversight, yes, CVP does make a traditional base station DCC controller that's compatible with their wireless throttles, though you do have to also buy the wireless receiver in addition to "the big black box." (That's true for most, if not all traditional base station DCC systems--the wireless receiver is an added expense.) However, given only one locomotive to be controlled, it hardly seems cost-effective to be looking at these wireless base station solutions unless there are plans for significant future expansion.

While the Airwire receivers are primarily designed for battery power, they can operate in a track-powered environment as well. This is covered in the manual. You need a bridge rectifier to ensure proper polarity of power going to the receiver, and Airwire also recommends a capacitor to compensate for momentary lapses in power (similar to the capacitor that Aristo ships with their Revolution receivers for the same reason). Their circuit diagram in the manual also shows a back-up battery, though this is not mandatory. The capacitor should be sufficient. If you need more, then one of Aristo's 6-capacitor cap boards will fit the bill nicely.

Also, Airwire just introduced (for the small scales) a self-contained on-board receiver that can be used with any generic DCC decoder under track or battery power. (It's designed for the small scales, so track power is its primary source.) While not completely suitable for large scale, it will work for small critters and light locos that don't draw more than 1.5 amps or so.

Later,

K

[Greg Elmassian]

A little confusing... the "wireless receiver" mentioned in Kevin's first post is to receive from the wireless throttle, not to or from the loco... which would have a lower cost traditional DCC decoder.

Just wanted to clarify so that the phrase "wireless receiver" in this post is not confused with the "wireless receiver" in the AirWire wireless/battery systems...

A better way to describe this is that this is a wireless base station, which can receive from a number of throttles... and the rest of the system is a traditional track powere DCC system.

It just turns out that the wireless protocol sent by CVP throttles can be received by a wireless base station in the EasyDCC setup , or by individual locos fitted with the CVP Airwire receivers.

Greg