Author Topic: Some Q&A email responses worth sharing  (Read 13326 times)

brickmodder

  • Fireman
  • **
  • Posts: 18
Some Q&A email responses worth sharing
« on: May 20, 2016, 12:09:48 PM »
Hello forum members!  My name is Rob and I'll be starting my RailPro adventure this weekend, BUT I will not be doing standard scale model railroading with it.  As founder and member of ArkLUG (Arkansas LEGO Users Group) [www.arklug.org], I will be attempting to build LEGO locomotives and install Railpro to run solely on battery power.  I did not see a lot of information about doing this online so I reached out to Ring Engineering via email.  I thought I would share some of the questions I had along with the answers I received in case others were interested in going down the same road I am on. BTW, I realize that some of my questions may be covered in the FAQ on their site.

Q. What is the maximum amperage rating of the LM2S?
A. The max stall current of a LM-2 is 2.0 amps.  The continuous running current should be less than 1.0 amp. The LM-2 motor output is short circuit, overload, and module over temperature protected.  So if you connect a motor that is too big for it to drive it will turn off and report one of the above faults.


Q. Will the LM2S work satisfactorily on 9v (6xAAA batteries)?  11.1 LiPo?
A. 9 volts should work ok however the LM-2 reports a low voltage warning below 10 volts.  The low voltage warning is a warning only and does not affect operation otherwise.  The maximum voltage is 18 volts.

Q. Will this system ever have steam locomotives/sounds? If so, will it be just an update or require new hardware?
A. RailPro has steam sounds now.  You need to load the steam sounds to the module.  We currently have a heavy and a light steam sound file.  We also have water fill, shoveling coal, boiler blowdown.  there is several steam era whistles and bells to choose from too. Also, you can use our RailPro Assistant program and load your own custom sound files too. Basically any .WAV file can be loaded and a button setup to pay that sound. There is a one time $19.99 extra fee to enable the feature to load your own custom sounds.

Q. Will users have the ability to use their own locomotive pictures on the HC2 screen?
A. You can use our RailPro Assistant program and load your own pictures now.  More info on RailPro Assistant program below.
http://ringengineering.com/RailProSoftware.htm

RailPro Assistant user manual
http://ringengineering.com/RailPro/Documents/RailProAssistantUsersManual.pdf


Q. In case your HO scale product can’t meet the demand of motor load, when will your presumably upcoming O gauge version be available?
A. We plan to make modules capable of running G gauge. So they will have a lot more power.

Q. Can you link two LM-2S to the same motor for power sharing?
A. You can not connect more then one LM-2 to a motor.

Q. Can you link one LM-2S to multiple controllers to be controlled simultaneously?
A. You can have any number of Handheld controllers that can select the LM-2 to control it.  However, the system will guarantee that only one user (handheld controller) controls the LM-2 at a time. If one user is running a loco with a LM-2 and a second user touches the picture of the loco to take control of the loco the first user looses control and gets a 'control taken away' message.  If the first user wants to take control of the loco he simply touches the loco picture and the second user looses control and gets a 'control taken away' message.

G8B4Life

  • Signalman (Global Mod)
  • Conductor
  • *****
  • Posts: 1237
  • I'll think of a catchy tag line one day
Re: Some Q&A email responses worth sharing
« Reply #1 on: May 20, 2016, 12:56:54 PM »
Welcome to RailPro Rob.

I have a friend who'd love what your doing; well he likes LEGO and likes trains, but has no LEGO trains. Go figure!

The last response is interesting, stealing control. This is one of the reasons I got away from DCC (I remember having a loco on a club layout and it started to go back and forwards by itself; someone else had the same loco with the same address). With RailPro though you can set a password in a module so you can't detect and control it without knowing the password. Most of the time this shouldn't be necessary as others would have to detect your loco first before they can control it.

You might be waiting a loooooong time for larger modules from RailPro. They have plans but they do take quite some time to implement them. If the standard HO modules can't cut it power-wise I'm sure some person much brighter than I am could work out a away for the module to drive a power transistor or something, just like the 'ol days of DC when we used to use a potentiometer to drive a power transistor for our throttles.

- Tim (the other one)

« Last Edit: May 20, 2016, 12:59:07 PM by G8B4Life »

brickmodder

  • Fireman
  • **
  • Posts: 18
Re: Some Q&A email responses worth sharing
« Reply #2 on: May 20, 2016, 01:17:50 PM »
Well, we asked that question specifically searching for a way to have the ability for more than one person to take over the layout while others were on break, or have an emergency stop for all trains. Hmm, guess I should have asked that last one...

KPack

  • Conductor
  • ****
  • Posts: 784
Re: Some Q&A email responses worth sharing
« Reply #3 on: May 20, 2016, 01:31:05 PM »
Welcome Rob!

Railpro has an emergency stop for all trains right on the front page.  You can get to it nearly instantly to avoid potential disasters.  Press the "main screen" button and then tap the emergency stop button on them main page (big stop sign).  Tap the stop all button and all trains immediately stop.

I've never used it.  Never had to, as I keep a pretty close eye on the trains I'm running. 

-Kevin

Alan

  • Conductor
  • ****
  • Posts: 1073
    • LK&O Railroad
Re: Some Q&A email responses worth sharing
« Reply #4 on: May 23, 2016, 10:39:29 PM »
The emergency stop Kevin refers to only works with a Ring Power Supply. Or I should say, on my system that does not use a Ring Power Supply the emergency stop does not work for all trains.

I have big red emergency stop buttons located around the layout that shut down everything electrical except the layout lighting. Pretty dang foolproof!

Alan

LK&O Railroad website

When I was a kid... no wait, I still do that. HO, 28x32, double deck, 1969, RailPro

brickmodder

  • Fireman
  • **
  • Posts: 18
Re: Some Q&A email responses worth sharing
« Reply #5 on: May 23, 2016, 10:50:09 PM »
That'll work just fine for most cases. But I'll be using plastic rails.

William Brillinger

  • Dispatcher (Admin)
  • Conductor
  • *****
  • Posts: 1342
    • Precision Design Co.
Re: Some Q&A email responses worth sharing
« Reply #6 on: May 23, 2016, 11:37:41 PM »
Alan, does the Emergency Stop on your Ring HC at least stop all the trains that the HC is controlling? IE, if you had 2 trains being controlled from 1 HC, will it stop both of them on your layout?
- Bill Brillinger, RPUG Admin

Modeling the BNML in HO Scale, owner of Precision Design Co., and RailPro Dealer.


Alan

  • Conductor
  • ****
  • Posts: 1073
    • LK&O Railroad
Re: Some Q&A email responses worth sharing
« Reply #7 on: May 24, 2016, 07:25:07 AM »
Yes.
Alan

LK&O Railroad website

When I was a kid... no wait, I still do that. HO, 28x32, double deck, 1969, RailPro