Base3 BETA Testing at Chicagoland Lionel Railroad Club — Videos / Slide Show

Keith

Thanks for posting!  I scanned through it quickly but will watch once I get some time this weekend!

I can't wait until the new Base 3 ships. Dave said it will come by December. Now I know what I'm getting for Christmas this year!🎅🚂 Plus, I am getting a new layout room pretty soon, so I was already planning on buying the Base 3 anyway. By the way, Dave, when are you going to post the next "Demos With Dave" videos on the Base 3? I really want to see the Cab 3 demo.

I'm also excited to see 4-digit addressing coming in all new scale products from Lionel in 2024. Still hoping for Legacy ET44ACs and/or SD70ACe-T4s.

@Dylan the Train Man posted:

I can't wait until the new Base 3 ships. Dave said it will come by December.

I don't want to throw cold water on what you said, but just to temper it a bit. Dave said that the "plan" was still for the Base3 to come out in December. It may come out in December, but the way Dave put it is far from an assurance that it will. At this point, it's not even in production yet.

@Keith L posted:

Herb Koch, president of the Chicagoland Lionel Railroad Club, has posted two videos and a slide show of the Base3 BETA testing at the CLRC.

The Day 2 video is the most interesting. Among other things, Dave Olson stated that, starting in 2024, ALL Legacy engines will have 4-digit addressing.

Lionel's Dave Olson and Andrew McCarter come to CLRC to test the new Base3 System. - YouTube

Lionel's Dave Olson and Andrew McCarter come to the CLRC to run its Beta Tests on the Base3 System. - YouTube

Lionel Base3 Beta Test at CLRC SLIDE SHOW - YouTube

I also thought it was interesting that, after finding the RF signal was not quite meeting the maximum parameter set for it (at least 10 users sending commands simultaneously) in the CLRC environment, Dave Olson was able to change the Base3 firmware code in the midst of the Day 2 testing to amplify the signal, and that brought performance to spec.

Wow!

This is great to see!

I was wondering about an antenna for the Base3 and now understand that there will be an external antenna attached to the Base3.

Thank you Lionel and Chicagoland members!

Stan

Very interesting and very informative! Thanks to all at CLRC for participating and assisting Lionel in producing as reliable a product as possible. Looking forward to getting one myself when they come out.

@stangtrain posted:

Wow!

This is great to see!

I was wondering about an antenna for the Base3 and now understand that there will be an external antenna attached to the Base3.

Thank you Lionel and Chicagoland members!

Stan

Yes, originally there wasn't going to be an external antenna. If I recall correctly--and that's a big if--it was the testing at the NJ Hi-Railers Club that showed the need for one.

I'm happy to see they added the antenna, I need that for my dinky 24 x 12 layout!  I have a concrete extension that blocks the direct line to the command base in several areas, so I have an external antenna that sits where it has line-of-sight throughout the basement.

@Keith L posted:

Yes, originally there wasn't going to be an external antenna. If I recall correctly--and that's a big if--it was the testing at the NJ Hi-Railers Club that showed the need for one.

The testing at our club (NJ Hi-Railers) definitely showed the need for an external antenna for the Base3 to CAB2  We weren't able to get a reliable connection between the Base3 and the CAB2 when we were only half way down the room and it was very dependent on the orientation of the BASE3.  Dave told us the original BASE3 thought was that it would be mounted below most layouts so that antenna was designed to radiate out and up.  That didn't work so well for us.  We were vary happy when Dave told us he would incorporate an external antenna port.

It escapes me why the rush to internal antennas for stuff like this that is in a fixed location.  I get the internal antennas for the remotes, that makes practical sense.