Thanks Don.  I will look into that Acer Tablet PC.   It sure is nice to have you on speed dial here on LSC.  That means a lot.  I’ll be in touch, Mark

Hi Mark, I know that Ring has a MAC version on his "to do" list...someday.

 I bought a ACER Tablet PC running WIN 10. Super fast little guy. I use the RailPro USB simulator to demo the RailPro at shows, (remember going to shows). Bought it at Best Buy. They also have used laptops.

Also I just added two RailPro customers in Pittsburgh. They would like to meet others G scalers in the area.

Don

Jon,  Thanks again for your input and for the RailPro users group forum info.  I did sign up to the forum and found it very helpful.  Definitely an asset to any RailPro user.  There were three posts offering possibilities for getting around the Mac-Windows incompatibility issue but they seemed sketchy especially with my computer illiteracy.  I had switched over to Mac from Windows based computers about 9 years ago after fighting with crashing hard drives and re-occuring virus issues.  I haven't had a single operational issue since with my Mac.  And I really like their "partnership" with our iPad and Apple cell phones.  However, I have had pretty much zero luck posting photos with it here on LSC and now with this RailPro incompatibility issue I may consider the acquisition of a simple Windows based PC for these purposes. 

I had considered calling Don Sweet directly to question him about this Mac issue but thought I would address this here on LSC to be able to share the info.  You were a great help.  But Don Sweet, if you are reading this, please jump in....as you always helpfully do.  You both are a great resource here.

Hi Mark - Unfortunately, yes. Mac is not currently supported. If you want to do any of your own programming and/or run the simulator with the USB radio, you need a Windows based PC and be prepared to bypass your anti-virus and/or Windows protections when installing Ring products to the PC.

There are some guys on the RailPro User Group https://rpug.pdc.ca who have been successful with a Windows partition on a Mac.

You can use a laptop, or Windows tablet with USB.

Jon Radder said:

I just dipped my foot in the Railpro waters.   I ordered the Computer Interface and a locomotive module from Don @ RCS of New England.  I'm going to get to know the system before investing $300 in the handheld controller by using the simulation software and the USB radio module (Computer interface) to load sounds and r/c control a loco on my indoor railroad from my PC in the train room.

Jon, I have been following your thread Next Conversion: C.V.S.Ry. M-11 to RailPro with much interest.  (This is the thread where you're fully immersed in the RailPro waters.)  I like your idea of starting out with just the Computer Interface and locomotive module from Don Sweet.  But after studying the Ring Engineering website it looks like my MacBook Pro will not support the Computer Interface.  Am I correct in understanding that I would need a Windows based PC to load sound files in order to take full advantage of all of the sounds available?  I don't necessarily need to r/c control a loco from my computer but the sound feature is what I am particularly interested in.  Thanks, Mark

Got it completely buttoned up today. It was tight, but the body went back on over all that stuff!

The last step is to put the railings on. Originally I thought I could live with the yellow railings, but after looking at that comparison picture for a few days I decided they do need to be black. It's too cold to paint this week, so I'll take them with me to work where I have a paint room. If I'm lucky, I can start putting them on tomorrow evening. Once it's fully assembled I'll take some video.

I ran some road tests tonight and was happy to learn M-11 will negotiate R1 switches and pull short cars from sidings in R1 territory - even with body mount couplers! One car that was buried on an R1 siding was my camera car with LED flood lights. It was designed to carry an 11.1V battery, but I had adapters already made up that allowed me to connect it to the switched 14V at the front of M-11. It worked perfectly   I'll show that in the video too in a few days.

More progress today. Almost ready to start putting the body back on. Only a small bit of wire management left to do so everything will fit.  One of the items that slowed me down was adding the capability to power a larger speaker in a trail car. Because my on-board speaker is 4 ohms, this scheme required a switch to change from parallel to series wiring for the speakers.  I searched around a while for a good spot to locate the switch. I finally came up with gluing it to the bottom of an exhaust port with structural adhesive. Interior and exterior views of the switch install...

And here is the chassis with the RailPro LM and battery tied on to a weight with zip ties. The weight is attached with high temp hot glue.  All of those plugs hanging around connect to components mounted in the body like the speaker and various lights...

Tonight I'll work on getting all that wire to fit in the small spaces that are left inside the body. Hopefully tomorrow will be button up day.

Thanks Mark

I was a dyed-in-the-wool Phoenix Sound fan from my first Big Sound 97 board in a GP-9 about 20 years ago to my latest install using a PB-11. I even have several trail cars with mini bookshelf speakers in them to enhance the sound.  If you haven't figured it out yet, one of my hot buttons is sound. I needed to retire my former system because the manufacturer no longer makes the system I was using. It was Rail Boss with a 2-stick aircraft style radio. Big & bulky, but I found the sticks very easy to use.

