I certainly don’t share your pessimism about Lionel’s Legacy control system. You say everything will be useless bricks in twenty years, yet I am running my new Lionel Legacy locomotives with a CAB-1 remote and base that are physically 25 years old.
I'm not talking about the remotes, I'm talking about the iDevices (i.e. tablets, smartphones) Base3 and WTIU.
I’m not talking about the technology, I am talking about the actual remote and command base themselves. There is no basis to say that the CAB3 base you buy this year will not be operating 20 years from now.
If folks that are new to the hobby don't have a remote, they'll be missing out on the Legacy features once app development ceases or some new app renders the Base3 useless because WiFi standards change or something. Keeping apps up to date isn't easy while Google and Apple continue to push their APIs and OSes forward.
Your Cab-1 works but many others have reached the end of their useful lives. As electronics and technology advances it will be more and more difficult to repair these things as well. It's already becoming difficult to source certain microcontrollers and even certain LEDs and things. That said in 20 years, I'd rather be trying to repair a Cab-1 or Cab-2 than a smartphone.
The same thing for the CAB3 app, if you have it on your device, it will work, apps don’t just stop working.
Oh yes they do. All the time. Many apps phone home to a server to periodically check in and authorize it for use. Others fail to work after upgrading the phone to a new version of the OS. I have an iPad that is about nine years old and it is totally useless. It's stuck on an older iOS version and most apps have ceased to work on it.
And even if for some strange reason it doesn’t, then use your CAB-1L hand held remote since Lionel will still have remotes.
Lionel will sell 1Ls until they don't. I imagine that is soon reaching the end of it's manufacturing lifetime. For all we know this could be the last run.
I am very optimistic and excited about the future of the hobby and the technology is the key to that optimism. Especially after listening to Dave and Ryan at Lionel introduce the CAB-3. Lionel legacy is a thriving and growing system that is backward compatible as well. The best part is that even with all the technological innovations I still only need one wire to hook up. It is the future and it is what will bring new people into the hobby. DCC is a non factor for three rail, DCS has reached a dead end technology wise. New people will gravitate towards the CAB3, not DCS, because Legacy is evolving and thriving.
The technologies are equivalent. They'll last just as long as they're supported.
This is a great time to be excited about the hobby! The only reason why I would feel pessimistic would be if I had a room full of DCS locomotives. I would be asking myself: “now what do I do?”
Keep trolling.
After watching the CAB3 presentation, I think the best course of action for Atlas and the MTH DCS remnant company would be to try to work with Lionel to get their locomotives compatible so they can be run by the CAB3. There is no longer a real business case to have a separate control system in the face of the CAB3. Atlas and MTH should also do it for the good of the hobby as well for their long term survival in the O gauge three rail market.
There is no doubt that both Atlas and MTH remnant would sell more locomotives if they could be run by the CAB3.
The industry should have adopted DCC long ago but the bullheaded, pretentious p***ing match continues to rear it's ugly head.
