The Future of DCC

[ericboone]

Ship It is a product of Albion Software. http://www.albionsoftware.com/
Other similar products include MCS Interchange http://www.mcswiz.com/MCSMRCDS/MainPage.asp and Protrak http://www.protrak.cc/ .

[Anonymous]

Ship it? where do i find ship it?

[johncolley]

While you are at it, how about "wishing" for regenerative dynamic braking, eh? Yah, I think the future of DCC is bright, meaning "Better, smaller, cheaper, and more inclusive of features.

[Phil1361]

QUOTE: The back EMF technology also acts as "cruise control" for your train. If your train starts going up a grade, the decoder increases power to the motor to compensate. This feature is unrealistic. I know steam locomotives did not have cruise control and I am pretty sure modern diesels do not either.

I agree real trains do not have "cruise control" but I like the cruise feature especially on down grades. I don't like to be constantly adjusting the throttle on a grade. I just pretend the engineer inside the locomotive is doing just that. I believe on real RRs very important speed limits are posted on down grades.

I like your other ideas about DCC. Another good thing about decoders on rolling stock is it will trigger a block detector for signals.

[ericboone]

I think the near future holds some exciting advances in DCC train control and operations in general. I hope some manufacturer or group could make these a reality.

Think about programs for creating ship lists and waybills like Ship-It. Currently, if a car is removed or added to the layout, the information about car location must be updated manually. Heaven forbid that you "play" between operating sessions and move many cars around. Well, if present trends continue, the cost of electronics will continue to fall and soon it will be affordable to put transponders or 2-way communicating decoders in each car. With the detection systems that already exist, it would be possible to electronically keep track of the location of cars on your layout. Tie that information to a program like Ship-It and layout setup for realistic operating sessions just got immensly quicker, especially if you have a larger home layout or club layout. [yeah]

Current DCC throttles are just that, throttles. Imagine having a realistic controller. Kam Industries already produces Loco CE that allows a person with a DCC computer interface, a WiFi router, and WiFi equipped PDAs with Windows CE (hey Kam Ind., why not use Java so any WiFi PDA can be used, not just Micro [censored] ) to use those PDAs as throttles. You could make the PDA controller look like the inside of a real cab. Then all of the real controls and guages will be present. Imagine on a steam controller being able to adjust the cut-off for maximum power at start-up and maximum efficiency at speed. You could see the effect on boiler pressure and fuel and water consumption. [8D] Work that fireman!

With the new NMRA decoder transmission standard, it would be possible to send a singal back from a locomotive to the command station that tells the load that the locomotive is pulling. This is possible with back EMF technology that already exists in most decoders today. Currently, this technology has two benefits. First, it smoothes out the operation of the locomotive. The decoder detects load fluctuations caused by binding and other imperfections in the power train of the locomotive. This really helps with getting lower minimum speeds. The back EMF technology also acts as "cruise control" for your train. If your train starts going up a grade, the decoder increases power to the motor to compensate. This feature is unrealistic. I know steam locomotives did not have cruise control and I am pretty sure modern diesels do not either. A simple algorithm could be written that allows the decoder to use back EMF to smooth out the small imperfections only and sends a load value back to the command station for gradual load changes caused by grades. Then it would be up to the engineer at the throttle to make the appropriate adjustments in throttle, braking, cut-off, etc.... Tie this feature to the PDA controller and you'll have one realistic "throttle".