Anything else that will do what the DRC300 promised....?

I saw Cliff's setup at a local meet a month or so back and very good it was too. It was totally transparent and it was if the test loco was actually working from track power with the handset controlling all of the functions.

If Tam Valley produce the higher power kit for G scale locos that are a little more thirsty power-wise and the UK distribution is fully set up, then Massoth will have lost out big time.....no change there then

Due to a little less than sympathetic response to a repair that I sent to Massoth and also their slow (or non existent) realisation of the promises that they made on production of new kit and the lack of stock of important items, I have gone over to ESU whose customer support is really good (I even got to speak to the head of the support service who was friendly, courteous and also extremely informative).

Our own Mark (Muns -Garden Rail Outlet) and his fantastic service, is the reason for my staying with Massoth so long. Now that he also retails ESU, I can continue to get the great service and also the products....

I wonder if ESU are working on their own version of a DRC 300 or Tam Valley kit?.........
 
Cliff George said:
I haven't tried it yet but it should be possible to run track powered and battery powered DCC locos at the same time. I'll try this today for you.
Click to expand...

I can see no reason at all why it shouldn't work - you're simply piggybacking the feeds to the DRS transmitter off the normal DCC feeds to the rails.... of course you need to make sure that the DRS-equipped loco has all its power pickups completely isolated from the DCC decoder, but this is easily done with a simply DPDT switch as per Cliff's test system.

Like Mike the Creaky Beaver, I have high hopes for the Tam Valley gear after reading Cliff's experiences.... though I will also probably now wait for their dedicated large-scale hardware to become available rather than have to mess around with the additional boards and converters.

Jon.
 
Digitrains now have the Tam Valley DRS1 MKII receiver and transmitter in stock: http://www.digitrains.co.uk/manufacturers/tam-valley-depot.aspx. They also have the DCC booster.

Duncan McRee of Tam Valley tells me this: The hi power version is done. Just don't have it on the website yet. Price will be about $100. I have tested it and it works nicely.

Neil Stanton is making me a special version of his S-CAB throttle that will work at 869 MHz (he just has to use a different comms chip). This should in theory work with the Tam Valley 869 MHz receiver. I have converted a NCE PowerCab to perform the same job. http://www.s-cab.com/
 
This is the most interesting thread I've read on GSC for some while. Thanks chaps. Please keep posting and let us peasants know when the high-power version of the US kit is available. I'm definitely in the market for at least one example and probably more than one.
 
Good news indeed Cliff!

I wonder when Digitrains will have the high power version in stock. I should imagine that it will be £1 = $1 (to allow for import duty, profit etc) so it should be about £100 or so.
 
I have contacted Duncan and expect to stock the high powered version :)
 
muns said:
I have contacted Duncan and expect to stock the high powered version :)
Click to expand...

Did I ever tell you, you're my hero? :D
 
The Hi power receiver version is now listed on the Tam Valley website: http://www.tamvalleydepot.com/products/drs1deadrailcomponents.html

The price seems to be more than expected.

The claimed range is higher than for the lower power version.

Well done Mark for looking at stocking this system.

Think I might order one to try it.
 
Certainly interesting as with my wifi the dcc base station can sit in the nice warm house while you play whatever the outside conditions. The only limit on this is needing a plug for the dcc system and I suppose you could always run it off a step up transformer from a car as it's only providing the dcc system power.
Oh dear more expense! :)
 
This is indeed a more positive development. I too have been searching for a portable dead rail DCC solution, with no success. My reservations about the Tam Valley solution are the continued need for a command station, and the choice of 896MHz radio. Why,Why, Why have they not gone for 2.4GHz. Most model radio control has moved to this technology because the "binding" technology gets rid of the frequency clashing problems of older radio control solutions. I wonder what is going to happen if a number of people turn up at a garden meeting with these Tam Valley systems.

I think that the DCC suppliers need to look at a change in strategy to separate permanently the transmission of data from power supplies. If the hand controller communicates directly with a receiver connected in front of the loco (or accessory) decoder, ideally by 2.4GHz leaving users to chose between power from the track (overhead wires), or from on-board batteries. then we would have a flexible solution to meet everyone's needs.

The closest that I have found to this is the non-DCC Ring Railpro idea. Their, currently small scale only, solution has started from this basic design idea.
 
I agree it would be better if the Tam Valley system could be user configured to be able to use different frequencies. I'm told they went for 916MHz originally since there was an easy, small and cheap off the shelf chip that would do the RF stuff: http://www.linxtechnologies.com/resources/data-guides/txm-xxx-es.pdf and in the US 900MHz is often used for this kind of stuff.

It is lucky for as Europeans that they did since by just using a different chip with the same pinout they can create a 869MHz version.

I don't really see it is much of a problem not being able to change the frequency after all it is very rare to use more than one standard DCC system at a time and of course impossible on the same track.

Although the Tam Valley System still needs a command station it doesn't need a big powerful one since all it is powering is the transmitter. The DCC system itself can of course also be battery powered. I have used my Lenz Compact for this and it works great.

I have also converted an NCE Power Cab to battery for taking to other tracks. This hand held unit is great because it contains a command station. This is a situation where two people turning up at the same track with this kind of system will have problems with clashing frequencies.

