RC Control

I guess I don't understand how that can be. The only change would be how those signals get from the command station to the engine. It could quite easily be argued that a change in track type would be a change in the method that those signals is sent since one might be made of nickel silver and another tin plated steel. Air is just another medium. I'm sure their patents are worded in very vague terms to cover anything even remotely similar. If someone could develop the means to do so, they could offer it as a "kit" that isn't complete and could get around any patents. An open source code that modified an existing product could accomplish the same thing.

It seems strange that so many people ask the industry to follow a set of universal standards in regards to appearance accuracy and details but will then give these same people a pass on non compatible, non standard control systems.

why not hook a battery in place of the track and press the buttons to see if it works?

What a hoot!  Something so obvious nobody had mentioned that until now

Is it really wireless, or is it that they just don't have the big loop of wire (instead have a "wireless" drawbar)?  I don't know, all my engines have to have contact with the track.

Or you could hve a battery powered train, but it keeps getting cvharged of the power in the rails, either 2 or 3 rail.

NJT has hybrid LRT cars which run off batteries or overhead wire  Take that concept and apply it to models.

Hah!  They already do that.  There is generally a battery in the tender, recharged from the track.  Going the rest of the way and making the battery bigger will not eliminate the center rail.

Does anybody have a commander?  Just put a constant 12 volts on the track, and see if that puppy will make your locomotive do.

Twenty years ago we had an R/C controller that could control a locomotive with a constant voltage on the track.  The only difference between constant voltage on the track and a battery in the tender is when recharging time comes along.  

What about that Locolinc guy?

Where are you going to connect the battery?  If you connect it to the track connections it will act just like an X voltage dc connection from the rails.

Most recent DCC decoders have a power smoothing capacitor used to get across short interruptions in track power.  The bigger the capacitor the longer the decoder can go without dying in the absence of track power.  Add a battery in parallel to the capacitor leads (leaving the capacitor in place to smooth the surge from the battery and it will last as long as the battery holds up.

With DCC you could remove track power once a locomotive is moving at a speed you are OK with and it will continue that way until either you reconnect the command base, which will cause an immediate stop, the battery dies or stuff happens.  With Lithium batteries you need to stop them before they are completely discharged or they will be bricked and not accept a charge any more.

RC airplane guys  have a lot in common with us.. Some of the receivers and ESCs (Electronic  speed controllers) are dirt cheap.(china)  You can get about a 10 minute flight with a battery at full throttle.

I think the G scale guys have it made, as the ones that go battery power don't have to care what system controls their trains.

Air Wire is RC style with DCC like code, with battery in tender to power everything it is like Lion Chief other than you can control multiple trains with same hand held.

Others install the guts of a TIU in the tender with output wired into the PS-2 board, another car carries the battery pack that powers the TIU.  The DCS remote controls the engine.

I don't have a G layout so when I work on these engine I do my final test on the kitchen tile floor.  Run the engine threw its paces on the floor.

When they are out doors on there non powered track each operator brings his own system and off they go.   This technology is out there, you just need install it.  The air wire is compatible with all the standard off the shelf sounds systems.  You want the manufacture to do it for you, they don't want to, hence all these small business that fill the niche.  Do some research on it.  The boards are getting smaller and smaller and the batteries more powerful.   G

Since the PS3 engines can already run from DCC with no modifications, I wonder if running the Airwire900 is as easy as just installing a Convertr receiver and battery into the engine? It seems like it should work.

Well I am one of the large scale guys that have been playing with battery power and it cost a lot of $$$ compared to a DCS equipped loco and track power.

You could theoretically take a PS3 board and graft the QSI GWire DCC receiver onto it and then use the NCE GWire throttle to run the thing with batteries and/ or track power. But it'll add up quick as IF the PS3 upgrade kits can be bought when available will maybe cost $150.00 and the QSI GWire receiver is another $110.00. Batteries will be another $50.00 - $250.00..price out 24 volt 10,000Mah Li-Po or Li-On batteries as it all depends on what all options and amp hours you want to use. So your up to $310.00 - $510.00 per loco. Smoke units running really eat up battery power and so does going up hills. Heavy trains need ball bearings in the wheels and passenger cars need lights too!

Another drawback with using either the Airwire Throttle or the NCE GWire Throttle is there's a terrible lag when trying to play the horn as the horn will stick "on". Something about the way the DCC packets are sent thru the air. QSI Titans DCC Decoders @ $200.00 a pop may be a way to go along with the GWire receiver but now your looking at $310.00 per loco without batteries figured in yet. From what I've seen the QSI decoders are power hungry hogs as they consume twice the amps as a PS2 equipped loco...so those big 24 volt 10,000Mah batteries start looking good that is unless you want to change out batteries every 2 hours which leads to needing multi battery packs.

Another problem that I've heard about is the new QSI Titans cannot operate a MTH smoke unit without overheating unless you use the 10 - 20 amp model.

Meanwhile any track switches will need some power to activate them and most folks run wires to them and power it with a transformer...may as well wire the rails and run track power.

Put a 24 Volt battery in O Scale stuff and there's a real possibility something will go poof.  I think the max for most O scale stuff is 18Volts.  I'm using 4S or 14.4 Volt batteries.  And 1800 through 2200 mAh is fine so far.  Also make sure you get some type of low power alert for the lithium batteries.  If you drain them below a certain critical voltage they die - forever.

Having said that, I have failed to get any of the QSI Gwire receivers to work at all with any DCC decoders including their Titans.  One of them I got from someone on Ebay who couldn't get it to work either.  QSI isn't interested in supporting them so now I have a CVP convertr to test.

The QSI receiver works on 5 Volts so I don't think its output is high enough to actually talk to many standard DCC decoders.

The CVP Airwire acts as a stand alone go between so full track voltage is applied to the decoder.

As CRH said all you have to buy to try is a transmitter and receiver and a power source for them.  That's a little over $300 to see if it works with the PS3 decoder.   Seeing as how the PS3 decoder is supposed to work with a standard DCC command base I see no reason why it wouldn't work, at least with the CVP receiver.

The QSI decoders that work with the QSI receiver have a CV that says talk to the receiver not to the track so it will not get confused if there is simultaneous encoded track power.  However, if you have issues there is only one way to regain positive control of the decoder and that is a hard reset.  And connecting the reset wire to 18V rather than ground is how I smoked a $200 decoder.

Give it shot and report back.  Nothing ventured nothing gained.

The other option is to use the Tam Valley DRS-1 system. It's $60 for the receiver and $75 for the transmitter. Maybe I have that backwards? Either way it's about $135 per engine for those that already have a DCC system, such as myself with Easy DCC. I'm quite big into rc cars. Lipo batteries are not expensive. You just have to know what to get. There is no reason why you'd have to pay more than about $50 for a battery. I already have a charger.

I've been thinking of gutting my IRobot Gutter Looj and using the radio in that, but I can't find out what frequency it is.  (Would also need an ESC).

You don't need to use 24 volts.  Folk use 14.4 Volt pack with much high Amp hour ratings. Or build the voltage cell to your specific need.  With all sorts of options with respect to battery size.  Many places will custom build the battery pack.  G