Large Scale Central

Crest Electronics Closing As of 7-31-16

General Discussion
#1

I just saw this on the Aristo Forum!

 

Crest Electronics Closing As of 7-31-16

Postby Jonathan Polk » 25 Jul 2016 01:52

Hi everyone,

Crest Electronics will be closing its doors for good as of 7-31-16. Please see the email below from Navin Shievdayal:

Dear Crest Electronics Customers,

We have made a good product, but have not developed sufficient additional items to allow us to cover our overhead. I have devoted the past 2 ½ years to try to make this venture successful and failed.

We will be closing as of 7-31-16 and I will look for a day job. In the meantime, you can mail any repairs to me at my home at 74 Williams Ave., Jersey City, NJ 07304 and I will do the necessary repairs after my day job. However, I can’t do free warranty repairs, so call me in advance for a quote and send a check with the repair plus return shipping costs. The phone number of my portable will remain the same at 201-565-6069, though it will be better to reach me in the evenings.

It’s been a pleasure to serve you and I look forward to a long time of keeping your equipment in tiptop shape.

Yours truly,

Navin Shievdayal
Crest Electronics


Thanks very much,

Jonathan
#2

If you are on the eMail list a direct eMail is sent; received the same info as above this morning. Navin made a vailant effort for the product and business. It is nice to learn he will support the equipment.

#3

Promises and non-delivery of additional product didn’t help. This is bad news.

#4

More bad news!

#5

Suspicions confirmed. Sorry to hear that.

#6

Oh My!! Am I so lucky or what?

Recently I needed some stock of the PWM Linear converter to go with my soon to be released track side R/C so that the PWM output can control DCC locos. Navin kindly and promptly obliged. Only last week did the order come in.

I wish him well in whatever endeavour he chooses.

#7

Yes, I just received the email this morning… So sorry to read the news. Best of everything, Navin… Best of everything.

Thanks for producing a great product…

#8

Bad news indeed!

Any guesses what might happen to the Revolution line? I wonder who owns the intellectual properties.

#9

Lewis Polk has owned Crest Electronics since about the time of the LGB vs. REA suit on the track, it’s the one thing Lewis kept after closing the hobby store and Aristo-Craft.

Of course, being made in China means nothing is safe and always available in some form to the highest bidder.

Greg

#10

Really hate to hear it go. Navin did a lot for the product and he was always willing to help me out even back in the AC days. Later RJD

#11

Henk van Zijl said:

Bad news indeed!

Any guesses what might happen to the Revolution line? I wonder who owns the intellectual properties.

Mike Kidman (Reindeer Pass) posted over on MLS that someone was looking to continue it. There were no specifics given. Like anything, time will tell. It’s a good system; be a shame to see it fall by the wayside.

Later,

K

#12

I love the Crest REVOLUTION Train Engineer. I was shocked when I received the email this morning. I have 5 of my locos converted using it. I had planned to convert more of the roster. Bad news indeed!

#13

I’m going to rant for a second, but this is the third time I’ve had an RC manufacturer fail me, after spending a considerable amount of money.

I wish large scale manufacturers would get their collective heads out of their collective rear ends and understand that saying that “we dont need no stinking standards” is hurting us. Ignoring the scale difference on our track for the time being (with all the coupler and wheel height/size issues to go with it), having standards on electrical components, plug-ability, and interchangeability on things like RC transmitters, receivers, etc, would go a long way. BlueRail has the right idea, if it, or something similar, could get adopted as a standard, and we get other manufacturers on board creating hardware for it (including non-touch-screen throttles, please) We need an inexpensive transport layer, combined with industry standard on-the-locomotive hardware. The thought of re-equipping my fleet with yet another manufacturer as my existing hardware fails, only to have THAT manufacturer leave me hanging, sickens me.

#14

deleted

#15

Sorry Bob I demand touch screen control! Tired of these old man standards (ie I just want a nob or press a button) holding advanced control systems back. I do agree though there does need to be standard in this gauge though. I am hoping Ring Engineering decides to get into G market as their touch screen and turn knob control are fantastic.

#16

The only issue I have with touch screen controls is that they’re incredibly hard to use when you’re doing switching, and watching the train. Other than that, I dont mind them at all. But the majority of my railroading is spent at track level working the railroad. YMMV, of course.

#17

Bob, Et al,

One solution to the issue would be if we could endear an electronics engineer to generate a simplified control system, and release it to the ‘open source’ community. This would most likely mean everyone would need to ‘build’ their equipment, but it would remain the same regardless of other manufacturers doings.

There was recently an article in GR on a simple control system, and by virtue of it being in the magazine I would consider it to be open source. If memory is correct, the whole thing was only somewhere in the order of 50 bucks. I may go back and revisit that article.

Bob C.

#18

Bob how so? You mean in controlling of switches or just the back and forth movement? Cause if it is the movement you are talking about all of the controls aren’t the smoothest in that area.

#19

Joseph Lupinski said:

Bob how so? You mean in controlling of switches or just the back and forth movement? Cause if it is the movement you are talking about all of the controls aren’t the smoothest in that area.

Direction and speed. Being able to watch your train move, and ‘feel’ the 4 control buttons (fast/slow/forward/backward) are much easier than having to keep looking at your controller. Its not a deal-breaker, but its really nice to have.

#20

Agreed, a touch screen won’t work for me, either.

If all I was doing was watching my locomotive chase its caboose, a touch screen would be fine, but I’m operating a transportation system. I have to make sure that the loco doesn’t crash into the cars being picked up. The only way I can successfully do that is to watch the rolling stock, not the computer screen.