cacole Considering the limited availability of the required hardware interfaces, which usually means they are going to fetch premium prices, your friend might be better off converting his layout to DCC.
Considering the limited availability of the required hardware interfaces, which usually means they are going to fetch premium prices, your friend might be better off converting his layout to DCC.
The OP has not specified what sort of automation features he wants, but DCC still requires a lot of "extra" stuff to use JMRI for automation. If one only wants the automation or some level of semi automation, exclusive of the other features of DCC, advanced cab control or computerized block control will provide that at a much lower total cost, especially considring the work involved in converting existing N scale locos to DCC.
Sheldon
I had a previous DC layout that was N scale, and I used CTI Electronics to control it. It wasn't that hard for me as I was an electronics technician. But as a model railroader that understands wiring and relays, your friend should not have a problem. CTI also has their own windows program that can run things, so you don't have to interface with JMRI unless you want to.
The biggest thing about setting it up is that you need to define what you want the program to do. You can say that you want it to run your layout, but run it how? You need to define each individual step of what you want done. This is true for ANY automatic control program. If you know what a flow chart is, that is the best way to define the operation desired.
Elmer.
The above is my opinion, from an active and experienced Model Railroader in N scale and HO since 1961.
(Modeling Freelance, Eastern US, HO scale, in 1962, with NCE DCC for locomotive control and a stand alone LocoNet for block detection and signals.) http://waynes-trains.com/ at home, and N scale at the Club.
He has quite a bit invested in his DC N scale layout which takes up most of his basement and is still growing and has dozens of blocks and does not want to switch to DCC. The only thing he likes about DCC is that engines have controlled sound. I told him about my DCC layout when a caboose with metal wheels derailed and sparked. This did something to the engines decoder and it does not receive commands now the right way and only travels in reverse without stalling. Luck has it that no other engines were on the layout as I was working on a project. That story made him like his DC layout even better.
Thank you all for your input. I think going with CTI Electronics will be the route to take. We will look into CTI more closely.
With or without JMRI, it is called Computerized Block Control and it is not new by any means. Bruce Chubb did it way back in the 1980's, the M.I.T. on campus model railroad club has been using their own version for years.
As mentioned CTI Electronics and Oak Tree Systems both make hardware for it. And I believe the hardware developed by Bruce Chubb is also still out there for sale. The closest thing to a plug and play version comes from Signal Research.
And yes, it takes a strong technical background to impliment it because it never became popular enough for full "plug and play" development. Oak Tree Systems and Signal Research both headed in that direction, but never really completed systems that provide all the desired features and plug and play user interfaces.
The real question is what are the operational goals? if you want the trains to run "automaticly", Oak Tree Systems is very skilled at museum type display layout control - how deep are your pockets?
Various other DC control schemes can provide high levels of control, but again, the first question is what do you want the trains to do, and how do you want to interact with them?
I use an Advanced Cab Control DC system with wireless thorttles and fully intergrated signaling, CTC and route control - but it is based on the idea of train crews and a dispatcher controlling the traisn like real life.
Actually, JMRI CAN be used to control DC locomotives if used with hardware from CTI Electronics.
While JMRI won't communicate with DC locomotives or rolling stock (you need a command control system to do that), it can be used to integrate detection, signalling and power turnout control for setups like CTC.
To do that, you need to have computer interface hardware such as C/MRI or Grapevine, or the RCI system sold by Oak Tree Systems. This can involve a good deal of hardware, but it's certainly do-able.
The hardware that JMRI can control is listed at the bottom of the left-hand column on the JMRI web site, at http://jmri.sourceforge.net
-Fritz Milhaupt, Publications Editor, Pere Marquette Historical Society, Inc.http://www.pmhistsoc.org
To my knowledge, JMRI is only for DCC. Google using JMRI
Rich
If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.
I'm helping a friend with a DC layout who is interested in using the JMRI program to run his layout. We were reading that you needed some way to communicate from the computer to the piece of equipment you want to operate or develop a dispatchers screen and control panel. With DCC the instructions would be run through the comand station to the tracks to the item, but what is used on DC instead of a command station? P.S. - seems like you almost need to be an IT person to set up the programs.