If you’re JUST looking for a comparison between Revolution and Airwire, here’s my take.
Revolution -
Price is the biggest advantage ($100ish). You get sound (not great sound, but sound), motor, and basic light control. For probably 75% of the hobbyists, this will be more than enough. It is easily paired with the Phoenix sound system for higher-quality sound. Note that the Revolution only has 6 function outputs, and Phoenix will take 4 of them, leaving you only two for lights and smoke (excluding headlights which are separate). Again, this may be enough for you. If you’re using the auxiliary outputs for lights, they cannot draw much current (50mA or so each), and they are on/off. If you want a strobe, ditch lights, firebox flicker, or other specialized lighting effect, you must buy a board which specifically generates those effects. There are a few manufacturers who make such boards.
Control is via pushbuttons. Up arrow to go faster, down arrow to go slower, Hold the button for long increases or decreases. Function buttons control lights and sounds. Built-in sound volume has three stages of volume–low, medium, and high. Phoenix sound is changed via a center-off toggle switch. (There’s a way to do that using the function outputs, but with only 6 available, most opt to use them for other functions.)
Programming is all done on the transmitter using menu-driven options. It’s pretty intuitive once you do one or two locos. You can do basic speed curves and speed matching of consisted (“MU”) locomotives. You can program start voltage and maximum speed (great for “little” engineers who otherwise like to go fast), and you can program momentum so your loco starts and stops more realistically. The momentum setting is the same for acceleration and deceleration. There is an “all stop” button which brings everything being controlled by that throttle to a halt fairly quickly. (It’s not instantaneous, as it sends a “stop” command to each cab sequentially. If your loco is on the upper end of the list of cabs, it will take a second or two before it stops.)
Range is excellent.
The architecture of programming locos takes some initial thought. You have locos and you have cabs. Thing of the cabs as mail boxes, and locos as envelopes. You program the locos, then assign them to cabs. It’s like putting envelopes in each mail box. You can put one loco in a mailbox (a single control cab) or a whole bunch of locos in a cab (a consist or “MU” cab). To get to a specific locomotive to control it, you scroll through all the cabs you are using until you find the one with your specific loco. The loco name is displayed on the controller.
Airwire (Throttle and G3 or plug-and-play receiver)
More expensive ($140ish), and does not natively give you the option for sound. That’s extra. You do have built in light and smoke controls, and you can program those light outputs to various lighting effects. Sound can be easily added. You can add a Phoenix sound board via the G3’s DCC output, or you can add an analog sound system from Dallee or MyLocoSound and control it via the board’s lighting function outputs. Because the interface between the Airwire and Phoenix board is DCC, you can control many more sounds on the Phoenix than you can using the Phoenix via the Revolution.
Speed control is via a convention knob. Depending on the specific throttle, you either have a “digital” knob with no definite start and stop points (T-5000), or a more traditional knob with definite start and stop points (RF-1300 “OPS”). Functions are via pushbuttons.
Programming the receiver is done via standard DCC protocol. If you are unfamiliar with DCC programming, you might want to read up a bit on it. There’s a learning curve. It’s not terribly steep for the basic functions, but the more in-depth you go, the more difficult it can be. Fortunately, the G3 receiver is pretty basic, and the manual explains things well (though it may be a bit mysterious if you are completely new to programming DCC CVs.) You need the T-5000 transmitter in order to program the receiver. The “OPS” throttle is for running only. There is no “emergency stop” button on the Airwire throttle which brings your loco to an almost immediate stop. Stopping the locomotive is subject to the deceleration setting you have programmed. If you don’t have any momentum programmed into your receiver, then the loco will stop quickly. If you have a lot of momentum programmed in, it will stop slowly. The G3 has a “cruise control” option which will maintain a given speed of the locomotive regardless of changes in grade or load on the locomotive. I’ve used this on a locomotive running up and down grades as steep as 8% with very little perceptible change in actual speed. For those who have hilly railroads, this is a great feature to have.
Range is okay, but not fantastic. I can reliably get around 30’ range on all my installations, and “almost always” around 60’ (except, of course, when needing to stop quickly.)
There are two components of a locomotive–its frequency and its address. The frequency is simply the channel the transmitter broadcasts on. Airwire offers 17 distinct frequencies. The loco address is a DCC standard address, and can be anywhere from 0 - 9999. There are two thoughts when running Airwire. If you are typically a solo operator, then you can set all your locos to the same frequency and use unique DCC addresses for each loco. If you run in a group environment where you’ve got multiple operators running Airwire, it may be more advantageous to assign each loco a unique frequency instead.
The transmitters - Airwire offers two versions of their transmitter. The T-5000 is their programming transmitter which you need to program the receivers. If you are operating with multiple Airwire operators, you can control the power output of the T-5000 to be very short range (5’ - 10’ max) so you can have multiple operators all running on the same frequency. You can also use the T-5000 to change the frequency of the receiver–just remember what you set it to for next time. The OPS throttle is designed for operating. You cannot program the locomotive with this throttle. You can change the frequency which the transmitter is broadcasting on, and you can select which loco you’re running. It’s great for just everyday running. (I like the knob with distinct start and stop points–I know when it’s set to 0 without having to look at anything.) The T-5000 uses two AAA batteries, and drains them faster than a beer at a football game. The OPS throttle uses rechargeable batteries (mini USB) and I can get many hours on a single charge.
The Airwire transmitters are also compatible with the Tam Valley Depot line of receivers, which you can pair with any DCC motor/sound decoder.
When I was running either the Revolution/Phoenix or Airwire/Phoenix combinations, I was on the fence as to which one I preferred. The motor control on the Airwire was a bit more precise, so I tended to use that on my locos whose motors needed a little bit of coaxing to run smoothly and evenly. I still believe the graphic display on the Revolution is the best I’ve used on a number of systems, and the battery life on the transmitter is very good.
Later,
K
