Has anyone had any experience with wireless operations.?Since other models,planes etc work on wirless I wondered if trains could also. Would eliminate need for powered tracks,etc. I am new to models trains so I may have missed some obvious problem. With transistors and small battery it seems it could work.
Thanks
HO scale has wireless operation with DCC I am not real familar with it but I know enought that you hace a hand held throttle with no cord attached and can run many different trains at once. It doesn’t eliminate the powerpack but it has a powersource that is a constant source of power to the rails. The engine has a decoder that allows it to communicate to the throttle.
Hope this helps
Sam
There’s a company I just saw specs on has a unit for regular trains … not dcc . I’ll try and find it again and get back . Was steam engine shopping and forgot to mark page … LOL
Here it is M.T.H Z-750 TRANSFORMER & WIRELESS REMOTE . This is from ad … This transformer will run any O scale train has 75 watts of power output. Has seperate Direction,Bell,horn/whistle and speed control and emergency stop buttons. Reciever is designed to plug right into any O scale train track. Research it I’m just going by ad . Shows hanheld unit that comes with it ???
I think what Mike had in mind here is that the train would not get it’s power through the track, but have it’s own onboard power source and be remotely controlled by radio. I can only relate that the smallest scale I’ve seen like this, was an O gauge live steamer that was fired by propane or butane and some G scale that are large enough to carring onboard battery packs which eliminates the dirty track problem. Ken
Yes, this is available in Aristocraft trains http://www.aristocraft.com/, don’t know about smaller sizes.
The biggest problem for smaller scales is space for the batteries, many HO and N locomotives have trouble fitting in the decoder and sound system. Larger scales are a little better, but they require more battery power. You probably have to have one or more dedicated boxcars to hold the batteries.
Enjoy
Paul
I made the prediction last year that the next wave of technology in model railroading would be on board power, completely eliminating the need for track power. Everything else in technology keeps getting smaller and more powerful and I think it is only a matter of time before it is available in HO and smaller scales. It might mean we have to install battery chargers in hour roundhouses so we can recharge our locos between sessions like they do with golf carts. For now I am happy with my Lenz DCC system with CVP wireless remote. I hate being tethered.
That’s certainly being done in the larger scales such as G, and all of my locomotives are wireless, battery operated. Battery technology has not reached the point yet of being able to be fit into HO together with a wireless receiver/decoder, but that is likely to change in less than 5 years.
Technology now exists to recharge cell phones and other similar devices using some form of RF. Therefore it is only a matter of time that this will be available to run our HO loco’s as most modern can motors run on much less then 1 amp.
The bad news is I’ll end up having to retrofit all my new DCC sound equipped locos that are currently the latest and greatest. It’s going to be like PCs were in the 1980s and 1990s when you had to upgrade every 2 years or you were out of touch and 2 months after you bought one, there was a newer model that was cheaper and more powerful.
I suspect that will be the next step within the next 10 years…Just think we would no longer worry about cleaning track! That would revolutionize the hobby in its self!
An R/C car that is already on the market (look at RS) with that transmitter and an F7 would work. In steam, I do not know. The run time would be short like the R/C car.
I have wireless for my DC (analog) HO scale layout. My RR is controlled using Aristo Craft’s Engineer R/C throttle. With block wiring and two receivers placed between the power packs and the assigned cab, I can toggle back and forth controlling two trains from one hand-held controller.
Some time ago (about the time that ASTRAC appeared) one modeler built a radio controlled battery powered covered wagon set with controllable headlight and horn sounds. IIRC, the contemporary writeup mentioned him running it across a restaurant table without benefit of tracks!
IMHO, the next logical step would be direct control of the on-board DCC controller by radio (eliminating the base station,) with enough on-board battery capacity to run from one recharger block to another. If the entire turnout (yard throat, passenger terminal puzzle palace) was electrically dead, the whole “insulfrog vs. electrofrog” debate would be moot. Recharger blocks could be the switchless main tracks between towns, platform tracks at stations or other frog-free locations.
Prototypes for recharger blocks, one ultramodern and one ancient:
- Proposed (built in prototype form) “People mover,” four-passenger cars on guideway with boarding stations on sidings. The sidings are fitted with charging rails, and the batteries charge while passengers are climbing in and out and the system’s master computer is looking for a hole in passing traffic.
- Ancient. The rails from Lomix to the base of Boulder Dam were powered by battery mine motors with 3rd rail shoes. The only third rail was in a rather long tunnel between the concrete batch plant and the unloading sites; leaving the switchwork at both ends of the route unpowered. These days, the site of Lomix and the long-abandoned right-of-way are several hundred feet below the surface of Lake Mead and the dam is officially the Hoover Dam.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - and occasionally hiking Six Companies roadbed from the vicinity of the Lake Mead visitors’ Center)