General > General Discussion
RailPro with ProtoThrottle
William Brillinger:
More than a hundred... :D
Sorry I couldn't resist. That's an in joke from the AML.
I think they are somewhere around 500 units now.
If it would interface with RailPro, I'd have at least two.
G8B4Life:
Hmm, I already split the existing RailPro and ProtoThrottle conversation from "Introduce Yourself" to it's own thread and now we've ended up in the old ProtoThrottle thread. Oh well.
--- Quote from: Smoke on April 26, 2020, 12:14:43 PM ---I emailed Mr. Ring about the possibility of using ProtoThrottle with RP in the future, we will see what he says.
--- End quote ---
Our own TomO, who it appears to be, did that a while ago. The response looks like it wasn't "very favourable". From the second post on this thread: http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=52367.
--- Quote ---I was running Dead Rail with batteries in a dummy and using the RailPro controller and decoders. But, I left it. I wanted to buy a ProtoThrottle and RailPro was not interested in working with the ProtoThrottle.
--- End quote ---
- Tim
Smoke:
--- Quote from: G8B4Life on April 26, 2020, 10:05:20 PM ---Hmm, I already split the existing RailPro and ProtoThrottle conversation from "Introduce Yourself" to it's own thread and now we've ended up in the old ProtoThrottle thread. Oh well.
--- End quote ---
That's my fault, I saw you split it and then when I went to post again I thought you had moved it to the already existing PT thread. :-[ Feel free to move it again, I'll pay more attention this time. :)
--- Quote from: G8B4Life on April 26, 2020, 10:05:20 PM ---
--- Quote from: Smoke on April 26, 2020, 12:14:43 PM ---I emailed Mr. Ring about the possibility of using ProtoThrottle with RP in the future, we will see what he says.
--- End quote ---
Our own TomO, who it appears to be, did that a while ago. The response looks like it wasn't "very favourable". From the second post on this thread: http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=52367.
--- Quote ---I was running Dead Rail with batteries in a dummy and using the RailPro controller and decoders. But, I left it. I wanted to buy a ProtoThrottle and RailPro was not interested in working with the ProtoThrottle.
--- End quote ---
- Tim
--- End quote ---
If enough people ask for it, it would make sense for Mr. Ring to at least consider adding in the functionality. We may never reach the interest level in the community, but it doesn't hurt to ask.
To me, I see two options for development of using RP with the PT:
1. Ring releases the communication protocol and ISE develops a PT that will work. I don't see this happening.
2. Ring develops the hardware and software required to interface with the PT. I see this as a viable option as the proprietary information does not have to be shared externally, and everything can still be updated as usual. I am sure that Mr. Ring would have the knowledge on how to interface with the PT, but it may not be something he is ever interested in. I did notice on the RP DCC page that the radio consisting with load sharing is noted as "maybe a future program update", so maybe there is hope that it will work with a PT at some point.
G8B4Life:
--- Quote from: Smoke on April 27, 2020, 09:53:08 AM ---That's my fault, I saw you split it and then when I went to post again I thought you had moved it to the already existing PT thread. :-[ Feel free to move it again, I'll pay more attention this time. :)
--- End quote ---
All good, it happens sometimes. The other topic went off on a tangent on UX and UI so to try and keep all the RailPro with ProtoThrottle posts together I have split and merged the topics again, this one can be for using RailPro with ProtoThrottle and the other we can leave as a general ProtoThrottle topic.
--- Quote ---If enough people ask for it, it would make sense for Mr. Ring to at least consider adding in the functionality. We may never reach the interest level in the community, but it doesn't hurt to ask.
To me, I see two options for development of using RP with the PT:
1. Ring releases the communication protocol and ISE develops a PT that will work. I don't see this happening.
2. Ring develops the hardware and software required to interface with the PT. I see this as a viable option as the proprietary information does not have to be shared externally, and everything can still be updated as usual. I am sure that Mr. Ring would have the knowledge on how to interface with the PT, but it may not be something he is ever interested in. I did notice on the RP DCC page that the radio consisting with load sharing is noted as "maybe a future program update", so maybe there is hope that it will work with a PT at some point.
--- End quote ---
Sure, there certainly is no harm in asking and I wasn't trying to discourage you but over the years I've pretty much come to the conclusion TR isn't really interested in supporting the competition, ie DCC, when he goes to the length to almost trash talk it down and why he invented RailPro to overcome DCC's shortcomings. I think the DCC functionality we have now may have even been begrudgingly added (there's still a couple of flaws with it).
Now, I agree with No. 1, I don't see that happening. ISE could license the communication protocol (I saw that licensing was an option in and old RE document, forget where though) but I don't see happening either.
No. 2 is more doable but I wonder how it would work between them as ISE makes the adapter units for the command stations, not the command station manufacturers, not sure if ISE would give up that part. Even though ISE's code is open source I haven't looked at it so I don't know exactly how "open" it really is. The code for the PT itself might be open source but the code for the adapter might not be; again I haven't looked at it to see.
It will be interesting to see the response you get. TomO asked a couple of years ago from what I've gathered. Perhaps TR is more receptive to the idea now than back then. We'll soon see I suppose.
- Tim
Smoke:
--- Quote from: G8B4Life on April 27, 2020, 10:55:48 AM ---
Sure, there certainly is no harm in asking and I wasn't trying to discourage you but over the years I've pretty much come to the conclusion TR isn't really interested in supporting the competition, ie DCC, when he goes to the length to almost trash talk it down and why he invented RailPro to overcome DCC's shortcomings. I think the DCC functionality we have now may have even been begrudgingly added (there's still a couple of flaws with it).
Now, I agree with No. 1, I don't see that happening. ISE could license the communication protocol (I saw that licensing was an option in and old RE document, forget where though) but I don't see happening either.
No. 2 is more doable but I wonder how it would work between them as ISE makes the adapter units for the command stations, not the command station manufacturers, not sure if ISE would give up that part. Even though ISE's code is open source I haven't looked at it so I don't know exactly how "open" it really is. The code for the PT itself might be open source but the code for the adapter might not be; again I haven't looked at it to see.
It will be interesting to see the response you get. TomO asked a couple of years ago from what I've gathered. Perhaps TR is more receptive to the idea now than back then. We'll soon see I suppose.
- Tim
--- End quote ---
I don't see the Proto Throttle as being the competition (DCC), but rather being something that could convert people to RailPro. It does run on DCC currently, but that is only because that is what the masses use. When I asked ISE about it, Nathan's response was that they can't develop anything for it because it is proprietary, but they get asked that question from time to time. I got the feeling that if they could develop something for it they would. I wonder if ISE contacted Ring to see about a solution for moving forward if TR would consider developing something.
--- Quote from: Alan on April 26, 2020, 12:58:35 PM ---It would be interesting to know how many Protothrottles have been sold to date. Anybody know?
--- End quote ---
As of Oct 2018 they had sold 240 throttles (Mentioned at 20:45):
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