@M. Mitchell Marmel posted:Having gained some experience with modern Lionel electronics in the years since the OP, my gut reaction is to throw away the remote and the internal electronics, wire in a bridge rectifier and just drive the little indefinite forwards-only with a conventional transformer.
But that's just me.
Mitch
Mitch,
Please take the following as constructive criticism, and in the encouraging spirit in which it is offered.
It's not just you. You've either posted this comment to reassure yourself that your analysis and suggested course of action is fundamentally correct, to encourage others that agree with you, to take a jab at electronics, or perhaps all of the above.
Truth is that toy trains have needed to be fixed for all sorts of reasons, not just failed electronics, going all the way back to 1900, and well before. They were never at any time in the last 120 years, and are not to this day, immune to failure in any system, whether mechanical, electrical, electronics, software, system, or networking. There is not now, and never was, a "golden" design.
I have a great deal of respect for your technical knowledge about our beloved trains, your wit, and especially your talent in resurrecting dead soldiers.
However, why is it that a comment like yours comes up in every situation where electronics are the source of the failure? Every last one. You of course don't make them all; many others do, but at least one answer in every such thread is always "Rip everything out, and put in a simple bridge rectifier; then live with it."
Perhaps you and others think that electronics is an "experiment", although 50 years old now, which will finally be seen for the folly it is/was? That the manufacturers will remove all the baloney, and that those of us who like the electronics will take our things, go home, and leave the rest of you and the hobby much better off?
Should the same thing happen with software? How about networking (TMCC, Legacy, DCS communication protocols, and WiFi and Bluetooth interconnectivity)?
Not going to happen. The world changed at some point; in fact there were several changes at several points that many of us didn't see coming. Unfortunately all these things are here to stay. The good news is that our beloved hobby has survived them, and continues to do just fine.
Please keep fighting for simplicity. This is what you do best, and it's absolutely fundamental and necessary. Don't ever let the rest of us overpower your message. There is, and must continue to be, room in this hobby for all viewpoints.
But at the same time, don't expect us to simply take our things and go away. Newer technologies are here to stay, and we will continue to lend our efforts to fixing things to be the way the manufacturer intended them to be, right or wrong, no matter how important, or how trivial.
Mike
(Why? You might be surprised at how important toy trains have been to many of us, of how they've shaped our early learning, our evolving interests, and eventually our career choices. In order to continue to do the same for following generations, our trains need, and the hobby needs, to keep the newer technologies intact, and to encourage them instead of disparaging them. For the sake of the future.)
