One UR90 should provide 100% coverage
if your room is typical garage size with concrete floor and finished
walls and ceiling. However, several things can cause the need for more
UR90s, such as: larger room, odd shaped room, acoustical ceiling, carpeted
floors, or book shelves or other things on the wall that can absorb
the infrared signal. How many more you'll need depends on how many of
these "impediments" are in your layout room. This Infrared
signal not line-of-sight as you normally think of it for TVs. These
IR signals bounce around to get to the receiver. Anything in the room
that will absorb the signal, rather than reflect it, will cause you
to need additional UR90 IR receivers. Note: Infrared does not work well
outdoors.
The UR90, and/or UR91, will allow
the use of about ten IR throttles to operate at the same time. This,
however, is not set in stone. There is a certain amount of air time
for Infrared signals to be received and processed. So, your operation
will determine just how many will be usable at one time. If you have
a lot of mainline running where there is very little throttle changes,
you can probably use more than ten. However, if your crew is one that
is constantly throttling up and down, and operating functions, then
the limit may be less than ten.
It is recommended that you plug IR
throttles in to operate trains when you'll be at the same location for
a prolonged period, such as switching at a yard or industrial area.
While IR operation is quite efficient, there's nothing like a direct
connection for the absolute best control - especially at slow switching
speeds. And by plugging in, it relieves the air-waves of this traffic,
thereby allowing other IR throttles to have more band-width.
The UR90 connects to the system via
a LocoNet cable. A cable does not come with the UR90, so you'll have
to make or buy one. While the polarity of LocoNet cables usually is
not of importance, this is one device where it does matter. The cable
must be made correctly to have pin one of the UR90 connected to pin
one of the command station. If you're plugging it into another LocoNet
device, you must insure that all cables between it and the command station
are made cable. Refer to the LT-1 page for more
information.
The UR90 does not come with
a wall-plug transformer, but one should be used to power it. Without
this transformer, the UR90 will have to get its power from the LocoNet.
Since the LocoNet is limited in power, the UR90 is likely to not have
enough power to provide adequate coverage, and is likely to sap all
the LocoNet power - causing problems with plug-in throttles. Also, with
the transformer plugged in and left turned on when the system is turned
off, and the throttle left plugged into the UR90, it will keep the throttle
battery alive.
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