Model Railroading > Is Digitrax getting out of the locomotive decoder business?

A friend in an N scale group I am in says he's read that Digitrax is getting out of the locomotive decoder part of their business. He says he does not know if it is true. In looking at the Digitrax website there is no mention of such a thing either. Anyone else have any idea what he may have heard and misinterpreted?

http://www.digitrax.com/

Also I should mention that this guy is an HO scaler so I already don't trust him too much. :-D

Jim

Don't know, have not herd that one. I have heard so many "some guy at my local hobby shop said" stories over the years. 90% of the time these stories are BS.

The co-owner of a local hobby shop here, just got back from Digitrax training in Colorado. Whatzat tell yuh?

Digitraxx is in Florida, Soundtraxx is in Colorado.......

Posted from iPhone

Decoders are getting more complex all the time. There are no industry standards beyond the 9 or so NMRA set down. Any more advanced decoders anyone brings out is going to need to work through what the other manufacturers are doing. I think this is a hard time to be in the decoder business.

I hope this is not the case as I have a few of their decoders, including 1 sound decoder, installed and I like them very much.

Well digitrax hasn't been very innovative like TCS or Soundtraxx, but it would be hard to see them giving up on the basic decoder market even if NCE is the lower cost option.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

Believe it only if Digitrax announces it.....and ONLY if/when they announce it themselves.

Bob

tq-07fan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> A friend in an N scale group I am in says he's
> read that Digitrax is getting out of the
> locomotive decoder part of their business. He says
> he does not know if it is true. In looking at the
> Digitrax website there is no mention of such a
> thing either. Anyone else have any idea what he
> may have heard and misinterpreted?
>
> http://www.digitrax.com/
>
> Also I should mention that this guy is an HO
> scaler so I already don't trust him too much. :-D
>
> Jim

Hope that was just a jab with the HO deal, but might not be forgot its TO and the right to rip others is ok on here.

funnelfan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Well digitrax hasn't been very innovative like TCS
> or Soundtraxx, but it would be hard to see them
> giving up on the basic decoder market even if NCE
> is the lower cost option.


Have operated both brands, digitrax is not as user friendly, new parts don't support the old, kind of touchy to use. Screen is not old eyes friendly at all. NCE has been much less trouble for me to use and program with I use mostly Soundtraxx decoders and have changed out other brands.

ESPEE5318 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Don't know, have not herd that one. I have heard
> so many "some guy at my local hobby shop said"
> stories over the years. 90% of the time these
> stories are BS.

That was kind of my thought. The guy does go to a lot of operating sessions in various scales so it could have been a rumor or joke that someone told someone else at a different operating session not expecting it to be taken seriously.

BAB Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> tq-07fan Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > A friend in an N scale group I am in says he's
> > read that Digitrax is getting out of the
> > locomotive decoder part of their business. He
> says
> > he does not know if it is true. In looking at
> the
> > Digitrax website there is no mention of such a
> > thing either. Anyone else have any idea what he
> > may have heard and misinterpreted?
> >
> > http://www.digitrax.com/
> >
> > Also I should mention that this guy is an HO
> > scaler so I already don't trust him too much.
> :-D
> >
> > Jim
>
> Hope that was just a jab with the HO deal, but
> might not be forgot its TO and the right to rip
> others is ok on here.

Good grief...

Actually I was in HO for three decades before I switched back to N. Of course my HO statement was meant in fun. The battle of the scales and debate of which scale is superior (it's N scale) I think is another one of the fun parts of the hobby. I will stop now though before I offend any more HO scalers.

Jim



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/16/18 17:38 by tq-07fan.

Don't you think you owe Digitrax an apology for starting a false rumor about their business?

I thought your grin was directed towards HO modelers not the whole damn thread.

Shame on you.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/17/18 17:47 by fbe.

More Russian Fake news. I heard from my hairdresser that Digitrax is expanding their line. So many fools.... and to the rocket scientist, Digitrax is in Florida and Soundtraxx is in Colorado and they do dealer training.

Bruce

BAB wrote
>
>
> Have operated both brands, digitrax is not as
> user friendly, new parts don't support the old,
> kind of touchy to use. Screen is not old eyes
> friendly at all. NCE has been much less trouble
> for me to use and program.


