[LisaP4]

Doug, any chance you can get me sufficient details to add the systems to the comparison table?
Shall have a hunt around anyway, but if you just happen to have all the details on hand...

On the subject of decoders, I'd put money on their decoders having Vstart CV2, as this is a recomended practice along with CV3 & CV4, Vhigh CV5 & Vmid CV6 are only optional practices at present, but finding a decoder without these is quite hard to do these days so it would make sense for Hornby to include them if they want their decoders to be competitive among the masses. Personally I'm all for loadable speed tables, however don't forget kickstart CV65, Forward Trim CV66, and Reverse Trim CV95 which allows for differant performance characteristics in each direction.

Hornby's use of a DC input voltage is interesting, but could in fact be part of what is keeping the price down, it is generally easier to create a false AC wave form from a DC input than it is to vary a preset AC form. Although some systems rectify the AC form soon after it enters the Command station then encode the DC into a false AC wave form, much as Hornby have done. Hornby's method makes use of DC power packs and as such results in less components in the Command Station, not much I grant you but you'd be suprised what differance 1 (or in this case probably 4) less component/s on a circuit can make to the end price. It's just a shame they got cheap and chose XpressNet for their Comunications protocol, heavily limiting the expandability and functionality of their system, of course there's pro's and con's to it, so it's cheaper but not future proof.

 

[LisaP4]

QUOTE (Makemineadouble @ 3 Jan 2006, 20:02)Although I'm using Digitrax & Loconet I'm suprised, what exactly do you see as the limitation of XpressNet then Lisa ?. I thought that Lenz et al were now peddling a fully expandable sytem.
The simple fact that they rewrite the protocols everytime it's found lacking (remember X-bus, X-bus2, XpressNet, which is now on it's second upgrade) says it all I believe, it is expandable, within limitations and everytime those limitations are reached they rewrite the protocols and send out software upgrades, if your into constant upgrades then go for it. A system that has limitations which it's own designers say they just happened to want to include sounds suspect to me, if XpressNet is as good as they say it is why do they have to limit the number of devices connected to it? And then try to tell everyone that they don't have to put that limit in place, but they thought it was a good idea? hmm, sounds a bit fishy to me!

You know what they say... It does what it says on the tin, only problem is it doesn't come in a tin!

 

[LisaP4]

If you think you'll never use XpressNet you'll be sorely dissapointed, as soon as you apply power to the unit you are using XpressNet.

The idea that 'it's Hornby so it must be good' seems to me to be more of a problem than a solution, it's a bit like buying a pair of shoes just because they're Nike's or Reeboks, if the shoes don't fit it doesn't matter how popular the brand is. This is nothing against Hornby, as indeed some of their products are quite good, but buying something simply because it is a certain brand will not get you the best results.
Incidently if you want to talk trusted brands then for DCC that's Digitrax, Lenz, NCE, and perhaps Zimo (alphabetical order BTW), these are the brands which have the well deserved reputation of being the best in the business.

As numurous people have said before you need to buy the system that has the features and functionality you want, look around and compare, if you find Hornby's system is ideal for you then by all means buy it, if not then don't buy it just because it's Hornby, if it doesn't do what you want then it is about as usefull as that pair of Nike's that don't fit!

 

[LisaP4]

QUOTE (Gary @ 4 Jan 2006, 13:42)Two questions from me really:-

1) What is RailCom ID detection?
Have a look at Loco Number Readback here for an explanation.
QUOTE 2) What are the implications of being designed to be NMRA standard?
Basically it means you can use decoders from any DCC manufacturer, not just Hornby.

As for Gary's list of features for Hornby's DCC system, all systems have these features. These are the basic standards and recomended practices for DCC, not just Hornby DCC.