Subject:
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Re: Aaargh. L272 IC needed.
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.org.ca.rtltoronto
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Date:
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Tue, 17 Jul 2001 21:37:48 GMT
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Viewed:
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540 times
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In lugnet.org.ca.rtltoronto, Calum Tsang writes:
> In lugnet.org.ca.rtltoronto, Larry Pieniazek writes:
> > Tom and I were talking about what it would take to commercialise this a bit
> > (recall if you will I previously said I would rather buy some converted
> > motors than do the work myself because I am klutzy...) but we didn't think
> > of the "build your own receiver" route.
>
> If you wanted to start a side business of selling integrated decoder plus 9V
> train motor type devices, then you'd have to cost the price of the 5300 AND
> a commercial decoder, then also factor in the cost of yours or someone elses
> time. All told, in Canadian dollars, it would be nearly $100 in material
> costs alone, then labour, then shipping (even if you get people to trade in
> their 5300, they still need to mail it into you.
>
> It's really not that hard-If one's not capable of soldering an N scale
> yourself, one really should reconsider DCC/model railroading as a hobby.
Not sure I agree. I left traditional MR because I prefer the resiliency of
the brick and don't have a lot of interest in soldering any more...
> Scratchbuilding is probably the most fun part model railroading in the
> traditional sense! Now Lego is a little different (ie, scratchbuilding is
> not a major part of it), but it shouldn't discourage you from doing a DCC
> install. You'll learn some new skills.
I think this is a valid argument in the general case but fails in my case
for two reasons: (not trying to start an argument, mind you, just sharing
perspective)
- they're not new skills to me! At least not the electronics related ones. I
used to be fairly active electronically, and even made some summer money
doing stuff like wirewrap prototyping, laying out PC boards, and
etching/soldering up prototypes to support engineering operations. But I
have aged and I am no longer interested in these skills because my eye motor
coordination has deteriorated while at the same time the components have
gotten smaller.
- I have more money than home time. A project that takes 1 hour per motor
means I just gave up 10 hours of time... no way would I want less than 10
motors converted, and 10 hours (at home) is a LOT of time to me. I am
typically home only 36 hours a week or so.
> The truth of the matter is this sort of thing isn't worth my time to go and
> try and make a buck on it. That's probably why existing commercial decoders
> are so frickin expensive-they're common parts, but with production
> infrastructure and overheads factored in. We'll probably do up 10-20 or so
> decoders in a batch for rtlToronto members and call it that.
Understood. However my offer stands, if there is a way to figure out how to
trade my cash for your (rtlT) work (by bumping your production numbers up)
I'm interested.
I could probably handle the decoder installs if I had to, but just don't
want to do the board etching and soldering.
Heck, maybe if you just ran off a lot of extra boards, that's the hardest
part, really... At least it used to be.
++Lar
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Aaargh. L272 IC needed.
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| (...) IIRC there are pads on the bottom of the frog where jumper wires that could be soldered onto. But the track connectors idea is very doable, it should work great. (...) If you wanted to start a side business of selling integrated decoder plus (...) (23 years ago, 17-Jul-01, to lugnet.org.ca.rtltoronto)
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