Just read the product review on page 74 of the July MR: I'd like some response concerning modelers who have or have had this type of control system. Just how restrictive is line-of-sight operation? Does that rule out any/all tunnel reception? Any interference with communication systems?
The line of sight is from the throttle to the UR90 or UR91, not to the loco, so unless you intend to put the throttle or the UR90 in a tunnel, it's no problem.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
PS
Welcome to the forum.
How close to straight on do you have to be for the IR beam to be read? Anyone make wireless based on ultrasound?
I have seen the Rail-Lynx in action on the developers layout. I was impressed by it's simplicty a simple pick up mounted in the locomotive could or could not be an issue depending on how much of a rivet counter you are. In essance your putting something in plain view on the locomotive that shouldn't be there but in all honesty is so inconspicous I never noticed them until they were pointed out to them. The line of sight thing may be an issue to you if you have a large club sized layout but for most of us that isn't the case. Youst strictly my opinion can it stand toe to toe with a DCC system I would say not but the beauty of it is that it's not intended to do that but rather take your old analog DC system up to a much newer and better level. I know form past experience what a nightmare running operation can be on a DC layout but this system eliminates most of those head aches. It's really a pretty good buy when you actually break it all down to the nitty gritty.
The club I used to belong to went to Rail-Lynx for a while. There were a lot of tunnels and hidden track, so they installed the repeater units so you could get a signal to a loco in the hidden areas. They still had lots of control issues and have now switched to NCE DCC. Suppsoedly Rail-Lynx has been somewhat improved since those days.
IR is very much a hit or miss thing. I've had TVs that I could control from another room way down the hall - absolutely no line of sight, the signal was strong enough that even multiple bounces of walls and ceilings left enough for the recevier to detect. I've had others that if you didn't line it up pretty good from no more than 20 feet away, ti wouldn't work. A friend of mine has a UR90 IR receiver on his Digitrax layout, his DT400 works pointed in just about any direction but at the floor, as long as it's above the benchwork - ie holding it down at your waist will not work, but you also do not need to point it at the UR90. It does help that he has a white drop ceiling installed in his train room.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Phoebe VetThe line of sight is from the throttle to the UR90 or UR91, not to the loco, so unless you intend to put the throttle or the UR90 in a tunnel, it's no problem.
BuckeyeandWalnutDoes that rule out any/all tunnel reception?
One really neat thing about Rail-Lynx is that you can use it on a DC or a DCC layout(you can not control it with DCC, but you can power it with it).
Sorry. I didn't read the article.
This came up back in October, and we had a pretty good thread about it. Here's a link to what I had to say about it at the time: http://cs.trains.com/trccs/forums/p/129157/1549955.aspx#1549955
To quote myself in summation:"Rail-Lynx costs you more and gives you less. If they ever go out of business, you're completly sunk. It's more awkward to operate, it's not compatible with anything else, and things like tunnels, second decks, and ceiling types can completely defeat it without $35 repeaters and a string of LED's.
After looking into it, I don't know why anyone would buy it."For more details, read the above link.
Paul A. Cutler III*******************Weather Or No Go New Haven*******************