“I tried to respond to railtwister’s post. If you look carefully, I did not suggest that one system is better than the other. Nor can you tell what system I have. I expressed my opinions.”
Stevert said:
“It sure seemed that way, what with the comments in your post about how easy it is to “upgrade” the Powercab”
I never made any statement that included the word easy. All I did was respond to railtwister’s comment that the PowerCab was limited to one additional cab. What I said exactly was “As the system comes, it is limited to one other cab. However, it is expandable to accommodate two or maybe three more. The available expansion items (smart booster) also increases the available amperage.” I don’t believe that there is anything in that statement that could be construed as suggesting that one system was any better than another.
Stevert said:
“and that anything more than what those “upgrades” give you must be a gimmick.”
Railtwister mentioned the ability of one system to be able to run a DC loco for test purposes. My exact responses to that were " Most of the folks who have posted here seem to not recommend running a DC engine on DCC." ( I believe that to be a true statement ) and “if I were interested in seeing how a DC engine ran, for test purposes or otherwise, I think I’d want a regular DC power supply.” I stated that I felt that this was a gimmick, but that was my opinion. I did not tie this statement in with any upgrades of anybodies system. You can disagree with my opinion, but I don’t see how you can make a leap to suggest that I was denigrating any particular product.
Stevert said:
"Yes, 5 or 6 is a far cry from 10 to 20. But it is more than the max of four minus the USB adapter and/or mini-panel that the NCE replacement, er, “upgrade” gives you. And if you read my entire sentence, I
In my opinion “going at it” is a little strong. A question was asked and I responded. Then my comments were misconstrued. I tried to clarify what I actually said. I don’t see a problem with this. But if it is, then please let me know.
I’m sorry, I should have been a little more clear as to what I really meant. Although I did use amps in my statement, what I really should have asked was “when you have a 1.5 to 3 amp system how many trains can you run that you would need that many cabs?” And please note, once again, that I did use 1.5 amp as a lower limit. I only made my comments based upon what I see run here locally. And these trains are generally headed up by 2 or 3 unit consists (disease-els) and they are a mix of manufacturers, some of whom are not noted for supplying the best available motors, as well as old DC to DCC conversion engines. If the locos one has are the most efficient available as in your post, then certainly more of them can be run. But how many cabs are actually required to run them?
Of course the number of cabs one needs in relation to the number of engines he runs is going to vary greatly. Many people do operate with one engine per train. Naturally if you have one engine per train and one train per operator, your going to need one cab per engine.
They are both great systems. The Z was falling a bit behind and Digitrax had done a nice job of refreshing the feature list. The addition of the recall stack and the 29 functions matches capability that the PowerCab had, and the increased power and throttle capability may be attractive to some modellers.
So much depends on how a particular modeller wants to use their system.
For the solo operator that wants to have some walk around capability with a small layout then the PowerCab is hard to beat, especially if price is an issue as they would have to purchase an extra throttle to get walk around capability with the Z.
However, a Dad with 2 kids that wants the capability for all 3 to “play Daddy’s trains” at once with a PC connection and JMRI software and the occasional guest operator is going to hit the wall with the PowerCab and find the Z better suits his needs. (this is my scenario BTW, and we often have occasion to run 5 or 5 cabs at once (The Z throttle, 2 x D402D, a UT4, 2 DC pack jump throttles and a JMRI throttle) when cousins or boys friends turn up)
It is not that I think the Z is “better” than the PowerCab, it happens to be what I have, and it happens to better match my particular situation.
There’s another large layout, guy who frequents the Digitrax group on Yahoo has an N scale layout almsot as big as Pauls but also DOUBLE DECK which he runs with a Zephyr and nothing but. It all depends on how many trains you actually run at one time. You could have a 6x10 HO layout that can handle 15 trains at the same time, the Zephyr wouldn;t handle that (but the new Zephyr Xtra probably could). You can fill a barn but if you only run one train by yourself - no need for a huge 8 amp DCC system there, either.
ANd Paul - where does it REALLY max out, 10 or 12? I don;t have enough layotu to actually RUN 12 locos at the same time and maintain control, the most I could do on my old layotu was 8 and even then I felt like Lucy in the pie shop trying to keep them from running in to one another, but I just wanted to see how much the Zephyr could actually handle. It SEEMS like I can enter new loco addresses 12 times, not 10, until it says FULL. Kind of makes sense, 10 plus the 2 for the jump throttles, but can you really control them? This has been kicked around ever since the Zephyr came otu and I’ve never seen a definitive answer. Once I finish the mainline on my new layout I may have enough room to at least select 12, but seeing as how you’ve already hit FULL errors ont he Zephyr - was it 10 or 12?
tstage,
True, the thread is 4 years old, but the new Zephyr Xtra brings something new to the discussion.
maxman,
I did say I have operated with 4 people on my layout, and that I could accommodate a couple more. I could push it to 10 with my Z, but then each train would only have one address. I have 2 freight yards, a staging yard, a passenger terminal, and two local mainline freights. I could also run two mainline trains, have an engine hostler in the engine terminal, and run my local freight in my larger yard as a separate train for a total of 10 operators. The layout would be a little cramped, but my aisles are 36 inch so it wouldn’t be too bad. That’s a lot of action, even in 25’x50’. Heck, when we have 10 trains going at once at my club, it’s kinda crowded…and our layout is around 60’ x 50’ (at the moment…see pic).
BTW, I totally agree that the form factor is the most important thing about any DCC system. If you don’t like the way it feels in your hand, you’ll never be happy with it.
Randy,
I honestly don’t know where it tops out…either 10 or 12. I have heard it’s 12, but I’ve never tested it. About once a year, I need to clear the memory, but usually I’m pretty good about releasing addresses (throttle at zero, all functions off, not MU’d to anything nor anything MU’d to it).
I suppose if anyone wants to test it, just try running 3 MU sets of 4 locos. If you can, it’s 12. If it says FULL after 2 sets plus 2, then it’s 10.
