General > General Discussion
Lots of DCC vs RailPro Questions from Mustdecide
William Brillinger:
I would also note that RailPro has the potential to be every bit as good with sound as Loksound. It will just take some time to get there.
As far as ease of use, I think there is nothing that comes close to RailPro and the future is bright!
William Brillinger:
--- Quote ---Disregard battery life. Of no real consequence in actual use. DCC un-tethered throttles no different than RP throttle.
--- End quote ---
I'm not sure I would agree. I was operating on a friends digitrax layout and we ran for about 6 hours. He said the batteries were fresh when we started but he replaced batteries in most of the wireless units at least once during the session. I have had sessions that have gone past 8 hours without needing to recharge with RailPro, even when the HC was not fully charged at the beginning.
**I should also note, I have my screen brightness turned down a lot.
Alan:
I have no experience with DCC battery powered throttles. My comment was to make the point both systems' controllers run with battery power so it is a shared potential limitation. I am sure there are enough variables involved so as to make a definitive comparison challenging at best.
Interestingly, the battery design of RP HC is not ideal. This has been discussed at length before. Technically, HC batteries are a "no user serviceable parts inside" situation. You can't pop in a fresh set. At least not easily or while under warranty. Design flaw in my eyes but I wasn't there during the designing so don't know the why of the decision. There may very well be a good solid reason. Still, would have been nice to have a conventional slide open battery compartment just for those times when you need it.
William Brillinger:
--- Quote ---There may very well be a good solid reason. Still, would have been nice to have a conventional slide open battery compartment just for those times when you need it.
--- End quote ---
That would have made a lot of sense to me!
MustDecide:
Wow, impressive user group. First response in only about 12 hours and everybody had very good answers and advice. Thank you everybody for quick responses and honest answers.
I also think I have come to a conclusion that I am over analyzing my decision, just like I did when I purchased my first 35mm 'film' camera. I read specs upon specs. Then finally realized I just needed a good quality camera that is easy to operate. Dose that tell you which direction I am definitely leaning now.
My only 2 concerns are the quality of the sound, but that may not be as important as I am making it out to be. Besides, RE is making improvements and I am looking forward to that Loksound quality. Second concern is battery life. I am assuming if I run into real battery life issues I can always purchase a second HC, as I will most likely need another one in the future anyway. Then I can always have one fully charged and ready to go. Is it OK to recharge the HC after using it let's say for 4 hours knowing that the next day you are going to need a full charge for a long day? Or do I need to run it down to the bottom of the charge before recharging? Being able to use the HC while it is recharging would be the best, even it it wasn't actually recharging during the time it is plugged in and just running off wall power.
Based on my size layout (generally 10 x 13) do you think I would need more than just the basic power supply? I have some old very heavy duty computer power supplies that I will be using for lights and anything else that is not critical like the track power.
Thanks again everybody.
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