Recent Posts

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RailPro Specific Help & Discussion / Re: Outputs for smoke units
« Last post by donsweet on Today at 09:46:25 AM »
Hi Tom, to review, on the LM-5S-G these on/off outputs are for higher current up to 2 amps. Use outputs 7 & 8 for smoke units, lots of incandescent bulbs or tripping couplers. Will work with any LGB /PIKO Seuth units. For Aristo  Craft you must use the Aristo adapter board. Bachmann steam or diesel engines use the Bachmann PCB005 plug in adapter board.  For USA smoke units use the USA smoke units PCB. Unplug from the USA lighting board. Redirect the black wires to terminal 7 or 8 and red to +V screw terminal on the LM-5-S-G.
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New Users Start Here / Re: Introduce Yourself...
« Last post by Smoke on October 14, 2026, 09:09:23 AM »
Welcome to the forum and the hobby! Personally I model in HO scale, but I've found the model railroading community (and RailPro specifically) to be extremely helpful regardless of scale.

Enjoy the journey. Building the railroad is every bit as rewarding as running the trains.
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RailPro Specific Help & Discussion / Re: HC3-SUN Hard Lock
« Last post by Smoke on October 14, 2026, 09:04:55 AM »
I saw the post on the FB group as well but didn't have much to add till now. Two reasons come to mind as to why Ring may want the unit sent back for service:

1. While this could certainly be a software issue as you suspect, it could also be a firmware or hardware-related problem that only shows up under certain operating conditions.
2. Speaking from my own experience troubleshooting software and electronics, it's often much easier to diagnose an issue when you can reproduce and observe it firsthand rather than relying solely on user-reported symptoms.

Is there a reason you're hesitant to send it back to Ring? In my experience, they've been very fair to work with and generally do a good job of identifying issues fairly quickly.
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RailPro Specific Help & Discussion / HC3-SUN Hard Lock
« Last post by bhjones0217 on October 13, 2026, 10:46:45 AM »
Posting my issue here to see what type of help I can get.  If you are part of the Railpro Users Group on Facebook, this is the same problem.

I attended my first show with the club I belong to (Arizona Big Train Operators or ABTO) and ran my train on both days I was there.  I was there Thursday from 9:30 to 12:30 and Friday all day.  I was just running the train on the setup along with other trains both days.  Thursday, there were two other Railpro users running (one had a HC-3-SUN like I did and the other had two HC-2).  Friday, I was the only Railpro user.  My HC-3-SUN hard locked two times on Thursday and one time on Friday.  Friday cause a minor pile-up with the other card on the track as the club typically runs two on the same track. 

Both days, I started around the same time, which was about 9:45am or so.  Thursday about 11am, the controller was unresponsive as I could slow/stop the train and the buttons did not due anything even though the direct radio indicator was "blue".  I couldn't even go to the home page.  This was strange as the other HC-3-SUN user had theirs lock up about 30 mins prior and had to hit the "reset" button (the button Railpro says do not use without Ring Engineering Support) to get it to come back.  I was able to use the "reset" button to be operational again.  Then it locked up again 30 minutes later on me.  Friday, the issue happened around 2pm.    The battery indicator looks to be okay (wasn't red) and again the direct radio indicator was okay (wasn't red).

Thursday evening, I looked to see if I was behind in my software and it says I have 1.13 loaded which seems to be the latest version for the HC-3-SUN. 

This was the first time I have ran the engine over an hour or so as this was my first event.  At home, I will only be running one train per leg but eventually I can see multiple trains running at the same time.  My concern is that I physical saw this happen on two different HC-3-SUN units, so I don't think both of our hardware is bad.  The HC-2 owner says he was fine all week, but did have a friend who have heard about the same issue and the only way to resolve it was using the "reset" button.

I am trying to work with Ring Support, but they are treating this as a hardware issue and would like to me to send it back to them to evaluate, but this seems more like a software issue based on my experience in IT.

Have anyone heard about this issue?
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New Users Start Here / Re: Introduce Yourself...
« Last post by bhjones0217 on October 13, 2026, 10:28:55 AM »
Hey, Brian here.

I live in Phoenix, Arizona.  My wife and I has been garden railroading fans for a long time going to Open Houses for Christmas with our two sons.  Last year, we decided to pull the trigger and get into the hobby.  I have my first engine, USA Trains S4 Starter Set with the HC-3-SUN / LM-5S-G installed by RCS of NE (Don Sweets).

I am hoping to start the physical outdoor layout next month but we will see how it goes.
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RailPro Specific Help & Discussion / Re: DCC controlling RP
« Last post by ON28 on October 08, 2026, 04:52:28 PM »
Advanced.
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RailPro Specific Help & Discussion / Re: mapping the new Rapido E8A functions
« Last post by cws on October 02, 2026, 02:19:55 PM »
I did get it figured out... finally got a chance to run it last night on the club layout.

The initial configuration was setup to support F0, the headlight, which is mounted below the Gyralight on the E8/9 and I now have control of the Gyralight. 

The number boards and class lights were assigned to the same button and set to flash.  I assigned them to their own buttons.

I was also able to assign the ground lights and I updated the sound file to the EMD 567 ULT. 

haven't been able to get the cab light to come on though.

satisfied for the moment.   

Carl
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RailPro Specific Help & Discussion / Re: RailPro and Decoder Buddy
« Last post by sieggs1 on September 30, 2026, 09:06:00 PM »
Hey Ken,

I recommend watching the following videos on YouTube from Larry Puckett. His design is far superior than my experience with RailPro's own PBM-2 and much cheaper to build. This is what I use.

   
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All parts are available on Amazon and the cost per unit to build is less than $10.

The two wires connect to the pads on the Decoder Buddy specifically for the keep-alive.

I put these on ALL my locos, especially my SW1500s. My locos NEVER stall, even on my unpowered frogs and my double crossover.

I use 5x 3.0V, 2F capacitors to get to 15V total. He uses only 4 capacitors so I don't think that would be enough for HO scale.

Rob
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RailPro Specific Help & Discussion / Re: RailPro and Decoder Buddy
« Last post by faithie999 on September 29, 2026, 07:01:14 PM »
Quote from: sieggs1 on August 04, 2026, 10:33:57 AM
Hey all,

I use the Decoder Buddy with RailPro LM-3S-21. Yes, you can use a Keep-Alive with the pins on the Decoder Buddy. RailPro's own works but I have also been making my own keep-alives for much cheaper and they last longer.

Rob S.

Rob--can you post details on your DIY keep-alives?   i went down the DIY road some time ago and wasn't happy with my results. 
thanks

Ken
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RailPro Specific Help & Discussion / Re: DCC controlling RP
« Last post by gregeusa on September 25, 2026, 01:33:47 PM »
Did you use advanced or old style consisting - makes a difference
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