I have a Digitrax DCC Chief system and am thinking about buying a radio throttle and receiver. Has anyone out there used the radio system? Any problems? My layout is 42 x 15 plus a seperate 10 x 12 room. Can the radio signals penetrate a stud and sheetrock wall or will I need two receivers? Thanks for your input.
Paul McGraw
You'll probably be able to control the layout from your neighbor's house two doors down.
I personally have used it over a distance of 200 feet as a demonstration - of course you can't really operate from that far away, in N scale that's a bit over 6 miles from the trains!
The only problem I've seen with it was when our club got a bad receiver... it was quickly replaced by Digitrax.
_IF_ you have a lot of wires in the intervening wall, or something else that can cause interference, you _might_ need another receiver... but at that range, it's unlikely.
I have a Digitrax Radio installation as do nine others in our operating group. We have remarkably few problems with it. Most of these layouts are about the size that you specify in your dimensions. On one of our member railroads we began to have problems with the plug-in connections. Subsequently, we had to remove and clean all of them and then re-install them. I cannot think of any problems we have ever had with the radio at this layout, which antedates digitrax by several years. It was originally a CTC-80 system that converted to Digitrax in '95. We did the cleanings that I mentioned earlier this year.
.............F>
Make friends in the hobby. Visit Garratt photos for the big steam lovers.
We typically use 10 to 14 throttles at once on the Operations Road Show layout, with no difficulties at all. We mounted the UR91 receiver in the fascia about 48" off the floor at one corner of our 24 by 49 foot layout and have had no trouble with it receiving from throttles anywhere in the room, or elsewhere in the basement (with sheetrock walls and a rather large furnace in the way). Granted, the biggest obstacle within the layout room itself is a set of three steel columns, our wooden benchwork and a bunch of wood and styrene backdrops.
In approximately 60 hours of operation, I've replaced one 9-volt battery from one of the throttles. We use a variety of DT100Rs, DT300Rs, and DT400Rs, some built new with radio capability and some retrofitted.
Even with 14 throttles going at once, we haven't experienced any real lag in response time from the throttle to the locomotive.
-fm Webmaster, Operations Road Show, at
My club has had the Chief system for 5 years and got the radio as soon as it came out. The only problem we have run into was, oddly, last night. Seems that our 110VAC socket for the radio receiver went a little "wonky" on us, and was supplying only 25VAC. This did cause problems with the Loconet, and we solved the problem temporarily by plugging the receiver into a different 110VAC socket. We have had no problems otherwise. Just remember that the frequency of the Digitrax system is the same as for cordless phones these days: 900MHz. So if you don't have problems with a cordless phone around your layout, then you won't have problems with your Digitrax radio.
Paul A. Cutler III
************* Weather Or No Go New Haven *************
If that's all that's in the wall then it will probably not be a problem. If the wall has metalized mylar vapor barrier material, for instance, then it might present a problem ... maybe?
Paul
One thing about the Digitrax Radio Throttle; They work. Even my eight year old grandson can operate it. For me it is the only way to run a train. Our N Trak club recently used it on a forty by thirty two layout at the Reliant Center. No problems with the radio throttles. I use a DT300 because of its compact size.
Jim Shear
I've used my DT400R in a 1400-square foot basement layout at the farthest point from the receiver, behind a wall next to the furnace, and have had no problems. My radio system initially didn't work at all but I returned the receiver for a repair/upgrade and it has been fine ever since. We've had up to 4 radio throttles going at once on the layout I operate on. In fact, it's probably the most trouble free aspect of the whole system. It's main limitation is you can't select your loco or create a consist or program from the radio throttle - you have to plug in to select and consist, and once you are ready then you unplug and go wireless.
NCE's radio system is fully functional 2-way, and you can do everything unplugged that you can do plugged in. I don't have one (yet) but it's reputation is very solid.
Andy
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