The Stanton S-CAB gets round the problem by using a fixed 916MHz frequency but having the transmitter turn on only when it is transmitting data, not all of the time. Apparently this allows up to 5 cabs to be used at the same time on the same frequency. Tam Valley doesn't do this, it is on all of the time. You can order the Stanton S-CAB in a 869 MHz version by special order. I've got one on order to try.
 
Thankyou Cliff for your thoughts on this. I had not recognised the potential of the NCE Powercab to act as both the hand held controller and a command station. With the option of running this from a battery, then this (with Tam Valley products) becomes the first (and presently only) portable digital control solution on my list. I have therefore started to take a much closer look at the Powercab to see what benefits and limitations that it brings. So far, I have noted two limitations. The cost at about £200 for the Powercab and transmitter, and £250 to £300 per locomotive for receiver and sound decoder makes it essential to be sure that this is the best solution. Secondly, the user interface is rather basic when compared to other solutions such as the Ring Railpro. I understand that there is a possibility of a large scale version of the Railpro sometime in 2015. The down side of this for many is that it does not use DCC components. Another offering that is somewhere just over the horizon is the Protocab which will use it's own bespoke locomotive receiver/decoder.

Like the other contributors to this thread I thought that I had found the answer in the Massoth DRC300, but this has not appeared. I wonder if one of the technical difficulties has been the poor choice of radio frequency with it's inevitable interference issues.

Any further thoughts/observations that anyone has on the Powercab option would be very welcome.

David
 
Sadly to my mind the NCE/Tam Kit et all does not look to be a real runner, or as the Good as the DRC300 promised to be. Perhaps Massoth will one day wake up to the potential Market out here and get on with the DRC300.

Yes I am a dreamer of beautiful dreams.
JonD
 
Interesting recent comments on this thread. I too would like to see the Massoth DRC 300. The biggest problem I see with the Tam set up is lack of compatibility when running with friends. At least DCC is relatively standard across the makes.
 
At our local GSS group Xmas meet/open day today, I had the opportunity to see Cliff's Tam Valley DRS test rig in operation for the first time - and I have to say I'm very impressed.

David - your estimate of £250-£300 per loco is assuming the conversion of an analogue loco from scratch, and outfitting it with both a DRS receiver AND a DCC sound decoder - that is all technically true, but the main thrust of this discussion has been for those of us who have a number (in some cases, a LARGE number) of locos that are DCC and sound equipped already, so the cost for bringing those up to spec is basically the battery for loco power and the cost of the DRS receiver.

JonD - I agree that the availability of the DRC300 (or whatever its successor might be called, as Massoth say they're restarting development from scratch) would still be the ideal situation - but having seen the DRS in operation today, I genuinely think that it (used with a Massoth Dimax and Navigator) will be so close as to really not matter a lot. Cliff's use of the NCE Powercab is ONLY to allow to him to build a completely portable controller and central station combined, and is not the only way of doing it.

Stockers - with the DRS (Tam Valley), it IS entirely compatible with any make(s) of central station and decoders - because it's transmitting the DCC control signal wirelessly; in fact in that respect it is more universally compatible than the DRC300 would be, since the concept behind that is wireless transmission on the proprietory Massoth control bus signal rather than the universal DCC protocol.

Jon.
 
Ok Jon,
Have i got the wrong end of the stick - so to speak.
Are you saying the Tam DRS can be controlled by any digital controller/central station set up. If so I have not understood this thread correctly.
 
Alan -
Yes, the Tam Valley DRS does basically one thing - it takes the DCC signal output from any make of DCC central station, and instead of feeding it through the rails, sends it wirelessley between the DRS transmitter (attached to the central station outputs) and receiver (in the loco). The receiver in the loco then feeds those DCC signals direct to the DCC decoder in the loco, and the decoder responds EXACTLY as if it was getting the DCC commands through the rails. The loco can be powered by an onboard battery OR could actually still pick up power from the rails, though that rather defeats the whole idea of the DRS ("Dead Rail System").

If you were using the DRS with, say, Massoth kit: you would still have your Navigator with its normal cabled OR wireless link to your Dimax central station. The output of the Dimax would go to the DRS transmitter, which sends the wireless DCC signal to the DRS receiver in the loco, which passes the commands to the loco's decoder. The only thing that the DRC300 was planned to do differently was to remove the Dimax central station from the chain, by sending direct from the Navigator to the DRC300 receiver in the loco - but to do this, it would be sending the Massoth bus signals, NOT the standard DCC signals..... thus you could ONLY drive a DRC300-equipped loco from a Massoth Navigator, whereas with the DRS you can use any make of DCC central station (which doesn't even have to be a big G-scale type, since all it has to do is provide a control signal and not actually drive the locos) and simply connect the transmitter to the outputs.

Now I've written that out, it actually reads a lot more complicated than it actually is - I hope it makes sense? ;)

Jon.
 
So if I can get this all in Perspective.

1 I buy myself a Tam Valley Sender and Receiver at around £35 each.
2 Connect the Sender to my Massoth Base Station (I wonder how?).
3 Sort out the receiver in my Massoth Chipped Locomotive in which I have placed a DPDT Switch that allows it to run from Track Power or the Battery Pack that I have installed.
4 Then I can drive it by Radio from my Massoth Handset, presumably it will be the same Chip Number that the Massoth Chip already has assigned to it.

Is it really this simple or have I again got the wrong end of the stick?
JonD
 
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