General
While thinking about creating a new model railroad brand, somebody said: Oh no…. yet another company that produces model railroad stuff…
That was the base for our YaMoRC® brand name: Yet another Model Railroad Company.
After that a long process started to check the uniqueness of the brand name, whether it did not mean something indecent in any major language and not the least important whether the Internet Domain yamorc with all it’s extensions was still free.
In the end we concluded, that there is only one other organization in the whole world that uses the same acronym: The Yamaha Owners and Riders Club since this is a completely different branch of interest and this Club utilizes a different Internet Domain, we decided to take chance and the new brand name was born !
Well, a safe answer is: It Depends…
Although our founder and CEO, mr. Karst Drenth, designed and developed all the black DR4xxx and DR5xxx modules sold by Digikeijs, none of them can be supported in respect to the hardware and/or firmware/software. Digikeijs themselves are fully responsible for maintenance, support and repairs.
So we don’t provide any free-of-charge support/advice/troubleshooting for the black Digikeijs modules.
Well here is the story of our founder and CEO!
Karst started his model railroad career when he was 6 years old. Santa brought him his first Fleischmann train set. Years went by building layouts, “inventing” electrical solutions and playing intensely with his trains.
This interest for electricity and electronics brought him to Technical University, from which he graduated in 1984. Until 2003 the activity in model railroading was rather dormant. But then he bought his first Digital System, a Daisy I from Uhlenbrock. Converting locos to DCC and playing with that is nice, but the LocoNet present on that system was more interesting. Since, back then, only very expensive devices for linking train stuff to PCs existed, it was time for Karst to build something himself. John Jaber’s LocoBuffer was the piece of kit of choice.
This announced a new era in Karst’s model railroad career. After studying the LocoNet and DCC protocols, Karst started to design is own hardware. Interfaces ( LocoNet-PC-, XpressNet-Feedback-PC), Feedback modules, Servo decoders, Switch decoders etc.
Of course these activities did not pass unnoticed by fellow model railroaders. Many of them also wanted the devices Karst designed and produced in small scale. At the heydays, over 500 kits of the famous “ServoSwitch” were sold under Karst’s hobby-company KDesign Electronics.
Again that did not stay unnoticed either, but this time commercial interest arose. A company called Digirails showed interest in Karst’s designs and wanted to produce them in license. That initiative materialized and an almost 10 year long cooperation started between Karst and Digirails (later Digikeijs). Karst kept on designing: DR4088 series, DR4018, DR4024, DR5000, DR5033, DR5088RC, DR5013, DR5052 etc. etc.
In the same time period Karst also shared his vast knowledge as a designer and advisor for major model railroad companies.
In late 2019 the cooperation with Digikeijs came to an end. Both parties decided to go their own way, where Digikeijs bought the production and marketing rights for the “DR-portfolio”.
Mid 2020, Karst started designing a completely new portfolio under the wings of the Drenth Design & Consulting B.V. company, with the brand YaMoRC. Until 01-01-2022 Karst has been employed for 30 years as an Enterprise Architect in a major Dutch software company. As of then however Karst decided to devote the remaining years of his career to 100% model railroad. Be it (digital)electronics, models, scenery or what more can be thought of.
From now on, you just have to follow this site to stay informed about Karst’s activities !
Experience, over the past 10 years, with manufacturing electronics in the Far East showed that quality control is cumbersome. Even though contracts and agreements with Far East PCB assemblers are common practice, production quality fluctuates usually between 5 and 15% of DOA ( Dead On Arrival ) PCBs. Or, have “hidden” defects like bad soldering, which only show up when the modules are already mounted in/at/under your layout.
To overcome these bad-quality problems, YaMoRC has chosen to let it’s products being manufactured in Germany. YaMoRC has established a unique cooperation with one of the major German model railroad electronics companies. Being within an acceptable traveling distance, it enables YaMoRC to guide the production on-site to ensure flawless production. All products are subject to a test-run-assembly in presence of YaMoRC and verified and appraised on-site. It is that only after this verification process, the series-production continues. Needless to say, that the aforementioned company uses state of the art machinery for SMD and conventional components, as well as high quality, lead-free soldering. Also electronic components are sourced directly from reliable, well known suppliers/resellers in EU and/or USA.
Once the PCBs have been assembled and visually inspected, they are shipped to YaMoRC’s assembly- and test-facility in Apeldoorn, The Netherlands. There is where every (!!) PCB undergoes a comprehensive, fully automated test. Only after successful completion, the PCBs are assembled into their enclosure and are labeled with their respective sticker. Stays only the packaging into eco-friendly, natural, plastic-free, cardboard boxes.
So we proudly carry the quality label: “Made in Germany”, because Quality is Essential!
The manuals and firmware + configuration software can be found under the SERVICE tab in the product details of the respective product.
Note: The firmware and config software is identical for all modules. You just need to download and install it once for all modules 🙂
Example: Click here and then the SERVICE tab.
The printed press shows it’s interest in YaMoRC and wrote some nice articles:
- DiMo (DE), Digitale Modellbahn 2022-4: Rückmelder von plug-play bis high-end
- RailMagazine (NL), RailMagazine 401: Producten van YaMoRC