Dose anyone here use the roco z21 control system i would appreciate any views on how good or poor this is
I have briefly used one a couple of years ago at a local club. As I remember, it had a red case with a black speed control knob, and a couple of the other members had them since they modelled continental railways with Roco loco's. Personally, I'm not a fan of rotary speed controllers, (each to his own) as I just can't get on with the Lenz LH90 rotary speed control I have, much preferring the Lenz LH100 pushbutton control instead. If you are using chipped loco's with speed steps set to 128 (as I do), then fine control I find is much easier than with a rotary control. Sorry I can't offer any more info than this, as I only used the Roco handset briefly to run one of my loco's on a club layout, so no idea how good/bad/indifferent the Roco system is when it comes to reading chips, programming etc. Hopefully, someone will be along with more experience of the Roco system. Keith.
Never used one myself. Sorry. As Keith said, there will be someone out there who has. Hopefully they will chime in shortly. Cheers Toto
Thanks chaps I'm looking more at the computer control side of it If any members have any experience of any of the computer control systems i would like to hear there thoughts
You may want to look up JMRI. Have a little read up on that then come back. Paul is the font of knowledge on this and may ba able to cover this on his " dark side " workshop. Meanwhile, I'm sure he would be able to give you a whistle stop tour of what you can do with it. I have it loaded on my PC but haven't even scratched the surface of what can be done with it. From memory ........ It's also free. As far as your control system goes, have you had a look at NCE. It has a good fan base on platform1. Cheers Toto
Did see a video on you tube about nce with a computer interface board running jmri software and it looked very good
Hi I use the NCE PowerCab with the usb interface . I also have some MERG Cbus accessories, and their usb interface, why do I mention these, well both are interlinked via JMRI. JMRI is a suite of applications, the two principal ones being DecoderPro and PanelPro. My advice for anyone starting out with DCC, is to make sure you can connect to a computer and it is JMRI compatible - DecoderPro is the reason why. DecoderPro, allows you to manage your Loco decoder settings, in an easy to use package. and it's free ......... There are other programs that can do the same and perhaps more, but I've never felt the need to investigate. PanelPro does the same for your layout, allowing you to create mimic panels, control the points signals etc. But the crown on the top - Wi-Throttles, by downloading the app for either Android or iPhones you can use you mobile as a wireless throttle (uses your home wifi to communicate between phone / PC / JMRI / DCC command station). If you fancy the Wi-throttle approach, and can assemble a circuit have a look at the MERG command station and booster kits, or take a look at the DCC++ system (check it out on youtube). Like others I've not tried the Roco Mini Maus Don't know if this link will be any help http://usuaris.tinet.cat/fmco/lokmaus_en.html Paul
Thanks for the input paul the merg items was another thing i was looking at as an electronics engineer i like the idea of building my own units I will download jmri and check it out
No trouble toto as I'm new to model railways I'm the novice having to learn never to old or cleaver to learn
I'd agree with that. If you have the will and determination ...... Nothing is impossible. Well ...... Apart from soldering white metal .....
Away from dcc just thought I'd share this on my budget layout was using this controller but found it to sharp so fitted a pwm controller inside I used the output from the standard controller as the input to the pwm and gives really fine control Pwm controller only £4.99 from eBay including postage
I have one of these. I used it to test out DC loco's before chipping them. They are " sharp " as you say but still give good service. Toto
