HO Now has two R/C systems

Good  news, however will I be able to run my Lionel locomotives with the Blue Tooth device?

Another newcomer to O Gauge is RCS America offering the onboard battery RailLinx system with Bluetooth or handheld transmitter.  They have been a leader in the G scale market for years. System will be available at the January Amherst Show.

What do you all think about a battery based control system?

I am hugely in favor of battery control systems. Not that I will throw out my ZW anytime soon, but I will work towards a more realistic control of the train and not the track.

I have Android Studio open right now developing an app to control a little creation I have been tinkering with. I started with a DC K-Line powered truck assembly from some random diesel loco. To that I am adding a WiFi controller and a small stepper driver. The plan is to end up with some sort of 'critteresque' loco for a tiny O-27 layout that is entirely controlled via any android device. I am using the stepper driver because this allows me two outputs for the DC motor and two output for lights etc... Power will be provided by a Turnigy compact 3S 11.1V 2200mAh LiPo.

They layout also gets a WiFi controller for the turnouts and lights.

Ted

Hi Ted, great description of your project.  We are eager to understand what you are looking for or your concepts. Because we started in "G" scale outdoors we chose to use the new Bluetooth. The range is good to 60' inside  a loco and no need for wireless access. This way anybody can visit your layout and operate immediately. I have been testing on a Motorola Moto E with Android 4.4 phone for $50. Pull out the sim card.

For those railroaders who are not good with electronics we have a 3 or 6 amp motor driver that supports bi-directional lighting, 5 sound triggers and remote couplers.

I hope you will keep us posted on your project.

Don

I have nothing to show off yet Don, as I am still waiting for a few new parts to arrive.

The overall mission is to have the ability to operate a train, as well as the layout it sits upon, in a most prototypical fashion. As long as power is track supplied, there are limitations in what is possible. Move that power off the track and anything is possible.

I am going a little different direction on the motor driver to try and save a few mA here and there. If I use a half bridge to trigger a npn transistor wired as a say, light switch, then I don't have to worry about carrying any capacity over about 3mA on the driver board. This also allows a second power source for lighting and my OSounds board + Amp. I don't mind killing the power to lights and sounds if it means keeping the loco alive a bit longer. Of course with O I am only going to draw about an amp loaded with the little DC can motor. I expect you are going to draw more?

One thing I am trying to do is use only off the shelf currently in production boards in order to facilitate rapid replication, especially for the non sparky. Of course everything is going to be published open source once it works and maybe we can capture a few others for LiPo fun lol.

Ted

I know i am staying tuned...love RC...MU builds important to me as you can tell in the video.

Gee, I thought my G scale locos were loud. Are they all MTH locos? Nice looking Gilford/Pam Am units.

With indoor layouts you can still use constant track power with the RailLinx control. But it is pretty cool to be battery independent. Then you can cross over, reverse loops and go where no other track power loco can go!

I have a video on my web site showing 4 units making up a 39 car train. www.rcsofne.com.

Don

Gee, I thought my G scale locos were loud. Are they all MTH locos? Nice looking Gilford/Pam Am units.

Yes Don all MTH but the hi nose at the end of the video which is an Atlas converted to PS3.

In the 5 engine MU the 4th engine hosts an FM transmitter which sends diesel engine sounds to a powered subwoofer in the middle of my layout.Complete game changer.

I am now enjoying your website

Actually you have more than two for HO.  DCS, DCC, and now some of these new Blue Tooth Systems.

Additionally there are plenty of other airwire type systems out there with boards for HO, O, G.  Sky really is the limit.

Of course at this point if you want to run a railroad from a single handheld your really still confined to Legacy/DCS in O.

And if you want to run all scales with one system your confined to DCS.   G