Originally posted by William Brillinger on the RailPro Users Yahoo! Group on Sep 28, 2015Here is a discussion I had with Tim Ring about notching and control possibilities relating to Brake/Coast and automatic/manual notching.
It would be great if this group could collaborate on a set of ideas and a wishlist for RailPro.
- Bill
Here is the conversation:
On 5/14/2014 7:10 AM, William Brillinger wrote:
>Tim,
>
>One more note about the prime mover sounds.
>
>I think the biggest change with the 645 prime mover sounds that is needed is smooth throttling.
>
>When I am using manual notching and I am idling, if I quickly Tap/Tap/Tap, the sound should smoothly rev up to notch 4.
>Or likewise when I quickly tap down from notch 8 to 2, the revs should smoothly run down to no. 2.
>Currently, it sounds like the locomotive should be convulsing as it's insides are torn apart.
>
>- Bill
Support wrote on 5/14/2014 1:17 PM:
>Hi Bill,
>
>Not exactly sure what you are asking for here. Do other manufactures modules do it?
>
>Thanks,
>
>Tim
>
On 5/15/2014 1:05 PM, William Brillinger wrote:
>Tim,
>
>Here is what I am talking about...
>
>This video by shows what we want to replicate:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIpHWUFu-G>
>The sequence is shown throughout the video, but for our purposes the first 45 seconds of the video will be the target to replicate using manual notching.
>
>Starting at idle, move to notch 2
>hold briefly at Notch 2 and then punch it up to notch 8.
>Hold at high rev for 6 to 10 seconds
>Drop all the way back to idle
>
>Can RailPro do what is shown in the video?
>
>Can you hit the notch up or down, multiple times in quick succession and have the spool-up sound smooth?
>The sound should smoothly ramp up from idle to notch 8 and back down without stopping at each notch.
>RailPro sequence like in the above video:
>Note: at 1:08 - abrupt change during the spool down.
>
>2nd example: (DSM-8 and EMD 645-20)
>3rd example: (DSM-8 and EMD 645-16 Turbo)
>As you can hear, rapid changes to notch settings produce undesirable effects. The engine sounds like it threw a push rod
>
>Lok Sound:
t=295
>Around 2:45 is what we are looking for. This is impressive sound btw.
>
>And a soundtraxx example:
>(Posted by a friend on MRH.)
>
>
>Another possible way to look at the interface for this would be 4 buttons
>Notch up, Notch dn, Coast (on/off), and Brake (momentary), plus a display to show what notch is currently set.
>
>No notch selected when the loco begins moving = Auto Notching.
>If a notch is selected at any time, it overrides auto until the loco is fully stopped again.
>
>Notch UP - raise the notch number and the sound as appropriate.
>Notch DN - lower the notch number and the sound as appropriate.
>Coast ON - override all notching and set sound to just idle.
>Coast OFF - resume the previous notch setting (as per manual or auto) with a smooth increase in revs.
>Brake - make the brake squeal noise.
>
>With such an arrangement, every manner of locomotive movement and sound combination could be accounted for.
>
>Example screen layout:
>
>
>
>- Bill
Support wrote on 5/16/2014 1:39 PM:
>Hi Bill,
>
>Thanks for the input.
>
>I see what you are talking about on the multiple notch down. I am sure we can do this but we still really need to proceed in order of most important to the majority of our customers to least important. Thanks for the information we will keep it in mind as we develop RailPro.
>
>We will need to do some studying and thinking before we investing programming hours to add features like coast combined auto/manual notch. Thanks for your suggestions. This may be implemented in steps. We may add some features first and improve them later.
>
>It really is a powerful feature of RailPro for us to be able to install new programs, sounds files, etc.
>
>Tim
>
>Ring Engineering Inc.
>
>
On 6/8/2014 3:52 PM, William Brillinger wrote:
>>Tim,
>>
>>The coast idea is getting a lot of attention on MRH's forum right now, thanks to Mike Confalones' Allagash series and some tweaks that have been discovered for the Tsunami.
>>
>>There is an appetite out there for accurate locomotive behavior and sound, and I think RailPro is uniquely positioned to deliver such features fairly easily. (compared to other control systems.)
>>
>>Here are some of the discussions if you are interested:
>>
>>
http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/17778>>
http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/18171>>
http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/18168>>
http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/17938>>
>>Cheers,
>>- Bill
Support wrote on 6/9/2014 3:24 PM:
>Hi Bill,
>
>Thanks for the included info. We will take a look at it.
>RailPro does manual notching across a consist now and is very easy to add and remove locos to a consist.
>
>Tim
>
>Ring Engineering Inc.
>
>>
Support wrote on 6/30/2014 3:35 PM:
>>Hi Bill,
>>
>>I think I know what you are referring to now when you said the the notches do not notch up/down smoothly. In manual notching you can outrun the sounds and skip over and entire sound causing the LM-2 to sound bad. We did not know this problem existed. We plan to fix this in a newer revision. We also are working on program changes to allow you to do things like in your video you sent. We have some real good ideas that can can do what you are asking for in auto notching!
>>
>>Tim
