RailPro > RailPro Specific Help & Discussion
Railpro Controlled by DCC
Alan:
--- Quote from: TwinStar on November 29, 2017, 02:15:03 PM ---I suppose an LED and one of the six pin outputs could work...
--- End quote ---
Awesome idea! Rob the LED out of a cheapo flickering candle and put it in the stack. Add a wisp of black and orange painted cotton and you have yourself a Smores mode loco. I have got to try that.
MRL Trains:
Thanks for all the great comments. Results from last night.....
Took the LM-3S out of the Athearn RTR and put it into a Proto2000 SD60. Updated to 2.03 and loaded 710 ULT sound. Ran much smoother than the Athearn.
Consist testing in DCC: Currently the only way I can consist RP locos in DCC mode is to use smart phone/Engine Driver/JMRI or to set the DCC addresses all the same. I am unable to get RP locos to respond to any NCE consisting, Advanced or Old Style. I figured the Advanced would not work, but I thought the Old Style would. Apparently NCE Old Style is not Univeral Consisting as I thought. If it was, it should work. I'll investgate further. DCC guys will know what I'm talking about. For the rest of you I'll add an explanation at the end of this post. I do not have Digitrax or other brand DCC systems to test so maybe one of you guys can work along with me?
Consist functions in DCC mode: I confirmed that all RP locos in a DCC mode consist will respond to all function commands issued to the consist. I guess we'll have to talk to Tim about this. You don't want all lights on or 3 horns blowing.
RP Consist testing using RP Simulator: Consist testing went better with the change in locos, but still not to my satisfaction. Here's the setup. Proto2000 SD60 with LM-3S (ver2.03) in the lead. Proto2000 GP30 with LM-3 (ver 2.03) trailing. Much smoother starts than the Athearn. The "jump" start is gone. The new problem was the trail unit lagging. Seems the lead unit was always being slowed down by the trail. Example: DPU one loco on each end of a 15 car cut of covered hoppers. Lead would start moving and stretch until tight and then stall. Had to continue increasing throttle to get trail to start moving. Same results when operated in reverse direction. Tried changing accel, decel, kick start, start speed, top speed etc. Finally started manually lowering motor load setting and starting getting better results. The SD60 was auto testing around 670 on average. The GP30 was averaging around 340. I'm thinking the SD60 wasn't seeing enough load change at only 15 cars. Anyone familiar with those P2K SD60 knows they are real stump pullers! I dropped it to around 500 and saw better results. By then it was bed time so I'll go at it again tonight. In the mean time, I'm open to consisting tips and tricks from you experts.
Overall I love the RP system so far, but my limited testing hasn't gotten me to consists that run better than my DCC. Of course I do spend a ton of time speedmatching. That's what I'm trying to get away from. I'm probably pickier than your average modeler, but I have to be. I run 40-60 car trains with mid train helpers and pushers on a 2.2% mountain pass. Things have to be good to keep from dumping a $1000 on the floor :o
DCC Consist Types - High level overview
- Basic: All locos are programmed to the same address. Hence they all respond simultaneously.
- Universal: The DCC command station sends out consist commands to each loco address in the consist, 1 address at time. ie: locos 100, 200 and 300 are in consist. A throttle change will send a command to each loco address in sequence. Hey 100, move fwd. Hey 200, move fwd. Hey 300, move fwd.
- Advanced: A single consist address is assigned and written to CV19 in each decoder of the consisted locos. The command station issues commands to the single consist address (not loco addresses) and all locos with that consist address will respond. They still have their unique loco address but will not respond to commands to move when they have a consist address assigned. All other functions such as sound or lighting will respond to the loco address. Only commands to move are ignored.
If the NCE Old Style consisting was a true Universal style, I see no reason why RP locos would not respond since they're address is being sent out by the command station. Further investigation forthcoming.
Regards
Chris
KPack:
Chris - with your RP consist it sounds like you've encountered the rare occasion where manually setting the FLMC (Full Load Motor Current) is necessary. I have two locomotives that fall into that category. Both heavily modified drivetrains that required that I manually adjust the FLMC in order to properly 'detect' changes in load in the consist. 99% of the time you will not need to do this, but thankfully the feature is there in the rare case that it's needed. I don't recommend manually changing the FLMC routinely...usually running the automatic setting once or twice is all that is necessary.
Also, the locomotive you have as the leader will determine the behavior of the consist. Meaning that each locomotive has a unique FLMC, start speed, etc and the others in the consist will change their behavior to work best with that leader. You'll notice that when some locomotives lead you will need more throttle to get the consist moving, whereas with others it won't take much at all before the wheels start to turn. It's all dependent on the lead. Nothing wrong either way here, it's just the load-sharing doing its thing.
-Kevin
MRL Trains:
Kevin, thats good to know. I was wondering if the other locos would “change their behavior” on things like accel, decel or start speed.
The trail unit was definitely lagging the consist. The SD60 with the 15 cars went through the speedometer faster without the SD30 in consist.
Chris
KPack:
Also be sure that if you make any changes to the locomotives that could affect their current draw (lubing, polishing, weight, etc) that you run the FLMC setting again. I was going to ask, did you run the FLMC setting when you switched the LM-3S to the new loco? I assume so, but I wanted to check.
-Kevin
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