Didn't know as my stuff is from the late 30's.
rrebell jalajoie DAVID FORTNEY Sometime in late summer the seperate sale Bluetooth boards should be available. If you have a DCC ready locomotive then just plug in the board. I bought one of the Bluetooth locomotives at the show yesterday to try out to see if it is as easy as Bachmann says it is. It took me longer to unpack it then it did for me to download the app, put the GP 35 on the track and run a train. Very impressive IMO. Slow speed performance is very good as well as overall performance. All in all I like it. Bachmann is on to something here. The first board coming from Bluerail is huge, much too wide to fit in a hood unit. Do you have an explode view, that you could show, for us to see how Bachmann installed it in your GP35? Altough at $75 US this board is overpriced for what it can do, I will order one to install in a P2K E6A and E6B units to test dead rail. The E6B is a dummy. How wide do you need, the first board is 1 1/8 inch wide but have seen pics of one that is very narrow.
jalajoie DAVID FORTNEY Sometime in late summer the seperate sale Bluetooth boards should be available. If you have a DCC ready locomotive then just plug in the board. I bought one of the Bluetooth locomotives at the show yesterday to try out to see if it is as easy as Bachmann says it is. It took me longer to unpack it then it did for me to download the app, put the GP 35 on the track and run a train. Very impressive IMO. Slow speed performance is very good as well as overall performance. All in all I like it. Bachmann is on to something here. The first board coming from Bluerail is huge, much too wide to fit in a hood unit. Do you have an explode view, that you could show, for us to see how Bachmann installed it in your GP35? Altough at $75 US this board is overpriced for what it can do, I will order one to install in a P2K E6A and E6B units to test dead rail. The E6B is a dummy.
DAVID FORTNEY Sometime in late summer the seperate sale Bluetooth boards should be available. If you have a DCC ready locomotive then just plug in the board. I bought one of the Bluetooth locomotives at the show yesterday to try out to see if it is as easy as Bachmann says it is. It took me longer to unpack it then it did for me to download the app, put the GP 35 on the track and run a train. Very impressive IMO. Slow speed performance is very good as well as overall performance. All in all I like it. Bachmann is on to something here.
Sometime in late summer the seperate sale Bluetooth boards should be available. If you have a DCC ready locomotive then just plug in the board.
I bought one of the Bluetooth locomotives at the show yesterday to try out to see if it is as easy as Bachmann says it is. It took me longer to unpack it then it did for me to download the app, put the GP 35 on the track and run a train. Very impressive IMO. Slow speed performance is very good as well as overall performance.
All in all I like it. Bachmann is on to something here.
The first board coming from Bluerail is huge, much too wide to fit in a hood unit. Do you have an explode view, that you could show, for us to see how Bachmann installed it in your GP35?
Altough at $75 US this board is overpriced for what it can do, I will order one to install in a P2K E6A and E6B units to test dead rail. The E6B is a dummy.
How wide do you need, the first board is 1 1/8 inch wide but have seen pics of one that is very narrow.
1 1/8 inch is much too wide for a hood unit. I appen do have an open MTH SD70 ACe shell on the workbench and it will accomodate a little less than 3/4 inch. This is 3/8 inch oversize. This first board is not for a hood unit.
Jack W.
JoeinPA ATLANTIC CENTRAL There is some science that suggests some peoples body chemistry, or the level of callused skin on your fingers - I do carpentry work for a living - effects their ablity to get touch screens to respond. Sheldon Some phones/tablets come with a stylus to help with that problem. So now you can run your trains and hope that you don't misplace your stylus Joe
ATLANTIC CENTRAL There is some science that suggests some peoples body chemistry, or the level of callused skin on your fingers - I do carpentry work for a living - effects their ablity to get touch screens to respond.
Sheldon
Some phones/tablets come with a stylus to help with that problem. So now you can run your trains and hope that you don't misplace your stylus
Joe
That's ok, my current Aristo Craft Train Engineer Wireless Radio Throttles work just fine.........I'm not on a search to fix something that for me is not broke.
My system has all the features I want - with no little brains to install in the locos. I have wireless radio throttles, signaling, CTC, ATC (automatic train control), working interlockings, constant lighting, no "block toggles", intergrated turnout controls and more with my DC system - why would I spend more money for less features.....?
rrebellVaporware like what?
This shouldn't be that hard to understand: all the as-yet undelivered features needed to make BlueRail the equivalent of existing DCC and other direct wireless systems. Among others:
- True Consisting: the complexities of Bluetooth pairing of multiple receivers with multiple instantiations of virtual throttles on a tablet or smartphone are likely not trivial.
- Onboard Sound: again, pairing issues, as well as finding room for a second Bluetooth receiver inside the loco (along with the speaker). Or developing a new board that has the sound module on-board (which it does not now). Since the receiver is already quite oversized compared to other products, this may be a challenge. DCC vendors have a huge head start in terms of delivering sounds based on specific prime movers or wheel arrangements.
- Reducing size and cost overall.
After 33 years in the networking and wireless fields, I've seen a lot of gauzy promises undone by the complexities of actual development, especially for a poorly resourced start-up with mature standards-based competitive technologies already in place. It's very easy to put "futures" on a web site or Facebook page -- much harder to deliver, especially on the hardware side if a firm lacks that expertise in-house. I've seen that movie and I know how it ends.
Could BlueRail do it all? Sure. Will they do it all? We'll see. But I think it's unwise to act as if man-years of future development are already completed.
Layout Design GalleryLayout Design Special Interest Group
ATLANTIC CENTRALThere is some science that suggests some peoples body chemistry, or the level of callused skin on your fingers - I do carpentry work for a living - effects their ablity to get touch screens to respond.
