uncoupling using dcc
Peter May
My kids love my train setup since I added DCC to the system. I also have
chosen to use Kadee type couplers. I now want to give my boy a shunting
engine to move some cars around and was wondering if anyone has managed
to add a decoupler to a shunter using a DCC extra function. This would
enable the decoupling if cars anywhere on the track and not just above
the magnets etc.
Regards, Peter
Jeff Scarbrough
I have had the pleasure of operating htis locomotive:
http://www.rr-cirkits.com/uncoupler.html and can say it works great,
but it ain't easy. Teach him to use a bamboo skewer, and you can do
the same thing easily anywhere you can reach.
Jeff Sc.
Gladhandectomy Ga.
Yuri
Yuri.....
cros...@charter.net (Jeff Scarbrough) wrote in
news:3d5f049b....@news.charter.net:
Jeff Scarbrough
wrote:
>>Teach him to use a bamboo skewer, and you can do
>> the same thing easily anywhere you can reach.
>>
>"bamboo skewer"? jeeze seem there's a lot of strange words sometimes
You can buy them in almost any grocery store -- they're for making
shishkebabs and the like...
Fred Dabney
sometimes
What I want to know is why anyone would want to have
skewed bamboo, or skew it for that matter...
Fred D.
Trainman
Fred Dabney <fda...@zianet.com> wrote in message
news:3d5fc...@oracle.zianet.com...
That group down there in the Southeast has alreaded emasculated those poor
couplers by cutting off the glad hands, now they want to skewer them too!.
Don
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Fred Dabney
those poor
> couplers by cutting off the glad hands, now they want to skewer
them too!.
Please, lets' use the prototypically correct term for these
devices. They aren't "glad-hands", they are "dingle-dangles".
Fred D.
Froggy
>That group down there in the Southeast has alreaded emasculated those poor
>couplers by cutting off the glad hands, now they want to skewer them too!.
Oh, you should see the shape they're in when we are through with them. :-)
...........F>
FBritt
Kadee holds the(a) patent on what could be a DCC uncoupler. To my knowledge
they haven't done anything with it yet.
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p
=1&u=/netahtml/srchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1='5775524'.WKU.&OS=PN/5775524&RS
=PN/5775524
There are several other people working on the concept using the Digitrax
function only decoder (TF2s and TF4s). Whether the Kadee patent will thwart
their progress is yet to be seen.
In addition to Dick Bronson's HO switcher
Glenn Loucks is working on a system for N and HO rolling stock.
http://www.members.aol.com/dccuncoupling/index.htm
Regards,
Britt Harrington
>Subject: uncoupling using dcc
>From: Peter May man...@sale-net.com.au
>Date: 8/17/02 9:09 PM Eastern Daylight Time
>Message-id: <B43AD91A0CFFD411BB8F00104BCB2DC00DD9A7@BAMBAM>
Stan Ames
Jim Sherman wrote:
> On 22 Aug 2002 12:49:00 GMT, fbr...@aol.com (FBritt) wrote:
>
> >Kadee holds the(a) patent on what could be a DCC uncoupler. To my knowledge
> >they haven't done anything with it yet.
>
> Interesting, as Roco has been actively marketing a DCC uncoupler for a
> while now on several of their switch engines. These are for European
> design couplers, but the basic function could be applied if turned 90
> degrees. Not being a patent expert, I wonder how they get around the
> Kadee patent to sell in the US?
Easy
The Roco and other uses of automatic couplers predate the Kaydee patent.
Prior Art takes precidense over a patent. True a patent should not be granted if
there exists prior art, but if the prior art is not brought to the atention of
the examiner the patent may be granted.
The concept is not new, a specific method may or may not be new.
A good number of patents today are to ensure that someone else can not claim you
are infringing on someone elses patent. I know that may sound strange but
applying for a patent is often the least expensive way of avoiding lawsuits in
the future.
If you search for model railroading you will find a some interesting patents that
clearly could never be defended.
Getting a patent is much easier than defending it.
Stan Ames
Jim Bernier
that the Kadee patent is just a 'place holder' - no diagrams or real
documentation, not even a working example. This allows the patent holder not to
be upstaged by another company that does patent a working system. Sounds sorta
stange, but it is standard practive in industry.
The Centerline track cleaning car has a 'patent' and when you talk to the
owner, he is ready to sue the pants off of anyone who might make something
similar. Of course, a few booths away at the NMRA Train Show is Aztec - their
track cleaning car is based on a large roller also that is cocked at a small
degree from square as well. Never have seen a lawsuit yet!
Jim Bernier
Fred Dabney
Not having looked at the patent, I don't know. But if the patent
covers a specific implementation on a product which itself is
patented then it should be good.
Fred D.
Jon Miller
I looked I couldn't see the diagrams just the places. As other said they
showed up fine so I have to assume it's my computer software. I don't know
about a working example but they do have diagrams and documentation!
Someone out there knows the number and the web site as we have gone
through this before.
Never having seen either the Kadee pictures or a Roco coupler don't know
how close they are.
Jon Miller
http://www.uspto.gov/
Try Patent #5,775,524 or just do a search using Kadee. They have a few.
