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point decoders


stevecamden

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I was going to go out and purchase some accessory decoders for a bank of points, however I now am worried that the 'operation' to change a point might just do my head in wheras flicking a switch is rather easy.

I know that I can't use something

like railmaster if I don't have the decoder for the points, but at this stage I am not sure what i would do with it. Perhaps I need some inspiration...

Does anyone use the point decoders without railmaster and do you have dedicated slave select units

ready to operate them? Even with three trains running /crossing each other it keeps me on my toes to not have a crash.

What do I do....
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Steve,
what you do is up to you but my feeling is that point

decoders are only worthwhile if you are going for some sort of computer control.

TO set points using a controller is complex; the decoders are expensive.... why bother. use a traditional method.

on the other hand if you are interested in computer

control then point controllers are mandatory.

To have the best of both worlds I have my points computer controller but also built a manual switch panel that lets me operate the points by hand as well.

Greg

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Or Greg - I might just have a mix of the two ways of doing it. I don't want to slip into luddite behaviour.

Its funny, but when I started out on the project, I was almost entirely interested in scenics etc ( which I still love) but the electronic

side is what 'keeps' you challenged and interested, i think. There are only a certain number of times that you can watch a train go round a circuit.
This must be the challenge to make the hobby interesting to newcomers - particularly kids when there are

so many exciting interactive alternatives where you can get the thrill easily, quickly and compared to model railways very cheaply. This is an expensive interest.
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My "thing" is computer control. this needs location sensors, control sw, point decoders. oh and some track and trains...

I used to have a post on the other forum but it is now gone. I run 3 trains under computer control on a layout 2.7x1.2. decoders

are bought all other electronics is hand-built.

the biggest expense for me has been time! On the other hand it has been a lot of fun integrating the various bits of software and firmware and hardware.

Despite having a lot of faller and similar

buildings the layout always looks like a building zone.

one day.....

Greg
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actually there has been limited interest from the forum in the past.

A lot of people are not interested in having a computer do the job of the train driver (why do they call them engineers?).

to go the route I have gone has been a lot of

fun but also a lot of time and many thousands of lines of software with jmri. this is probably a bit daunting for many.

RailMaster provides a pretty simple version of control (no location sensing) but it has the advantage that it is "shrink-wrapped"

rather than diy.

Greg
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Greg

Yes I think for me the interest would be two way interaction - feedback from the layout to the computer control rather than just a computer simulation. So for example, if the points/signals were wrong then the computer would know to stop the

train or change them appropriately.

But I know this is a massive task

Steve
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I use decoders without computer controll (yet) for two main reasons - one is that I love investigating new technology and two is that my layout is over two baseboards that must be split for storage - using analogue points would need 20-30 wires and I have

no wish to wire up a 30 pin connector. Digital points however only needs two wires, four at a push (if you have a separate DC suply for things like turntables ect.). Good luck.
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