It's Here!!

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msh

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Yes... the Zephyr has arrived to the cheers of some and the boos of others. The "others" not withstanding, here are two pictures of the little thing. I'm not kidding - little.

My five year old running two locos via DCC. I took 5 minutes to show him how to do it.
zephyr1.jpg


Comparing size to his left hand. Who knew it was this tiny?
zephyr2.jpg


Out of the box, it's jammin! Running two Atlas dual modes with NO effort at all. Lights aren't as bright as I had hoped, but I'm just getting a kick out of watching one go forward and the other go backward.

Also got six decoders in the box to install in the others. More to come on that later. YEEE HAAAA! :D :D :D
 
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Jim de Bree

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Electronics always get smaller

As time passes lelectronic components alyways get smaller. I have an NCE system and the handheld Procab is about the same size.

Isn't it amazing how quickly the small kids learn how to use electronic gizmos?
 
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Gary Pfeil

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MSH, Congrats!! Do you have that power pack to the right of the Zephyer connected as another throttle? Regarding the brightness (dimness?) of the lights in the Atlas units, I bought a pair of their 8-40's and found the same thing, it is the locos and not your new system. Enjoy!

Gary
 
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McFortner

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The train store in Stockbridge I go to (Young Again Trains & Hobbies) has a Lionel O Gauge setup with DCC on it. Mark (who works there) showed my 4 year old son how to work the remote for the DCC and now my son runs it every Friday we go to the store after I pick him up from daycare. My son is always very careful with the trains and keeps them going slow so they won't derail. I want to add DCC to my setup, but I don't have the $$$ for that right now. Plus, I would have to figure out how to shoehorn it into these inexpensive Bachman engines I have....

Michael
 
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rockislandmike

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Heck, Michael, you can have a Zephyr up and running for the price of a good locomotive. Decoders will of course cost extra, but there's nothing saying you have to buy all your decoders at once !!!!

I'll have to check my LHS this weekend and see what Richard the Trainguy has heard about the Zeph.
 
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McFortner

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Originally posted by rockislandmike
Heck, Michael, you can have a Zephyr up and running for the price of a good locomotive. Decoders will of course cost extra, but there's nothing saying you have to buy all your decoders at once !!!!
Click to expand...

Of course, the problem is that I know next to nothing about DCC. Any suggestions on some introductory reading on the topic?

Michael
 
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NYCentral

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Originally posted by McFortner


Of course, the problem is that I know next to nothing about DCC. Any suggestions on some introductory reading on the topic?

Michael
Click to expand...

Michael,

It is very easy!! I converted to DCC this spring after 32 years of block wiring. Boy I wished I had done it a very long time ago!! Decoders can be a little tricky but once you do a few they turn out to be not bad.
 
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msh

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Gary - The MRC throttle to the right was our primary source of juice until yesterday when the Zephyr arrived. It took me 10 minutes to end that relationship by hooking up our new electronic toy.

Considering the fact I won't have but ONE analog loco left after installing all the decoders I got, my bet is it will get sold or otherwise be retired. Too bad - I only purchased it in May when I started this model railroading thing.

McFortner - I didn't know anything about it either. So what? Some of the greatest pleasures in life revolved around learning new things. Dive in man. It's COOL!
 
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Gary Pfeil

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MSH, One of the beauties of the Zephyr is that you can use that old pack as another DCC throttle. You connect it to the jump port. I understand the unit has two jump ports, allowing you to use two old packs as throttles. Check it out!

Gary
 
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msh

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Ohmygoodness... you're right!

See what happens when you start reading the manual from the beginning? Hadn't reached this far into the manual, so for some reason I thought that only applied to analog locos. Whooo!

Page 35 clears this right up. Yes indeed..... another throttle. With the Zephyr throttle, the MRC, and the DT100IR I bought on Ebay, I've got FOUR!!

Thank you Gary.
 
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Gary Pfeil

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Here's a bit of info picked up from the Digitrax forum. 12 volts worth of batteries (or two 9 volt) a 100k pot and a polarity switch can constitute a throttle when connected to the jump ports. Now there's an inexpensive throttle!

Gary
 
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IMRL393

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Those wanting a Zephyr please note this was a very limited first run! Tony's Train Exchange only got FIVE units (and I bet they had 10X that number of orders). I ordered the first of last JUNE and didn't get one! The next wave of Zephyrs are not due out until mid-OCTOBER - just remember, I'm next in line !!!

Waiting away in the QCA ......


- George
 
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