Hi all,
Anyone familiar with the HO Train Engineer from Crest? It is a onboard RX and a Handheld TX for R/C train operation. If it works well ( Crest makes a good product) it sure seems easier than complicated wiring. Anyone tried it?
Thanks,
Matt
This is news to me. I have not heard of it before. However, Rail-Lynx makes recievers to be installed in locomotives and hand held infrared transmitters. I have not tried the product but have seen video tape of it in use on a large layout and it looks good to me. For more information check out their website. There is also a Yahoo discussion group for Rail Lynx users.
http://www.rail-lynx.com/
Hi KSLM, Welcome to the forum!!!
I tried the HOTE and never was able to get it to work right. Some problems were that there is a 5 foot or so antenna on the handheld that keeps getting in the way and catching on everything around. The decoder comes in one size only. Supposedly it will fit “most” HO locomotives. Yeh, Right! The decoder is considerably bigger that many HO DCC decoders and requires major work to get it in some locos. It also requires a “clean DC” power supply. None of my various DC transformers would work. You will also need clean electrical supply without any other equipment running on it. My electric heater would stop it from operating. I managed to get the decoder in one fairly small locomotive with some major redecorating (shall I say) of the tender. I also had parts missing from the set that was originally sent to me. IMHO Aristo is not good with customer service! It took 3 trys to get the part and most of the people I was talking to had no clue what I was talking about. The dealer I purchased the set from was also in contact with them several times to no avail. [banghead]
I am now going to DCC and plan to be Very Happy with it. I would sell you my set real cheap, but I won’t do that to a fellow MR Hobbyist! [(-D]
First of all welcome to the forum Matt.
Astro Craft may work well for larger scales, however a friend bought the HO train engeneer and has had a mulitude of problems with it. Smooking several recievers and lots of info from the MFG (very prompt with E-mailing).
This system ( HO) sounded great, just hook up a decent DC transformer, wiire in a a filter, plug in the transmitter, and install plug and play recievers into each locomotive. Set the DC transformer at max and run as like DCC. What looked great was no need of a programing track and this was susposed to be a progam on the fly type to MU engines ect.
First they stated our transformer wasent good, we putit on an occilloscope and all four we used during this process were good clean dc line with no ac waves, and we still smooked more recievers. Following directions to a tee, and some of our own, the owner is a retired electrician and in my openion one of the best around. We even turned off the overhead lights thinking the overhead ballest may be influecing the transmitter or recievers.
Giving up we sent everything back and Astro craft promply returned repaired and checked out parts very quickley at no cost.
It still did not operate and is sitting somewhere in his train room shelf gathering dust, of which in my personal openion it should or would become a very good dust catcher.
Knowenly someone out here on this forum has ran this as I seen the thread about six months ago, he seemed to have no problems if I remember correctly.
If your going to consider this product and I am only refering to HO, perhaps a DCC system will work better. The Astro Craft recievers are arount $33 and DCC cost far less with more features., again this is only my humble personal openion, I think a good DCC would give one a better bang for lthe buck. However I know where you can get six recievers, transmitter and a filter, dirt cheap or should I say dust cheep.!!!. Just kidding wouldnt do that to
A friend of mine uses a couple Aritocraft (aka Crest?) radio throttles and they seem to work great.
However, there is no big antenna on the handheld as someone mentioned, and there is no decoder of which I’m aware that has to be installed into a locomotive, so I’m wondering if we’re talking the same thing, here. His layout is NOT DCC (it’s DC), so maybe that makes a difference.
I used his throttles for an ops session one evening and had no problems or hassles with them. In fact, if my new, yet to be built layout ever gets constructed, and I go with DC, I am planning to use a couple of these to run my mainline, through trains.
Am I missing something here with the throttles under discussion?
CBQ_Guy,
Are you sure that your friend is running the HO Train Engineer. If so, a radio receiver has to be installed in the loco to make it run. It is not really a decoder as used in in DCC but serves the same function. Yes the HOTE system is a DC system not DCC. Mine came with a (not 5’ but seems like it) 40" long antenna on the handheld. They show a different handheld in the ads from what I got. Might be an old one. There is also an 11 1/2 inch long antenna on the receiver that you have to find a place for in the tender or loco. This system might work fine for some people, but it did not for me.
If you want, e-mail me and I will make you or you’re friend a great offer on the 5 receivers and radio cab that I have… Four of the receivers are new in the box!
CBQ-Guy, there are two quite different versions of the Aristo/Crest Train Engineer. The “Basic Train Engineer” version is an R/C controller only for the throttle output to the track, not each individual locomotive. The small handheld controller has only a very short antenna and the whole system works like a charm. I use it on my modest-sized DC, block-controlled, layout and would not trade it for any of the fancy DCC systems I’ve personally seen on other layouts.
The alternate version is “On-Board Train Engineer” which controls individual locomotives like other DCC systems. By the reports posted above, it seems not to be without its problems.
CNJ831
Ray and CNJ,
I guess he must have The “Basic Train Engineer” version that you mentioned. I didn’t know they had anything other than that.
Thanks for settin’ me straight!