![]() It does have some flashing lights and tiny buttons so is not totally bare of little things to break. If you need the other features of the Digikeijs such as compatibility with European stuff, etc. My Zephyr is about 20 years old and has never needed to hooked to a computer. The Digikeijs has been reliable for two years or so but if I was doing it over I'd probably just buy another Zephyr and save the set up time it took to download Digikeijs software, update the unit etc. I got the Digikeijs for my new layout because I thought I might want to run it with a phone or ipad but after trying that for a while I found I prefer a throttle with a knob( got too many run-a-ways from fingers wrapping around the edge with the touch screen devices) so I've been using a Digitrax UR92 and UT4D on loconet which works fine on the Digikeijs. Unless you are well-versed in building this sort of stuff yourself though I'd recommend just getting something from Digitrax or NCE. With products like Bluerail DCC, the option is there to have a battery-operated locomotive with DCC features that only needs to be connected to your cell phone. Then there are Bluetooth and Wifi options where the command-station is more like a power supply than a throttle. The downside is that it can't operate independently of a computer which makes it a little problematic for train shows, but at home there's no issues. Building a DCC++ system costs way under $100 if you already own a computer and a phone, which most of us do anyway. Plug in a laptop to run the program, then connect a cell phone with a throttle app and it works like any other DCC system. The 'command station' is an Arduino computer board. I'll likely be getting one of these since that's what people in my area use most often.įor a lot of smaller projects and layouts, which is pretty much all I will be doing for the next few years, I plan to go with DCC++. The handheld remote becomes the command station. There are alternatives to the Zephyr that are not 'command station' centered.įirst is NCE's PowerCab. The throttle in DecoderPro works really nicely as well. I often just use the ZE doing testing on my small layout and don't even bother with the handhelds. I don't even bother trying to program anything directly with the Zephyr. ![]() The UI on the ZE is common to both it and the UT6 series handheld throttles, so I really like that, and I actually quite like these new throttles. It works really well in this mode and you don't need to buy a USB programming interface becuase it is built in to the ZE Only issues I've ever had are trying to program ESU Loksound decoders (in general) and more advanced things on Soundtraxx decoders, but that has all now been resolved using (free) JMRI DecoderPro on my laptop with a USB cable between the Laptop and the ZE. I have bigger Digitrax (DCS240, DCS200) stuff at home, but here on my small pike, I have the Zephyr Express ("ZE") (ZCS52) with one UT6D Duplex wireless throttle and a UR93 receiver. My Zephyr Express works fine on my B&H away from home.
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