So I have a bit of a question here...
We know that MTH chose not to have the TIU (or DCSRC) repeat the watchdog constantly, which would have eliminated the need for this fix in the first place. Do you guys think it might be that the extra 'traffic' of this signal would reduce the effective bandwidth on the signal for other commands, and if so, will supplying a cycling watchdog, as this project is doing, cause any problems with the over-all signal on the layout? I'm picturing it being a case where it wouldn't be a big deal normally to have two commands sent out from different sources , but with data constantly being sent from one point, will it affect the reliability of signals from a second source?
I guess this comes back to the idea that there must have been some reason that the designers chose not to have the TIU provide a watchdog at a regular interval, and the only ones I can come up with are that: 1, the electronics used couldn't keep up with that on top of all the other functions, 2, the watchdog would interfere with the system in some way (using too much bandwidth), or 3, a lack of foresight that users might want to power up an engine after the layout has been powered. If it is the last, though, I would think it would have been changed in a firmware update by now.
Anyway, I guess this will mostly go to Stan for now, with the DCSRC cycling, do you experience any problems with other DCS functions?
JGL
