WIMorrison

https://www.dcctrainautomation.co.uk/uhlenbrock-62225-loconet-clutch.html

Why not just use shorter cables that are slightly longer than the board end and buy a female/female adapter from eBay - they cost pennies. tye other choice is simply to unplug the LocoNet from one (or both) of the DR5088RC and coil it up then reconnect when needed to make the layout work? both simple and easy

I would recommend iTrain Https://www.berros.eu

Wago are superb - but they are for wire ends, unlike IDC suitcase type which go along the length of the wire

If they vibrate off in a car then either wrong size has been used or they haven’t been fitted correctly. I have used them in everything from main battle tanks to earth movers through almost anything you can imagine in between in my lifetime and I have yet to see one fail when the right size is used and it is fitted properly. if you are concerned about condensation then use the waterproof ones - they will work anywhere. Did you know that the telephone system - including your FTTC broadband connection - relies on IDC connectors? Now that signal is much more susceptible to electrical noise and damp than anything on a model railway

I use IDC connectors (which is what I think you mean?) These are what I use and despite what naysayers will advise I have never in many years had an issue. I have also used them in repairs for much more critical wiring that a model railway But I don't think I would be using speaker wire, probably not heavy enough. I would suggest 1mm mains lighting cable, or even larger, but 2.5mm power cable is possibly overkill for a smaller layout. Also running if running the 2 wires in close proximity, which is what you will be doing, then you should really put a loose twist of 3 - 4 twists per foot into the bus wire. If you keep the wires a few centimetres apart then you wouldn't need the twist.

These are cost effective and they work https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TF-Card-MP3-GPD2846A-Decoder-Board-With-2W-Amplifier-Memory-Playback/293021290472?hash=item44396e0fe8:g:NCQAAOSwAzVcmJyr and a card isn't dear either https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/8GB-64GB-Micro-TF-Memory-Card-for-Android-Smartphone-Tablet-Class-10-SD-Card-lot/352876490070?hash=item522913ed56:m:m-iNbArbDZVoYgiTSb72NPw I know that they work as I have some

I assume that by modem you actually mean Access Point? The placement of the AP is as much an art as a science, but you can help in the signal propagation by ensuring that where you place it isn't compromised by extraneous interference caused by almost all electrical appliances. Televisions and microwaves are real challenges as are many mains powered LED bulbs which have poor circuitry. I was able to completely swamp an access point in a room using 4x12w GU10 LED bulbs, returning back to the halogen restored the signal. This noise is understood and documented by 'ham radio' whi have been complaining about it for many years. Another issue that often affects garage to house comms is the type of glass in the double glazing, high thermal efficiency is a very effective barrier to WiFi, and the type of construction and insulation in the house can have a major impact Celotex, Kingspan, and similar are especially bad because the have aluminium covering. My house is 100% brick, double skinned with thermal plasterboard (aluminium foil on one side) an I am toiling to get from one room to another! Powerline adapters are a godsend for home installations, either that or wire cat 5/6 to each room - powerline is much easier

Keith You will be getting a mix of 2.4GHz and 5GHz signals which will account for the some of differing strengths, plus there are people arriving home with phones and 'hotspots' and you can probably add into that mix a lot of misconfigured devices which are not set to UK (or EU). Regrettably absolutely nothing you can do about it - other than lining your house with meta and earthing it out (the Faraday cage referred to earlier )

@melmerby - shows that there are a lot of houses around you

where do you buy the black one? - even Gaugemaster don't show a black faced combi on their website

Here's a primer for you https://tonystrains.com/news/peco-electro-frog-turnouts-dcc/ You can ignore where it says DCC, there is absolutely no difference in wiring them for DC or DCC

? why should they ?

As you are using DCC a small stay alive capacitor on the decoder, or even simply a capacitor across the pickups if you are wiring direct to the wheels without a decoder will do it. You only need a decoder if you want to switch the lights off. Look at DCC Concepts for pickups or Digikeijs for complete kits https://www.digikeijs.com/en/dr100y-h0-lighting-installation-kit-yellow.html

All true, but you described this as an emergency stop not a graceful stop. In an emergency stop you simply want all moving parts to stop when the button is pressed - and as most people don’t use software then the methods I describe will work for them.

By far the simplest way is simply to switch a short across the track. the automatic protection in the command station will then stop everything and one you have fixed the issue start again - even easier if you use an NCE EB1, PSX, MERG DCO or similar because as soon as you remove the short they will reset and layout starts again. Or another alternative is to place a switch in the feeds from the command station to the bus - On layout goes, Off it stops Lots of ways to skin this cat without software or anything clever or complicated

Cant you just press the <Esc> key on the keyboard to instantly stop the layout? That is what I do with the software I use .

you are competing with Mobile Phones in that area of the spectrum

I think that you will find that it is not approved for use within the EU therefore should not be used at UK exhibitions. the NA 2.4GHz spectrum is slightly different than that authorised in the EU and also the broadcast is different to that authorised. a device such as this is very likely to cause issues for other approved WiFi equipment especially under the circumstances being discussed.

can you point us at the STL for these?

Interestingly it isn't the hotspot that consumes power, it is WiFi hardware itself. The hotspot is simply a software switch on the hardware for WiFi and it is the hardware consumes the power. I wager that 99% of people use WiFi at home and that the majority of those people will also use WiFi in the office and train/bus going to work - this means that they never switch the WiFi off and if they have used it as a hotspot than they won't remember to switch that off. If you want to save battery and be more secure, then switch off WiFi and Bluetooth, easy enough on some phones - but harder on others

Paul What you can see is the SSID of WiFi routers that are beaconing (or broadcasting) their network presence. A hotspot is the name applied when it is happening on a phone or MiFi device.

@John K I can assure you that I have not misunderstood anything, I have designed, built, managed and maintained wired, WiFi and satellite based networks that have had many tens of thousands of users. I fully understand the operation of TCP/IP (plus other protocols) and the various transport mechanisms that are involved in LAN, WAN and RAN. It might help you to read up on 802.11 and whilst there look into adjacent and co-channel interference and how they impact congestion - or even easier just google WiFi congestion and read some of the learned articles that you be offered, especially the ones for IEEE

Do you mean 5Ghz rather that 5g - they are not the same thing? Plus there is no point in having 5Ghz if you controller only works with 2.4Ghz.

It may simply be necessary to use wired handsets as the public is not going to stop using smartphones and I suspect that most people wouldn’t know whether they have a live hotspot or not. what I did notice from the other reports of issues is that most people were having issues with 2.4Ghz radio and yet when using 5Ghz connections the problems were greatly reduced. this would make sense as 5Ghz is newer and devices that support this standard have better components and up to date firmware and software - but whilst 5Ghz might work now that will change as more and more devices use 5Ghz and you will be back to wired handsets. upping the power to ‘drown out’ other signals won’t help either as other exhibitors will simply do the same and once more you are back at the same place. temporary solutions include changing the channel to a less congested channel either manually, or by using a decent router which has automatic channel optimisation m, ideally with beam forming technology. You can get these from Hauwei and TP Link at reasonable cost.