Zeroing in on a DCC system.

[daniel_leavitt2000]

After playing around with WiThrottle for iPhone for a few minutes, I am pretty impressed with the app. I have not attached it to a DCC system yet. I have a few iPhone 4/4S hanging around the house and these would make good looking, and cheap controllers. I need a minimum of 5 for Worcester, Framingham and Boston yards as well as two road throttles.

Having a phone throttle may be a blessing in one way. I can use a wireless (Qi) car mount to hold AND charge the phones when using Qi equipped cases. This will eliminate the need for a charging station or worry about anything running out of batteries.


From what I gather, this is what I need:

WiThrottle/iPhone - Router - PC with JMRI - command station - power districts/boosters - power bus - rail - engine with decoder

Is this the full sequence? If I do not need handheld throttles, what are some good base stations with high power output?

Also, should I use a closed wireless network for the layout? I would need an extender for my current network, but I wouldn't need internet on this. I have an old router not being used. I could assign it a non-conflicting channel from my home network. I am a little worried about congestion through the current one. I have 3 TiVos, 5 laptops, 2 printers, and multiple phones and tablets on it.

[GaryHinshaw]

Good choice.  You will also need a device for the PC to communicate with the command station, e.g. a Digitrax PR3, a RR-CirKits Locobuffer-USB, or similar. 

There are many fine command stations that will work with jmri and WiThrottle, the Digitrax DCS100 being one example.  You should probably avoid the temptation to get an 8 amp station because if a short should make it all the way back to the command station before tripping, those 8 amps can do a lot of damage quickly.   Better to heavy up with separate 5 amp boosters as needs, along with separate circuit breakers on each of your power districts.

Added - I hang a spare router off my laptop and run the layout on a closed network.  It's very reliable.

[mmyers]

I recommend acquiring one full featured throttle for whatever system you wind up purchasing. There are some settings on every DCC system that are just plain easier and quicker to adjust with a throttle. Doesn't need to be wireless but at some point you will wish you had one handy.

Martin Myers

[ryan_wilkerson]

Daniel,
Looks like you're on the right track. I use old phones as throttles for my sons (11 and 9) and their friends. Even on a small layout, 3 trains can be running just fine...sometimes even 4. Phone operation is very easy for new operators to understand. I have Android phones so use EngineDriver. I like being able to use the phone's volume up/down as a speed adjustment so you don't have to use the tough screen.

I have an NCE system have it connected to a dedicated PC (Windows 7) using a Serial-to-USB cable. I also use a dedicated router (without internet)...I used my old Linksys router. The only reason I mention NCE is that I have an NCE PowerCab throttle which makes it easy to program decoders, including the power-hungry sound decoders.
-Ryan

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Ryan, that's the setup I'm looking at right now. I was gong to go with a NCE pro radio, but I think I'm just going to get the wired version and save some money and wireless bandwidth. I just upgraded my house with 802.11 AC so I can stream multiple 4K videos on our TVs, but we are still hitting a bandwidth ceiling.

The house network uses both 2.4 and 5 GHZ radios. The 5 bands are set to wide, while I moved the 2.4 to upper channels only. This should leave me with lower (1-5) channels for a dedicated router.

When I am ready to start building out the system, would you mind if I get in touch with you off list? This is uncharted territory for me.

[ryan_wilkerson]

Sure thing. I'm not an expert but I have it up and running!

Ryan, that's the setup I'm looking at right now. I was gong to go with a NCE pro radio, but I think I'm just going to get the wired version and save some money and wireless bandwidth. I just upgraded my house with 802.11 AC so I can stream multiple 4K videos on our TVs, but we are still hitting a bandwidth ceiling.

The house network uses both 2.4 and 5 GHZ radios. The 5 bands are set to wide, while I moved the 2.4 to upper channels only. This should leave me with lower (1-5) channels for a dedicated router.

When I am ready to start building out the system, would you mind if I get in touch with you off list? This is uncharted territory for me.

[fcwilt]

The house network uses both 2.4 and 5 GHZ radios. The 5 bands are set to wide, while I moved the 2.4 to upper channels only. This should leave me with lower (1-5) channels for a dedicated router.

In the 2.4 band there are only 3 channels that do not overlap - 1, 6 and 11.

Stick with these when you can.