# Battery Powered, Wireless Options



## russfox (Apr 11, 2008)

Hi all,
I'm new to the hobby.
I want to equip all of my locomotive with battery power, wireless controls and sound.
I have an Aristo Pacific with the QSI/Airewire set-up. Rus and sound great!
What other options/vendors are available?
Also looking for ideas to equip a Hartland Mack loco.
Thanks,
Russ


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## Del Tapparo (Jan 4, 2008)

Hi Russ - Welcome to the hobby. There are quite a few choices for battery power out there. Radio control is not the only option. I make some manual, semi-automatic, and fully automatic control systems for simple low cost battery power solutions. You may like one of them for your Mack. Please check out my website at G-Scale Graphics


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Russ, it all depends on what you expect to do. The setup you have is basically DCC over the air, the most features available. 

Do you double head, do you need sound, do you want to be able to remotely control lots of sounds, etc? 

Regards, Greg


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## russfox (Apr 11, 2008)

Hi Greg, 
I’m just getting started… don’t even have any track laid yet. However, I have decided to go all battery with wireless control and sound from the very beginning. 

I do plan on running multiple units. I have 2 Aristo SD-45 I would like to run together and 4 USA GP 38-2 that I would like to run 2 or 3 units together. 

I have been reading about how some sound cards (like the Phoenix) just output a constant engine sound when moving and do not change when pulling on grades. 

I like the fact that the QSI sound does vary with loads. 

I already bought the QSI Programmer so I was thinking of staying with QSI cards with the Gwire. 

I was wondering what other products or options were available for G scale. 

I have been following the new Aristo Craft TE discussion and saw it at ECLSTS. However, I don’t like the fact that if you are hooking up a good sound card the cost will be more than the QSI with Gwire option and that the sound will not very with the locomotive load. 

I would also like to battery equip with wireless control small items like the Hartland Mack and the small railcars they offer (sound would also be great). I figure that the railcars would need to pull a trailer or 2 to hold the batteries and electronics. 

Just looking for ideas for wireless battery options with sound. 

I also have a number of Aristo RDCs that I would like to equip. Do you know if QSI has an RDC sound file that can be downloaded? I didn’t see any listed.


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## aceinspp (Jan 2, 2008)

Russ for now QSI has no sound file for the RDC cars. I think when I did mine I use a NW2 file. Sounds ok till the RDC comes alone. You can also do some customizing of the file if you know about what a RDC sounded like. Later RJD


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## russfox (Apr 11, 2008)

Hi Del, 
Great products! 
Eventually, I plan to have a dedicated trolley line. 
The advanced Critter Control looks like it would work great for that operation... making stops and reversing. 
I will definitely keep you in mind. 
Thanks, 
Russ


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Russ, a couple of tips for your QSI: 

Be sure you have some momentum dialed in for acceleration and deceleration... it emphasizes the changing of sound under load... try CV 3=20 and CV4=10 and see what you think. 
I find that the QSI output is pretty "hot" so you might want to turn down the max sound, CV51.0 maybe down a bit from max. 


Also, depending on which AirWire controller you have, the F9 "heavy load" function is fun, throttling up or down in this mode changes the sound volume/load, but does not change the speed, hit F9 again to resume. This is especially fun with an Aristo RS-3 and the Alco sound... 

I also suggest you download the 260+ page manual... and just leaf through sections of interest, there are all kinds of things you can do. 

Regards, Greg


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