June 13, 2002

Inexpensive Lenz Wireless

The innovative Lenz, XPA Wireless Phone Adaptor will be shipping in several weeks:

Lenz has announced the release of the XPA. The manual is now online, and the product is in shipment from Germany. The MSRP will be $54.95, Tony's $44.00.

This makes radio control an inexpensive handheld alternative for XpressNet based systems.

The XpressNet Phone Adapter (XPA) provides affordable wireless capability to any XpressNet based system (such as Lenz, Atlas, or Roco). It is easy to use and provides more range than any other wireless unit on the market. The XPA has both FCC and CE approvals and can be used with any device worldwide that generates the standard DTMF tones. This includes all phones produced that have tone dialing.

Here is how it works.

The XPA is a small box with two RS11 ports. One port is used to connect the XPA to your XpressNet. The other port is used to connect the XPA to any device that uses standard tones such as a cordless phone. The XPA translates the standard tones produces by the phone into a series of XpressNet commands which allows you to have full control of your trains from a cordless phone. One XPA is needed for each wireless device desired. Up to 30 XPAs can be used on an XPressNet based system. Set-01 can support 30, Set-02 can support 5 and the Compact/Commander can support 6. Please note that device (phone) used with the XPA is dedicated for this purpose and while plugged into the XPA, it can not be plugged into the phone system.

The range of XPA is based on the capabilities of the specific cordless phone selected. It does not matter if the phone is an older phone or one of the latest models. There are several hundred choices available. Chose the one that is the easiest for you to use and has the range and battery life desired. The feel in your hand is the most important aspect and since all our hands are different one choice will not be best for all. We have found that a the lowest cost 900MHz phone has more than enough range for most layouts. We have used an extended 900MHZ on our outdoor layout and for ultimate range a 2.4 GHZ phone works great. Some of our favorite ones are shown on our WWW site.

Feature set.

1) Ability to select any locomotive address (the address range is determined by the capabilities of your command station)

2) Speed and direction control

3) F0-F8 (momentary if the command station supports the feature) (the number of functions available is determined by the capabilities of your command station)

4) Turnout Control

5) Macros (if supported by the phone selected)

6) Ability to customize several options

The keys work as follows

3 - speed up one speed step with each press
6 - speed up multiple speed step with each press
9 - speed up quickly with each press

1 - slow down one speed step with each press
4 -slow down multiple speed step with each press
7- slow down quickly with each press

2 - forward
5 - stop
8 - reverse

0 - emergency stop (can be customized)

# and * are used for special functions. For example # 6 1 1 * assigns locomotive 611 to the handheld. * 7 activates function 7

Lenz Components Page