GRJ,
I second the previous post. The San Diego 3-Railers Club would like to purchase two of these devices. You can either use the email for BIGDODGETRAIN or mine for the order. I have been out of town for a while and I was just informed of the existence of this device by Dallas Dixon.
bigdodgetrain posted:my club has informed me they would like two of these. you should have my email from past correspondence with you. if not let me know.
Please send me an email on this. I normally just take the profile address, but you don't have one.
BTW Roger, you don't have a profile address either. 
gunrunnerjohn posted:bigdodgetrain posted:my club has informed me they would like two of these. you should have my email from past correspondence with you. if not let me know.
Please send me an email on this. I normally just take the profile address, but you don't have one.
BTW Roger, you don't have a profile address either.
email sent
How's the project coming along, John? Any ETA on the production units?
Not yet, my impending move may delay it for a month or two. I do have what I believe to be the "final" PCB layout, I just have to assemble a couple for some extended testing before pulling the trigger on the full lot.
Just finished building what I hope is the "production" model. The completed unit consists of three pieces. Obviously, the actual buffer unit itself, a 24V 1A power brick, and an "earth ground" tap for the command base. The ground is tapped off the outside of the power barrel, this is the connection through the command base power brick to the 3rd wire on the plug. Connecting the buffer is dirt simple.
The buffer is ready to go. Plug in the 24V power brick, power up the command base, and start running trains.
The three other connections to the buffer box are for DC meter measurements. You can read a relative level of both the BASE DC signal and the BOOST DC output signal referenced to the GND DC pin. These will possibly be useful in the future when we want to compare results between different layouts to evaluate the effects of capacitive loading on the buffer output. Note that these are optional outputs, they don't ever have to be used to effectively use the TMCC buffer. The circuitry that drives these also drives a signal level LED, red is very low or no base signal, off is marginal base signal, and green is a good base signal. I usage note, if there is nothing connected to the Base INP terminal, you may see the signal level indicated as green (good). This happens because stray AC is being fed to the buffer from the floating input, it only happens if there is no connection to the input.
This unit is going out for a real layout test, it'll be tested on the NJ-HR layout. Upon satisfactory test results there, I'll be ready to order parts for these. Stay tuned... 
John, looking forward to the results of the testing and getting one of these for my layout
Raymond
Hi John,
Put me down for one of the signal boosters as well.
Maxmn_98
It should be in the hands of the NJ-HR guys now, results to follow.
John
I received the buffer today and plan to do preliminary testing on Friday and then use it on Sunday for our club's open house.
Bob D.
Looking forward to the production run John!
Sounds good Bob, hope that all goes well.
Guns,
I just moved into my new home, have not started the new train room layout yet. Moving is crazy these days, make sure you plan everything out in advance and be careful!
Good luck with your move!
all the best
PCRR/Dave
We're taking our time with the move, it'll be over several months. That's the benefit of moving 4 miles.
We only moved 8 miles. Got the new house almost a full month before we had to be out of the old house. I thought that would be more than enough time...barely made it! 
Kind of like the layout always needing to be slightly larger than the space available I guess...
Several months should be much better!!
I'm looking at around 2 months here, then we'll have a few weeks to beat the current house into shape for sale, and hopefully that will close the book. It's expensive to do it this way, but I'm too old to do same day moves anymore!
I know what you mean with the one day moves, that's what the extra month was for on our move. We still cut it close though. I think you should have it covered with 2 months!
A ham radio friend of mine took a year. Bought the new house and delivered pickup loads to it over time and set up his basement, ham radio, prewar Lionel train, and storage areas. Rest of the house. Then when the older house was empty, sold it.
Well, a year is a bit much. I don't have 400K loose cash laying around to have an unlimited overlap, so I want to retire the debt as soon as I can sell the old house.
rad400 posted:John
I received the buffer today and plan to do preliminary testing on Friday and then use it on Sunday for our club's open house.
Bob D.
I will probably get a lot of crap for this but here goes anyway.
the MTH experts at our club are worried that this signal booster will de-grade the MTH signal. What I would like to ask is can you take pictures of the mth remote showing signal strength without the booster in place and again with the booster installed?
thanks
It's a valid point, I have no idea if it affects the DCS signal. One would think not as it's just on one side of the track and dependent on the antenna, but I have no empirical evidence to back that up.
gunrunnerjohn posted:It's a valid point, I have no idea if it affects the DCS signal. One would think not as it's just on one side of the track and dependent on the antenna, but I have no empirical evidence to back that up.
do you believe the New Jersey High Railers can get me what I need?
