General > General Discussion
Proto Throttle
Alan:
We need to keep everything in perspective.
DCC suppliers, RailPro, and every other variant are small enterprises doing well what they know and doing poorly at what they do not know so well. Each has obviously mastered the technical side (electronics/software) in one form or another. Where they all equally fail to some degree is psychology (UX). Makes sense, engineering and psychology are not common academic bedfellows. Being such small companies they are constrained in their expertise and resources. The technical side is price of admission. Seems most companies meet this minimum and fail to go much further. So, in a sense we are dealing with engineering firms, not marketing firms. Temper your expectations accordingly.
Since the advent of DCC, RailPro with touch screen and Protothrottle with tactile realism are the only two clear cut examples I can think of where some element of disruptive marketing-thinking is evident in the train control business. We should be happy we can have at least one of these. Until recently (relatively) you couldn't have either.
nodcc4me:
--- Quote from: TwinStar on April 22, 2020, 10:22:51 AM ---RPA is the worst. While RailPro is the best, by leaps and bounds, RPA is a D- afterthought. It's an embarrassment to sell someone on RailPro and then have to bring up the RPA caveat. As dysfunctional as DCC and JMRI are (and you're absolutely right about JRMI Kevin) Rings RPA is equally as bad. In my opinion, RPA offsets almost all the benefits about the ease of use in RailPro.
--- End quote ---
I don't see RPA as being bad at all. The download and transfer speed is extremely slow depending on the file, but the interface works perfectly. There are minor things that could use improvement, but for free software it does the job well.
The Proto Throttle may be an improvement over some of the DCC controllers I've seen, but the tactile feedback would never be enough for me to switch to DCC. In fact, with my limited club experience with DCC, nothing they could design would be a good reason to go there. Hence, my User name. LoL!
Smoke:
I was afraid that it would be one of those things that will probably never happen. Having said that I am still very much interested in RailPro, the Proto Throttle would have been an added bonus. For me the advantage of the proto throttle is the brake lever (and throttle notches on some level) and the adjustment that this allows. Having worked around the prototype in low speed operations, that is something that I would like to mimic and the physical brake lever seems like the best option out there so far.
This may be better suited in another thread, but how does RailPro currently handle braking?I have read in the past that it wasn't available, but have seen mentions of it but not much detail on how it works.
With the right knowledge and a bit of time, the HC-2 could be turned into a throttle with a more hardware based throttle similar to the proto throttle. With the communication being proprietary, it really isn't an option unless Mr. Ring decides to do it himself.
G8B4Life:
--- Quote from: Alan on April 22, 2020, 11:26:42 AM ---...Temper your expectations accordingly.
--- End quote ---
I don't fully subscribe to that. It really doesn't matter if they are engineering firms doing well in that area and not in psychology (UX) because they are engineers or not, it's the drive to improve the UX so people are attracted to your product for it's ease of use of it's features (and the UI is a big part of that) that is the biggest factor. I think that drive is sadly missing in the North American model train control ecosystem, either by resting on laurels, self induced fantasy that the UI is just peachy the way it is without getting feedback, or just fear of getting someone in who can do the job because of propriety secrets.
For work we use a firing system from the US. You can think of it as DCC on steroids in the way it works. The hardware is excellent, they are engineers. The UX is also very good, because the UI is also good. This company has only a couple of people and they sell way less than any DCC manufacturer would. It can be done!
--- Quote from: nodcc4me on April 22, 2020, 12:13:08 PM ---I don't see RPA as being bad at all. The download and transfer speed is extremely slow depending on the file, but the interface works perfectly. There are minor things that could use improvement, but for free software it does the job well.
--- End quote ---
I see RPA as being built in a method that is not needed just to give it a look (and internal functionality) consistent with the handheld. That way is not needed for RPA. HC Sim, yes probably as it needs to mimic the way the handheld works but not RPA. If you get the chance look at the LokProgrammer software. You'll see what "free" software for a model train control system can be.
- Tim
nodcc4me:
I think most model railroaders are over 60 years old. From my club experience, most of those, including me, don't want to be programmers. It would be nice to have the technical and electronic knowledge that some of the members here have, but I don't. If I wanted absolute control over every operational feature of my locomotives, I could switch to DCC and JMRI, which is, from what I've seen, a nightmare to use. I don't have enough knowhow nor the inclination to do programming. Rather, I just want to push a button and have something happen. For those who want to program, it's good that companies like ESU and software like JMRI make that possible. Guys like me want someone else to do the programming so we can just enjoy running our trains. RailPro and RPA fill that requirement nicely. Could it be better? Sure, but the support I've gotten from TR over the years has been outstanding, and that in itself would be enough to keep me happy. When I hand a controller to my 5 year-old grandson, he too can just push a button and have a good time with the trains. Perhaps he will have a continuing interest if he someday inherits my trains, and helps perpetuate a dying hobby.
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