# What's happened to Lenz as a company?



## Zug (May 4, 2012)

I've been away from my trains actively for a few years now due to my health and money problems created by my health. But am now trying to get back at the trains again. I had to sell off my Lenz Set90 system to pay bills some time ago and now am looking at getting another but find most places listed as dealer in Canada are not even listing Lenz stuff now. (a lot of the dealer websites aren't even there to begin with)

So I'm starting to wonder of Lenz is dieing off a company or what? I developed ZugDCC specifically for Lenz over a decade ago, and speaking from a technical programming side, the Lenz XpressNet or work solid to work with. I scrounged together the money to buy a NCE Powercab and USB interface a few years back to try to re-develop ZugDDC for NCE but with my health issues I got stalled about 75% done (ie no decoder programming or consist abilities, but everything else works) But I have pretty much abandon the project, and have the Powercab for sale now with the idea of getting another Lenz Set90, bit it seems a bit sketchy whats going on with them. I don't really want to reinvest in Lenz of it's on the way out.

I've done a few searches, but mostly what I get are old posts on various forums going back a few years that mostly appear to be speculation.. So I was just wondering is anybody has any comments on Lenz?

and before anybody asks, no, my health has not improved and is unlikely to do so. I am just trying to get back to my trains again and find the right way to go..


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## tkruger (Jan 18, 2009)

I just entered DCC recently and most everything I read did not even mention Lenz. If it did it was older information or as a footnote. Generally the first two mentioned were NCE and DigiTrax followed by MRC. As an entry system Bachmann was mentioned. I have gone to several shows and never seen Lenz equipment for sale but have seen the other manufacturers for sale there.


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

Wasn't Lenz the company that basically developed the
DCC system?

I found this. Apparently they are still in business.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/262224884116?item=262224884116&lgeo=1&vectorid=229466&rmvSB=true

Don


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## Cycleops (Dec 6, 2014)

I think Lenz have just been rather eclipsed by the other major players and for various operational reasons their sets are not as popular. I have a Lenz decoder and its my favourite non sound decoder.


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## Zug (May 4, 2012)

DonR said:


> Wasn't Lenz the company that basically developed the
> DCC system?
> 
> I found this. Apparently they are still in business.
> ...


Yes, Lenz made the DCC standard, which makes it sadly ironic they have apparently faded in popularity. I seen those listing also, and the price is ok, but that seller wants $75 to ship it to Canada which is a total ripoff. And I really don't care for the push button throttle. The NCE PowerCab I have right now uses buttons also, and I never touch them. (I use the wheel thing, which I still find awkward compared to a knob..)


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## flyboy2610 (Jan 20, 2010)

You already own one of the best and most popular DCC systems on the market.


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## Viperjim1 (Mar 19, 2015)

*Lenz*

Lenz decoders are in atlas locos, that's what they use for the factory install.


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## Zug (May 4, 2012)

Just a follow up to my thread... I've sold the NCE PowerCab system, it's on the way to it's new owner now. For now I'm going back to my old Atlas Commander. I've ordered an extra throttle for it for the convenience of having a simple handheld throttle to use.

This will leave me an easy path back to a full Lenz system should money ever permit/ But for a small layout, the 2.5amp Commander is sufficient to get the job done, and I can live with 2 digit addressing. I still have my LI100F computer interface which works with the Command should I get back to seriously working on ZugDCC again. 
ok you can yawn now and go on to the next tread...


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## fcwilt (Sep 27, 2013)

You might find these interesting:

www.z21.eu/en/Z21

http://www.freiwald.com/pages/traincontroller.htm

I started with an NCE system because I like the handheld. But the NCE system lacked a feature that prevented it from working well with TrainController

So I switched over to a Digitrax system. I knew, from research, that it worked fine with TrainController but I was not impressed with the design.

Now I am using the Z21 and I am quite happy. 

It works fine with TrainController. 

It supports multiple control buses such as LocoNet. 

It supports using a phone/tablet as a handheld controller. 

They have a more "traditional" handheld control in a wired version. The WiFi version of this handheld is now for sale. 

It has a standard Ethernet network connection for connecting to a computer and/or the wireless access point needed for the WiFi handheld controller.

And as a "fun" feature there are a number of locos available with a builtin "POV" camera. The image from these special locos is displayed on the phone/tablet when using one as a handheld controller.


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## Zug (May 4, 2012)

The Z21 stuff looks interesting, and a great idea to be able to work with different brands of controls. I've though about looking in to the Roco throttles eventually, I'm a solo operator so I don't have a big need to have a lot of extras around.

the Atlas Commander (aka Lenz Compact) was my 1st DCC system, then I found out there computers could be used to run trains, so I looked in to all the current brands and got a DigiTrax Zepher and some other parts only to find Digitrax (at least at that time) had a very restrictive license to develop software for LocoNet, so I returned that stuff and went with a Lenz Set-90. and from the computer operation side of it, the XpressNet has best designed on the computer level. Great error checking, status checking and so on, so ZugDCC throttles pretty much the same as a real Lenz throttle.

When I got the NCE PowerCab I bought it because of the popularity of the system and to rework ZugDCC for it. But the NCE bus is not nearly as good to program for and personally, i found the throttle a bit awkward, but that's just me... 
But as my health has been failing, I stopped working on the NCE version of ZugDCC and figured I'd go back to a platform I like better. I'm sure lots will argue what system is best, and they are all right and all wrong, meaning it's what works best for the user. And in some ways, I even like the Atlas Command better then the Lenz LH90 throttle. I guess I'm strange


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## Cycleops (Dec 6, 2014)

I see they've recently added added the LH01 economy throttle to the range, something for you to consider?


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