New Gauge Master Prodigy Wireless DCC Controller - Anyone tried it yet ?

[3Valve]

Hi Domonic. Welcome to the forum.

I'm looking to go DCC myself in 2010 and had looked at the Gaugemaster Prodigy when it was first introduced. As far as I can recall at that time was listed as only suitable for N to O scales.

However given that you're operating a small layout with only small loco's you may get away with it and the price is certainly tempting.

No doubt you'll get some great feedback and advice on here from the experienced DCC guys though. There are certainly plenty of good folks on here with a wealth of experience in DCC.

 

[LTfan]

The Prodigy range are made by Model Rectifier Corp:-
Here's a page:-

http://www.modelrectifier.com/train-controls/dcc-prodigy.asp < Link To http://www.modelrectifier...ntrols/dcc-prodigy.asp

Cheers

David

 

[Neil Robinson]

and given Gaguemasters poor reputation I would leave well alone

Whist Gaugemaster do seem to have had issues with some of their own brand equipment it would seem that they are merely agents for this particular range of products.

 

[GrahamMills]

I also considered the Prodigy but the low amps and voltage caused me to reject it. Probably very good for 00 but not for G Scale. Gaugemaster only recommend it for N, H0 & 00 gauges.

Perhaps more importantly I wonder what frequency it uses. 75 mhz is used by a lot of the American systems but that is unfortunately illegal in this country.

I was unable to check this on the MRC site since the level of technical information there was small to non-existent. Indeed the level of supporting documentation seemed to be extremely poor.

 

[ntpntpntp]

...
Perhaps more importantly I wonder what frequency it uses. 75 mhz is used by a lot of the American systems but that is unfortunately illegal in this country.

I was unable to check this on the MRC site since the level of technical information there was small to non-existent. Indeed the level of supporting documentation seemed to be extremely poor.

The pdf manual for the DCC03 on Gaugemaster's site says it uses 433MHz, legal for the UK.

As has been stated, the system seems primarily aimed as the smaller scales and is only around 3.5 amps output. Might be better off looking at alternatives which support higher volts and amps.

 

[Cliff George]

The Lenz systems is reasonably priced, good quality and readily available. It is suitable for G scale since you can configure the volts output and can add to the amps with extra hardware, if required. They have a cheap system where you can use a cordless phone handset to control trains. The other systems you mention will work too.