Would make a good advertisement for RailPro

[Alan]

As I read the DCC column in this month's issue of MRH (http://mrhpub.com/2016-05-may/online/) I could not help but think what a great advertisement it would make for why you should buy RailPro! Actually, it made me have a renewed appreciation for just how far advanced RailPro is to DCC. Setting up a new loco in RP means install the module, turn on the throttle, select the loco. That is all there is to it. If I had to go through all the motions depicted in the MRH article (and have to read an article to know!!!) I would toss the whole DCC system in the trash. Man am I ever glad I didn't go the DCC route.

[KPack]

Alan - I was thinking the same thing as I glanced through the article.  I got through some of it but then just started shaking my head.  An ENTIRE article on a single CV!!  How could anyone enjoy working with a system like that?

On a related note, I ran at a semi-local club for the first time a couple weeks ago.  They were using Digitrax and had plenty of issues with losing control over locomotives, even while plugged in.  Meanwhile I was happily running along with no problems...long trains, short trains, switching, multiple units up front with rear DPU's, etc.  I ran ran for about 4 hours and the throttle was still kicking strong, though the battery indicated low (probably still had another 3 hours left).  Needless to say there was some discussion of Railro and I let a few guys play around with it.

-Kevin

[nodcc4me]

I have been using RP in a Digitrax club for 4 years until recently when we had to leave our building, which got sold. Anyway, I have experienced the same thing as Kevin on many occasions. We have two guys who are able to use JMRI to change CV settings. I have watched them pull their hair out and spending hours doing this, only to have the decoder forget the settings the following week. I did a lot of research before choosing RP, but seeing how complicated and outdated DCC is really helped me make the decision. Three other fellow club members have since started using RP.

[G8B4Life]

"RailPro - we don't need to advertise; DCC does that for us!"   

I haven't read that MRH article but will do so shortly. I think the biggest problem with DCC is generally the lousy manufacturer documentation, lack of decent manufacturer software and basicness of the decoders. I really hate to say it because I class all of you as friends but I believe most of that lousyness is from North American DCC manufacturers that don't want to get dragged into the 21st century. I've been playing around a lot with ESU Loksound's programmer software and that coupled with the comprehensive decoder manuals (88 pages for the full featured v4 decoder) you wouldn't think DCC was that hard at all; well, programming decoders anyway; the less said about running with some of those DCC systems the better.

That being said, CV's are still bad. Speed matching is bad. Software is much better. Load sharing is cool. I'm glad I ditched DCC for RailPro.

I'll probably be going to see a friend at his no-so-local hobby shop on Friday, and you can bet RailPro will be going with me to demo.

- Tim

[yvesmary]

At the beginning programming a DCC locomotive with DecoderPro was an interesting and fun challenge to try to master it. But if you have a dozen or more locos it soon becomes a chore, especially speed matching. Like Kevin I'm shaking my head after reading the article in Model Railroad Hobbyist on one CV and thinking why when there's RaiPro. But most readers of MRH probably haven't even looked into it.

To make it a good advertisement for RailPro readers of MRH would have to know about that option.

It would be nice to see somebody write articles for Model Railroad Hobbyist on installing sound modules and the ease of operating locomotives with RailPro.

Yves in Alberta

[G8B4Life]

I hadn't even read the article when I posted the advertisment comment. I did let out a laugh when I read it and saw an actual advertisment on the second page of the article for RailPro.

I can't say I ended up shaking my head after reading the article but I guess that might be because I'd had quite a bit of exposure to things like CV's and how things like CV29 works before I got into DCC so it wasn't hard to translate it all across. That exposure did not stop me from asking "why are they doing it this way?" though.

I never got to speed matching, my plan was to never have to by using torque converters but using them will probably never happen now.

An article wouldn't be a bad idea but RailPro is so simple I rekon it'd take some real skill to write an article; you could almost just submit the instructions and a couple of Kevin's videos and be done with it!

 - Tim