JohnGaltLine posted:The questions I need a consensus on before advancing in development are as follows:1. What is the price point people would find reasonable for this product? In the simplest implementation I can do right now the bridge would allow control of up to three LC/+ locomotives from your Cab1/2. the hardware needed to accomplish that, however leaves plenty of room for expandability. to that end...
$75-$100 seems quite reasonable, especially if it controlled more than three locomotives. Hell, even it it only did three I think that would be OK.
2. Is it worth while to increase the initial cost of the bridge to make it expandable to control more than three LC/+ engines? I am not entirely certain, but expect that it would add around $10 to the cost to provide for expandability. In exchange it will cost about half as much as the first bridge to add another module to control three more engines.
For $10-$15, this is a no-brainer for me, I'd add the functionality. Why limit yourself to somewhat of a kludge to do it in pieces?
3. If an expandable design is chosen, how many LC/+ in total should it be capable of supporting? I think I can manage up to 24 total LC/+ engines from a fully expanded bridge before another "master" unit is needed. I won't know for sure until the code is written, but may run into other issues with a single master device controlling so many engines. Would a unit that can only be expanded to control 12, or 6 total engines be acceptable?
I would think 12 would be more than sufficient, and 6 would be probably good enough for 99% of the intended audience.
4. Are tactile, physical buttons and switches on the device for programing preferred or wanted? The implementation i'm currently working with uses the cab1/2 remote for most programing with perhaps 2 buttons on the bridge it's self. Do people prefer to use buttons or switches on the bridge to program it, or is it ok to program from the Cab remote?
I'd minimize the buttons on the device if at all possible. Why complicate the build, it's probably far easier to do it with the CAB remote.
