Any experience with Lionel's blue tooth interface?
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My experience hasn't been great. My new Legacy H10 gets a range of about ten feet and then it loses the connection. It does this with a couple different phones and my iPad, so I don't think it's my hardware.
I have the mickey's 90th birthday set. I have connected to it with the bluetooth app. I have not had issues in my little bit of play. However, I don't find bluetooth to be great as a whole with other products.
I think the lionel bluetooth control app looks great and is easy to use.
I have had zero problems running my small roster of blue tooth-equipped locos to date. Granted, it's not like I'm going outside of my basement to run trains. 
No doubt that range is limited but if I'm standing near or relatively near my layout all is well.
No problems here.
Dave
I find the range issues with Lionel's bluetooth perplexing. I am consistently getting 100 feet range with my BlueRail equipped engines. Lionel must have chosen the shorter range version for a reason.
It's ok more of a backup feature the speed controls are nowhere as smooth as legacy but ok
BOB WALKER posted:I find the range issues with Lionel's bluetooth perplexing. I am consistently getting 100 feet range with my BlueRail equipped engines. Lionel must have chosen the shorter range version for a reason.
Blue Rail is pretty cool. They are not making any now though. And it costs nearly 200.00, then you have to install it.(maybe not a big deal) Sounds like newer phones/tablets have BLE (smart) built in and older ones are just bluetooth? The phone and the train have to have the same stuff right? Or do all phones have BLE and plain Bluetooth? Now BLE (bluetooth 4) is Bluetooth 5. I hope Lionel is keeping up with the better recievers/transmitters out there. Its all in the chip!
Miguel that LC app is free. : )
Jim
BOB WALKER posted:I find the range issues with Lionel's bluetooth perplexing. I am consistently getting 100 feet range with my BlueRail equipped engines. Lionel must have chosen the shorter range version for a reason.
Bob,
The reason is space. I had the luxury of servicing an LC+ Southern 2401 NW-2 who's smoke unit was doing nothing more than dumping the fluid everywhere but the smoke unit. The space available is horrible in this as the majority of the engine is weights to give it traction. I imagine the next reason is licensing for the FCC. Some systems are NOT FCC approved. Do be careful as they are starting to crack down on things like this. I am running into a problem with my 5.8GHz drone video gear. To transmit video, requires a HAM license to operate.
My experience if iffy at best. If I stand in a certain spot, I lose contact ten feet away. If I walk the ten feet to the engine, I reconnect and then it responds the whole way around the layout including where I just walked from! I can run three Legacy controlled trains on my mainline at the same speed and never worry about one train catching the other. I couldn't trust the Bluetooth as one or more locomotives could randomly stop with an ensuing crash. So far, I have one LC+ and three Legacy Bluetooth equipped locomotives.
I'm hoping to try my little LC+ NYC A5 switcher on my club layout using the app. If the results are unsatisfactory , it's off to the buy/sell forum. I'm also unhappy with the fact the reverse light on the tender is non operating as well, but the locomotive does have a charm all its own!
BOB WALKER posted:I find the range issues with Lionel's bluetooth perplexing. I am consistently getting 100 feet range with my BlueRail equipped engines. Lionel must have chosen the shorter range version for a reason.
I haven't noticed any particular problem with Bluetooth. We placed our Christmas tree in our sunroom (unheated at present) and I had two Lionel Bluetooth-equipped Christmas trains running under the tree. Both performed flawlessly over a good number of hours for a month or so. A large, very thick sliding glass door separates the sunroom from the living room, but I controlled everything from the living room with that door closed, via a Lionel Universal Remote and/or my iPhone. Of course, I made sure that both locomotives were properly lubricated when I set things up, especially since the trains would, sometimes at least, be operating in very cold conditions.
Bluetooth worked to about 10 -15 feet and then dropped every time. Layout is 38 X 18. Got for grandkids. Even my grandson who loves to run gave up on it and left the room.
Regular remote was DOA out of box.
Sent it back. The engine worked great but the control system was Grinchy. MTH replacement to be here Thursday.
Why not state the Bluetooth range prominently on the box instead of disappoint the kids (and parents)?
