Harbor Place Marina Investors LLC
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HEADLINE NEWS

Tam Valley DRS line now distributed in North America by Dead Rail Installs

See the Tam Valley and Dead Rail Installs entires on the Dead Rail Suppliers page for details.

BlueRail ships more than 700 Boards, hints big product announcement soon

 Dave Rees of BlueRail Trains reports they've sold 700+ bluetooth loco control boards. Dave's press release also hints that he has a new product in the works that's the "best train control technology I can imagine" and will "make a lot of people happy". Stay tuned. 

Dead Rail Society co-founder Pete Steinmetz installs of TVM, CVP and BlueRail systems in locos with battery power. He sells complete Dead Rail kits for self-installers and is also a source of hard-to-find, high quality LiPo battery packs in the right sizes for smaller scales.

FAQ

 

[NOTE: To be replaced with generalized FAQ in due course]

 

 

With apologies and thanks to Duncan McRee, this list of questions and answers is copied from his own Tam Valley Depot website:

 

Q: Can I consist DRS1 equipped units with my conventional DCC locomotives?
A: Absolutely. The DRS1 locomotive receives and obeys DCC commands as if it wre still connected to the track

 

Q: Can I program decoders in DRS1 equipped locomotives through the transmitter / receiver connection?
A: Yes, with Programming on the Main (Ops mode) you can program your locomotive. However, some decoders (e.g.Tsunami) will not allow changing the loco address in Ops mode. In this case you can attach the the decoder directly to  the pragramming track. The DRS1 has a plug that can be removed and connected to an adapter to make this easier.

 

Q: Can the receiver send commands and power to more than one decoder? I have several locomotives with separate sound and motor decoders 
A: Yes. You can attach as many decoders as the current limit will allow.

 

Q: What about automated control from cab bus equipped modules like NCE mini-panels, loconet, xpress-net, NMRANet etc.
A: These are all cab-bus or accessory bus devices. The DRS1 does not change the way the cab-bus behaves in any way - it is connected on the track side of the command station.

 

Q: Can I still run these equipped locomotives at my club or friends layout?
A: No problem. Simply bring along your DRS1 transmitter and attach it to the track with some alligator clips in an out of the way location. You can now use your freinds throttles to run your wireless DCC locomotive (be sure to run it on the floor just to show off!).

 

Q: How many receivers will one transmitter accommodate reliably.
A: There is no limit. The receivers do not draw any power from the transmitter.


Q: Is there a way to prevent locomotives from continuing to run all the way to the floor if they do leave the track, 
A: Yes, grab them. This is a potential new danger for on-board battery power (and keep-alive circuits).

 

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© Jan Twardowski, Dead Rail Society LLC