Probably have to ask them if they're having issues. They've been using a tube version of the amplifier for some time, but I don't know if they've evaluated that extensively.
gunrunnerjohn posted:We're taking our time with the move, it'll be over several months. That's the benefit of moving 4 miles.
When I moved around 20yrs ago the moving company came to give me an estimate, when he asked me where I was moving to I pointed to the house two doors away. At first he thought I was kidding, then he said really, I'll never forget the look on his face.
Art
I could point, but I don't think you can see it from here with all the trees around this house!
bigdodgetrain posted:rad400 posted:John
I received the buffer today and plan to do preliminary testing on Friday and then use it on Sunday for our club's open house.
Bob D.
I will probably get a lot of crap for this but here goes anyway.
the MTH experts at our club are worried that this signal booster will de-grade the MTH signal. What I would like to ask is can you take pictures of the mth remote showing signal strength without the booster in place and again with the booster installed?
thanks
If I have the time next week I will take the measurements.
Bob D
As some one who has been involved in various aspects of RF engineering (amateur radio, broadcast engineering and systems design) for the past 56 years, I doubt that there will an interference issue. TMCC operates at 455kHz and the DCS operates between about 3.3mHz and 10mHz. There is a significant frequency separation between the systems. Once a booster is available (two on order), I will be able to give an absolute response as I have both DCS and TMCC available on the layout that I am currently constructing.
I don't anticipate any conflicts, and the early testing Dale did with the prototypes of the buffer didn't show up any conflicts, so there's hope.
John,
I am a member of the " Paradise and Pacific " model railroad club in Scottsdale, Az. I was present @ the layout the day Dale stopped by to demonstrate the TMCC/legacy signal booster. I must say we were ALL very impressed with his devise. Of course we were very sad to hear of his passing. . . . . . .
PLEASE add me to the list to purchase this legacy signal booster.
I am a brand " NEW " OGR forum member, and mag subscriber. . . .
John B.
I think your club is already on the list unless you're looking for one for a personal layout. Keep in mind, this is one of those devices that 98% of TMCC/Legacy layouts probably don't need, it's only large layouts and perhaps exacerbated in multi-layer layouts.
John,
That's correct our club has two maybe three preordered. Some of our members may have placed orders too?
After experiencing this devise first hand. I knew I wanted one. The results were amazing. Besides It's the squirrel in me that wants to stash it away. . . . .Just in case ! I'm so new to this forum, and format, Can you see my email address John ? So you can let me know when they're ready ?
Thanks for your response,
John B.
I can't see an email address in your profile, you have to fill out the profile with a public email address. You can also send me an email to my profile address.
John,
Increase P&P's order to 4 units please,
Thanks,
Ron
gunrunnerjohn posted:... this is one of those devices that 98% of TMCC/Legacy layouts probably don't need, it's only large layouts and perhaps exacerbated in multi-layer layouts.
John, do you anticipate having one on your new layout? I ask that because it seems your layout will be mid-size but not humongous .
I have a 58 by 16 layout with the Legacy base right in the middle and I get spotty legacy signal at both ends. It works most of the time but every so often I can do anything with the train until it runs through
ogaugeguy posted:gunrunnerjohn posted:... this is one of those devices that 98% of TMCC/Legacy layouts probably don't need, it's only large layouts and perhaps exacerbated in multi-layer layouts.
John, do you anticipate having one on your new layout? I ask that because it seems your layout will be mid-size but not humongous .
I don't anticipate needing this for my layout.
John. Please add me to the list for the device when ready. Thx. Greg.stack.train@gmail.com
You seem to already be on the list, watch for your email.
John,
I would like to buy one from you so how do I get to you? Please contact me at kbmkam@aol.com
Kevin
Just a small update as to the status of the project. The testing went reasonably well at NJ-HR, but Bob did have a couple questions that we're still chasing down.
I would like to find one other site to do some testing, obviously it should be one that has significant issues with TMCC without the buffer.
There has also been a delay due to the fact that I'm in the middle of a somewhat messy move in the dead of winter. Being in limbo for a spell is putting a crimp on many of my train-related activities as there are lots of things to do here.
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