Hi,
I'm ready to purchase my first DCC system (for my first model railroad) and had planned to use Easy DCC; however the first time I tried to contact them to inquire about what I would need they were closed for a week for a show. After they returned they were very helpful in answering my questions and I called this morning to place an order only to find out they are closed until June 11.
Has anyone else run into a problem with them being closed frequently? I'm wondering whether I just had a couple of bad timings or whether it is often difficult to get a hold of them - in which case should I require support, it might be very difficult...
Any thoughts/advice??? Perhaps I should use NCE or Digitraxx??? or some other vendor?
thanks a ton!
Jon
Jon:
You might also try the Yahoo EasyDCC group. I had EasyDCC for 8 years and generally found them to be quite helpful with questions whenever I asked. The system also was rock solid, especially the wireless.
However I recently switched to NCE because of the limitations and cost of EasyDCC and I am also quite pleased with NCE wireless.
I've found EasyDCC's throttle cost drifting up to the point their display throttles are some of the most expensive in the hobby. Part of the problem is their refusal to sell through distributors, which keeps the competition down on their prices. For example, their wireless display throttle sells for a whopping $220, compared to $180 (street price) for a full NCE wireless dogbone -- and the NCE dogbone does much more than the EasyDCC throttle.
EasyDCC has placed artificial constraints on consisting, which annoys me. As a diesel era SP modeler, I use lots of multi-loco consists. NCE, on the other hand, has added "smart" double-ended consists, and they work *great*.
Finally, EasyDCC was limited to 8 dedicated throttle frequencies, and recently expanded it to 16 if you buy a second receiver. With NCE I can have 40+ dedicated frequencies on one receiver, and with NCE's rev 3 wireless, NCE wireless is now as rock solid as EasyDCC's.
In the last year before I switched over from EasyDCC to NCE, a couple of my wireless throttles started acting up. EasyDCC also announced with their 16 dedicated frequency upgrade that my throttles were obsolete. I sent my two bad throttles to CVP and they could find nothing wrong with them so they sent them back to me unchanged, which also annoyed me. I suspect they were hanging on to what parts they had for these obsolete throttles to service those with these throttles that had serious problems. Apparently that did not include me.
So I finally switched to NCE and sold off my EasyDCC system and throttles. The entire switch to NCE cost me less than half of what it would have cost me to replace all my obsolete throttles with EasyDCC display throttles.
Joe Fugate Modeling the 1980s SP Siskiyou Line in southern Oregon
Hi Joe,
Thanks, I'll check that out.
My layout will be a mid-sized letter E, the three prongs will be 4x8 tables connected by 2 4x5 tables. I'd like to have some separate zones for troubleshooting and the ability for one or more auto-reversing loops.
To that end I was planning on getting the Wireless Starter System, upgrading to the T9000E controller, get the new ZoneShare (see the July MR add on page 17), and get the DCPS 120 power supply.
Since you switched, I was wondering if you might be able to recommend an NCE alternative to what I have listed...
thanks again!
jhorvath wrote: ...I was wondering if you might be able to recommend an NCE alternative to what I have listed...
...I was wondering if you might be able to recommend an NCE alternative to what I have listed...
Write to NCE (support@ncecorporation.com). You'll find them very responsive and helpful. Describe your layout plans, the number of locomotives (and locomotives with sound) you plan on running, the number of operators you anticipate, DCC powered accessories, etc.
You can download any of their manuals (http://www.ncedcc.com/ halfway down right hand side). You'll be impressed.
BTW: I've had a PH Pro-R for a little over a year and highly recommend it.
I have an EasyDCC system set up as a portable programming track, and connect it to our outdoor HO modular layout during club open houses twice a year. On it, I am using the two built-in throttles. I have ran into some cases where the EasyDCC will successfully program a decoder that other systems haven't been able to handle.
Another club member has the EasyDCC wireless system with one basic throttle on his home layout, which I helped him install and program. His wireless throttle is one of the older versions that has rather limited functions, but he doesn't run anything that requires more than five or six basic functions, so it doesn't need to be upgraded. If it did need upgrading, he could probably get a different system cheaper because he would have to replace the CPU in the base station and purchase a completely new throttle.
I operate all of my G-scale trains using the CVP AirWire 900 radio control DCC system and battery power, and it functions very well.
Last year, when our HO scale club was looking to upgrade our 20 x 40 foot layout, we compared every available system and decided on the NCE PowerPro Wireless system. I also use the NCE PowerPro Wireless on my HO scale home layout.
As Joe Fugate has pointed out, EasyDCC's wireless throttles cost more than NCE or other brands, and are not as capable. Another consideration at the time was the limited number of decoder functions that were available with EasyDCC.
I phoned CVP and inquired about any planned upgrades of their system to support more NMRA decoder functions, and was left with the impression that they had no upgrades in mind; therefore, we decided to go with NCE. Since then, CVP has come out with an upgraded throttle, but if we had purchased their older system and then needed to upgrade, we would probably have spent far more than we did for the NCE system.
CVP's EasyDCC is a very robust and reliable product, but they seem to always be 2 or 3 years behind technological advances before they offer an upgrade, and you can acquire upgrades only through direct purchase from them.
As far as their closing to attend shows, I have ran into that problem a couple of times when I attempted to get information or help with the AirWire 900 because they seem to have only 2 or 3 people working for them; however, that's fairly common when you have to deal with cottage industries that are not one of the major players in their field, and CVP is not alone in this regard.
I do not recall ever having trouble contacting them. I've been a CVP customer since ummm 1993 or so and talked with Keith on many a Saturday morning. However, they are a small shop and one could expect them to be closed when they are attending the various model railroading trade shows and conferences.
A few years ago I had trouble getting in touch with NCE. It was just a fluke. I would not base any decisions on this.
I based my decision to buy EasyDCC for my first system on a lot of factors, including Joe's excellent article on choosing a DCC system here on this forum.
I choose it as it came with two cabs stock, and that fact that it seemed easily upgradable and would work with almost anything.
I'm planning on a single user layout, not too large, so wireless issues and consisting are not important to me. I've aded a wired throttle since my first purchase of the basic set, and the configuration was straight forward, and seems to work pretty well right out of the box.
I tried to contact them at the same time you did to order the throttle, and they were out of town. I found this frustrating as well, as, well, you get used to faster delivery times.
Overall I'm pleased with my purchase, and have no regrets. I would recommend the system, but if you think you may have issues as Joe mentioned, than you should definately take your time in your decision making process. This isn't a cheap investment.
I'm trying to model 1956, not live in it.
If it's not urgent, I normally contact them via E-mail. Usually, I get a responce by the next day. So far I've been very pleases with my Easy-DCC system, especially the Dual Zonemaster booster.
Nick
Take a Ride on the Reading with the: Reading Company Technical & Historical Society http://www.readingrailroad.org/
Hello,
The club that I belong to uses EasyDCC and I wanted to use JMRI DecoderPro to speed match my engines and I wanted to do this at home and not spend the time to do it at the club. I chose to go with a Digitrax Super Chief at home because of: 1- You can get the same features and more for a lot less money. 2- The baud rate of the Digitrax Super Chief interface to the PC is at a much greater speed that EasyDCC.
I have had my Digitrax system for about a year and the more I learn about it the better I like it. With the Digitrax DT400 throttle you have all of the command station functions in the palm of you hand, with Easy DCC you have to go to the command station to use any command function. Digitrax has radio wireless and it is every bit as good as the EasyDCC wirless and like I said it costs a lot less.
Rod