Spacemouse;
I too have a gadget itch that must get scratched.[:D]
Brian
Spacemouse: Very sweet babies, Man.[:D] Maybe the smaller, non-sound LM-2 will be easier to fit somewhere. Could you tether back to the tender? What about the boiler section? Difficult to get access to?
The tender comes with DCC plug. I’ve been able to get decoders in them. I think I could even set-up a LOK sound decoder with speaker in there. But 2 inches is about all I have in there. And only along the top.
2 inches is enough, even for the sound module (LM-1). The height clearance needs to be 5/16 in, though. 9 pin JST or 8 pin NMRA? The LM-1 has a DCC 9 pin standard socket, but Digitrax has a 9-pin JST to 8-pin NMRA adapter harness that I have used in my P2Ks. One issue is the common (+blue wire) of the 9 pin JST (pin 7 of the 8 pin NMRA) when using this adapter harness. The LM-1 will not drive the old P2K 100mA headlight. Nothing happened to the receiver, cause it has overload protection, but I got an “output 1 short circuit/overload” fault from the receiver when I first hooked it up and tried the light. I had to cut the blue wire in the harness so that it didn’t feed pin 7 of the 8 pin DCC socket of the P2K, install a FW rectifier for the rail power, feed that to the P2K board for the Mars light, and install a transistor circuit for the headlight using the rectified rail power. The Mars light is on all the time, and I will address controlling that with the LM-1 sometime. Right now, I’m OK with it being on all the time (having too much fun with the layout right now).
If your locos have LEDs, no problem - piece of cake. It’s just those old large, power hungry Tungstens that may require some mods.
I really like all the protections and warnings that RailPro has. Pretty hard to screw one of those LM receivers up…so far.
I had read about RailPro but I only glanced at it. After looking at some reviews and videos I think I am going to give this system some serious thought. The club I am at uses Digitraxx and I really haven’t had exposure to Lenz or NCE. I am basically starting and current motive power is running DC so from what I am reading this system is probably easier to set up and get up and running out of the box. I would need the HC-2, some decoders and a power supply but it appears cost wise I will end up spending about the same amount of money either way. The technology just seems so intuitive that I can spend more time enjoying the trains.
The only thing that is bad about the system is it is proprietary! Train Engineer is what I run now which has the same problem but mine is for DC (no problems though). I have one of their plug and play to DCC plug set ups but have yet to try it as I am still building layout and it can be converted to dead rail which I hope to do.
Since we opened another old thread from over a year ago - perhaps an update from the OP if he’s still around, on how he feels about the system now after having lived with it fro more than a year?
–Randy
No problem, Randy.
I have had so much frustration-free fun, and have been nothing but pleased since I bought into Railpro. I have 8 loco modules installed, and the sytem has been flawless for me. In the five times that I have ran at the SDMRR museum with Railpro, there has been no interference or operational problems, and I can cover the entire layout from anywhere in the layout area. I can still run circles around the DCC guys. Not only due to the mobility I have, but when they are waiting for a total restart to finish (and their re-configuring), I’m up and gone as soon as the DCC basic 15V signal comes back up on the track. I’m getting about 6 hours from a full charge on the battery. So, I usually just recharge the controller, for a little while, during my lunch break at the museum. Then I have no problem getting through a 10-12 hour day there.
I did discover a crack in my screen one day that mysteriously appeared, causing a black spot on the screen. The touch screen still worked, but the spot covered a couple of buttons. I’m not 100% sure if it was my fault and I just wasn’t aware, or it was a delayed failure from a manufacture/assembly defect, but I sent it back to Ring. It was returned to me in less than 2 weeks, repaired at no cost to me, except for the shipping to Ring.
The smaller LM2 module is available with or without sound in the same size package. There are additional aux outputs as well. I had no problem installing the LM2 into an old Athearn blue box GP50 and a Bachman S7 switcher - both pretty small locos with little space in them. The small size, load capability and functions contained in such a lightweight radio transceiver still blows my mind.
I have had no problems with Ring’s online downloading services. There’s new sound and light effects being regularly developed by Ring. Their loco photo/coding procedure just hasn’t bothered me at all. Ring
Thanks for the update on the RailPro. Glad to hear that the system is still working well for you. One question I haven’t seen asked or covered. How does this system work when there are multiple controllers working the same layout at the same time? If one controller is in control of a locomotive(s) can another controller access/steal the locomotive(s) or does the operator in control have to end the session before another operator/controller can access them? I don’t plan on a second controller yet for a few years but it would be soon as my three year old isn’t going to stay the same age and he likes trains too! Thank you,
Very good review with lots of details. Helps keep down the opinions from those who do not have the system.