Airwire was on my short list because (I think) you can use it with sound decoders like the TCS WOW.  I've not heard TCS's steam sounds, but the diesel sounds I've heard are fantastic.  I've had hands-on experience with the Airwire hand piece and while I'm sure it's just a learning curve thing, I found the buttons a bit confusing, but I like the knob for throttle.

I've also had hands-on with several versions of the Revolution system.  I'm not a fan of buttons for throttle and combine that with the generic sounds offered it wasn't for me.

Don Sweet has been trying to sell me on RailPro for years. I finaly dipped a toe a month or so ago then jumped in with both feet last week. What has sold me was #1 sound quality, #2 ease of use, #3 functionality, especially consisting, #4 simplicity of install / programming, #5 cost per loco.  The more I get into it, the more I find I like.  I'm also looking forward to automating a few hard to reach switches on my indoor someday soon.

Jon, I am enjoying this saga of your M-11 conversion to RailPro.  I am finding it very informative and entertaining as well.  I have most of my equipment set up with Airwire and Phoenix sound boards but you are really tempting me to give RailPro a try.  I will most definitely stay tuned.  Thank you for sharing, Mark

My order from RCS of NE showed up on Thursday and I spent most of Friday soldering up the output leads of a locomotive module. That's one of the few complaints I have about the RailPro LM-S3-G. I'd much rather have screw terminals for everything, not just the higher current lines. It would make installation faster and wire management easier.

I couldn't resist doing a road test with just the battery and LM on the frame.  The low speed performance blows me away. With each truck wired separately, it appears that the LM does load management between the two trucks as well as it's low speed enhancement which I think is a form of PWM. I can get the chassis to absolutely crawl on level track. You can barely see the wheels and rods moving, but they are moving!  I'll do a demo video once the body is installed.

Today, while I rooted on my childhood home team, The Buffalo Bills "won, not done" to a nail biting victory over the Indianapolis Colts in the first round of the NFL playoffs, I worked on the final wiring diagram.  This loco will have a few unusual features. It wouldn't be mine if it didn't   First, the front mounted on-board speaker, which sounds great by itself, can be augmented with a mini bookshelf speaker in a trailing car for unbelievable bass. Second, a 14V switchable connector will be available at the front of the locomotive to power the LED array on the front of my wedge snow plow.

Here is the schematic. Not shown is that all body mounted components have plugs in thier wires so the body can be easily separated from the chassis for service...

Unfortunately, wiring diagrams for most of the early designs were never published. To add to the confusion, there was no standard for wire colors, even two of the same run loco could have different color wires!  Long ago, I can't remember why, I completely traced and documented the wiring for a USA 44 Ton center cab. I'm sure I still have that diagram, even though the loco was sold off years ago.

Fortunately, these early run locos were pretty simple. Little to no electronics, just hook up wires.  If you do get t all figured out, by all means publish it here and/or on the RailPro User Group forum so others may benefit in the future.

Update on Delton C-16 wiring, yesterday I removed the cover from the gear box to find that black/white wire set goes to a set of wheel brushes on the front set of drivers.  

Wouldn't a wiring diagram have made life so easy?  I will try to create one as I work through the upgrade. 

Now I am ready to begin installation of the RailPro LM-3S-G module.  I will send another update when I have some progress.

Thank you all for your responses.

Aflyer

John Lenheiser said:

I purchased a kit something like this, you can build your own with the number of plug size slots you need for the harness you need. Don't buy a crimper as you can just crimp the wires with a small pair of needle noise plyers, it works just fine, plus I do solder the wires where they are crimped. Plus you will also need colored wire in the 20-22 size wire, they can also be purchased on Amazon in different colors and different lengths, I got the 5' ones in 10 colors. If you want to know about which LED's I use I can give you that info to, I also get them from Anazon. 

trainmam

https://www.amazon.com/XLX-Housing-Terminal-Connector-Assortment/dp/B01M66K43K/ref=pd_di_sccai_7?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B01M66K43K&pd_rd_r=a9445f93-ce1e-4c47-a098-70acc00e5d51&pd_rd_w=7TS2v&pd_rd_wg=9wpRY&pf_rd_p=c9443270-b914-4430-a90b-72e3e7e784e0&pf_rd_r=PTXRFYKK330SB1D2CQ23&psc=1&refRID=PTXRFYKK330SB1D2CQ23

John,

Thank you, that sure eliminates the problem of stiff wire on some of the premade ones I have bought.

Your info on LEDS would be great.  It is always a crap shoot when you go to eBay or Amazon, not knowing what quality the LED's are.

