[dwb]

QUOTE For some reason this is a requirement for consoles that read CV's. No doubt somebody will provide more information on this.
Before the advent of RailCom, the only way for base stations to get feedback from a decoder was for the decoder to make the motor "twitch" or in the case of Lenz move a tenth of an inch or so along the track. If the base station is fitted with sensing hardware, it can detect these twitches. Two types of twitch or twitch / no twitch without a set time period allows a decoder to send CV information one bit a time back to the base station. My educated guess is that the sensing hardware in the base station is restricted to the programming track outlet only for reasons of certainty and cost.

With RailCom equipped decoders the need to rely on the programming track to detect "twitches" will go away.

David

 

[dwb]

QUOTE Sorry DWB, there os no "Twitchometer" in a base station
Well, I'm glad they added the visual feedback for the user because it has helped me out on several occasions, not that I count the twitches you understand

Thanks for the correction
David

 

[dwb]

Given that an ESU radio wireless control costs over £120, getting something which is near enough the same with a base station thrown in is a pretty good deal. The manufacturing engineers and accountants must have crawled all over the Bill Of Material for weeks to get the retail price down to what it is. That's why you get the smaller transformer, no programming outlet and no numeric keypad. For a final RRP of around £100, all those pennies saved really start to count. If they got it wrong, then the product will flop and that will be that. There's no sentiment in the market place.

David

 

[dwb]

I thnk the fact that you can add the Pro box later is a good one. You can grow into a larger system without having to make a big upfront investment.

David

 

[dwb]

QUOTE Evidently the ECOS will but no-one can say when it will be able to replace the Lok unit.

The impression I have is that ESU have been so busy doing "customer" work that development of their own products has not proceeded as quickly as originally planned.

David