Lots of text and 13 drawings. I still can't see the drawings! It uses
shape-memory alloy wire and I didn't see the term DCC once but I just
scanned it quickly.
FBritt
close they are.>>
Does anyone have a link to information on the Roco (un)coupler?
Regards,
Britt Harrington
Andy Harman
<jrbe...@nospam.hotmail.com> wrote:
> The Centerline track cleaning car has a 'patent' and when you talk to the
>owner, he is ready to sue the pants off of anyone who might make something
>similar. Of course, a few booths away at the NMRA Train Show is Aztec - their
>track cleaning car is based on a large roller also that is cocked at a small
>degree from square as well. Never have seen a lawsuit yet!
Remember this is the same guy who tries to prevent dealers from
selling his product at a discount (he makes the same amount even if
the dealer gives it away). He just thinks his product is too good to
be marked down. The car works well (and I'm sure the clones also
work) but best if you use a more traditional solvent as a cleaner
instead of "Goo Spreader".
Andy
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Or my personal site at http://www.hhcustom.com/nspmg
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William R. Dixon
> >they haven't done anything with it yet.
Don't know why the patent was granted.
They show a memory wire activator - somebody has already done this,
there is a web page showing this on a switcher,
or a solenoid type actuator.
I use motors with a screw drive to activate Accumate couplers.
Several years ago I did one box car and one Athearn flat car.
The flat car was shown to Digitrax at the Narrow Gauge meet in Portland
many years ago.
> Interesting, as Roco has been actively marketing a DCC uncoupler for a
> while now on several of their switch engines.
The Roco coupler used has a top hook. The uncoupler uses an small
electro
magnet to lift this up. A very simple elegant solution but sadly not
applicable to Kadees.
Regards
Bill Dixon
Roger T & Heather B.
good idea, wouldn't it get really expensive? Heck, some freight cars are
already in the Can$30 to Can$40 range. Too rich for me.
Cheers
Roger T.
http://www.islandnet.com/~rogertra/
Jon Miller
probably no push to market it. Two times your number of engines is
considerable smaller than 2 times your number of cars so sales would not be
massive <VBG>.
FBritt
rolling stock. AJ Ireland of Digitrax was promoting the idea five years ago.
I know of at least two manufacturers that are experimenting with this. One,
Glenn Loucks, already has a N scale version ready pending further investigation
of the Kadee patent. He began working on the HO version last week.
http://www.members.aol.com/dccuncoupling/index.htm
Dick Bronson of RR-Circkits, is another. Dick made the one that has been
referenced here for a switch engine.
http://www.members.aol.com/dccuncoupling/index.htm
The logical choice for the uncoupling signal is the function only/ transponding
decoders that Digitrax has realeased. At the 2002 NMRA convention when asked
what the estimated cost of the function only/transponding decoders would be in
a few years, AJ Ireland said $5.00.
If a HO manufacturer will produce a freight truck with an electrical contact
e.g. Kato and NWSL in N scale, the price of such rolling stock equipped with
DCC uncouplers will go down further as well.
Regards,
Britt Harrington
Miami, Florida
>Subject: Re: uncoupling using dcc
>From: "Jon Miller" at...@inow.com
>Date: 8/25/02 9:40 PM Eastern Daylight Time
>Message-id: <umj1nuj...@corp.supernews.com>
FBritt
The link to Dick's website is
Regards,
Britt Harrington
>Subject: Re: uncoupling using dcc
>From: fbr...@aol.com (FBritt)
>Date: 8/25/02 10:31 PM Eastern Daylight Time
>Message-id: <20020825223126...@mb-ms.aol.com>
Jon Miller
said $5.00<
>If a HO manufacturer will produce a freight truck with an electrical
contact<
This would be the biggest stumbling block, plus the wiring. There are
enough addresses for the advarage layout. Clubs might have a problem.
Difficult fitting a flat or gon but who know the future.
My comment simply meant now, today if I could buy them.
Also there are a few function only decoders available. The TCS FL is a
neat unit. While it doesn't have transponding and is larger than most it
has a neat feature, lock/unlock. Lenz also make function only decoders.
And maybe others!
Kennedy
> > >Kadee holds the(a) patent on what could be a DCC uncoupler. To my
> > >knowledge they haven't done anything with it yet.
>
> Don't know why the patent was granted.
> They show a memory wire activator - somebody has already done this,
> there is a web page showing this on a switcher,
> or a solenoid type actuator.
There's been some questions raised recently on how well some patent
applications have been researched. I think some folks wondered if those
patents that were granted weren't really original, and that somewhere else,
the gist of the idea is already in use. I don't remember too much about
it, other than some patents shouldn't have been granted.
Kennedy
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Jon Miller
it a patent or does the design (how it's used) make it a patent?
MacIndoe
Jon Miller wrote:
> Does the fact that someone uses "memory wire" to uncouple a model make
> it a patent or does the design (how it's used) make it a patent?
>
>
>
It depends on how the claims are written. Even then, it's not really
setteled until challenged in court.
Bill MacIndoe
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