Drawbacks of DCC #27

More fool you for using a WLAN, an invention of the devil, or was it the philsher(sp?)?...

On Tue, 30 Dec 2008 20:36:23 -0000, "Jerry" said in :

It is a secure one thobut. I will be running Cat5e to the garden room in due course.

Excitement! I just ran the N2 2/3 of the way round the double loop, it is nearly at the point of having power all round, albeit with more drops to solder up to improve transmission in the far reaches. Oh frabjous day! I had promised the kids we would be able to run trains before the end of the year, looks like I might just scrape in there :-)

Guy

How are you getting on with building the (ex)Kirk Quad-Arks, I assume that you are building a set (or two...), seeing that you talk of a N2 and have drawings of Welwyn viaduct on your web sit?

I know that admitting to ignorance is not something people want to do these days, but could someone translate the above sentence please?

I have considered DCC, but the jargon seems to get ever more complex and with upwards of 60 locos, I dont think I can afford the changeover, never mind understand what people talk about.

Guy is a computer nerd as well as a cyclist and modeller (*). So he has a wireless computer network (WLAN) around his house, which allows his laptop (etc) to connect to the internet without having to find a wire to plug into (or saves laying lots of cable around the house).

Something about his layout and DCC means that there is radio interference which hits the wireless network for his computers. Given that a model layout consists of lots of loops of metal (track) which have high-frequency signals put into theme, its not surprising that they act as a crude radio antenna.

The change is worth it. Really. Guy's problems are irrelevant for most people.

(* I have a similar list of interests)

- Nigel

On Thu, 1 Jan 2009 10:22:50 -0000, "Nigel Cliffe" said in :

Aye. And the problem is mainly that the access point is in the house, which is sixty feet and a couple of walls away. I will either need to fit a booster or run a LAN extension to the games room; probably the latter because then I can set up a PC dedicated to the DCC system and maybe even use it to run a mimic. The pointwork is so complex that running without a mimic is going to be... interesting.

Guy

Why not use one of those ethernet over mains units and attach a WiFi access point to the other end. A pair come free with BT Vision with a max speed of 200Mbs. I typically get 100Mbs.

Chris

But if youve got breaks in the track to seperate into power circuits for fault finding then wouldnt that break the loop. ?

I'm using computer software to control points for routes - does make it easier.

Cheers, Simon

Indeed. The WiFi signal will be marginal, so it's not really a DCC problem.

It's analogous to the people who complain of poor TV reception when running a layout. It's almost always a fault with the reception equipment, rather than the railway.

MBQ

On Thu, 01 Jan 2009 11:41:58 +0000, Chris said in :

Too many separate circuits with too much interference from other devices. But running a Cat5e to the garden will be easy, so I'm not too bothered.

Guy

On Thu, 1 Jan 2009 11:53:25 -0000, "simon" said in :

Not when it's all live :-)

Guy

Have you tried setting your WLAN to use a different channel? That solved an interference problem for my son some years ago.

Alan

You communicate with your son via a lan adapter - can I get one for mine, he might 'hear' me then :-)

Cheers, Simon