On the Model railroad Hobbyist Forum user AlexW gave a preliminary report on what was presented at the Train Control Systems clinic given by Technical Support Agent Dan. He resent the following:
Dan's presentations today at the clinic were excellent, there is a LOT to be excited about with WOW Diesel v5, WOW Steam v4.5, the WOWPOW, the UWT-50, CS-105, and LT-50.
The WOW Diesel v5 has a TON of new features and upgraded capabilities from the v4, comes with a full set of sounds already loaded, and is updatable and loadable via the WOWPOW in less than 10 minutes. The live demo load to re-engine an FT with an Alco prime mover took something like 8 minutes 33 seconds, although they're still working on making the FTs belch black smoke all over the place. Each sound file has over 30 minutes of recordings in it, including a full set of combinations of notch transitions. This is a truly modern decoder, and is yet another leap forward in the incredibly competitive sound decoder market. I think the WOW Diesel v5 will do very well for TCS, and be great for modelers. Official JMRI support is huge, as decoder profiles will be available a LOT sooner than waiting for volunteers to create them, and then wait for them to be incorporated into JMRI.
The capabilities of the CS-105 and LT-50 were already fairly well known, but there is a lot of thought put into this system. They haven't yet figured out how the internal roster of the CS-105 is going to interface with JMRI, but their consisting method is going to be the best in the industry, bar none. It will be like NCE-style consisting, but much easier to use, and have many more features, as it emulates CV21/22 functionality in the command station. The RS-485 port is planned to have simultaneous support for NCE and Lenz, I think that means you'll actually be able to use both at the same time, which I didn't realize is possible, but is super cool. This is only scratching the surface, as Dan packed a TON into two one-hour clinics, he said he had to cut the slide decks down just to barely fit within the hour.
The author has heard there are many new and different changes to the WOW Diesel v5 decoder coming. This should be an interesting year for TCS.
Was it clear if the v5 decoder is physically smaller - are the circuit board and components all new?
Version 5 decoder hardware will be launching with the same form factors as the current product lines - namely the WOW101, WOW121, and WOW501. As we move into the future, more form factors will become available with dedicated attempts to reduce the physical footprint. Note that Steam version 4.5 IS NOT VERSION 5. This is an important distinction. Version 5 is a completely new architecture, and a complete overhaul of the platform.
When I read CV 248 (Version Number) it read a value of 5. I realize there is no room for half numbers, so possibly they're using a '5' for the version 4.5.
Correct. CV248 is defined by TCS as the "Sound Set Version Number" not to be confused with the "[Decoder] Version Number" CV7. If you read CV7, you will see the value reads 4. CV7 + CV248 reads as 4.5; In previous generations of decoder, CV 7 and CV 248 were equal. (4, 3, 2, etc.)
IMPORTANT NOTE: YOU CANNOT PROGRAM A DECODER PROPERLY USING JMRI WITHOUT USING THE CORRECT DECODER DEFINITION. I cannot stress this enough, and it is a concept not understood by most JMRI users. Without a decoder definition, programming [sound functions] or [changing button mappings] will break the decoder. Each version of a sound decoder will inject new sounds, alphabetically, and into their own respective sound types, which by consequence shifts all of the existing "numbers" JMRI uses to program stuff. TL;DR, if you program a sound to a button in JMRI using the wrong decoder definition, JMRI will program the decoder incorrectly compared to what is displayed.
VERSION 4.5 STEAM DOES NOT HAVE A JMRI DECODER DEFINTION as of me making this post. JMRI decoder definitions are created by VOLUNTEERISM; as such, a JMRI definition for Version 4.5 steam will not be available until a member of the JMRI community creates it. We are actively looking for a volunteer willing to make a definition for this project.
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Dan
Engineering and Product Development
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A YouTube interview with Dan Mycio at Amherst which includes a first look at the new TCS DCC system is located here.
If you have an idea for a blog post here, let me know. If I can comment on it, I will or I'll see if someone else can and post it.
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