I keep hearing all this about Digitrax being so hard to use and not so user friendly. This is not the way I see it. Digitrax may not always be more direct since it alloiws more options than NCE. The statement about older Digitrax not being compatible with newer Digitrax is absolute hookum. One of the rags against Digitrax is you need to know hexidecimal programming account Digitrax manuals list a full set of hexidecimal values. This is done so you can actually use hexidecimally programmed heritage components with current equipment. If you purchase all current components all you need to know is how to program decimal values just like NCE.

There is no reason to avoid the Digitrax system or components.

Alexa is the next decoder which will be voice activated decoder in all scales. With an onboard camera. :>)

fbe Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Don't you think you owe Digitrax an apology for
> starting a false rumor about their business?
>
> I thought your grin was directed towards HO
> modelers not the whole damn thread.
>
> Shame on you.

I actually am sorry to Digitrax, to the people of TO and to myself that I ever started this thread. I asked a question about what someone else had told me. I too thought it was a really stupid rumor, but I made the mistake of asking here on a place where we usually get answers from people who know the answers. I am sorry that I caused anyone any pain and suffering due to this thread.

Jim

Disclaimer - I was the driving force behind our decision of our HO club layout going from DC to DCC. The particulars belong in a different thread, not this one.

At the LHS (Just Trains in Concord, Calif), I had to order some non sound decoders that a couple years ago would have been kept in stock. They were NCE 10 packs of their basic four function decoder for under $160 (MSRP $175). I was told that the market has evolved and more people are buying sound decoders, so they’re ordering the non sound 10 packs only when someone asks.

I typed all of that to say that in this just in time delivery world, a perceived shortage could be from a lack of demand.

There are so many items available, sometimes the people at the shop do not even know it’s available until they look it up after someone asks for it. The guys behind the counter at another LHS (that only sells trains) had never heard of the NCE 10 packs, or the NCE 4 packs.

At our club we have HO, O, and N. The O Scale guys tell us O is the King O Scales. The N Scalers point out that we have Oversize, Half Oversize, and Normal sized trains. Not every year, but sometimes I will write on the dry erase board in the club room anonymously some words of wisdom. Santa says HO HO HO, because O Scale is too damn heavy, and he hates N Scale because it’s too damn tiny. I take what they say as seriously as they take seriously what I write.

⅂ɐɹɹʎ

fbe Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I keep hearing all this about Digitrax being so
> hard to use and not so user friendly. This is not
> the way I see it.

It's probably not the way many see it, but I think it depends on who you are and how you process the Digitrax methods mentally. More on that in a bit.

I've had a Digitrax Chief systems since around 1998 but to this day and so far never have "got-it" and have had to be shown countless time how to do basic things on it and I did buy one of the newer DT402 throttles about 5 years ago - my system came with a DT100. I always read that the DT100 was harder to use and that buying the DT402 would alievate that; I still struggle with setting things up and operating it.

I think it depends on how your brain works vs. how the system was engineered. My theory is Digitrax was designed by an Engineer and people who think like engineers tend to find Digitrax ok to use. I remember back when I was taking computer classes back in college and people commenting on how computer manuals were written by computer scientists but were not very understandable by lay persons to whom many of them were written for. It was a topic of discussion that computer scientists process things mentally different than non-computer people, and therefore, the manuals were difficult to understand.
I think I've heard similar discussions about Digitrax by hobbyists too, that the Digitrax system was designed by an engineer A J Ireland and the operation of the system is more easily understood and used by those with engineering type minds. Whether or not that is true, I have heard many say they have a difficult time learning and operating the Digitrax.

Anyway Larry, I'm guessing you keep hearing Digitrax is hard to use because many people find it hard to use and say so. It's not in a vacuum. I've heard the same thing over the past 20 years and there is a reason for it. Bottom line is, Digitrax is a full featured DCC system that works best for some people who's brains "click" with the control steps and methods designed into it. For those who struggle with it, it may end up being best to find a system that they can work with. In my case, I invested in Digitrax, really wanted to like it but after 20 years I need to face it that it's not "clicking" for me. I'm strongly considering switching over to something else, perhaps NCE.

Cheers, Jim