Has anyone seen this? I'm not talking about the ones that are advertised in the magazine, this appears to be a home made DCC uncoupler that uses one of the decoder functions to operate.
Here is a video of it from YouTube: DCC uncoupler video
Here is some more info on how the modeler made the uncoupler: DCC uncoupler info
This is the main site from which the info came from: RR-CirKits
Pardon the repeat if this has been discussed before.
EDIT: Here is a bit of more info I forgot to share, it's a bit more indepth than the other info link I provided: DCC uncoupler info 2
TONY
"If we never take the time, how can we ever have the time." - Merovingian (Matrix Reloaded)
Neat eh !.. Muscle wire. 20$ for 3'. This dates back to 1998.
But then there is much design and tickering till it works. + you are limited to uncoupling the first car attached to that engine. Putting this into every car that follows will be expensive and time consuming; decoder, power pickup, uncoupler at both ends.
Neat but is it worth the time and effort or is it just a " watch this !... "
It does seem like a lot of work for a "watch this" feature. Maybe it's a project for those with some more time on their hands and/or those that are very electronically saavy and capable. I think I'll catalog this as something for me to do in the near future.
Putting it into every freight car would be a daunting task, no doubt. Price wise it would probably be cheaper (in the big picture) to do this DCC uncoupler than buying the System Five-O DCC uncoupler, which costs $49.95 for the single or $69.95 for the double uncoupler. But the price is paid for the convenience of not having to do too much work to get it to work. Then again, it's cheaper to just use a magnet between the tracks and push the car to where you want it . Choices, choices......
I guess it's more of a "watch this" feature and the only benefit would be for spotting a large cut of cars that don't need to be individually seperated from each other. Thanks for humoring me.
When you said, "System five-0 uncoupler," I envisioned the Great Hand Of God descending from the sky to grasp and raise the car by the end beam...
This is, as has been observed, a, "Look, Ma! No hands," gizmo that's about as practical as a spare wheel hanging off the back of an 0-4-0T. It doesn't do anything that can't be done with a shish kebob skewer (which wouldn't require endless tinkering.)
It would be possible to rig an under-the-track electromagnet with a fixed decoder, for those places where the skewer might not be too convenient. That would be a PRACTICAL DCC uncoupler. Of course, it would be easy to get the same result with a pushbutton.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)