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On last evenings Demos with Dave, Dave demo'd the new Class A.  This looks to be an exciting new engine from all new tooling.

He also mentioned with the new 4 digit addressing comes 2 way communication.  The engine will provide the parameters back to the Base 3 Cab3 App to present a picture of the engine based on SKU# (internet connection need to pull from Lionel), real time fuel / water levels, name and road number without a sensor track!

I for one am really getting excited to see what else can be done with this.  Dave showed some of the Cab3 app features as well but will do a dedicated Cab3 App show later.  Looks like we'll have to wait until next year to get the Base 3 and App as Dave said he wants it to be delivered without issues.

Last edited by MartyE
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Thanks @MartyE for posting this, I heard that last night and now I can understand their hype on this new radio board for the locomotives it’s gone from just a receiver, to receiver and transmitter. While I think most can agree that a 4 digit address is a nice convenience it didn’t make a lot of sense as a hyped up new feature. Now now that it also mean 2 way communication it means a lot more.

I, for one, am excited about the availability of real-time fuel/water levels. Couple that to the force draw bar and momentum settings for dynamic fuel consumption. Would be cool if there was an option to have the engine stop when it runs out of fuel (a boiler explosion might be too dramatic in the case of depleted water levels).

Sounds like they're going to put their longer range BlueTooth to use for the return channel.  I can't see any way they send it back like TMCC/Legacy given that the signal going out is continuous.

I am curious really just how well Bluetooth will work in a large setting like the NJ-HR layout...

I'd think the return data wouldn't be required for locomotive operation. I mean if you run these new 4 digit locos on a CAB 1 or 2 the return data has no where to go but the engine will still be tuned into the track signal and run normally.

I still see some advantages to using a sensor track such as programmable ques when a locomotives arrives at a sensor track location.

Wow, you all are way out of my league, I call this smart technology and a really cool way to operate our trains and Im very interested in this new Cab 3, so, in a layman’s terms Question, will cab 3 send out a better signal for our Cab 2 remotes to keep in sync with our engines walking around our layouts? Sometimes my cab 2 seems lost when I try accessing the trains in certain parts of my layout area. This is exciting times in model railroading, great topic. Happy Railroading Everyone

@MartyE posted:

BTW Dave did mention a Cab2 update 1.72 to to correct some bugs with the Legacy Crane car and add some code for Cab2 to support Bluetooth and RF w/Base3.

Thanks for posting this @MartyE although the main thing I was interested in, apart from seeing how the CAB3 app will work, was the CAB2 update to deal with a Legacy crane issue. Dave did not say what that issue is but I think I have got it; both the rotation and boom control on my SP version have gone bad - in particular the “rotation” is now full quarter turns when I press the boom control! I have not seen any posts on this and was thinking a new control board in the crane might be required, which is hardly an easy fix.

@Hancock52 posted:

Thanks for posting this @MartyE although the main thing I was interested in, apart from seeing how the CAB3 app will work, was the CAB2 update to deal with a Legacy crane issue. Dave did not say what that issue is but I think I have got it; both the rotation and boom control on my SP version have gone bad - in particular the “rotation” is now full quarter turns when I press the boom control! I have not seen any posts on this and was thinking a new control board in the crane might be required, which is hardly an easy fix.

Legacy 1.7 and crane car discussed with screenshots https://ogrforum.com/...0#159660139206873590

Legacy 1.7 and crane car discussed with screenshots https://ogrforum.com/...0#159660139206873590

Thanks, I have been though that thread now. My operating problems seem to me to be worse than the ones you found, especially the way the cab lurches instead of turning smoothly, and the car worked fine initially under my existing CAB 2 software, which I believe is in fact v. 1.7. However I will check this again and try your settings. I had not paid attention to the specific keypad icons and whether they have changed from what I thought were the default crane mode ones.

@zhubl posted:

Is it possible then that a return information would be sent back via a different carrier wave? I would really hope that they don’t use that questionable off the shelf Bluetooth module for that. And with all this talk about a completely different radio board would mean that somehow they plan to use something other than BLE

It's hard to imagine they're trying to send the return communication via the track, look at the issues on many layouts with MTH doing that.  As Marty says, it would be nice to hear from Dave what they're using, but I'll be very amazed if they're attempting to send it back as a track signal.

@Hancock52 posted:

Thanks, I have been though that thread now. My operating problems seem to me to be worse than the ones you found, especially the way the cab lurches instead of turning smoothly, and the car worked fine initially under my existing CAB 2 software, which I believe is in fact v. 1.7. However I will check this again and try your settings. I had not paid attention to the specific keypad icons and whether they have changed from what I thought were the default crane mode ones.

Sad to say, I'm 98% sure your issue is not a software issue, but rather a failure in the crane car.  The lurching suggests a mechanical issue.

Sad to say, I'm 98% sure your issue is not a software issue, but rather a failure in the crane car.  The lurching suggests a mechanical issue.

Yeah, I thought that a mechanical issue might be the case. I noticed, without taking anything apart yet that, oddly, the main large gear under the cab does not seem to turn with the cab itself. In the past I have studied the exploded parts diagram for the previous TMCC versions and had one such crane apart, so I have a general idea of what engages with and turns what. But yet another voyage of Lionel discovery seems to be in store.

@Apples55 posted:

Good point, John. And don’t forget that also goes for 4-digit ID’s

Naturally.

The sad part is, with some software work, they could have extended the benefit of 4-digit addressing to existing TMCC/Legacy locomotives.  Simply by providing a translation feature that translates 2-digit TMCC addresses to 4-digit addresses, they could allow you to use 4-digit addresses to map to the full cab number for existing locomotives.

Now, that would be a worthwhile feature and would likely change my mind about getting the BASE3!

Naturally.

The sad part is, with some software work, they could have extended the benefit of 4-digit addressing to existing TMCC/Legacy locomotives.  Simply by providing a translation feature that translates 2-digit TMCC addresses to 4-digit addresses, they could allow you to use 4-digit addresses to map to the full cab number for existing locomotives.

Now, that would be a worthwhile feature and would likely change my mind about getting the BASE3!

You mean like selecting an engine by Cab#?

Address

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Marty;

Like John, I was unaware of addressing by cab# - I will have to give that method a try. While that will help addressing an engine without knowing the ID number, since you still use the Cab2 to address the engine, it is still limited by the 2-digit limit when loading the engine data into the Cab2 base. My biggest problem is that I am pretty much out of space on my Cab2 (caused in part by the proliferation of sound cars).

That  ain't happening I suspect.  That requires modification of the code on the RCMC boards, there's only one entity that has access to that code.

I believe John is right on the money. When they first announced the Cab3, I asked that question and Dave Olson promptly replied that it would not be happening for technical reasons. Made an upgrade to the Cab3 much less appealing to me!!!

Last edited by Apples55

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