Who's Online
We have 33 guests and no members online
NCE (North Coast Engineering) equipment
General:
I love this stuff. I do not use transponding, so I don't need the unique features of Digitrax, and I think the NCE wired and wireless throttles are the best. I have more in the planning section of how I made my decision.
I will only talk about the 10 amp NCE systems. Do not waste your time getting the 5 amp version, it's REALLY easy to go over 5 amps in Large scale.
The company is US-based, and very helpful and professional about their products. There is a Yahoo forum where real experts live and you get great help. If you really have a problem, you can get a real engineer on the phone at NCE who WILL understand the problem, not blow you off.
Hardware:
The 10 amp system has a separate booster and command station. They interconnect with a short phone cord. There are wired throttles of various types, but I prefer the Procab, that has all the controls, and it's only about $150.
There is a wireless system that adds on, with a base station that plugs into the cab bus (where wired throttles also connect). This base station has 2 outputs, each of which can drive a repeater radio station. In turn each repeater has 2 more outputs, each of which can drive another repeater. This arrangement can be expanded to 31 total radio stations (1 base and 30 repeaters). If it's not obvious, you can cover an enormous layout.
The range of the radios is about 100 feet or so. They are bidirectional, a big plus, you KNOW your commands get to the loco, because your throttle displays the results back from the command station.
Decoders:
This is the first company (in the early days of large scale DCC) to have decoders that can not melt down from high current motors. The D808 (pictured upper right in the picture below in a USAT F unit) will handle 8 amps continuous and 30 amp stall!
