Advantage of DCC over direct R/C?

Below is a link to a good article on this subject, albeit a little over three years old but still relevant.  Also worth reading are the comments at the bottom of the article for additional views.

http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/21240

Scott

Hi Ted, I have found a system that offers the best of both worlds. Check out RailPro from Ring Engineering for track or battery power. I use it in O and G scale locos. It is DCC compatible with current systems, then when you turn on the RailPro handheld  controller you are now 100% wireless.  The radio operates on 2.4GHz directly to each Locos module. Each module includes high Def sound. 

If you would like more info contact me off line.

Don

There is a significant electronic difference between track/antenna based systems like TMCC and DCC and the many available wireless direct to loco based systems. Each has its merits and many endorsers. My article in the current OGR magazine provides the details of each. On another point, powering wireless direct to loco systems via AC or DC track power or battery power is a non-issue as all three modes are easily done.

I'll have to download the current issue and read your article Bob!  Thanks for the info, all of you!

So there appear to be a few small DCC shops that make a wireless battery driven variant.  What I get is that these send the DCC command codes through an RF interface to their board in the loco.  The board is connected to battery power and "chops in" to the DC voltage the various 1s and 0s to encode the signalling in to it.

That output then goes -- shazam -- into the DCC decoder ... instead from track power.  (kinda nifty really!)

The "win" being you can use any DCC sound decoder (which are misnamed because they all provide motor control too or so it seems)

And, well, that's kinda cool if you want to upgrade to new sound boards, etc...

Other than this -- probably no real benefit. I mean if you want remote control there's 4 bazillion ways to do it.  And regular DCC is wireless or can between the remote and base station -- but goes over the track otherwise to the local.  Kinda like that other system we know about ...

It should be mentioned that O has power requirements few but some DCC sound board people support in a limited fashion, or so it appears -- and its' not clear if the wireless varients will work with these cards.

DCC is still to more complicated and you need these RF interface boards to connect to your decoder. Not much room for the extra stuff. The RailPro wireless has one board for radio, control and sound, about .5" longer than Soundtraxx, WOW or ESU.  Also they eliminate dealing with CVs and indexing by using plain English and icons on the touch screen.  Yes this is another handheld to get. 

Coming from the  G scale world this capability is now available for O scales. The radio signal goes directly to each loco for control, sound and lashups. You can use your DCC constant track voltage or add a on- board battery. This is an option we now have. No more track cleaning, stalls or repairing complex wiring.  I have done installs in 2 & 3 rail locos. Just a new thought. 

Don