Should i upgrade to an Elite

[debe45]

I have a small three oval  6 X 4 ft layout with a 4ft extension, which can be a station or sidings  or whatever.  I use two Select controllers, one as a walkabout,one each side of layout.

I have just bought a TTS engine and wonder if it is time to upgrade to an Elite. 

I must be honest I just play with trains, I don't really little a loco to have realistic acceleration etc. I like it to stop when I turn the knob to stop.

But am I missing out? Would I find fiddling with CV's etc another interest?

I welcome all and any suggestions.

 

Thanks

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ronbram]

Hi Derek, the 'inertia' properties of a DCC loco are in the loco controller, not in the command station. I also run a tiny layout with 2 ovals and use a Elite as command station and a Select as walkaround, although the size fthe layout hardly requires any walking around. In my opinion, the Elite is much more comfortable to run the layout, giving access to 2 loco's, easy function turning on/off. To be honest, I only have manually operated points, so no judgement there. The Elite gives mmore comfort and is easier to use for programming decoders and capable of running more loco's from a powqe supply point of view. But it is hard to say if you should spend the money. The best way is to see if you vcan borrow one, nothing beats the personal experience. Wouldd I swap my Elite for a couple of Selects: no, but that is my opinion

[96RAF]

One of the Select’s problems is that there is no screen indication that a function is on or off only your memory of doing it, whereas the Elite does have an indicator for each function and this follows whichever control channel knob is in play and whichever function screen is on display.

 

As regards CVs yes there are times when you will need to fiddle with the characteristics of a decoder even if it is just the TTS sound volume and at present you cannot change much using the Select as you know.

 

If you do upgrade to an Elite you can still hang both your Selects onto it as Walkabouts By way of a splitter and another walkabout cable.

 

Rob

[debe45]

Thank you.

Some interesting points you mention.  More thought and considersation needed.

I wonder who would lend me an Elite for a while? Perhaps a trip to the local model rilway club would help.

 

Thanks again for your valuable comments.

[Fishmanoz]

I would suggest first thing to consider if you are getting a TTS is that the Selects must be at latest firmware to access anywhere near all of their sound functions. If not, it’s £15 a pop to send them back to Hornby for firmware upgrade.

 

Just on accel/decel or inertia, it’s programmed into the loco decoder (not controller) by either the Select or an Elite. In that respect, the 2 controllers are much the same (one of the few things that are the same), except the way you do the adjustments.  And if you go to TTS, you’ll have to contend with it because the minimum/default accel for TTS locos is 15 to give time for the sound sequences at loco startup. 

[ronbram]

When you are, by any chance, in the Netherlands, you can always drop by me and have a go at my Elite. I live  at the coast near Amsterdam.

[debe45]

@RON&BRAM

I have been to Amsterdam several times but sadly I am not planning a visit in the near future  By the way how did you get my name?

@FISHMANOZ

Yes my Select is at latest 1.5 firmware version.

 

Thanks both

[Chrissaf]

By the way how did you get my name?

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Because you wrote it in your signature panel

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[debe45]

@chrissaf

Sorry I don't know about a signature panel. All I see is "debe45".  How do you get Derek from this?

 

Regards

[Chrissaf]

Debe45, look at the image I posted directly above your last post (copied again below). Look at the yellow box towards the bottom left hand corner. Have you never noticed that your 'Derek' name is shown there. I put the yellow highlight in the first posted image to bring the area with your 'Derek' name in it to your attention.

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/media/tinymce_upload/1c783653af0f6c67a4891e853fb94b42.jpg

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The area below the horizontal line is termed your 'signature panel'. If you go into your forum account settings page, you will find an area where you can type in what is displayed in this area. When you originally set up your forum account on 22nd Dec 2013, you obviously wrote "Derek" in it on that date, or later if added in a later 'account page' edit. Derek has been displayed in all your posts for up to 5 years.

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The image below is a screen capture of the signature panel area (highlighted in yellow) in my own forum account pages:

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/media/tinymce_upload/0a436faf6ea2348532859a43a468e613.jpg

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[debe45]

@chrissaf

You know I never noticed my name in the signature box.  How silly.  I wondered why you had a yellow box around my name.  I completely missed what you were showing me.  Sometimes my stupidity amazes even me.  Thanks for putting me in the picture.

Incidentally I love reading your posts, even if some are a bit technical for me.  I was O.K when we used valves but never really got to gripes with transisters, although I was  a main -frame computer engineer.  Logic diagrams do not use electronics.  Much easier.

Thanks again.

[Chrissaf]

Incidentally I love reading your posts, even if some are a bit technical for me.

 

It probably shows, but I love writing & drawing.....thank you for the compliment.

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I used to write technical documents as part of my job. My job involved designing data communications solutions for corporate business customers, then documenting the solution as part of the selling process. That also involved doing follow up customer 'face to face' presentations of that solution (PowerPoint & chalk-n-talk) to re-enforce the contents of what was written in the document, with follow up 'question-n-answer' sessions.

[Fishmanoz]

Now that’s what I’d like to see ........ Chris loose with a PowerPoint presentation on here, complete with embedded videos and sound!

[96RAF]

We could club together to get him a oo-toob channel.

Rob

[Chrissaf]

I do nearly all my forum published diagrams and drawings in PowerPoint, so not far off the truth already. It's actually quite a powerful drawing package (as my previously published graphics aptly demonstrate), but most of the really useful drawing tools are hidden away in the depths of custom PowerPoint tool configuration settings. The normal default PowerPoint tools of course being focused on text and animation presentation. I have used Microsoft Visio, but have a preference for PowerPoint for its ease of use.