Some time ago, a friend of mine convinced me to get a Digitrax PR3 and download the JMRI decoder program. Being an old person and not up to par on computers and DCC, I was somewhat reluctant and did it anyway. Today I tried it out. I fumbled around for about an hour and finally got on target. I was totally amazed what I could do after I figured it out. I hardly knew what a DCC CV was till today. The things that impressed me the most was it could read what decoder that was installed, I could easily adjust the speeds and sound volumes of the locomotive with the click of a mouse and ease in MUing. I'm totally impressed and feel like a DCC intermediate rather than a novice.
willy,
Good for you for moving past your reluctance and giving JMRI a try! I mainly use it for storing and recalling the CVs for all my DCC locomotives. And, if and when I ever have to perform a decoder reset, all the CVs are there and can be recalled and restored to the specific decoder. It's also quite handy if you like to fiddle with speed curves.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
Willy6,
I too am glad you decided to move past your reluctance and give JMRI a shot. It's a great tool!
I've been using JMRI for 14+ years, with an MS100 at first and then a PR3 after Digitrax introduced them.
Besides decoder programming I have also built a couple JMRI control panels. One is for the dispatcher's desk, and one is displayed on a tablet at the yard throat for local turnout control. I've also incorporated a script that sets the layout to an initial state, and tells me verbally when it's completed that task.
And I use the Ops portion of JMRI to schedule trains and create manifests and switch lists for them.
Lots of good stuff in that suite of applications, and they just keep making it better.