Atlas Silver series locos are also that way, they still have the speaker tower that the Gold sound units use, but usually have an extra weight mounted there. Remove weight, repalce with a pair of speakers, no mechanical fiddling to make room for the speaker.
I just had a good laugh, it's been a while since I looked at the Ring Engineering site and I noticed the icon they use on the HC-1 page screenshots for the "low speed boost" (what many DCC decoders call kick start) - the turtle used everywhere especially on lawn equipment to indicate slow, with a boot in his rear.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
A sound-ready locomotive is one with provision for a speaker, but is either not DCC equipped or comes with only a motor/light decoder. Athearn Genesis locomotives are an example of ones offered as "sound ready" but not sound equipped.
A recently purchased Athearn Genesis was sound ready but had no decoder installed.
I have contacted Ring Engineering, who suggested contacting Yankee Dabbler from whom I had purchased the RailPro controller and LM-1, but YD never responded to my question.
cacole "I have been trying to find a sound-ready diesel locomotive that the LM-1 will fit into, or one with a LM-1 pre-installed."
"I have been trying to find a sound-ready diesel locomotive that the LM-1 will fit into, or one with a LM-1 pre-installed."
I have never heard of a HO sound-ready loco that doesn't already have a sound decoder. Sounds a little expensive to pull the decoder to put in an LM-1, but I don't see why one couldn't.
Talk to Ring Engineering. I think they do installations, and may know dealers who have locos, pre-installed with an LM-1 and a speaker. Wouldn't hurt.
DC
http://uphonation.com
I recently purchased a RailPro controller and an LM-1 locomotive module from Yankee Dabbler to test it out. The locomotive I selected is a Model Power re-released Mantua 4-6-2 Pacific with a long tender, because I wanted to make sure the LM-1 and speaker would fit..
The tender floor is a solid metal casting with no provision for sound, but it does have a 9-pin JST socket in it. I was able to put a QSI deep bass speaker with enclosure in the floor of the tender after I drilled a large hole in the center of the tender floor. The LM-1 fits loosely on top of the speaker enclosure.
I run the loco on our club's DCC powered layout which is in a 20 x 40 foot room. It has plenty of volume for a club setting, even with the volume set at less than 50%..
Surprisingly, the RailPro receiver doesn't seem to be as sensitive to power glitches caused by dirty track or dirty wheels as the DCC locomotives do.
I have been trying to find a sound-ready diesel locomotive that the LM-1 will fit into, or one with a LM-1 pre-installed.
The generic photo mentioned that is provided by Ring Engineering is of a Union Pacific diesel locomotive, but they don't say whose model it is.
I should also mention that I ran it on both 12V DC and the NCE DCC SB5 booster. No difference in ops. I'm going to be using the SB5 for rail power on my new home layout. I want to stay a little closer to SDMRR, and I may get a friend or 2 that can bring their cabs over and run with me.
dcfixer ...but there are some out there....
...but there are some out there....
Yes, there are...
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
I knew it wasn't your intention, but there are some out there.... Thanks for posting that, Tom.
dcfixer Man, I don't really want to start a fight over DCC.
Man, I don't really want to start a fight over DCC.
And that was NOT my intention for posing the question in the first place. I see from the RailPro webpage that they do have comparison chart for those interested in learning more.
Tom
tstage DC, First off: Thanks for taking the time to write your initial review on the RailPro system. Reviews like this are always helpful and informative. You mentioned that you saved $150 on your purchase. How much did the HC-1 control unit and two (2) LM-1 sound receivers cost you? And, for those who are familiar with the technology, what advantages would the RailPro system have over DCC? Thanks! Tom
DC,
First off: Thanks for taking the time to write your initial review on the RailPro system. Reviews like this are always helpful and informative.
You mentioned that you saved $150 on your purchase. How much did the HC-1 control unit and two (2) LM-1 sound receivers cost you?
And, for those who are familiar with the technology, what advantages would the RailPro system have over DCC? Thanks!
You are welcome, Tom.
I got the system from http://www.traintekllc.com
Man, I don't really want to start a fight over DCC. For those that are already deeply invested in it, I think it's fine. It was definately an improvement in control when it first came out. But for me, I was turned off by all the convoluted programming and high component count of DCC from the get go. I have also been witness to a lot of swearing and frustration at the SDMRR museum over DCC. Now, the SD&AE layout (where I run) also has analog DC integrated into the layout, so that could be a factor, but the cab plugs and wires, connecting and disconnecting all the time seemed problematic. They can't use wireless cabs, cause it interfered with the G and O boy's wireless. NCE said they would look into it. That was 3 years ago. The SDMRR association as spent a lot of time and money trying to work out DCC problems. Upgrades seem constant, but the system gets a lot use there, too. I have been running a marginal, custom 75mHz HO Train Engineer system that I designed and built for my P2K E units for about 5 years now. Been totally reliable, but poor reception/transmission. Can always stop/start, but lose speed control. When the DCC crashes and is reset, I'm up and running while everyone else is programming. I like the more prototypical operations of RC.
Here's my initial, home review of Ring Engineering's RailPro.
