Hello All
We're finally setting up to install the first BDL168 at the club and are looking at the RX4 transponder receiver.
What brands of decoders include the transponder? I personally have a lot of soundtraxx and QSI and haven't found anything indicating they are transponder equipped.
Thanks
Springfield PA
Digitrax and Tsunami. That's about it. The only peopel I've ever seen say they got it all working perfectly are N scale guys with exlcusively Digitrax decoders. The wiring is VERY picky because you are talking a very tiny amount of current to make the transponding signal - so solid wiring practices are needed from the BDL168 to the rails. In short, if you superimposed DCC on old wiring that was originally DC, fat chance of it actually working right. You also need to carefully follow the spacing guidelines to keep the RX4's far enough apart so you don't have crosstalk issues.
Effectiveness while other brands of non-transponding decoders run? Not sure.
Overall it seems like a nice concept but it seems to be reliable only if you are strictly one brand. Functionality-wise, you can do much of it in RR&Co with Train Tracking. Some of that has appeared in some scripts for JMRI but it's not an automatic part of the system as a whole. It would take scripting in JMRI to allow say a CTC type panel to track a train.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
From what I'm reading on the digitrax groups even the Tsunami may not have transponding. It appears that they have a CV that allows the Tsunami to get along with the parallel mounted digitrax decoder and not interfere with it.
As far has I know SoundTraxx does not have transponding.
There sound system( if it is ever released) will require a decoder for transponding.
Digitrax is the only one that I know about, could be others but I have not heard about them.
ANyone else that has something like that has RailCom, which is completely not compatible. It's also not compatible with most existing DCC equipment since it requires the command station/booster to actually stop transmitting for a number of cycles which is when the decoders send back. But since Lenz gave it to the NMRA for free...
Thanks again all
Both here and the digitrax group have similar answers. Looks like there are other holes in the system as well. I'll bounce it at the club and see where it goes. A couple of members were looking forward to it but it doesn't seem to be what we thought it was.
If you were hoping to automate some trains for open houses or just to make operating more insteresting, you can probably accomplish the same with RR&Co plus just block detection. I struggled with the Autodispatcher script in JMRI on my friend's layout, but it really wants each 'block' to be 3 blocks so there is an entrance, exit, and stopping section. Well, his trolley loop throught he village is just 16 varying sized blocks. He went out and bought a copy of RR&Co Bronze, and a couple weeks later when I came back he had 4 trolleys automatically circling the loop, stopping when one gets too close to the one ahead. Now's he's up to 5. And computers and such are NOT his strong points.
All this with a BDL16, too. You know, one of those devices that absolutely positively does not work with supersonic decoders. The trolleys have Lenz Gold decoders with the ESP boards, and running other trains around the rest of the layout has no effect on the trolleys which happily go about their looping. Every decoder used has supersonic drive - he has Lenz, Digitrax, CT, and others.