RocRail http://wiki.rocrail.net/doku.php positions itself as an alternative to JMRI. I'd like to hear from those who are using RocRail (not JMRI) and give us your views of the system. I have nothing negative to say about JMRI, a system I've used for many years myself.
Thanks,
Joe
I am giving it a shot, at least as far as using the virtual CTC panel portion - I don't think their decoder programming facilities are as good as JMRI (but I rarely use JMRO for that - I use all the same decoders so it's not hard to memorize the settings I use for all locos). Their panel and also their simple HTML web interface for smartphones etc. are intriquing to me because it's not written in Java, and writing scripts for it doesn't need Jython which if it isn't the world's worst scripting langues is in a close race for it. The HTML interface is allowing me to experiment with my idea of a simple universal throttle using an Arduino. Possibly my other idea of a small Bluetooth add-on to any smartphone so you have the touch screen to turn functions on/off or select a loco, but an actual knob to run to control the train. It seems a lot easier to do this via RocRail than with JMRI.
I guess I lost some faith in JMRI when I tried to help a friend automate a trolley loop on his layout with it. I could never get the script to work, and making a mistake in drawing the track plan meant I had to pretty much just start all over, erasing back to my mistake in block numbering and then finishing it caused all sorts of weird problems. And still it never reall worked - spurious occupancy sensing was the biggest problem, and it's always bneen blamed on the Digitrax hardware. Well, one weekend I went ove,r he had downloaded RR&Co and in a week had the trolley line automated like he wanted - me the computer guy couldn't get it working in JMRI but he, a lawyer, got it working in RR&Co. And same hardware - no false block detections. Everything was the same, in fact, except the software - same Locoobuffer interface, same laptop computer I was trying to use JMRI on. It's just a lot less intuitive (JMRI) when you get to that level - and I say this for someone who has been writing computer programs since I was 11 years old, back in 1977 when the TRS-80 came out.
So, I am quite willing to give RocRail a try, although I may end up writing my own VB program to be my virtual CTC panel, driving my homemade control system which is loosely based on CMRI using Arduinos. At least until I get to the point of building a physical CTC machine.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Randy,
Be interesting to see how it goes. Automating a trolley is my test for automation software. I never got JMRI to work on the trolley either. I use CTI-Train Brain and got the trolley working the same day. Never looked back. JMRI is great for Operations and programming decoders but I don't think much of it for automation although I did write some interesting macros last year.
I tried RocRail's early version of their throttle and was a little underwhelmed, but it does look like they have done some additional work on it.
It will be interesting to see how your adventure goes with RocRail.