bought two sets of the circuits, motors, NJ International gates, and IR sensors and excitedly installed them, following the rather poor instructions the best I could.In a nutshell, after over a week of adjusting, re-adjusting, etc. etc. the circuit and gates performed very poorly. What you see on YouTube were most likely installed under ideal conditions, which is not what most of us model railroaders have.Despite several emails to Logic Rail, I made very little headroom. The performance on the circuit was erratic, sometimes it'd work and sometimes it would not work. Sometimes that gates would come up and lights stop flashing when it was in the middle of a train!So....I ripped it all out and threw it all in the trash. Save your money...get something else!
Brass Hat, Gulf and Pacific Railroad HO/HOn3 (Modelled to represent mid 1960's) Big Bear Lake, CA. For pictures and videos of the layout please see below:
YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/jostaiii?feature=mhee
Photobucket: http://s584.photobucket.com/albums/ss287/josta1954/
Josta bought two sets of the circuits, motors, NJ International gates, and IR sensors and excitedly installed them, following the rather poor instructions the best I could.In a nutshell, after over a week of adjusting, re-adjusting, etc. etc. the circuit and gates performed very poorly. What you see on YouTube were most likely installed under ideal conditions, which is not what most of us model railroaders have.Despite several emails to Logic Rail, I made very little headroom. The performance on the circuit was erratic, sometimes it'd work and sometimes it would not work. Sometimes that gates would come up and lights stop flashing when it was in the middle of a train!So....I ripped it all out and threw it all in the trash. Save your money...get something else!
Josta,
First of all , my sympathies, it is never pleasant to struggle with faulty equipment or inadequate installation instructions.
But, you ripped it all out and threw it all in the trash? Two sets of the circuits, motors, NJ International gates, and IR sensors? Yikes, are you serious?
Some, if not all, of that stuff has to be salvageable. You could have sold it on eBay, come to this forum for help, persisted with Logic Rail and NJ International.
Say it ain't so.
Rich
Alton Junction
richhotrain But, you ripped it all out and threw it all in the trash? Two sets of the circuits, motors, NJ International gates, and IR sensors? Yikes, are you serious?
Just curious. What day do they collect in your neighborhood?
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
I have installed several Logic Rail Technologies infrared systems and they have all performed flawlessly. If you had trouble, you didn't have the sensors properly mounted and/or adjusted.
I've even installed two of them with the IR beam shooting across two tracks and they still work.
The most likely problem with your installation was the aiming of the IR beam or you had the polarity of the IR emitter backwards. I built an IR light detector circuit to determine whether the emitter is working and to help get it aimed correclty.
After all that time of adjusting, re-reading the directions, etc. etc. (I've been model railroading for over 25 years and an architect) I concluded this item is poorly designed with the maze of wiring. I don't want to salvage anything; I'm talking with Azatrax whose instructions are MUCH more clear and detailed than LogicRail's. I was also unhappy with the gate speed/flashing sequence.....the flashers would often 'skip" a flash as well, raise and lower the gates prematurely. I may also go with the MTH crossing gates, they appear to be much simpler.
Cacole that was interesting how you had the IR beam shooting across the tracks. That is why I'm going with Azatrax; their instructions clearly explain how to do it, but Logic Rail does not at all.
MisterBeasley richhotrain: But, you ripped it all out and threw it all in the trash? Two sets of the circuits, motors, NJ International gates, and IR sensors? Yikes, are you serious? Just curious. What day do they collect in your neighborhood?
richhotrain: But, you ripped it all out and threw it all in the trash? Two sets of the circuits, motors, NJ International gates, and IR sensors? Yikes, are you serious?
.....................and, what is your address?
LOL....they're in no shape to be salvageable!
From talking with the guys at Azatrax, it appears their setup is much better and thought-through than Logic Rail. For example (I know this is a minor issue but still....) two of their detectors have 2' wire leads and two of them have 6' leads...exactly right for having the near detectors and far detectors. With Logic Rail, all of their leads were about 4" long!!!
And Azatrax's detectors can be used either in the roadbed or across the track. The latter will work better for me as the crossings are next to a diverging track. Nowhere in Logic Rail's instructions did it say you could do it.
