RailPro User Group
General => General Discussion => Topic started by: ON28 on November 01, 2023, 11:09:08 AM
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In an email Ring (don't know exactly who) said the shortage of parts has led them to redesign some boards but that that effort should be completed shortly and new product development/releases resumed, and that new products "could be available by the end of this year".
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Here's hoping for a 21 pin LM!!!
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Furthermore, in answer to my query, Ring has considered adding equalizer settings to the LM. But, "probably 99% of our users would not know what it was and would have no interest in it," and will focus on what it thinks customers would be more interested in.
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I know a lot of us are looking for a 21 pin module but is it really needed? Sizing the width of the LM3 down even 10% would allow for easier physical installs for us HO guys!
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Smaller module and a 21 pin connector - let's get greedy!
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Having RaiPro for several years and at age 78 I'm pretty happy with the present operation of the system. I do realize that electronics are the future in just about everything we have and do today and that many never get enough of it, so for me I will just stick with what I have.
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Bump!
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Just annotating my original post that it was Tim Ring with whom I was corresponding.
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I'm not sure why snowdog bumped this thread, but it reminded me I was going to reply to his post.
I know a lot of us are looking for a 21 pin module but is it really needed? Sizing the width of the LM3 down even 10% would allow for easier physical installs for us HO guys!
Just because you presumably model US outline in H0 with big honkin diesels and steamers doesn't mean everyone does. Try and get a current size LM and an adapter harness into a non US outline loco and you'd start to question your sanity. A 10% smaller LM would help a bit but a 21 pin version would help a lot, considering the 9 pin was not plug and play outside of the US and everyone else is doing the 21 pin.
Ripping everything out and hardwiring is the goto method for me simply because of what I model, no other choice because of space, hence after near 10 years of owning RailPro I've only converted exactly two of my models.
- Tim
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Not all those North American diesels are Big!! After doing 5 switcher installs (one P2K S3 and 4 Rapido SW1200RS), I'm all for a smaller module as well.
The 21 pin connector would assist with wiring all the headlights. My Rapido SW1200RS locos have ZERO lights as you have to rip out the board to make just enough room for the module, a speaker and a Keep Alive under the cab. I don't have enough time in my life (nor the patience or eyesight) to run the wires and resistors for all the lighting in those beasts...
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I'm not sure why snowdog bumped this thread, but it reminded me I was going to reply to his post.
This is one reason why I bumped it. I had the feeling someone needed to say something else...you're welcome!!
Also, I was hoping someone had news about the announcement that started this thread.
Bryan
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21 pin and use a decoder buddy! Some of my stuff isn’t dcc ready
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I was an early adopter of RailPro due largely in part to KPack's youtube videos and I was the founder of the RPUG on the old yahoo! groups site. I was readily impressed with RP's ease of use and the auto load sharing. I put up with a lot of shortcomings in anticipation of some advancement to the hardware. It's been what, 10 years, and the LM hasn't shrunk at all? I still can't put an LM in any of my SW's and frankly I'm tired of ripping parts out to replace them with substandard sound. Another issue is the massive size of the throttle. I love my Digitrax UT-6 as it fits perfectly in my XL hand. I loathe having to manhandle the RP brick that's swinging from my neck.
I think Tim had a far superior protocol and was sitting on something revolutionary. Unfortunately, all he's done is sit on it. The hobby has moved on and RP is stuck with Atari era hardware. I loved the concept at one time but the implementation has failed, in my opinion, and is nothing more than a niche. I'm officially done with RailPro having ordered new Overland and Rapido locomotives with ESU and installing the same in existing locomotives.
I think in another 10 years what members here are left will be hoping for some other new hardware that DCC has long ago implemented. I don't know why Tim refuses to bring RailPro up to modern standards but I'm done sticking around waiting to find out. If I get around to listing my RP equipment I'll do it here but most of it is a generation out of date.
The crew here has been the most outstanding that I've ever seen in a forum. The knowledge and willingness to help is second to none and I'm still amazed at the intelligence of those here and I always left smarter than when I logged in. There were four of us in Free-mo that ran RP. Two preceded me in going back to DCC and now there will only be one and I know he's already ordered ESU equipped power as well. It was a fun experiment but not a viable competitor to DCC. It could be, if Tim would get out of his own way.
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Jacob,
How nice to see a post from you in such a long time, and how sad to see your leaving RailPro, though I fully understand your reasoning and sympathise with it.
I don't think Ring and RP will exist, at least in the small scales, in another 10 years if he doesn't get with the program and get ahead of the curve again. If it's still around without that it'll probably just be large scalers using it.
... if Tim would get out of his own way.
Truer word were never spoken.
- Tim (no, not that one)
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Well I don't blame you Jacob. Tim is slow at getting updates and products out, as well as new sounds. The lack of sounds is probably the biggest thing for me. We do have enough of a library to cover the basic things but I would love to see so much more. There is a ton of potential in Railpro that isn't being tapped as it should be. That's been the story all along.
But I'll continue using Railpro since it fills my needs. DCC just doesn't do it for me. I'm building my own layout now and so can use it without the pressures of running in a Freemo group or on someone else's layout. As long as the hardware continues to work and updates are available, I don't see me changing anything anytime soon.
-Kevin
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I echo Kevin's statements. I have most of the sounds I need, but I still hope for others (like a EMD 576 from the side to get that characteristic whine when notching). It fills my needs, and I don't have the challenges of DCC (which is now 31 years old from when the official NMRA protocols were proposed). A couple of weeks ago, I ran a 30 car train with live remotes of different makes consistently for a couple of hours, up and down a major grade. Simple and easy.
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I have been asked by our N scale members in our club about anything new as far as something for them ? Same old answer, NO !
A good thing is slowly going away if not trying to grow with the hobby.
Just my view. Since I'm doing On30, not much problem with installations but I have a couple of small diesel switchers that will not accept any LMs.
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I run NCE because I bought it as part of an estate sale before I heard of RailPro. I got into RP when I was experimenting with HO battery power. So I run both, which is part of the appeal of RP -- you can run it on top of an existing DCC system. I had never (and still haven't) installed a DCC decoder, but I was up and running with RP in 20 minutes. I've posted my installs here, admittedly, older four axle diesels with basic lights and sound and none of the modern shell-full weights to work around. My layout is 20x15, and a little sound goes a long way.
I can't speak to Tim Ring's plans but it's a small business with attendant limits, I am sure. And I can relate an anecdote which some here may have heard: A friend is a well-known former editor of one of the leading hobby magazines. One day he went to the owner's wife and said there was so much more they could to make the magazine Number One in the hobby. "Did it ever occur to you," she said, "that [the owner] doesn't want to be Number One?" That's when he decided to move on.