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Ah ha...  Transponding question.

Transponding is a Digitrax thing and propriatery.  Soundtraxx has a license for the use of Transponding for their SURROUNDTRAXX   which one day in the distant future will be availlable, if all the stars and planets align without coliding.   It has been promissed for 10 years I think now.  If it ever gets released it will be the ONLY real application to use Transponding.  More for Nscale that others.    

Lenz is the other player in the by-dy communication ball parc with it's RAILCOM. The NMRA has been granted the rights to RAILCOM. Maybe that is why Digitrax Transponding is slow to gain any speed or  market.  

Transponding has great potential in the right hands.  it is a nightmare in the hands of us  clueless.  

Detection tells you something is ON  this piece of track over there.. Transponding tells you it's engine 1234. Transponding can do the same with a caboose, that stock car or  the reefer.  if your PC knows the stockcar is siting on a siding near the cow pen, IT  can trip sounds of cows, moowing, crapping, eating, .  if the same stockcar is over by the slaughter house the cows can be in sheer panic. The computer knows where the specific car is and can generate the right sound..  Your reffer can trip ice refill, ice dragged across  and dropped.  Your imagination can run wild. 

Transponding requires the BDL168, Transponding receivers (RX4) ,  and transponding equiped decoders for what ever you want to be identified.  To my knowledge only Digitrax sells transponding equiped decoders. .

Transponding is not required for detection nor signaling, nor automation but it can help.   Just requires software to do the full Nelson  on your layout.    JMRI, a FREEWARE,  can be used.

I've setup  and played with CTC Panel,  turnout control,  detection, signaling,  transponding  on a small scale to get an acquainted..  Surprisingly it all  worked under JMRI PanelPro, even the transponding part.  it was neat to see the engine moving along with the PC screen showing the loco number as it shuffled from block to block.

Do you need it, no.    

Mark LOL

I can hardly wait for  sounds of cows craping LOL.

MOOooo... plop plop plop

Dan

Cow sounds - a hit song?

Dan, Perhaps a hit song?

It could go like this...

MOOooo....plop plop plop

MOOooo....plop plop plop

MOOOOO MOO MOO MOO MOO MOO

Plop plop plop plop!

(I've heard Rap "music" that didn't sound as good!)

Rick

Needing it depends on what you want to do...

Most likely for most model railroads Transponding is not needed.  HOWEVER, If you would like to have computer technology take care of as much of unprototypical functions/jobs as possible, then Transponding will be an invaluable asset.  One function in particular I speak of is taking trains in and out of staging to a crew change point on the layout itself.  Although I have done this job on other model railroads, and ther was some degree of fun, the reminder that this is a model railroad was constantly there, and since at least some of us try  to recreate an illusion this is an actual railroad (nothing wrong if one doesn't mind this kind of intrusion into the illusion, but I for one would like to try to eliminate it if possible with the use of technology) and not a model, transponding can be very helpful.  If you are modeling a modern layout era, with modern CTC (i.e. computer panel screens) dispatching, then having transponding will also be helpful since the prototype has it as well.

There is another version of transponding that I believe is still out therre,the M-RPS system.  It has gone through an onwership change last time I checked, and the system and technology is being further refined.  This is a very promissing system, and looking forward for it's continued developmetn so that it can be used on model railroads more.

Ken L.

Transponding and Soundtraxx

After digging around the Soundtraxx website, I found that the Tsunami decoders feature transponding.

  Transponding and

Automated Commuter Train

I stumbled across this thread while bouncing around the internet looking into how to automate a commuter train in amongst active operator controlled traffic. Seems to me that if you want to have a particular train stop at stations then transponding would be the way to go. I'm researching how to automate a commuter passenger train to visit 2-4 stations along the length of a Free-mo modular layout. Right now it appears I need Transponding occupancy detectors at each station and some programming work in JMRI to turn loose a train all by it's lonesome self.

Matt