I purchased the RailPro HC-1 control unit and (2) LM-1 receivers with sound. RailPro is currently available for HO only. Installation of the receivers was done in a Genesis F3 A/B set. The exiting loco circuit boards had to be removed for the receivers to fit. I also test fitted the receiver into my Bachmann S4 switcher, which is the smallest loco I have. The LM-1 receiver just snugly slid in after I lightly scraped the little bit of plastic flashing from the side seams on the receiver. LM-1 receiver wiring follows the 9-pin JST DCC standard. The common +wire (blue) output is 12V DC and rated for 200mA total draw. Each of the (4) aux/function outputs are rated at 100mA each. Motor output is rated at 800mA continuous, 2 A at stall. My Genesis A unit lights are 1.5 V incandescent bulbs. I used 867 Ohm ¼ Watt resistor in series with the outputs. I installed a QSI HB.090 extended bass speaker for sound in the A unit. The plastic baffle for it is just slightly too large. A little sanding down of 2 opposing sides and the top surface on the baffle was required. The next size down QSI speaker would fit better if using the plastic baffle. I don’t really care for the sound of the plastic baffle, so I make my own baffles out of thin cardboard stock with a plastic cover. Sound is decent. Much better than with the plastic baffle, IMO.
Downloading software upgrades, loco pictures and sound/light effects from Ring Engineering’s website to the HC-1 controller was smooth and easy, but sometimes is lengthy, depending on what and how many files are being downloaded at once. PC only, no Mac yet. Ring Engineering provides generic loco pictures on their site for use with the RailPro system. The pix are used to give specific ID to each individual LM receiver/loco. It’s a real convenience for identifying locos when using the HC-1 touch screen. Loco names or numbers can be created/changed once the formatted picture is in the HC-1 and copied to the LM-1 receiver. A JPEG of any loco can be emailed to RE to be formatted and made available for downloading. Each LM-1 module comes with one free coded picture conversion.
Use of the hand held HC-1 controller with touch screen is very simple and intuitive. Navigation through the pages is a breeze. One of the features I found most useful was the real time feedback and monitoring of the receiver. Receiver points of interest include signal status, temperature status, input Voltage status, throttle percentage and motor full load current value (determined with Ring Engineering’s proprietary load test feature). Protective fault warning and shutdown features of the RailPro system include over temperature, over load and under Voltage. This all came very helpful when I had to troubleshoot a problem with my Genesis F3 B unit. It was jerking/stopping at creep speeds, and wasn’t consisting well with the A unit. It would appear to run fine at higher speeds. I started closely monitoring the HC-1 loco info pages while the loco creeped along, intermittently jerking and stopping. Got a lot of “track under Voltage” faults/warnings on the HC-1 that would clear quickly. Track V on loco info page jumping around a little. The most interesting part is that the HC-1 would lose the signal, first intermittently then permanently. I would have to cycle power to the LM-1 receiver for the signal to come back. I thought “RF noise” – truck pickup and/or motor. Found 2 loose truck wires, one on each truck, wiggling under those stupid wire slip on press connectors. Soldered all truck connects. F3 A/B running smooth as a baby’s butt now.
RailPro’s sound files and light effects are impressive. New files and FX are constantly being developed by Ring Engineering, and provided on their site for easy downloading. The light FX seem to be designed for LEDs, cause the very cool Mars, Attack, Beacon and Strobe FX don’t effect as well with the incandescent lights. Now, I keep the voltage pretty low (high resistance) on my incandescents, so that could be a factor. When I informed RE of this and about my P2K E unit dual filament Mars light, they said that I could send a video. They claim that their software can create just about any light FX.
MU match-up is a piece of cake. First, each loco’s “motor full load current” is determined and stored using RailPro’s simple test procedure. Up to (12) locos can be run simultaneously. Any combination of locos can be quickly/easily consisted up to (12) locos total, i.e. (6) consists of (2) locos each, (3) consists of (4) locos each, and so on. Although start speed, top speed, acceleration and deceleration curves and adjustments are provided for each loco/receiver, RailPro can automatically set up the load sharing in the consists once the “motor full load current” is determined for each loco. A little acceleration and deceleration adjustments to the lead loco makes for a smooth MU ops. Linking and unlinking locos is a snap with a few touches on the screen.
The range of RailPro is given as 100 ft. I still had good signal when I took the HC-1 out in my front yard (about 100 ft., two walls). The acid test will be when I run at the San Diego Model Railroad Museum with all the noise and about every wireless device imaginable around there. Then I will be able to get a practical range of operation.
Customer service is outstanding. My emailed preorder questions were all answered within 24 hours. Two hours after I placed the order on their web site, Tim Ring called me on the phone and told me that I could get it cheaper from a dealer on the East coast. He then canceled my order. I ended up saving about $150 cause of that. We ended up talking for 45 mins or more. They have been developing this for (10) years. What’s next? More sound files, a smaller cheaper non-sound receiver, the LM-2, and large scale application of RailPro.
RailPro has been out for two years now, and it looks like a very bright future for Ring Engineering. These people got something here, and they seem very excited about the response that they are getting with little advertising. IMO, RailPro is a movement toward prototypical operations of model trains.