Nelevation Newsletter – September 2016

With July and August out of the way and September stretching ahead of us, we are now all back from our holidays and have our noses firmly attached to the Nelevator grindstone.

In this newsletter we’ll be bringing you updates as to the state of production and anticipated delivery dates plus some interesting new developments that we’ve been working on in the background.

New Developments

Whilst many of you are patiently awaiting the arrival of your Nelevator (more to follow on this shortly), in parallel with our frantic production activities we have also been looking to the future to enhance the flexibility of the Nelevator and ease its integration into your layout and system with expanded control options.

Every Nelevator shipped comes equipped with a serial communications port that you will be able to use to interface with the Nelevator. The specification for the Nelevator‘s communication protocol (that we’ve christened NellyCOM) has now been published on our website for all to make use of. Click here to go to the NellyCOM specification page on our website.

We have used this communication port extensively in the development of the Nelevator ourselves and are planning to make available a Nelevator to USB adaptor cable and a Nelevator to Bluetooth dongle.

To this aim we have developed a small Android Remote Control App that you could make use of with the Bluetooth dongle (when available) to get you on your way. Unfortunately due to a plethora of reasons, both technical and commercial, we won’t be able to produce an app for Apple devices, but don’t let us deter you from having a go yourself if you’re willing and able.

For the technically minded, the interface options with the Nelevator could be wide and varied, with possible interface solutions being developed on Arduino or Raspberry Pi platforms to name but two.

If you’re not into electronics, it may be worth considering joining the Model Electronics Railway Group (MERG) who can offer a wealth of support and advice on the subject. MERG have their own model railway control system called CBUS that interfaces with many systems (including DCC) and we have been talking with them about interfacing the Nelevator with their system too.

Full Production Underway

All of the required components for the first batch of 50 units are now in stock.

Following a bit of a hiatus at the end of July and the beginning of August due to holidays, we’re now all back from our travels and are busy putting together all of our sub-assemblies into completed units ready to test and ship.

When will I get my Nelevator?

Units are now beginning to go out of the door slowly but surely. However, with over 140 orders in our order book, we won’t be able to satisfy all orders simultaneously and to be fair to everyone we will be shipping units in the order we received the orders.

As the shipping dates approach for each order we will be getting in touch with you to confirm your requirements and organise delivery.

As a very rough approximation we will be producing the Nelevators in batches of 50 off with the following approximate timescales:

• Batch 1: September 2016 – November 2016
• Batch 2: December 2016 – February 2017
• Batch 3: March 2017 – May 2017

Forthcoming Shows

It’s almost a year since we first showed the Nelevator at the International N-Gauge Show in Royal Leamington Spa. Since then much has happened; full production of N-gauge units is underway and we now also have a pre-production version of the OO-Gauge version which is also being geared up for production.

If you haven’t seen the Nelevator and want to see it first hand, here’s the list of shows that we intend to visit this forthcoming season:

1. The International N-Gauge Show: 10 – 11 September 2016, Leamington Spa
2. The National Festival of Railway Modelling: 15 – 16 October 2016, Peterborough
3. Warley National Model Railway Exhibition: 26 – 27 November 2016, Birmingham
4. Model Rail Scotland: 24 – 26 February 2017, Glasgow
5. The London Festival of Railway Modelling: 25 – 26 March 2017, London

Thank you once again for your interest in the Nelevator and we look forward to bringing you further updates soon and perhaps meeting you at one of the shows.