Re: Interference With Other Club's Using Lionel Legacy

[Bill Lohman <844bill@gmail.com>]

I sent my email just before seeing Ira's and Steves. 

 

 Since I seem to be the guy pushing Legacy I just want everyone to know that I agree that we need to be prudent and have a backup plan at all times.  Totally. I really mean this.

 

But, looking on the other side of the coin -- we also have a backup  plan with Legacy.  If we do experience TMCC1 interference from other club's TMCC1 engine ID's then  reverting to Legacy Firewall -- by shutting down the TMCC1 Command Base could save the day.  And it looks like we'll have 3 or 4 Cab-2 controllers. I've already changed my Legacy Base from the default Channel 1 to Channel 3.  The Cab-2's will automatically find Channel 3 on boot up..

 

Bill 

On Fri, Feb 13, 2009 at 11:01 AM, Steve Wise <swise@aoot.com> wrote:

Ira Schneider wrote:

Here are my two cents worth.

 

Hey Ira!

I only have 1 cents worth (sign of the times?) :)

We will probably not have enough CAB-2 handheld controllers for everyone at
the World's Greatest Hobby On Tour show, so we will probably still have to
use some of our CAB-1's and the TMCC command base.

 

Yup.

Even if members volunteer to bring enough CAB-2's, do we really want
to rely on untested technology for our entire layout?  What I mean by that
is that we have never used Legacy and CAB-2's at a show.  We do not
know anything about battery life for the CAB-2's or their operating range
inside the San Antonio Convention Center.  (We have seen problems
in the past where our command control systems don't work very well in
certain venues.  For example, the MTH DCS system doesn't appear to
work at all at the Live Oak Civic Center, while it works just fine elsewhere.
We have seen problems with the Lionel TMCC system at other venues.)

 

Agreed.  We need cab-1/tmcc1 for the near future at least.  And we need to experiment with cab2 at a show to see how it holds up, provided we have back plans.  And we have exactly that for WGH methinks.

I don't think this thread was actually suggesting we use only cab-2s for WGH.  I think we're more talking about what we do going forward.

I have no problem with using the Legacy system at the WGH show,
as long as we have a backup plan in case it doesn't work.  Right
now, we can disconnect the Legacy system at any time if there is a
problem.  If we are counting on the Legacy system to completely
solve the addressing conflicts (if they even exist at this show),
we have no way to fall back to the TMCC system.
 

We'll definitely need the cab-1s/tmcc1 at WGH.

So we _do_ need to figure out if we're gonna have collisions with train ids and eng ids.   It may not be an issue if we're far enough away??

One solution is to have a central UBER-FAT controller for the whole show and folks must register their eng/tr ids with the UBER-FAT controller.

I agree that we can try to use the multiple frequency feature of the
Legacy system to minimize our potential interference problems.
If it works at the WGH show, this would totally solve the problem
at the TCA Train Meet, since no one else there was using Legacy
last year.  However, we would need enough CAB-2 handhelds
for everyone to use (i.e. at least four, and preferably five).

 

And the cab-2's aren't cheap.

Here's a proposal (for going forward):

1) keep the cab-1s and tmcc1 system.  Replace the crystals so we have a good chance of not conflicting with any other club.  (need to research this, but I think its easy and cheap).

2) buy the legacy system and an expansion set for the club.  This will give us the legacy base and 2 cab-2s. (several hundred dollar expense)

3) As we all get cozy with cab-2 and agree its the bee's knees, we can purge cab-1/tmcc1 altogether.  But we'll need 2 or 3 more extension sets as ira points out.  I would keep the cab-1/tmcc1 technology (as opposed to selling it) as a backup...

Fodder for thought...


Cheers!

Stevo



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