L85383 LCS. Sensor track add on

Good question. It would be nice if more info were posted on Lionel's site. 

I think they have to be different in that the regular Fastrack sensor track has the feature of a daisy chain wiring to other sensor tracks. It's not even clear if it uses the same single connector that I can see since the wrong side of the IRV2 is pictured in the product view.

Same function, but not likely to be the same form factor.  This unit has a connector on it, and is intended to be connected to the 6-85296 LCS IRV2.  It probably has the same sensors on it.

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PERMITS SENSOR TRACK APPLICATION FOR NON-FASTRACK LAYOUTS

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Ok. That picture looks like it uses the same connector but you daisy chain the IRV2 instead of the sensor strips. So...basically the same, connectorized differently.

I get what this thing does but when all is said and done, is this thing really worth wiring in to an existing layout?  Not sure I see a major benefit vs work involved.  BigRail

If you don't see the benefit, you're probably not the target market.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

If you don't see the benefit, you're probably not the target market.

I'm probably part of the target audience for more automated control, but at this point I am not likely to purchase many new IR transmitter equipped engines.  By far most of my engines are MTH or engines upgraded with ERR's boards.  Without the discontinued IR equipped cars (which I bought four to see how well they work but two were cancelled) or an add on IR kit, I'm not sure the IR transmitter-sensor system is worth it to me to install for my small percentage of IR equipped engines.

If the target audience is folks who are going to buy new Lionel Legacy engines, then I am not part of it.

I have Legacy, TMCC and DCS. I have TPCs, BPCs, and ASCs.  If I'm not the target audience then I don't know who is.  I'm just asking if this is really worth retrofitting into an existing layout based on what this does vs work involved vs can I do what it does myself?  The major thing seems like self loading engines.  It takes me 60 seconds to program a new engine so I don't really need self programming.  BigRail 

BigRail posted:

I have Legacy, TMCC and DCS. I have TPCs, BPCs, and ASCs.  If I'm not the target audience then I don't know who is.  I'm just asking if this is really worth retrofitting into an existing layout based on what this does vs work involved vs can I do what it does myself?  The major thing seems like self loading engines.  It takes me 60 seconds to program a new engine so I don't really need self programming.  BigRail 

The sensor track does so much more than just loading engines into Legacy.  With this lower cost alternative to the sensor track that will work with almost any track system, these can be added at crossings to signal grade crossings, added to areas of layouts to trigger recordings to control accessories and engine functions and such.  They are a very cool addition but I really think it depends on the layout and what you want to accomplish.  I think the loading engines part of it is minor.

The problem with Lionel and LCS is they don't promote it properly if at all.  They do very little to really expose what the system can do.

Any idea when this will hit the shelves. I'm buying.

Severn posted:

Any idea when this will hit the shelves. I'm buying.

Not yet.  I am going to be sending Dave and the Lionel guys some questions I have for the Legacy meeting.  I'll ask then because I hope to get some info to explain it a bit at the meeting.  Dave last April said it will work exactly the same as the current sensor tracks.

Ok... for those that wonder what to do with it, it's basically a digital event creator.   The event is created when an engine runs over it that has the IR sensor on it -- and a message is sent over the LCS "bus" (serial line),  And then if you've a computer hooked up, you can receive the message and do something.

In theory you could have one of these on every track piece and keep tabs on the entire layout digitally just about.  Of course that would cost a tiny bit of this stuff: $$$.

(it's fall down a little bit in the sense that if your dog takes the engine off the track, there's no way to know it)

It has some pre-canned "somethings" built in - for example you can tell it make the engine issue one of several sounds.   And there's a record function which I've never used also which records a sequence of commands your doing -- so they are redone upon the event occurring again. (that is running over the sensor)

The one big disappointment with LCS is indeed the problem that you can't retrofit it to older stuff or even MTH stuff.  I was really hoping that there would be an ERR upgrade kit, but with the demise of ERR development, that doesn't seem likely.  The sensor cars are neat, but they need to continue producing them if LCS is going to have significant value.  I think I have 10 or 11 sensor equipped Legacy locomotives, and the other 100+ don't have any way to trigger the sensors.  I did buy two of the sensor cars when they were available, but that doesn't solve my problem for passenger trains.

Severn posted:

snip

It has some pre-canned "somethings" built in - for example you can tell it make the engine issue one of several sounds.   And there's a record function which I've never used also which records a sequence of commands your doing -- so they are redone upon the event occurring again. (that is running over the sensor)

 

That's actually the most exciting feature. Think about a sensor track at the entrance of a siding with an engine barn. Record the backing into the barn, run the bell, slow down and stop with brake sounds, etc. And then it repeats for any similar ir equipped engine you back in...forever.

As for more RR specific sensor cars, I bought some identical non sensor refers in road names I wanted and transferred the frame of sensor equipped REA cars to them. Of course I have an excess of empty REA cars...but that's ok. The most difficult issue with the swap was the colored steps at the corners of the refers. Some were glued pretty well, some just popped off for the swap.

I'd like to see an external sensor add-on too.  I suppose one could try to crack the IR interface. I mean just in theory.

Severn posted:

I'd like to see an external sensor add-on too.  I suppose one could try to crack the IR interface. I mean just in theory.

Nothing is so easy as the job you imagine someone else doing.

I know.  But to be fair I did try to crack the MTH remote to TIU interface.  I captured the signal with one of those new software defined radios dongles, looked at the results in audacity.  And Mark Divechio looked at it for me and said, "yeah that's pretty much what I figured out already by hand using just my brain cells and true grit."  Pretty impressive stuff.  Anyway moving on from there since it's already been done -- I captured the signal from the track to engine because it appears to "bleed" through at least on SD70 and I can pick it up on the RF analyzer.  But I don't know what to do with it -- more to the point it looks like a huge effort and I didn't want that.  So I deftly moved onto the infamous legacy signal.  And after some trial an and error, found that I could get too.  I can't get the legacy remote though because its 2 ghz or something and the RF dongle doesn't go that high.

Given all that and not actually wanting to really work that heard, I idenified another 1-2k in more software and hardware that might help.  But then of course decided that was way too much money for a curiosity on my part.

Still I'm game to look into an IR sniffer is there is such a thing.

Pretty easy to build an "IR sniffer", and since you're looking at the boxcar, you can do it on the bench with a sensor car.