Now I’m just waiting to hear a Blue Tooth speaker in the locomotive.
It was so cool when Bob was showing all of this to me - it was just so quick and easy.
The funny thing is that I spent a LOT more time just trying to get my Netbook computer to hook up with his Phoenix card in another locomotive.
Then he showed me how quick it was to do the sound via BlueRail… sheesh.(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)
A quick range test after work. Those that know my layout will understand the distances involved. I stood by the car float at Williamsport, and was able to control the Davenport on all track around my main layout, with no delay/issues/etc. So, I’m guessing at LEAST 50 foot range. Not too shabby.
Bob,
How was the visibility of the control app on your phone in daylight conditions?
No issues. Was a low sun, but bright. Display was a bit washed out but very visible.
Thanks Bob. This is sounding pretty good so far. (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)
Bob,
Where did you mount the toggle switch and charging jack?
Joe Zullo said:
Bob,
Where did you mount the toggle switch and charging jack?
Out the bottom through the speaker grille
Are the sounds coming from the loco or the phone?
Right now the sounds are from your phone like Bruce said "Now I’m just waiting to hear a Blue Tooth speaker in the locomotive. " The gentlemen that
is making this board is working on it. He has used a 1 in. blue tooth speaker and linked to his phone. The cube was in a trailing car.
Richard Beverly said:
Right now the sounds are from your phone like Bruce said "Now I’m just waiting to hear a Blue Tooth speaker in the locomotive. " The gentlemen that
is making this board is working on it. He has used a 1 in. blue tooth speaker and linked to his phone. The cube was in a trailing car.
Thanks Rich,
Right now that is a deal breaker for me. (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-frown.gif)
I played with one at our last club meet.
Having the sound come from your phone is just bizarre.
They have experimented with cheap bluetooth speakers in the loco, but the kicker is that the range from the phone to the loco for the speaker is much less than the control range, using different bluetooth “profile”.
I also wonder what would the limitation be if you had a lot going at the same time, would the bandwidth be affected? Now instead of a command every so often, you have a continuous data stream for each loco.
So, all told the decoder will wind up costing the same as other “sound” decoders in my estimation, you are saving your cost on a throttle.
Greg
And the throttle is in your hand, revving at notch 8 and clanging away…
Bob McCown said:
And a quick test
So you don’t even need track either with the Blue Rail, already, eh, Bob… Pretty neat… You betcha’… (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)
Bob McCown said:
And a quick test
WHAT? No ballast?? And you call yourself a model railroader? What’s the matter with you anyway?
Oh, and by the way, Bob, thanks for fixing the youtube embedding deal, I’ll bet it was time consuming chasing down the issue that was making that happen. Appreciated.
edit: actually, much appreciated. That youtube thingy is one of the information marvels of the world, although it can become addictive!
The blueTom board I picked up claims a 200’ range. Different boards (the blueTom is a revo drop in) but I’d assume the blue tooth tech is the same.
There are different variations (usually called profiles) in Bluetooth, tradeoffs of power vs speed vs range etc.
The data rate for controlling a loco is pretty low, so you can use a bluetooth profile that had long range and low data rate.
Music needs a higher, continuous data rate. That’s why the bluetooth unit in the beginning of this thread cannot send music, it’s running the longer range, lower data rate profile.
With Wi-Fi parts getting cheaper, the cost differential between bluetooth and wi-fi is narrowing. Bluetooth is not really the best wireless control for our hobby in general. No sound, few locos, maybe.
And there’s my new learnt thing for the day.
Thanks for that 
Yeah, unfortunately you cannot refer to bluetooth alone, you also want to know what flavor… similar to wi-fi 802.11 a, b, g, n, an, ac … but worse!
Greg