And, Azatrax's emails to me are much more thorough and detailed. I'll be sure to have a writeup on it when it's up and running!
Has anybody here used the MTH crossing gates?
I'm not jumping in here to argue with you or change your mind about our product or the bad experience that you had. I would, however, like to set the record straight regarding some of your comments.
1. The wire length on the IR emitters and detectors is 12" and not 4" as you stated. There is no magic number here just as there is no magic distance between near and far sensor locations. If we offered them in "X" inch lengths, someone would undoubtedly claim that those were still too short.
2. I have all of the email exchanges between you and me as I tried to help resolve the problems you were experiencing. Though it's obvious that I was unsuccessful in helping you get it working 100%, at no time whatsoever did you inquire as to whether or not the IR components could be mounted ACROSS the track from each other versus between the rails as our instructions describe. We made a conscious decision NOT to describe the former in our instructions as the input we received from customers is that they didn't want to deal with the "challenge" of hiding/disguising the IR components above the layout (Cacole didn't object and does use this configuration! :)). That said, it IS possible to do this but requires that we provide a different version of the main chip on the GCP-IR (specifically, it requires the chip that ships with the photocell version of the GCP). Apparently the Azatrax product can accommodate this "standard" so hats off to them. Their product is a more recent entry to the market, I presume, and certainly benefits from the knowledge of what's already been done.
3. During our email exchanges I tried to provide you with as much information as I could. If you felt that I wasn't thorough or detailed enough you certainly could have told me so.
Finally, I cannot possibly say anything that would change your opinion of our product. It's your right to have your opinion. What I will say is that it's unfortunate that the product didn't perform well for you; we have many satisfied customers which isn't meant to be a dig or slight to you.
Sincerely,
Chuck
Josta says, "So....I ripped it all out and threw it all in the trash. Save your money...get something else!"
Honestly Josta, that's silly. These are all good devices which cost some bucks. The most probable cause of your problems was your own IR installation not being set up properly.
I recently purchased 3 GCP modules (optical, not IR) and installed them with Tomar 862's, with a bell from ITTproducts, on a 3-track crossing,. Quite a maze of wiring, but I just followed LogicRail's rather clear and simple instructions to the letter, and it worked flawlessly from the start. The installation on a module, part of a mall show, and the sensors did not even need any tweaking of sensitivity. (The next morning early, before the mall lights were up for normal business, the sensors were a little whacky. As soon as they turned up the lights - about 8 am - they returned to working flawlessly.) This arrangement worked like a champ the entire weekend.
Now admittedly, my setup was optical, not IR. Nevertheless, I am so convinced of the quality of the product, the correctness and completeness of the instructions, and the outright flawless performance, that I made a detailed post in one of the MR forums here a couple weeks ago, describing our experience.
IR would entail a bit more care in placement of the sensors - mostly common sense - but I have no doubt that the system would work just fine.
Like one of the others, I would like to know if that trash has yet been picked up.
Dick Chaffer / Bozeman, MT
Chuck, I did not ask if we could mount the IR components across the track because nowhere in your instructions, website, or brochures did it say that was even an option, so how was I supposed to know that it was even possible with your product? It's no problem to hide the components in say, a bush or a small trackside shack and that sounds like a more reliable solution to my situation with the overhead lighting since I'd be better able to "shade" the components from the lighting.
Yes, you did try and help, and my emails were responded to promptly. But still no satisfactory solution was provided, I found Azatrax's instructions to be much more thorough so that is the reason I am switching to their product. In fact, Azatrax took the time to send me a diagram of my track layout (just like the one I sent you) marked exactly where I should install their detectors.
Thanks again for trying.
John
Dick, I've also dealt with optical sensors several times before and never had any problem with them either under the correct lighting conditions. Optical sensors are straightforward and so easy to install...I was tempted to just switch over to them (after trying IR's) and be done with it. But I like running my trains at "dusk" or "nighttime" so that is why wanted IR's.
I don't doubt that many had no problems with the GCP modules, but every layout and lighting conditions are different. Obviously, it just did not work on my layout even after over a weeks's worth of failed evenings. Maybe it's due to the height (54") which does not give much separation between the sensors and the overhead lights? I'll let you know how it works out with Azatrax products, which I am ordering today.
I think 'nuff has been said here.