I’m very much thinking about adding JMRI to our little 4x8 layout (about 60’ of track and 8 turnouts). I am thinking about a couple of different options to run JRMI. Basically, I have it down to our old dated Samsung NF210 netbook (Windows 7) or the latest incarnation of a Rasberry Pi. Both have their pros and cons. FWIW, we are running a digitrax system and would have to get a PR3 to interface to our layout.
Honestly, I know very little of JMRI beyond it’s ability to program CV’s. That’s the primary reason I’d want to utilize it, as it gives a very clear overview of which CV’s are programmed to what value. The other primary reason I’d like to start working with it is it’s ability to speed match locos. We are starting to run a few simple consists on our layout, and it’s hard to explain to 6 y/o why we can’t consist certain locos with each other. (FWIW, when I got home from work last night, he was running 8 coach passenger train with two steam locos in a consist on the layout by himself. I set the consist up a couple of days ago on the throttle and he went back to it…) I know JMRI is extremely functional and powerful, but I know very little of those functions at this time.
So my question comes down to this, given those options, which would you chose to run JMRI? Does it matter? The edge in computing power goes to the netbook (1.5 Ghz vs 1.2 Ghz). The raspberry has the edge in size and being able to run other functions on the layout.
If I go with the netbook, I’ve got to spend about $30 on a new power cord. If I go raspberry Pi, I’ll have to buy that, and a monitor or display. If I went that route, I thought it might be cool to integrate the JMRI monitor into the fascia of the layout. FWIW, the display on the netbook is only 1000x600.
The Pi tends to be a little week for the GUI portion. There are people running a Pi as the machine with the interface (PR3 in your case) but the JMRI front end on a different machine. Which specific Pi is it? Different versions have different compute power and yours might be enough. If the other machine is not too sluggish with Windows then it should run JMRI just fine. Memory seems to be a critical factor in JMRI performance, probably because java is so memory hungry. Way back int he early JMRI days I had an old P2 laptop that ran Windows 98 just fine, but it woudl take 15+ minutes to start up JMRI. I think it may have had 512MB RAM, upgrading it to a full 1GB improved things dramatically. That may be the issue with the Pi, plenty of RAM to run headless, but add the GUI and the RAM is just not enough. But different Pi variations have different amounts of RAM.
To be clear, I haven’t bought a Pi yet. Well, we have one that we used to run a family calendar, but I’d get a new one for the layout. Likely a pi3. FWIW, the netbook I’d be using only has 1 GB of ram as well. So memory is likely a wash between the two.
And after reading this link on that page, I think I’m going to go the Raspberry Pi route. I forgot that in the train room, we already have a 32" TV that I could use as a monitor…
I will add, that that ancient laptop I used while it would take like 15 minutes to start JMRI, once it loaded up, it worked fine and moving between the screens was reasonably fast. It was just that initial startup that seems to suffer with a lower power machine. Heck my main desktop has a quad core Xeon, 16GB RAM, and runs off an SSD, and the computer boots Windows faster than JMRI starts up on it.