I only have 1 Bluetooth LC+ engine and it works fine on the app. However I don't stray far from the layout. I still prefer the LC+ remote over the app. for running but the app was useful to set the sounds and cycling off the smoke on the fly. For those with larger layouts across extended distances maybe it will not work as well.
Our grandson's Lionel Polar express ran all the way around my large basement layout without any control issues. Come to find out, it's not the Bluetooth version. I don't know what to call it, but it works well. It came with some type of remote that runs it, radio then maybe?
Engineer-Joe posted:Our grandson's Lionel Polar express ran all the way around my large basement layout without any control issues. Come to find out, it's not the Bluetooth version. I don't know what to call it, but it works well. It came with some type of remote that runs it, radio then maybe?
I think it may be Bluetooth without being Bluetooth. I think the new ones are BLE "Bluetooth Low Energy". Something is different and the same ... I see the Universal remote HAD a list of engines that it wouldnt run. Now with the 1.2 upgrade it will run all LC/LC+ engines. Maybe one of the tech guys can clear that up?
Jim
The latest versions of bluetooth have longer range and higher data capacity and speed. Not sure what version Lionel is using.
Allan Miller posted:BOB WALKER posted:I find the range issues with Lionel's bluetooth perplexing. I am consistently getting 100 feet range with my BlueRail equipped engines. Lionel must have chosen the shorter range version for a reason.
I haven't noticed any particular problem with Bluetooth. We placed our Christmas tree in our sunroom (unheated at present) and I had two Lionel Bluetooth-equipped Christmas trains running under the tree. Both performed flawlessly over a good number of hours for a month or so. A large, very thick sliding glass door separates the sunroom from the living room, but I controlled everything from the living room with that door closed, via a Lionel Universal Remote and/or my iPhone. Of course, I made sure that both locomotives were properly lubricated when I set things up, especially since the trains would, sometimes at least, be operating in very cold conditions.
I suspect it's my H10, it's the first Legacy item with BT that I've gotten. Given it's performance, I may be judging a bad locomotive instead of a bad wireless protocol. It would go along with all the other disappointments of the H10.
No problems at all with Lionel B/T ... but my layout is two-levels in a 10'x12' room.
Size of a layout probably matters. Not a surprise.
carsntrains posted:Engineer-Joe posted:Our grandson's Lionel Polar express ran all the way around my large basement layout without any control issues. Come to find out, it's not the Bluetooth version. I don't know what to call it, but it works well. It came with some type of remote that runs it, radio then maybe?
I think it may be Bluetooth without being Bluetooth. I think the new ones are BLE "Bluetooth Low Energy". Something is different and the same ... I see the Universal remote HAD a list of engines that it wouldnt run. Now with the 1.2 upgrade it will run all LC/LC+ engines. Maybe one of the tech guys can clear that up?
Jim
I believe this is an older model though. I can't tell you because it was replaced online by his father and some company? Our grandson tried it with his phone using the Lionel App, and he told me it didn't work because it wasn't the Bluetooth version. He had bought an older version without Bluetooth.
I can't see the remote used in my video though....
BOB WALKER posted:The latest versions of bluetooth have longer range and higher data capacity and speed. Not sure what version Lionel is using.
This really has nothing to do with which version of Bluetooth Lionel is using but more to do with which power class of Bluetooth has been implemented with their products. See the chart below:
You can have Bluetooth 5.0 but if it is a class 3 device, your range will be very limited. Lionel's filing with the FCC for the Universal remote indicates that the universal remote has a maximum power output of 1mW. That makes it a class 3 device. You may get more range than that but it's not guaranteed. Most smart phones and tablets have Class 2 power output.
Beings that the Universal remote is a class three device, it would make sense that the locomotives are also class three devices.
If you are interested, here is a link to Lionel's FCC filing for the Universal remote (Functional description of the universal remote). Below is an excerpt from that document which indicates the 1mw power rating:
My experience with the universal remote has been mostly reliable to 20 feet on layouts with a few tunnels and scenery obstructions. I have had some problems on larger layouts with more obstructions.
I have a bluetooth scale Polar Express engine and it works fine. It's nice being able to place the engine on any track and running it. The only short coming I had with the bluetooth app was I was not able to access the the movie sound bites with the bluetooth app. I needed the Legacy controller to access the movie crew talk. Perhaps I'm missing something in the app to trigger those sound bites.
