This is actually an interesting thread! And it may well be touching on some of tomorrow's digital control concepts.
Tropi actually has a very valid point about IR. It is a technology that has made huge advances over the years. IR detectors no longer need direct line of sight in order to function - IR, like all light, reflects from surfaces and modern detectors can pick up the much-weakened bounced signals. Yes, some "path" from transmitter to receiver must exist, and it can't be too convoluted but good equipment no longer requires accurate aiming by the user.
Beyond IR though, is a vast range of other wireless technologies. Take a look at a modern cellular phone for example. Take one apart and look at the circuitry. 90% of the unit's bulk is there just to house the battery, provide us with a viewable screen, and give us buttons almost large enough that we can actually see them! Yet they contain a transmitter, receiver, microprocessor, display and other interface circuits, and more memory than the first PCs! Wireless mice, keyboards, LANs, etc. are some of the areas where the very sort of technology that may suit us is being advanced in earnest today (and they are already very old news!).
DCC, and related technologies, are quite antiquated. I really doubt that they will survive much longer IF digital control really takes off in the marketplace. Our application is, in reality, so simple that it could be done with a single chip and one or two tiny external components.
As for whether the future, in slots, is wireless, or via the power rails, I'm not going to speculate on that. But I doubt that it will look anything like it does now in five years - if it is still around.
Tropi actually has a very valid point about IR. It is a technology that has made huge advances over the years. IR detectors no longer need direct line of sight in order to function - IR, like all light, reflects from surfaces and modern detectors can pick up the much-weakened bounced signals. Yes, some "path" from transmitter to receiver must exist, and it can't be too convoluted but good equipment no longer requires accurate aiming by the user.
Beyond IR though, is a vast range of other wireless technologies. Take a look at a modern cellular phone for example. Take one apart and look at the circuitry. 90% of the unit's bulk is there just to house the battery, provide us with a viewable screen, and give us buttons almost large enough that we can actually see them! Yet they contain a transmitter, receiver, microprocessor, display and other interface circuits, and more memory than the first PCs! Wireless mice, keyboards, LANs, etc. are some of the areas where the very sort of technology that may suit us is being advanced in earnest today (and they are already very old news!).
DCC, and related technologies, are quite antiquated. I really doubt that they will survive much longer IF digital control really takes off in the marketplace. Our application is, in reality, so simple that it could be done with a single chip and one or two tiny external components.
As for whether the future, in slots, is wireless, or via the power rails, I'm not going to speculate on that. But I doubt that it will look anything like it does now in five years - if it is still around.
