Prodigy Wireless

fseva

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Nov 27, 2006
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MRC has announced a wireless version of Prodigy. They are trying to imply that it's better than DigiTrax because it supports "duplex control", which is what NCE supports. I've never been that impressed with NCE's implementation. I find it totally unreliable. I wonder if MRC will be able to improve on the command lag that is so noticeable with NCE. Any thoughts?
 

NYNH&H

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Dec 11, 2006
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They may, or they may not. It all depends on how the commands are structured. NCE requires the signal to go all of the way to the command station, and back. They also poll not only the wired cab bus, but the poll the RADIO as well, which creates a nightmare for interference and battery drain. MRC may or may not poll the radio, even though they poll their bus. We will have to wait and see. The Digitrax radio is the most robust as far as range and response, and the whole throttle bus is better, as Loconet is a true peer to peer architecture, BUT you have to plug in to get a loco or consist, which I don't find to be a big huge deal. We won't know how the MRC system works until a few people actually have them, and even then we may not know for years, as a couple of radio problems have cropped up in the last couple of months regarding interference at big train shows, and the system has had radio since 1994. Also, everyone's layout is different.