Lionel announces 2 way communication with new 4 digit addressing!

Yes this opens up a LOT of possibilities down the road.  Can’t wait to talk to Dave and the Lionel folks at York about this!   The LUG meeting just got more interesting!  

Thanks for posting Marty, I'll have to take a look and listen to Dave. Even though I'm not ordering a Base3/Cab3 ATM, it's always good to have some extra knowledge with what's up and going on.

BTW Dave did mention a Cab2 update 1.72 to to correct some bugs with the Legacy Crane car and add some code for Cab2 to support Bluetooth and RF w/Base3.

I still have to upgrade mine to the lastest. I think I'm at 1.62 or something there. Whatever was the upgrade after the Niagara's I think. I'll have to check that out tonight. Always good to be up to date.

I dunno, I already have 3 kids that talk back.....😐😉

This is great to hear for the folks investing in the new base 3. I hope Lionel has other goodies in store for them.

@MartyE posted:

BTW Dave did mention a Cab2 update 1.72 to to correct some bugs with the Legacy Crane car and add some code for Cab2 to support Bluetooth and RF w/Base3.

Hasn't made it to the upgrade page yet.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Hasn't made it to the upgrade page yet.

No it's not there yet.  Later in the year.

Thanks @MartyE for posting this, I heard that last night and now I can understand their hype on this new radio board for the locomotives it’s gone from just a receiver, to receiver and transmitter. While I think most can agree that a 4 digit address is a nice convenience it didn’t make a lot of sense as a hyped up new feature. Now now that it also mean 2 way communication it means a lot more.

The Class A looks and sounds great! Glad I ordered one of them. I should probably order a Base3.

So the Base 3 will finally do what DCS has done for 20 years? Cool.

I, for one, am excited about the availability of real-time fuel/water levels. Couple that to the force draw bar and momentum settings for dynamic fuel consumption. Would be cool if there was an option to have the engine stop when it runs out of fuel (a boiler explosion might be too dramatic in the case of depleted water levels).

Sounds like they're going to put their longer range BlueTooth to use for the return channel.  I can't see any way they send it back like TMCC/Legacy given that the signal going out is continuous.

I am curious really just how well Bluetooth will work in a large setting like the NJ-HR layout...

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Sounds like they're going to put their longer range BlueTooth to use for the return channel.  I can't see any way they send it back like TMCC/Legacy given that the signal going out is continuous.

I am curious really just how well Bluetooth will work in a large setting like the NJ-HR layout...

I'd think the return data wouldn't be required for locomotive operation. I mean if you run these new 4 digit locos on a CAB 1 or 2 the return data has no where to go but the engine will still be tuned into the track signal and run normally.

I still see some advantages to using a sensor track such as programmable ques when a locomotives arrives at a sensor track location.

Wow, you all are way out of my league, I call this smart technology and a really cool way to operate our trains and Im very interested in this new Cab 3, so, in a layman’s terms Question, will cab 3 send out a better signal for our Cab 2 remotes to keep in sync with our engines walking around our layouts? Sometimes my cab 2 seems lost when I try accessing the trains in certain parts of my layout area. This is exciting times in model railroading, great topic. Happy Railroading Everyone

Since they'll be 2 way communication I wonder if we'll now be able to load sound files or control board firmware. That would be nice.

Is it possible then that a return information would be sent back via a different carrier wave? I would really hope that they don’t use that questionable off the shelf Bluetooth module for that. And with all this talk about a completely different radio board would mean that somehow they plan to use something other than BLE

Glad that I ordered a base 3, looking forward to seeing what it will do!

@MartyE posted:

BTW Dave did mention a Cab2 update 1.72 to to correct some bugs with the Legacy Crane car and add some code for Cab2 to support Bluetooth and RF w/Base3.

Thanks for posting this @MartyE although the main thing I was interested in, apart from seeing how the CAB3 app will work, was the CAB2 update to deal with a Legacy crane issue. Dave did not say what that issue is but I think I have got it; both the rotation and boom control on my SP version have gone bad - in particular the “rotation” is now full quarter turns when I press the boom control! I have not seen any posts on this and was thinking a new control board in the crane might be required, which is hardly an easy fix.

@Hancock52 posted:

Thanks for posting this @MartyE although the main thing I was interested in, apart from seeing how the CAB3 app will work, was the CAB2 update to deal with a Legacy crane issue. Dave did not say what that issue is but I think I have got it; both the rotation and boom control on my SP version have gone bad - in particular the “rotation” is now full quarter turns when I press the boom control! I have not seen any posts on this and was thinking a new control board in the crane might be required, which is hardly an easy fix.

Legacy 1.7 and crane car discussed with screenshots https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/...0#159660139206873590