Bi-Directional Communication

Index | General | Interface | Wiring | GPS | Statistic | Usage | Bi-Directional Communication | Types

Techniques

Technique	Manufacturer	Pro's	Con's	Retrofittable	PoM CV-read
Barcode	BarJut		Yes	No	-
RFID	MERG RFID CAN-GC4 Arduino + GCA41 LDT	Easy and inexpensive, except for the readers, to put transponders in all of the roling stock for tracking.	Restricted² communication, ID only on enter. Only usable fore small scale like N, larger scales will run to fast for the reader to detect.	Yes	No
Transponding	Digitrax	Standard LocoNet, 'Listening' by wire.	Mounting of transponding receivers need some special attention. Not very reliable.	No	Yes, tested
IR (Lissy)	Uhlenbrock Per's Model Train recognition system	Standard LocoNet, easy to install.	Restricted communication, only info on 'eye contact'.	Yes	No
RailCom	*	After OpenDCC grounded and implemented BiDiB it became stable and usable.	Need new DCC equipment.	No	Yes
Selectrix	Müt		Selectrix and address only.	Yes	No

PoM = Programming on the Main, also referred as OPS (Operations Mode Programming).

Very fast, no polling but direct answer.
If only interested in CV-Read, only one transponder receiver is needed for the whole layout. (Transponding)

Both tables show the reaction of Rocrail if a BiDi decoder is detected in a block.

Mode	Unknown	Known	Accept BiDi
Manual	ignore	set in block	ignore
Automatic	ghost	ghost	set in block

Mode	Unknown	Accept BiDi
Manual	create guest + set in block	create guest + set in block
Automatic	ghost	create guest + set in block

Check the Code against the loco who reserved the block. If it does not match: Ghost.