Wireless upgrade???

[RailCop]

Hope everyone survived the holidays. Whew, they get tougher every year.

Anyway, I have a question. I have an NCE Power House Pro (5 amp) DCC system which I purchased a few years ago from Micro-Mark. Got a whale of a good deal on it too! I am now considering buying the RB02 radio base and having the cab upgraded with the radio. Does anyone out there have any experience with this? Do you like it? Is it worth the money to do this upgrade? My layout is only 16 x 20 so I think the radio signal should have no problems with interferrence....or would it? I just figure it would be a lot easier than getting tengled in the cord when running my trains. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Kevin

[woodone]

This is a can do project. NCE has a kit to make your Pro CAb a radio unit. As you noted you will have to get the radio receiver too.
Cost is the big question?? At $125.00 for the base station and $70.00 for the up grade for your Pro CAb unit. Range is good to about 100 feet so you should not have any problems. The kit to up grade is a do it yourself thing, if you have the skills to do so. Or you could send the unit back to NCE and have them do it for you. I can't provide any user input as I still use a cord. I think the cord free system would be very nice. NO MORE cord tangles!

[RailCop]

My thoughts exactly woodone. Larry at NCE advised they would do the complete overhaul of the cab for $89.95 so I think that's the way I'll go rather than try to do it myself. I suspect I could but why chance screwing it up. I'll let the experts handle it.

Thanks,

KT

[Fluesheet]

I've been thinking about doing the upgrade as well - the shorter antenna alone is worth the price.

Matt

[RailCop]

UPDATE!

I contacted a friend who has a LARGE HO scale layout and uses the NCE system throughout. He suggested that I spend a few bucks more and get the RB02 radio base and a Cab04p-r. The Cab04p-r is a complete radio cab but NOT a Pro Cab. It is much smaller and has a knob for speed control. It does most everything the ProCab will do except programing the decoders. He said he uses his Pro Cab (tethered) for initial programing and then operates with the Cab04p-r units.

I checked Tonys' Train Exchange and found he had the lowest prices so I ordered the two units (RB02 - $124.95, Cab04p-r - $139.95). They arrived this morning and I had them installed and was running WIRELESS-LY in about 20 minutes. And the Cab04p-r has the short 2" antenna. I am very pleased. This should make operating the layout (someday) much more enjoyable.

KT

[Fluesheet]

I'd worry about losing the Cab04p-r. I manage to walk my TV remote all around the house. I could see myself running upstairs, with Cab04p-r in hand to take a call (or whatever), setting it down by the Microwave (or whatever), wandering back downstairs empty handed and wondering where the h3ll I put the dang throttle! (Happens with the TV remote ALL the time!!)

Thanks for the post!

Matt

[RailCop]

Matt,

I went ahead and ordered the radio base and Cab04pr............and son of a gun, didn't I lay it down and loose it ! I didn't have the damn thnig 15 minutes and forgot where I placed it ! Turns out it was right there next to the radio base but I didn't see it for ten minutes or better. HA! Me thinks you jinxed me.

But actually, it works great. I'm glad I got the radio add on. NCE has some very nice equipment. Now I can move about without worrying about the cord.

See ya,

KT

[Go Big1]

KT, I have a solution so that you won't lose your wireless remote! You could attach some sort of tether or wire to it and then attach the other end of the tether to some location near your layout. That way you wouldn't have to worry about losing it!



Just kidding by the way!