I am already operating a Chief set with a DT100R and a UR91R in a 12' X 17' room. I plan (definite) to move the layout into a 40' X 15' room.

Question:

1. What is the advantage or disadvantage (if any) if I bought another UR91R and placed it in the LocoNet at the opposite end of the room from the other one?

I'm thinking that if I had two UR91s in opposite ends of the room, the radio frequency would not take as long to get to the Mobil decoder (locomotive) or any other stationary decoder with two as for one.

-- Lawrence Hannahan (lhannahan@aol.com), November 08, 1999

Answers

Lawrence--the only reason to add another UR91 is if you are having reception probles in dead areas or are using 10 or more throttles and having conflicts. As for the speed, remember we're talking aobut electrons which travel at very fast rates so forget that idea.

-- Larry Puckett (ljpuckett@msn.com), November 08, 1999.

Lawrence,

Larry is 100% correct on the adding a second UR91, and also on the speed of the radio waves.

But would like to add one more thing that might be confusing you here. That is the way the throttle actually works, that might possibly make you think it is slower then what it really is.

Because of the way the radio systems is designed, that is multiple throttles i.e. transmitters to a single receiver. To save bandwidth, and keep collisions down to a min. The throttles do not transmit till you are done with the controls. That is they kind of buffer everything till you are done doing what ever.

Try this and you will see what I mean, get your loco running a nice steady speed that you can watch. The start cranking the throttle with out stopping one notch at a time, then stop. You will see the loco does not respond till you stop cranking the throttle. You can do the same and just up the speed one or two notches, and it will seem it responds right away. Thus to keep that tethered or drirect drive feel with the wireless throttle, just make small changes or adjustments then stop for a split second, then make more if required. The split second pause will allow the throttle to transmit and the LocoNet to respond.

Remember Always Have Fun and Enjoy!, Don Crano Akron, Oh NMRA #096211 mailto:donc@sssnet.com Visit Model Railroading with DCC at: http://pages.sssnet.com/donc/

-- Don Crano (donc@sssnet.com), November 09, 1999.

In addition to Don's (as usual) excellent answer, you can also use the + and - buttons for increasing and decreasing your locomotive speed. The really nice thing about using these (+ and -) is that your speed change is sent instantly because using the buttons gives the throttle that split second pause done mentioned.

-- Thomas Johnson (tee_jay@usa.net), December 20, 2002.