IIRC, there was a company a few years ago that had very small decoder/motors built into Walthers/Shinohara turnouts(or at least under them). You basically cut a notch in your roadbed and installed them. They got their power from the track and control was via your DCC throttle. No long wire runs or install adjustment!
The problems were:
I have not seen ads for that company for a while, but they are still around(cypress engineering).
As far as using Wi-Fi - You still have to provide power wiring(unless you are going to use 'expensive' DCC track power).
Jim
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
Hi Rich,
Essentially, what you're thinking of already exists for DCC. Bachmann makes E-Z Command turnouts with the switch machine and stationary decoder built into the roadbed. However, most folks who build a permanent layout move on to other track systems that are more realistic and don't come with the molded roadbed. That makes it all but impossible to build the switch machine, let alone a decoder or wi-fi receiver into the switch. Circuitron has thought of the next best thing. For years they have cataloged the Smail switch machine; a Tortoise with a built in NCC stationary decoder. Two wires from track power bus and you're good to go. Unfortunately, they have cataloged the item for about seven years without actually making any. Most folks in HO seem too wedded to the concept of saving a dollar by spending an hour wiring separate motor and decoders. So, the next closest thing is the Tortoise/Hare combo. It's same idea as the Smail in two pieces and just as easy to wire. So, as you can see, there are good options little or no wiring in DCC.
The biggest impediment to using wi-fi for direct communications is cost. Wi-fi receivers are still a good deal more expensive than DCC stationary decoders, so the market sticks with what's easiest to sell. Personally, I think it is almost inevitable that DCC itself will shift to wi-fi as a transmission protocol. Ring Engineering has already moved in that direction with their direct radio system using the 2.4GHz band. The advantages of wi-fi including increased communication speed, 2-way coms, integration with mobile devices (smart phones and tables) and PC control, are too great to avoid.
First him have to catch LION.
TORTOISE is easier to catch, makes good soup, comes with own bowl.
But since you want a serious answer: Price. Flexibility. It would be one thing to make a control to interface between your Tortoise and your Wi-Fi device and quite another to embed it into a finished product like a switch, which will still need some sort of interface to convert electrical impulses into mechanical action.
Besides, LION has not any Wi-Fi. We could have wi-fi here, but the Abbot will not hear of it, so we still pull cat-6 cable with us wherever we want to go. But... LION has a small box of cat-6 that is too short for building runs. Him will have to use it up on the layout. Imagine that!
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
BroadwayLion Is good idea. Now the Chinese can run your trains for you too! ROAR
Is good idea. Now the Chinese can run your trains for you too!
richhotrain getting mad. Him not happy with responses so far.
Him beginning to hunger for LION meat.
Alton Junction
cacole How many modelers do you think use Wi-Fi anything on their layouts? We don't have Internet access at our clubhouse, I don't have any Wi-Fi devices at home, and I don't foresee ever having any at either location.
How many modelers do you think use Wi-Fi anything on their layouts? We don't have Internet access at our clubhouse, I don't have any Wi-Fi devices at home, and I don't foresee ever having any at either location.
Spoil sport !
The main sticking point I can see with this technology is interference between operators. For example, if I want to change a particular turnout, how do I select only it and not wind up throwing all the turnouts within range.
Ok, I am dreaming here.
But, I just read an article in the May issue of MR magazine about using new technologies to shape the future of the hobby.
Why not a turnout with a built in mechanism to throw the point rails using wi-fi technology.
Think about it. No tortoises or servos or manual ground throws. No third party stationary decoders. No drilling holes through the layout. No labor intensive wiring under the layout.
Why can't this be done?
Rich