RailPro > RailPro Specific Help & Discussion

Railpro with DCC on Large Modular Layout

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G8B4Life:

--- Quote ---claiming they get enough business off of the internet.
--- End quote ---

That's pretty much the same mentality as someone I know; the jobs will come to me. Result, I have hardly done anything for them in the last 3 months and the company has been roughly the same size for the last 10 years so it's a dangerous precedence to set for one's self. Reading between the lines I get the impression that it's not just that they get enough business off the internet but they cannot grow as a company to cope with the extra business that would be generated. Why else would you not actually want more business?

As for availability, Bill is correct that it's not (officially) available outside the US. I know Bill and myself have both offered to get RailPro approved for our respective countries and got met with thanks but no thanks. This could easily tie in with the above.

- Tim

drisdon:
I emailed Ring with my great experience using Railpro at the Free-mo setup and I asked about Keep Alive circuitry and received the following response. "We do plan to offer a keep alive at some point.  We do have a working prototype now.  However, we would like to make changes before we release it.  We can not be sure at this point when it might be available."

Dan Risdon

Dean:
Hi all!
I'm new here and would like to share some discussions I have been exchanging with Tim.
My layout has an NCE PowerPro 5 amp radio control DCC installed on it. I bought a RaiPro HC-2 and 4 LM-2 decoders. My interest was the consisting capabilities of RailPro. But, operating switches was a pain as I needed to use the PowerPro throttle and keep it handy as I moved around the layout. I could replace my NCE Snap It controllers and the PSX-ARs that are installed but that would be very expensive. I asked Tim if it was possible to get a plain and simple relay that would be controlled by the HC-2. As the Snap It and the PSX-ARs both have the ability to be operated by push buttons, the relay would be wired into the devices as if they were the push buttons. That way the switches could be controlled by both the DCC system and the RailPro system without major expense.
I'm sure there are other devices that could be interfaced with a relay and controlled by both RailPro and DCC. And the relay would make easier to add RailPro to DCC and DC systems.
I'm hopeful RailPro comes through with the relay.

G8B4Life:
Hi Tuscarora (name ???)

I think I understand what your asking for in a relay but I'll cover both bases in this post.

What your asking wouldn't be hard to do but a HC wouldn't be able to operate a relay directly as it stands right now. An off the shelf relay that you might buy from an electronics shop would have no way of being controlled. A relay from RE fitted with a module would probably cost much the same as a plain LM-2 plus the cost of the relay; the cost difference for RE to make a single output module against the current 6 output probably wouldn't be that different.

I see three choices in reality; two "expensive" and one not so expensive.

1. Use an LM-2 as an accessory module to drive the relays via the function outputs. You would possibly have to write an accessory program for the module and possibly use the module to drive power transistors that drive the relays, depending on the current requirements of the relay coils.

2. Use an AM-1 accessory module to drive relays. This should be able to be done but I'm not 100% sure.

3. Just wire in push buttons into your existing Snap-it's and PSX-AR's. Not what you were asking but certainly the cheapest option.

The only issues I see in using RailPro to activate the relays with what you describe (as I'm not familiar with the Snap-It's and PSX-AR's) is when using an LM-2 to change the points by relay the Snap-it's and PSX-AR's might not know the points have changed if you then use the DCC system to change the points afterwards and get confused / damaged; and if you used an AM-1 to change the points by relay both the AM-1 and the Snap-It's and PSX-AR's might get confused / damaged if you used one system and then the other.

- Tim

Dean:
Thanks for the reply.
First, I don't want to replace my present DCC system. I have too much invested in power supplies, boosters, and decoders to just rip it out. ( last year I trashed a Digitrax system to install a much superior NCE Power Pro system. At least I could use the same decoders. ) I want to run both DCC and RailPro.
Both the PSX-AR and Snap-its have provisions for momentary contact push buttons. The relay would be used in place of the push buttons. The relay isolates the RailPro system from the DCC system and allows the HC-2 to operate the switches.
The relay also addresses the problem of the switch controller knowing what position the switch is in because both the DCC system and RailPro are using a common switch controller.
Having a AM-1 operating the switch directly would not work well as you would have feedback into the DCC controller and from the DCC controller into the AM-1. This has the potential to destroy both controllers. And, the PSK-AR is an auto reversing device with push button capability. Operating that switch would not work at all.
Using an LM-2 to operate a off the shelf relay would be complicated. The output needs to be pulsed to mimic a push button. Can an LM-2 do that? And no voltage is required from the LM-2 as you are just completing a circuit from the switch controllers, like a push button. And it is an awful expensive switch controller.
Using an AM-1 to drive off the shelf relays is a promising idea. But I don't know what the output is for the 2 wire switch output. But it is a momentary output.
Using an AM-1 causes other problems on my layout. The AM-1 can control 4 switches. But the switches that I want to control are not near to each other. I would end up running over 100 feet of wiring to get to all the switches I want to control. This also has the problem of voltage drop either from the AM-1 to the relay, or from the relay to the switch controller, depending where the components are mounted.
I am also wondering if a Snap-it can be used to operate an AM-1. Then the AM-1 becomes the switch operator and the Snap-it becomes a relay. But the long wiring runs become a problem again.
The perfect solution is a relay module with two coils and two sets of contacts, controlled from an HC-2.
It could be mounted near the existing switch controller, get it's power from the track, and have a very short wire run to the switch controller.
I'll probably install push buttons.

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