Hope you sent this off to Ring.
Rich
You are welcome, Kevin. Sorry, it took so long for me to reply.
Any number of HC’s can find and control any product. All the HCs can have a picture of the loco, or other Railpro product on them. However, only one HC can control a locomotive/consist or product at one time. If HC A is controlling a loco or consist of locos and HC B touches the picture of the loco or a loco in consist that HC A is controlling then HC A displays “Control Taken Away” and HC B runs the train (picks it up from current speed direction, number of consisted locos etc).
If you put a password in any product and do not share it with any other user, than only you can control the product.
DC I appreciate the input you have provided. Sounds like a Digitraxx where you steal a locomotive. Have you tried running a train with ‘Distributed Power Units’ or anyone else tried this as a modern day prototypicl practice? I think a video I watched eluded to this and in theory it sounds like it should work as long as the lead locomotives don’t have some kind of issue and the following units don’t over compensate and shove the cars off the track between the two locomotives. To do it with DCC would require a matched set of locomotives that are speed matched but yet I think the best operation would require multiple operators following their own locomotive around a layout and really watching to make sure they aren’t pushing from the rear too fast or not keeping pace which with DCC I think there would be more issues. As I said earlier I have really only had exposure to DCC at the club I am involved with and I believe the two consists we run on the layout have both locomotives in each consist set up to the same address. The one consist ran really rough and the whole train would lurch as they were not speed matched and it was dependent on which locomotive was getting better traction at a given moment.
I have never tried that myself, Kevin. I have seen it done, once, at the club with DCC and a very long freight train (>100 cars), but the locos were the same manufacturer, same model. I don’t think he made it all the way around the layout without some trouble. It seems like quite a challenge for any control system, even with clean track/wheels, and perfectly running locos. If a train like that bridged 2 adjacent power districts, and something or someone brought down one of those districts, I can imagine quite a mess.[:O]
That’s why you need CLEAN track and reliable feeders. Or the next step after the Ring system - direct radio with on-board batteries so the track doesn’t matter.
We run MU and doubleheaded steam on the club layout all the time - but that’s all power on the head end. If one stalls, the others justpush it past the dead spot. If it was a pusher on the back, or a mid-train helper, it would indeed be a disaster if the head end suddenly stopped but the rest kept going.
–Randy
Kevin - yes you can DPU with Railpro, but as Randy stated you better be sure that everything is clean and reliable. Railpro will still load share when doing DPU and from what I’ve seen it can work well. I haven’t done it myself yet, as I currently don’t have any layout large enough to warrant it. Here’s video made by another Railpro user of DPU in action (hopefully the link works):
Randy - you can do battery with Railpro if you want. All Railpro needs is power, and it doesn’t care where it comes from. The problem is finding a battery that is small enough to fit in a standard HO hood unit. If you’re running steam then you have a bit more room to work with.
-Kevin
Thanks for sharing that video. Slowing, speeding up - impressive, but unless there’s a magic camera/lens, or these old eyes deceive, that’s a large scale train. I thought 700-800mA might be a little weak for O or G. Wonder if we got a Ring large scale beta test here.
It’s HO scale unless I’m grossly wrong. I believe the Sue Line (a freelanced railroad) is all HO scale. It appears large scale due to the placement of the camera.
-Kevin
Very deceiving angle with those guys walking around on the left, but obviously it is HO. Here’s what Tim Ring said about the video:
“That is the layout in Shreveport LA. It is a HO scale layout. And yes they really like the RailPro consisting. This is a good example of how well it works. The locos are not only different models but also different manufactures too. Basically this is as difficult as consisting gets for a model control systems and they told us it work very well when making the video. The layout is 50 ft x 50 ft (2500 square feet)!!! The owner has told us that he wants to convert it completely to RailPro. We do plan to make modules for larger scales.”
Definitely HO scale. Sue Line is Dr Richard Kamm I believe. It’s been in MR, and he’s long been associated with Keith Gutierrez in being one of the test railroads fro his pre-DCC command control systems. Looks like his primary control system is Easy-DCC, with what appears to be a Loconet bus for signalling (since he is using RR-CirKits Tower Controllers).
–Randy
DC, K-Pack, and others who are using RailPro. What are you using for auto-reverser’s on your layouts? do you use the Ring Engineering units, Frog Juicers, or others?
thank you in advance,
Kevin