I think it is case closed for DCC vs RP whether battery or rail. Duplex radio communication is the only way to fly. Notice Bruce takes the radio route and look how much gadgetry he has to add to get to duplex. Importantly, he doesn't even attempt to do it over the rails. A network bus made up of huge nickel silver parallel conductors is a bad idea from the get-go. Least of all trying to do 2 way communication over it. It's a better antenna than it is a network bus. The very reason the DCC biz is trying to push LCC. A second bus is their solution to the fact their primary bus is so ill suited for the task. Credit must be given to DCC when it first came on the scene. A dramatic step forward from DC block. But it's time in the sun is over. Technology has left it behind. The DCC protocol is now more a hindrance than a help. The diehard's claim is people are so invested in DCC. There is merit to that argument however I suspect the same was said about horses when automobiles arrived.
Lest you think I am a RP fanboy, not so. RP will meet a similar fate. Look inside the HC and LM. Generic off-the-shelf components in both of them. AMD processor and flash memory in the HC, PIC processor and flash memory in the LM. The secret sauce for RP is the software. Hardware-wise RP is BlueRail is RP. Level of refinement is the only difference. Sooner or later genericification will come on the scene. Then software will be the sole differentiation. Perhaps why Ring is developing RP Assistant instead of additional gadgets.
While on my soap box.... the battery charging from rails idea Bruce speaks of is DOA too as far as I am concerned. Batteries in general don't respond well to high cycling rates especially LiPo. Tolerance, or lack thereof, of high cycling rates is what separates batteries from capacitors. If batteries cycled well we would have lot less need for capacitors in common devices. Anyone who has owned a laptop computer has learned batteries used in high current applications don't like cycling. In a charge-from-the-rails application the poor battery is subjected to hundreds of mini charge/discharge cycles every time the layout is operated. Good luck getting any life out of that battery. Case in point: Think about your smart phone battery. Certainly state-of-the-art in battery management. How well does it perform? Great in year one, okay in year two, horrible in year three. Now think about your watch battery. Runs 5-10 years without a problem. The difference? Your watch battery never gets cycled. A watch is the ideal battery environment - a single long slow burn.
It is truly a shame so many people have such an unfounded fear of wire and solder. The track may be a very poor network bus but it is an ideal power conveyance. I am amazed at how much time, money, and effort folks will invest just to avoid one-time soldering of a few more feeders or the four connections to power a frog. Bruce's article epitomizes this fact.
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