DAVID FORTNEY Went to the Greenbergs train show in Edison NJ today, it also included the Ihobby show. It was great to see all the vendors and dealers in one spot. checked out all the vendors and the one that had me intrigued was the Bachmann display. In that display was the EZ-app system. Later on there was a seminar type meeting later in the day where they explained what EZ-app is, what is available now and what is coming in the very near future. From what I saw and heard it will be exciting. They also stressed that Bluetooth is not replacing DCC but enhancing your experience running trains. But what I saw and heard about Bluetooth I am really excited for the future of model railroading And how we run our trains. I would like to thank Jack from Bachmann for taking the time to explain the ins and outs of the EZ-app system.
Went to the Greenbergs train show in Edison NJ today, it also included the Ihobby show.
It was great to see all the vendors and dealers in one spot.
checked out all the vendors and the one that had me intrigued was the Bachmann display. In that display was the EZ-app system. Later on there was a seminar type meeting later in the day where they explained what EZ-app is, what is available now and what is coming in the very near future. From what I saw and heard it will be exciting. They also stressed that Bluetooth is not replacing DCC but enhancing your experience running trains.
But what I saw and heard about Bluetooth I am really excited for the future of model railroading And how we run our trains.
I would like to thank Jack from Bachmann for taking the time to explain the ins and outs of the EZ-app system.
David,
Here is the part I still do not get - why would anyone want to have two, or three or more different types of control systems on one layout?
To me, that makes no sense what so ever.
So until a new system is well enough developed to meet all my needs, for all 130 of my locos, I'm not interested - at least not as a customer.
Do I think the next wave of model train control will be some form of direct radio? - Yes.
Will I switch to such a system if it is fully developed? Maybe.
Again, I will remind all of the previous thread on this product, and the fact that after 20 plus years, DCC is far from being "universal". The likelyhood that any new system will make large inroads into the market is slim.
For me Bluerail dies on the vine over one simple fact - OK, maybe two - I will not own Apple products, and I don't like touch screen devices - or I should say they don't like me. I have lots of trouble getting touch screen devices to respond to my touch. There is some science that suggests some peoples body chemistry, or the level of callused skin on your fingers - I do carpentry work for a living - effects their ablity to get touch screens to respond.
I can just see myself NEEDING to stop a train and the touch screen not responding - no thank you - I will stick with buttons and knobs........
Smallest speaker with bluetooth added I found would end up aprox .6x.8x.25, not real good at this so there may be smaller or may need to be larger as a speaker this small turns the surface into the speaker, guess the whole engine would become the speaker but there may be interference.
cuyama DAVID FORTNEY I was told the plug in boards would fit in almost any DCC ready engine. That's not correct, they are much larger than most DCC decoders. BlueRail has opted (so far) for mostly off-the-shelf hardware, which will always be more expensive and larger than DCC vendors' custom decoder hardware. There is much misinformation being propagated about BlueRail at this stage in the technology's and the company's life. Many of the promised features may eventually be delivered, but consumers need to take care to not be misled by vaporware.
DAVID FORTNEY I was told the plug in boards would fit in almost any DCC ready engine.
That's not correct, they are much larger than most DCC decoders. BlueRail has opted (so far) for mostly off-the-shelf hardware, which will always be more expensive and larger than DCC vendors' custom decoder hardware.
There is much misinformation being propagated about BlueRail at this stage in the technology's and the company's life. Many of the promised features may eventually be delivered, but consumers need to take care to not be misled by vaporware.
DAVID FORTNEYI was told the plug in boards would fit in almost any DCC ready engine.
Well, I can see some potential here. A used tablet for the main control panel, perhaps several throttles displayed at once. Some older smart phones, discarded by the latest / greatest crowd for hand helds. DC Packs repurposed.
However, as a long time DC user, the cost of a board seems outrageous. I have 40+engines, Kato, Atlas, Stewart, Proto, repowered Athearn, etc - no junk.
So it would cost me 3K to convert over to blue tooth, not including the smart phones and tablet, which I already have laying around.
A NICE system is shown on Amazon currently for 155. How much would 40 top line non-sound decoders cost? How much to add wireless to the NICE? I am thinking 1K to 1.2K for the decoders and the NICE unit.
Labor wise it would be the same. Install 40 decoders and consolidate some of my DC blocks, except the NICE controller would have to be installed. Not interested in dead rail or sound.
So as a DC user looking to upgrade, why choose bluetooth at this time?
Jim
Right now Bachmann has Bluetooth equipment in 3 different engines with Multiple road name of each type on the market including RS3's, GP 35's, and FT's. I saw them all for sale at the Edison show at very reasonable prices.
I was told the plug in boards would fit in almost any DCC ready engine. We will see the results when they are released. They will not fit in a 4-4-0 yet according to the Bachmann web site.
DAVID FORTNEY I bought one of the Bluetooth locomotives at the show yesterday to try out to see if it is as easy as Bachmann says it is. It took me longer to unpack it then it did for me to download the app, put the GP 35 on the track and run a train. Very impressive IMO. Slow speed performance is very good as well as overall performance. All in all I like it. Bachmann is on to something here.
Hopefully it will do better than their Dynamis system. At least, from the surface, it seems to be a little better thought out.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
Boards are out in 4 weeks, Android app is to happen before that, sound is being worked on and for onboard sound to have more than one enginge at a time with onboard sound required a workaround as Bluetooth isn't set up for that, but they almost got that licked, don't have any info for the consiting yet but that should be an easy upgrade as all they have to do is combine thottles.
jrbernierI saw the same demo at the WGH show in St Paul. Things that need to be addressed are: Consisting - There is none at this time. Sound - generated at the locomotive, not through your iPhone speakers. Android - No Android support yet. Jim
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin