Just received my CVP radio throttle for use with my Lenz Set 100 system. Don’t know if any of you have used this new throttle so I will describe it below.
As you know, Lenz does offer wireless control using a cordless phone. Depending on the phone cost, it will run about $60 to $70. It really works pretty well but has no informative display and requires a lot of key presses to operate. And the beeping key presses can be a bit annoying.
So, I decided to get the CVP T9000E radio throttle that’s made for use with Lenz systems. It’s fairly expensive at $219 for the throttle plus $99 for the receiver. But it has knob control and a display, and makes a nice engineer’s throttle. Radio is somewhat of a luxury but the freedom it offers is wonderful. It’s hard to go back to a tethered throttle.
The T9000E is a little smaller than the Lenz LH100. It’s easy to handle, has a nice weight and feel, and I quickly learned to operate it with one hand, although think it’s a little more comfortable to operate with two hands. But when a free hand is needed for
Nice review Jerry, it is good to see a review of one of the lesser known brands. Someone paid some real attention to power consumption in this design. 80 hours of use out of 4AAA batteries is very impressive.
Thanks for the great review! I also have the Lenz100 set. I have programmed a consist with a 4-digit call-name using my 100 system. Is it possible to use the radio throttle for this consist?
Yes, it runs 2 and 4 digit addresses. Just won’t program them to set them up or break them apart. I will set up my locos and consists before I start operating using the LH100 and then run them with the T9000. Just like the 100, you can operate functions and speed and direction of the consist from the address of any one of the locos in the consist.
I’ve used the CVP wireless throttles even before DCC. In my opinion they are the best wireless system I’ve ever used. I think the biggest fault is that a system can only have one receiver (base) station, and that station can only have eight throttles. Each of the eight throttles still consumes an address on the Lenz Express-Net bus.
Neither would I say CVP is a lesser known brand. They have been a leader in MR electronics for as long as I can remember. They almost ruled the command control world before DCC, and were actually a stong contender to be the standard rather than DCC. They were the first to make CTC-16 digital decoders, then there was EZ-Command, Railcommand, EZ-DCC, and of course the entire line of wireless throttles.
TZ, they are obviously not lesser know to you, but they are frequently left out of the “What DCC System?” threads on here. They don’t show up in most of the DCC comparison charts on web sites like Tony’s and given that they don’t sell other than direct, almost anyone that does not go on the web will have very likely never heard of them. So I would contend that they are not just lesser known that they are completely unknown to a large number of model Railroaders.