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gunrunnerjohn posted:

Don, if you look back, you'll see that what is going to happen is I'm going to send out a group email to all that expressed interest and give them a chance to make a firm commitment.  That will allow me to order the proper amount of parts and not have a pile of expensive and unused parts.

John, knowing how at times some forumites have posted they would buy things and then when it's available - they don't follow through, since you aren't yet certain of what the cost will be, might I suggest you require a partial, nonrefundable, upfront deposit when they commit to buying one, sort of like a pre-order. Otherwise, you might possibly find yourself with a sizable amount of "I want one"s which go unclaimed and unbought.

ogaugeguy posted:
gunrunnerjohn posted:

Don, if you look back, you'll see that what is going to happen is I'm going to send out a group email to all that expressed interest and give them a chance to make a firm commitment.  That will allow me to order the proper amount of parts and not have a pile of expensive and unused parts.

John, knowing how at times some forumites have posted they would buy things and then when it's available - they don't follow through, since you aren't yet certain of what the cost will be, might I suggest you require a partial, nonrefundable, upfront deposit when they commit to buying one, sort of like a pre-order. Otherwise, you might possibly find yourself with a sizable amount of "I want one"s which go unclaimed and unbought.

That's part of the plan.  Since the parts cost for this unit is over $50 before any work goes into it, that's probably in the ballpark of what that deposit will be.  After the run is finished, the design files will be available for anyone that wants to fabricate one themselves.

ogaugeguy posted:

Would there be an advantage using this on a layout that's currently working okay so that it'll already be installed for future layout expansion or can too strong a tmcc signal be harmful having a detrimental, adverse effect causing problems and issues on a layout, sort of like "anything done to excess or too much of a good thing can be bad for you"?

 I don't see any advantage to installing one on a properly working layout.  I don't know that it would do any harm, but I don't have any actual data to back up that belief.  My feeling is you install this box is a last resort after you've run grounding wires and insured your track and connections are in good shape.  The major issue this solves is for large layouts with lots of track, there is excessive capacitive coupling to earth ground, that causes the amplitude of the TMCC signal to be too low for reliable operation.  The box is a low impedance buffer that is capable of driving high capacitance loads without losing amplitude.  It also provides some amplification of the signal voltage.

Last edited by gunrunnerjohn
gunrunnerjohn posted:
ogaugeguy posted:
gunrunnerjohn posted:

Don, if you look back, you'll see that what is going to happen is I'm going to send out a group email to all that expressed interest and give them a chance to make a firm commitment.  That will allow me to order the proper amount of parts and not have a pile of expensive and unused parts.

John, knowing how at times some forumites have posted they would buy things and then when it's available - they don't follow through, since you aren't yet certain of what the cost will be, might I suggest you require a partial, nonrefundable, upfront deposit when they commit to buying one, sort of like a pre-order. Otherwise, you might possibly find yourself with a sizable amount of "I want one"s which go unclaimed and unbought.

That's part of the plan.  Since the parts cost for this unit is over $50 before any work goes into it, that's probably in the ballpark of what that deposit will be.  After the run is finished, the design files will be available for anyone that wants to fabricate one themselves.

ogaugeguy posted:

Would there be an advantage using this on a layout that's currently working okay so that it'll already be installed for future layout expansion or can too strong a tmcc signal be harmful having a detrimental, adverse effect causing problems and issues on a layout, sort of like "anything done to excess or too much of a good thing can be bad for you"?

 I don't see any advantage to installing one on a properly working layout.  I don't know that it would do any harm, but I don't have any actual data to back up that belief.  My feeling is you install this box is a last resort after you've run grounding wires and insured your track and connections are in good shape.  The major issue this solves is for large layouts with lots of track, there is excessive capacitive coupling to earth ground, that causes the amplitude of the TMCC signal to be too low for reliable operation.  The box is a low impedance buffer that is capable of driving high capacitance loads without losing amplitude.  It also provides some amplification of the signal voltage.

Any gain control in the design? 

I'm in for the deposit, just say the word when you get further along.

No gain control, the buffer is a fixed 3:1 gain.  That's where all the testing has been, and trying to make sure nothing bad happens at all gains on all layouts would be a lot of testing.  Dale did a lot of work on the design and tested it in a number of locations.  Unless someone comes up with a good reason to change it, I'm sticking with his basic design.  We added some monitoring and tweaks, but the basic design is all Dale.

There's always version 2 if there's a reason, but I think just getting the signal there is the key requirement.

micp125 posted:

John, 

Please put me in for one. Likely the Club will opt for one as well.!

Thanks for your dilligence.

I would, but there's no email in your profile.

leapinlarry posted:

Would this booster help with adding Lionel's wifi operating system? My layout us 36 by 17 and is a winding 5 level layout...all Legacy Command...Thank You 

The WiFi and the booster are totally different areas of operation, it shouldn't help or harm the WiFi operation.  It's strictly to improve the TMCC/Legacy track signal.

We're slowly marching on.  This looks to be the "final" board configuration.  As soon as I get prototypes and do a full and final test of the design, I'll be ready to proceed.  This also represents the proper style terminal block that will be used for connections.  Note that the terminal block is now represented as the correct Euro style that I'll actually be using.

TMCC Signal Booster 3D 2017-09-30

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  • TMCC Signal Booster 3D 2017-09-30
micp125 posted:

"xxx@yyy.net". I found that there are 2 places in our profiles where ones email need be listed. Thanks again. See ya next week.

Doug

Doug,

While some folks have no problem putting their email in an open forum, I'd recommend you keep the email address in your profile where it is only available to other forum members.  I might be over doing it on limiting my personal data; due to the recent hacking of several domains probably all the bad guys have all my data anyway.

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