Yet another "what were they thinking" from someone who wants to be a DCC alternative

SeeYou190

Member since
January 2017
From: Southern Florida Gulf Coast
18,255 posts

Posted by SeeYou190 on Thursday, August 13, 2020 2:30 PM

tstage
Moving the knob or encoder wheel increases or decreases the speed from where the throttle was last set for the recalled locomotive rather than from a fixed point on the potentiometer knob.

A common "real world" example of this is the volume knob in my car.

Whenever the car is started, the volume is always at 7 (this is programmable) no matter where the volume was when the car was turned off.

Since the volume knob is an encoder, and not a potentiometer, this is a simple matter of software coding.

I do not need to know how any of it works in order to adjust the volume of my radio. The whole system might even be very primitive, but none of that matters. It is a nice feature that works perfectly.

-Kevin

Living the dream.

LocoFi

Member since
November 2017
2 posts

Posted by LocoFi on Friday, August 14, 2020 4:44 AM

We would like to clarify some of the points made in some of the previous posts:

rrinker

... huge flaw - their lated decoder has an 8 pin socket matching the NMRA DCC 8 pin connector ...

LocoFi™ modules DO NOT plug into the 8-pin DCC socket found on DCC ready locos (even if the wire connections were reversed and blue wire was made common positive). This is not a flaw. LocoFi™ is not DCC, was never meant to be. It's a complete ground up approach to model railroading operations. However, we adhere to and provide NMRA color coded wires on our modules for easy identification. Because these wires don't plug into DCC ready 8-pin socket, we don't even provide the socket with our modules so that our users do not mistake it for plug'n'play into the DCC ready sockets and accidentally blow up the module. We clearly explain it in our install guides and videos to actually take out the DCC ready light board (from a DCC ready loco) and solder the wires as per NMRA color coding standard, wiring the blue to the negative side of LEDs and the white/yellow to the positive side of LEDs. It is probably worth an hour's effort of installation for many hours of enjoyment yet to come.

To plug'n'play into a DCC socket, the LocoFi™ module will need to be designed that way, limiting the operating voltages to that of DCC. This will defeat the whole purpose of LocoFi™ being able to operate on a range of flexible DC voltages from as low as 7V to as high as 24V making it deadrail compatible for a variety of batteries as well. Yet, LocoFi™ runs well on DCC track power as well.

Ideally, an 8-pin plug should have been just that, an 8-pin plug where you can plug in ANY decoder or module of your choice. But, then you can't make the loco work as a DC only board when the lights are LEDs. You need external circuitry to do that and that's what the light board provides. Now, to make that happen, the resistors had to be ON the light board and not part of the DCC decoder (that is why older DC only locos need external resistors when doing a DCC decoder install). Considering, DCC was the only available technology at the time, it was an easy choice for the loco manufacturers to provide a DCC ready light board.

Please see ["website" - Original URL removed by moderator] for more details.

To conclude, it would only be natural to make LocoFi™ plug'n'play with DCC ready sockets if we really wanted that. We certainly won't expect our customers to change the PCB traces of their DCC ready light boards to match OUR wiring scheme. :-)

One other thing. You can operate not one but multiple trains one handedly with LocoFi™ without looking at the screen. This was clearly mentioned in the the previous review of LocoFi™ in the March 2019 issue of MRR. Not only can you sense (sound and vibration) when you move the throttle but you can customize the pressure (upcoming feature) with which you may want to do certain operations.

LocoFi™ Team