My Current KISS Principle Dead Rail System, Choosing LocoFiTM

     The last time I was involved in model railroading, as an active hobby, was in the late 1980s when I had HO and N scale layouts. A lot happened in the intervening decades.

     Much had changed. There was a lot to learn, in general, and I "discovered" Dead Rail.

     In the video for My First HO Train Layout in a Long, Long Time, Part 9, #6, I stated, "Using the principle of KISS, keep it super simple, is invaluable when applied to model railroading."

Why Dead Rail (Deadrail, Battery on Board, Battery on Board RC, and Power on Board)?

     For over four decades, I have been a strong advocate, publisher and user of electrically powered radio controlled (RC) model airplanes that use an electric motor and battery for the power system.

     At the end of 2021, it was a natural progression to carry that interest into investigating the possibility of doing the same for model railroading.

     While investigating, and learning about model railroading today, I ran across the term "Battery on Board Radio Control (RC)". That led to learning that the terms Dead Rail (Deadrail) and Power on Board were also used in pretty much the same manner to describe the same general idea.

     To learn more on the topic, I read through "BATTERY-POWERED MODELS IN HO scale" in the MRH-Nov 2014 Model Railroad Hobbyist.
by Dr. Geoff Bunza
Battery Powered Models in HO Scale.

     The graphic is one of many in the article.

     The bottom line was that he designed a unit that was a RC equivalent for control of the locomotive and a battery system designed to charge and use a Lithium-Polymer (LiPo) battery.

     There was an overload of information in that article, and I thought to myself, "This is just too complex."

     In early 2022, I discovered, what I thought were 6 existing products to use for Dead Rail Systems. It turned out that there were really only 5. Info on these systems is found here.

     After carefully weighing the pros and cons of each system, I still felt that they were too complicated and had too many parts.

     None of those systems appealed to me for many reasons. They didn't seem to meet my personal "keep it super simple" criteria. Also, because of the pandemic, many of the systems were not available at the beginning of 2022.

     My decades long experience, of using batteries to power electric motors in radio control (RC) planes, suggested to me, that there had to be a simpler way to go Dead Rail.

     I wanted a simple system that was somewhat similar to the ones that I use in my planes.

     In February 2022, LocoFiTM was discovered.

     While the "discovery" of LocoFiTM was a bit serendipitous, it turned out to be an EXCELLENT choice for me.

     The LocoFiTM YouTube video titled, "Deadrail operation with LocoFi 2 powered by a 2S LiPo" demonstrated what I thought that I was looking for.

     I was attracted to the LocoFiTM system because there was no proprietary "transmitter" required.

     The required "transmitter" was an Android or Amazon Fire device using WiFi to provide the 2.4GHz RF signal.

     That was a plus for me. I had an old, usable Samsung Galaxy Edge S7 in a drawer.

     The "receiver" and "speed controller with the equivalent of a battery eliminator circuit" are built into the WiFi Sound Decoder with its attached speaker. The the LocoFiTM decoder does not have a LVC built into it, but that can be overcome by using a timing device, which is exactly what I do with my RC planes.

     I ordered my first DULLHB - LocoFiTM 3 WiFi Sound Decoder on March 6, 2022, and now have three of them operating Dead Rail in three different locomotives. They are working GREAT!!!

     Once the LocoFiTM system was chosen, it was time to explore what battery to use.