R/C Trains: S-CAB vs. DRS1

So it looks like there's a new kid on the indoor battery powered trains block: Tam Valley Depot.

Last year I was excited about and purchased a Stanton S-CAB, now sold by NWSL.  The S-CAB had a laundry list of amazing features:

• Battery powered DCC
• On-board battery charging
• A hand-held wireless throttle
• Support for sound

 

 The S-CAB delivered on it's promises, and I successfully convered a Bachmann On30 2-8-0.  And somehow that seemed to be the end of that.  The system wasn't bad, and actually worked quite well, but the components were large.  Neil Stanton, the creator, has since refined the design and as I understand it the latest version shows a good amount of weight loss.  Still, I found some points about it that I didn't like:

• The S-CAB hard wires the R/C receiver directly into the DCC decoder. This means that #1.) you must re-purchase all your decoders to be the R/C version from NWSL and #2.) you can only use deciders the S-CAB supports
• The wireless communication between the throttle and receiver is proprietary, and from what I've asked it's theoretically possible that with 5 or 6 operators in a room cross talk is possible.  The official FAQ on the NWSL site actually points out that this is the case.
• There's really no good option yet for accessory DCC -- caboose lighting, passenger car lighting, turnout throws, and any automation.
• The only option for throttle is the one that's sold.

 

Well Tam Valley Depot has joined the market place with their DRS1 Wireless DCC product.  The DRS1 works a little different.  Instead of having a proprietary throttle, the DRS1 has an R/C transmitter adapter.  The track wires coming out of the DCC system go into the transmitter.  If you had, for example, the NCE PowerPro, the two track wires would go into the transmitter unit.

Each engine still has a receiver in it, but instead of the receiver talking directly to the DCC decoder via a hardware interface, it simply "echos" the signal that would have been going over the track, but from the transmitter.

The side effects of this approach are fairly notable:

• You can use any DCC decoder
• You can use your choice of throttle/DCC control system
• Converting engines means adding the receiver and battery and not needing to throw out the previous decoder
• Turnouts and static decoders can remain hardwired and still work exactly like they did before

 

It should be noted there is one point where the S-CAB is technically superior: battery charging.  The S-CAB comes with an option to allow the battery to be charged off of track power.  Right now the DRS1 battery needs to be disconnected and charged separately (the instructions suggest charging it in a coffee cup in case it explodes.  Seriously, it says that).

The downside is that the Tam Valley Depot solution might cost more in the long run.  Instead of having a complete package where everything works out of the box, you have to buy pieces from here and there and put it all together.

With the S-CAB you have everything you need -- the throttle, the receiver, the decoder, the battery, and a way to charge the battery.  The DRS1 only offers the transmitter and receiver.  It's up to you to figure out what DCC system you want, what batteries you want, and how you want to charge them.

So how about that price factor?

Let's do a simple case study to see the cost breakdown.  The tricky part of doing the cost breakdown is it will be wildly different if you already have a lot of equipment, versus if you have none.  To that end I'll run the numbers twice for the DRS1, once if you had nothing and a second time if you already had a working system.

Here's the scenario:  You want 3 engines with DCC sound and 2 engines DCC motor/lighting only and want them all to be R/C.  And you want to control it all with a wireless walk around throttle.

I suspect many modelers will want something similar to this, but will fall fall somewhere in between in terms of what they already have.  For example, I already have a number of sound equipped locos but only the NCE PowerCab.

Stanton S-CAB

(1) Radio Cab Bundle (Throttle, Receiver, TSU-100 Decoder) $379.99

(2) TSU-1000 Decoder/Receiver Combo $279.98 ($139.99/ea)

(2) NCE D13SR Decoder/Receiver Combo $119.98 ($59.99/ea)

(4) BPS Battery Charging Circuits $200 (~$50/ea)

(4) Lipo Batteries from Sparkfun.com $47.80 ($11.95/ea)

TOTAL:  $1027.75

DRS1 (Starting Fresh)

(1) NCE Power Pro-R Wierless $550

(1) DRS1 Transmitter $59.95

(1) DRS1 Transmitter Antenna $10

(3) TSU-1000 DCC Decoder $300 (~$100/ea)

(2) NCE13SR Decoder $30 (~$15/ea)

(5) DSR1 Receiver $299.75 ($59.95)

(5) Lipo Batteries from Sparkfun.com $59.95 ($11.95/ea)

(1) Hitec X1 battery charger ~$59

TOTAL:  $1368.65

DRS1 (Existing Equipment)

(1) DRS1 Transmitter $59.95

(1) DRS1 Transmitter Antenna $10

(5) DSR1 Receiver $299.75 ($59.95)

(5) Lipo Batteries from Sparkfun.com $59.95 ($11.95/ea)

(1) Hitec X1 battery charger ~$59

TOTAL:  $488.65

So as you can see depending on what you have the DRS1 is either a lot cheaper or a hefty bit more.  In any case the existence of both the S-CAB and the DRS1 is a good thing.  Battery powered is the wave of the future.  My next module might be a dead-rail one.  We'll see.  My biggest concern so far hasn't be price but space.  Whoever wins the space war will probably get my vote.