Wireless Turnout Control

[ATLANTIC CENTRAL]

Rich,

How would this point and shoot thing work in the middle of a complex interlocking? - you know, picture a double track mainline with two crossovers and a diverging route - how would you know you were aiming accurately at the correct turnout? Would it thow throw both turnouts of the crossover, or would you have to do both seperately?

I press one or two buttons and complex routes of of multiple turnouts all align themselves correctly - no aiming, no punching in numbers, etc.

Sheldon

[richhotrain]

ATLANTIC CENTRAL

Rich,

How would this point and shoot thing work in the middle of a complex interlocking? - you know, picture a double track mainline with two crossovers and a diverging route - how would you know you were aiming accurately at the correct turnout? Would it thow throw both turnouts of the crossover, or would you have to do both seperately?

I press one or two buttons and complex routes of of multiple turnouts all align themselves correctly - no aiming, no punching in numbers, etc.

Sheldon

Yeah, you're right. 

The wind has gone out of my sails on this thread.  Let's end it.

Rich

[richhotrain]

alco_fan

richhotrain

alco fan, are you having a bad day?

No worse than usual, thanks for asking.

I should have added a smilie to my previous post, I did mean it tongue in cheek 

I admit that I never get used to the forum concept of wild and pointless speculation on impractical ideas that go on and on with no appreciation of reality. My bad.

Have a nice day in Fantasyland and I will not intrude with any more reality. 

It is sad how perfectly legitimate threads with innocent questions such as "Why can't this be done?"  can get hijacked so easily by not so well meaning individuals.

 

[MisterBeasley]

richhotrain

I install a Atlas Custom Line turnout ($15) plus a Tortoise ($18) plus a DPDT ($5) on the control panel.

And there is your answer.  This is exactly what most of us do.  We have what is effectively a LAN (Local Area Network) with DCC, and we can control our turnouts remotely from a throttle, if we wish, or from a wireless throttle, if we wish, but we generally don't.  From what I read here, among a representative sample of enthusiastic and very capable model railroaders, is your suggested option isn't something people want in enough numbers to make it a viable product.

"If you build it, they will come" doesn't always work.  This is one of those cases.

[rrinker]

 Anything where you have to key in some arbitrary address to operate the turnout, just isn;t going to fly. It's not a better mousetrap.

 That doesn;t mean DCC or WiFi control is a completely useless idea. There IS a perfectly good reason to have DCC decoders run the turnouts - setting up a dispatcher panel. Implementing say a Digitrax Loconet control bus, you could have as big a CTC machine (physical or virtual - but leaning more towards physical to illustrate this) as you need, connected tot he railroad with just a single phone cord. With a WiFi control system - there wouldn't be ANY wires.

Locally controlled turnouts will always be better with either ground throws or some locally located pushbutton or toggle. DCC address only, it IS far too cumbersome for regular running.

What MIGHT work for a "point and shoot" would be some form of RFID. Since the range is limited, the controller would only get the address of the nearby turnout controller, not every one across the layout. How this could possibly work in a yard where there are turnouts literally stacked on top of one another is an exercise I will leave to others.

                    --Randy

 

[fmilhaupt]

richhotrain

{snip}

Since I am fantasizing about all of this, what I want is a throttle that you aim at a turnout like a remote aimed at a television set.  Aim and press a button.  Voila, the point rails are thrown.

As much as I love Tortoises and have more than 60 on my layout, I dread the thought of cutting 60 holes on my Dream Layout and installing 60 Tortoises plus the wiring.

Unionville Depot has a point-and-throw solution available, using a modified laser pointer, though the installation isn't as simple as you'd like, nor is it terribly inexpensive. They displayed it at the National Train Show in Grand Rapids last year, and again at the big show in Springfield this year.

[mobilman44]

Hi!  Sorry I got into this thread late - we've been under the weather somewhat............

I've been playing with trains for 60 years now, and turnout control has always been a major consideration in any of my layouts.  I confess I'm usually of a "if it ain't broke don't fix it" mindset, the idea of radio/wifi controlled turnouts is awesome.  Having a keypad where one could punch in a turnout number OR a programmed series of turnouts would be terrific.

While the technology is certainly able to do this, the problem (as usual) is cost.   But, 20 years ago the idea of DCC was "blue sky" primarily because of cost, but of course now its more the norm than not.

Having said all this, I still get a minor thrill out of throwing the bar on a Caboose Hobbies groundthrow.........