Subject:
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Re: Smart Motor
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics
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Date:
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Fri, 10 Sep 2004 16:33:01 GMT
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Viewed:
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1145 times
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In lugnet.robotics, PeterBalch <PeterBalch@compuserve.com> wrote:
>
> > installing a DCC decoder directly into a Technic motor,
> > And, it's not too expensive - less than $35US per smart motor.
>
> Since the earlier postings, I've tried to find out about DCC controllers. I
> design (non-Lego) robot kits and I'm quite impressed with the potential of
> DCC.
>
> However, the price of the controllers is horrendous. Is it because the
> manufacturers and shopkeepers are greedy? the market is tiny? there's no
> competition? model railway enthusiasts don't realise how cheap silicon is?
I think one of the reasons for the high cost is that supply hasn't always been
able to keep up with demand. I've read many threads about manufacturers (most
notably Digitrax) not being able to deliver product on schedule, or not
delivering enough quantity.
But, prices have been coming down and hopefully will continue to do so. The
$16US Digitrax DZ123 is actually quite a bargain compared to decoders of the
past that were both larger and had fewer features. I just came across a new
decoder by Lenz that's part of its new "Value-Line" series with a street price
of $13 (though the footprint is larger than the DZ123).
> Is it possible to buy just the chips rather than a packaged chip? Although,
> from the photos of products, the packaging is minimal.
I believe most, if not all, decoder manufacturers use off-the-shelf
microcontrollers (like the PIC) in their designs. I haven't heard mention of
any specialized chips for DCC, though I bet that'll happen in the future.
If you want to roll your own DCC components, here's a good page to get started
with schematics, PCB layouts and PIC code:
http://www.merg.org.uk/resources/dcc.htm
Mark
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Smart Motor
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| (...) Since the earlier postings, I've tried to find out about DCC controllers. I design (non-Lego) robot kits and I'm quite impressed with the potential of DCC. However, the price of the controllers is horrendous. Is it because the manufacturers (...) (20 years ago, 10-Sep-04, to lugnet.robotics)
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