Hi Jim,
I see there is an article on using smart phone for a throttle.
Actually we did this at Ring Engineering about 15 years ago when the
first Pocket PC's came out. However, we never sold the products to
control trains because we believed it was not a good solution for
the majority of model railroaders. Below is from our RailPro
frequently asked questions that describes why we choose to build our
own hardware for RailPro instead of just developing software for off
the shelf products.
Is using a tablet or touchscreen phone with a train control App like
using RailPro?
No. Not at all. We started our development with an off the shelf
generic touchscreen handheld computer. Shortly afterward we
realized that was completely the wrong direction and would never
make a good product for the user. What we realized was that we
needed to develop a handheld controller from scratch with the goal
of controlling your model train layout. Some problems with the off
the shelf touchscreen computer that we encountered included:
1) We found that using a touchscreen for a throttle was
unacceptable. The problem is that you needed to be looking at the
screen to adjust the speed accurately and the feel was poor at
best. You need to be looking at the train engine to properly
connect couplers etc. This is why we included a real knob on the
RailPro controller. So you can have your hand on the speed control
knob and still be looking at your train. What is the point in
having a controlling device that is not actually a good throttle?
2) The developers of the phones and tablets change their products
quickly and it is unreasonable to think that they will ask the
opinion of model railroaders when they develop new equipment because
this is not the market that they target. Therefore if you want a
throttle just a couple years from now, you have no idea what you
will be able to get or if it will even be compatible. With RailPro
we control the hardware and a top concern of ours is long term
availability and comparability with a RailPro system. Further, it is
also unreasonable to think that the software developers will get any
advanced notice of hardware changes or even complete operating
system charges! Therefore, after a couple of years, the software
developers will be always be trying to catch up with whatever new
device is being sold. We believe this alone can stop any company
developing for modeling because of the inability to keep up with
constantly changing hardware. With RailPro, our hardware will never
change without our knowledge and our software development will not
be hampered by constantly changing hardware without notice.
3) We had problems where other apps would pop up or interrupt the
train app and the train app would be inaccessible or would cause
communication problems. If the app becomes inaccessible you cannot
stop your trains! This does not happen with RailPro because there
are no other apps to interfere.
4) Typical consumer computer networks are not guaranteed real time.
The response time can be anywhere from good to no control at all.
With RailPro, at least 40 simultaneous users will have guaranteed
fast response and hundreds of handhelds are likely to work very
well.
5) Product instability is a problem with off the shelf computers.
The odds of you buying the same product only a year later is
unlikely. So it may be necessary to support different software
programs, different OS's, different networks etc.
6) Network setup with RailPro is as simple as pressing the Find
Product button. Any PC network we have ever dealt with is far more
complicated and problematic.
7) Nobody wants to wait until their PC's booted and make a wireless
connection just to drive a train. With RailPro the handheld is
ready to control trains in about one second. Who would want typical
PCs problems involved in operating their train set like software
crashes, reboots, hard drive failures etc.?
8) With RailPro you do not need a PC down by your layout. You do
not need to buy a PC just for your layout.
9) Don't you think that buying products from many manufacturers,
instead of just one, is much more likely to have problems? Also, if
you have a problem don't you think that it will be more difficult to
fix? For example, if you get a touch control product from
manufacturer A, software program for the touch control product from
programmer B, PC from manufacturer C, wireless network product from
manufacturer D, PC to train control system interface product form
manufacturer E, software for the PC to train control system from
programmer F, and the train control equipment from manufacturer
G....then who is going to be responsibly for fixing a problem with a
system like this???
Ring Engineering's RailPro system has color touchscreen controllers,
outstanding software, and a complete easy to use system available
from one source. Further, it is available today!
10) Battery life was too short. Our Handheld controller can run up
to 12 hours* on a single charge for all day model railroad fun.
Therefore, what we learned is that you need proper hardware and
software to make a better train control system. It takes years of
software development to obtain a well written, dependable, and easy
to use interface like RailPro has. Because of the high level of
technology in our controller it took years to develop the handheld
controller. Further we tested it for years to be sure it worked
very well before it was sold. RailPro has been in development for
nearly a decade and we are confident that it shows in our RailPro
product. Because RailPro's base hardware and software have been
completed, future products can be developed much more quickly and
easily.
11) Our handheld is designed to be held all day so you can follow
the action around. In our opinion holding a tablet all day to run a
train is unacceptable.
posted by Jim Sleeth Now I have to use DDC to. Not easy to be in S.
