Subject:
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Re: Hypothetically speaking? the future of IR/RC trains
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.trains
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Date:
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Sat, 17 Feb 2007 22:01:42 GMT
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Viewed:
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4052 times
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In lugnet.trains, Ondrew Hartigan wrote:
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I’d like to pose a question that’s been bothering me lately. Since RC trains
made they’re debut last year many issues have risen with the product in its
current form. Mainly these are control and power issues but there are many
other quirks as well. Since plastic track seems to be here to stay, Common
sense tells me Lego is eventually going to kill off the 9v line. Knowing this,
we as a community need to think about eventually converting to plastic rails.
This also means now would be a great time to tell Lego what we need for
plastic rails to work for us.
This leads me to my question; given the current IR RC train line what
changes do you see necessary for you to convert from 9v track to plastic track
and why?
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I’m going to rely on my 9V trains simply for power and control. But, if LEGO
want me to buy more IR stuff then they could consider the following:
- A 16-stud version of the IR base. They’d only need to re-mould the top part, then you could use it as a battery tender. They could use it to make a cheaper steam engine + wagon + circle starter set. We could use it to power a crane, an uncoupler or some other feature. I have made my own one, but I can’t link to it right now as Brickshelf is down. It powers my ‘Ivor’, using BBB wheels on an IR motor.
- More channels - 3 isn’t enough, especially if you want to run a display. I could conceive of having a battery-operated section of a display, but with a limit of 3 trains it is never going to be a good one.
- IR-controlled point motors, than can be retro-fitted to 9V points.
It’s probably too late to implement the following, but they’d be nice to have:
- An auxiliary output to control a technic motor, lights etc. independently of the train motor.
- IR commands to set absolute speed, instead of faster/slower commands. This would allow better automated control.
- A shunting switch or barcode reader under the power unit, so the train can pause or reverse without intervention.
Jason R
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