EZ app for N scale

[BachBinky]

Any idea if Bachmann will provide EZApp for N scale locomotives or sets? The additional Christmas music is awesome.

[InsideTrack]

Glad you enjoyed the Christmas music. Until the Bluetooth chips can be made smaller, we cannot offer E-Z App-equipped trains in N scale. Hopefully that will be something that can happen sometime down the track.

[Piyer]

Out of curiosity, how small do the chips have to be? TDK has had a 3.5 mm x 3.5 mm x 1.0 mm chip on the market since mid-2015. Does a chip for an N-scale locomotive need to be considerably smaller than that? 

[Flare]

Out of curiosity, how small do the chips have to be? TDK has had a 3.5 mm x 3.5 mm x 1.0 mm chip on the market since mid-2015. Does a chip for an N-scale locomotive need to be considerably smaller than that? 

As I understand it, Bachmann partners with BlueRailTrains for bluetooth control.  BlueRail's DCC boards for end-users measure 28mm x 58mm.

http://bluerailtrains.com/board-sign-up/

The green square in the upper left corner of the images appears to be the receiver, which might fit on an embedded N scale board, but it's still on the large side.

[BachBinky]

Thanks for your reply. Is the EZ app for N scale in the works?

[Bucksco]

As stated previously the Bluetooth chips that we use are not small enough yet so it is not being planned at the moment.
As far as the chip size is concerned a specific Bluetooth 4 chip is used and we need to wait for that chip to be made smaller.

[Dna9656]

Is the hard wired and the blue tooth edition of EZ App built to NMRA standards?

[Hunt]

Is the hard wired and the blue tooth edition of EZ App built to NMRA standards?

Believe you have a misconception about E-Z App. NMRA DCC standards are not applicable. E-Z App Touch-Screen Train Control uses different technology than DCC. 

 

[Fred Klein]

Having been playing with a couple of Blue Rail boards for my Bachmann On30 Christmas train layout and also running my N scale layout on DCC, I've found out the following:

While the actual Blue Rail/EZ app technology on the board is totally different from DCC, the outputs match those of the NMRA standard 8-pin plug. Therefore, if you have a DCC locomotive that uses a standard NMRA 8-pin plug, you could just unplug the decoder and plug in a Blue Rail board and it would work - PROVIDING you added the proper power to the the tracks. By proper power, I mean 9 - 24 V constant DC. Leaving DCC power connected to the layout would, I assume, either not work or burn out the board (haven't tried it).

As stated above, for N scale, the biggest issue is size, i.e. getting the Blue Rail board to fit into a locomotive.

As for my Christmas train layout, I'm using the Blue Rail board to power the track itself and have converted my On30 engines back to straight DC operation and they run great.
You could also run an N scale layout that way.

Hope this helps,

[Hunt]

...  Leaving DCC power connected to the layout would, I assume, either not work or burn out the board (haven't tried it).
. . .

The assumption is incorrect.

The E-Z App circuit board does work with DCC power. However, it does not use the embedded DCC commands. You can run E-Z App equipped locomotives at the same time someone using their DCC controller is running their DCC equipped locomotives.

[Hunt]

Click Here for 3. Connecting to your Train section in the User Guide.

[Fred Klein]

Thanks, Hunt. Learned something new.