George 

I purchased a kit something like this, you can build your own with the number of plug size slots you need for the harness you need. Don't buy a crimper as you can just crimp the wires with a small pair of needle noise plyers, it works just fine, plus I do solder the wires where they are crimped. Plus you will also need colored wire in the 20-22 size wire, they can also be purchased on Amazon in different colors and different lengths, I got the 5' ones in 10 colors. If you want to know about which LED's I use I can give you that info to, I also get them from Anazon. 

trainmam

https://www.amazon.com/XLX-Housing-Terminal-Connector-Assortment/dp/B01M66K43K/ref=pd_di_sccai_7?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B01M66K43K&pd_rd_r=a9445f93-ce1e-4c47-a098-70acc00e5d51&pd_rd_w=7TS2v&pd_rd_wg=9wpRY&pf_rd_p=c9443270-b914-4430-a90b-72e3e7e784e0&pf_rd_r=PTXRFYKK330SB1D2CQ23&psc=1&refRID=PTXRFYKK330SB1D2CQ23

John Lenheiser,

Agreed, Don is a great asset to the Hobby and to RailPro.

I am looking for an original wiring diagram just to understand it.  There is still a black/white wire cable that I have not yet been able to identify.  But I am headed back to the project as soon as I finish this response.

I have installed two of these L-M3S-G modules, and just checked the user manual I have.  I can not see any separate hookup for a Smoke Generator, but maybe that is in a newer version.

Thank you for all of the tips, and I would like to know who you get your cables from, 8 pin.  The 2 & 3 pin ones I have purchased work fine, but the wire in my opinion is too stiff.

George 

Jon Radder,

Thank you for all of that information, you have inspired me to add a cab light as well.

Rail Pro does give us lots of options for 5 volt and full voltage accessories. 

I have identified most of the existing wiring, and I am working on a diagram for the install.

One last wire set in the Loco, I am still trying to figure out. 

George

Aflyer said:

John,

Don has been been great, I got my RailPro stuff from him, and have talked about this Delton C-16 with him.

He has only worked on one of these and put the module in the tender with batter power and a speaker.

I want to control the lights, and smoke unit as well.

I have opened it up and have most of if figured out.  But I am still hoping to find somebody that has a wiring diagram, or has done this upgrade.

Thank you,

George 

Glade you have worked with Don, he is tops with RailPro and his knowledge of the product. I hope you can find the wiring diagram you are looking for, but since the RailPro module is all color coated and marked well for the correct wiring and where each will go I doubt anyone makes a diagram for reference in the future. The only thing I do is mark the light leads as the colors on the light leads on my LGB Moguls are not the same as RailPro colors are, or in many cases they are not. The RailPro module has its own connections for the smoke generator and the voltage is whatever your battery power is, mine is 14.8v, personally I don't hookup the smoke in my engines.. If changing your lights to LED's that is pretty much a no brainer, I use 12v 3mm and 5mm LED'S with a 1K resistor, if I want the light not as bright I add another resistor. I can send you what LED's I use sold on eBay if you want that information. LED's are voltage direction sensitive, that is the + and - leads on the LED will only light on way, if it doesn't light, switch the leads, this will not damage the LED if hookup backwards. Wish I could help you better, but all wiring is pretty much straight forward and there are no trick hookups. One last thing is, takeout all your Delton electronics and discard them, don't, I say don't try to use any part of them as those electronic and RailPro won't mix. One other thing you will probably need is a plug between the engine and tender, I needed and 8 prong plug, two for the motor, and two for each light, plus whatever it takes to power the smoke unit, you may even need more plugs and prongs, just added thought to confuse the issue. Good Luck and keep all you wiring color coded, otherwise you can never find what goes where if need be. 

trainman

I can't help with wiring specific to the Delton C-16, but I spent a few hours yesterday experimenting on the bench with a LM-3S-G to determine how to power higher voltage lighting.

On the screw terminal end:

V+ is roughly the battery voltage less a small amount for circuit loss.  I was using a 12V bench supply that puts out about 11.6V and was reading just over 11 volts on this pin.

COM is a non-switched negative return for all voltages.

+5V (both) is a constant 5 Volt positive voltage when the board is powered

On the 9 Pin connector, the Output lines (1-6) are all switched grounds to be used for lights or low-current applications.

  For 5V Lamps or LEDS, feed the + side from the +5 screw terminal

  For higher voltage Lamps or LEDs, feed the + side from the V+ screw terminal.

  (for LEDs, be sure to use the appropriate current limiting resistor)

I ran these tests to determine if I could do two things on my current Bachmann 45 Ton center cab conversion.  I want to be able to switch power to the cab light which is way too dim on 5 volts. I also want a switched 12-15V output on an MU cable at the front of the loco to power the LED headlight array on my wedge plow. I didn't test the plow (yet), but the cab light works great powered from the V+ terminal.

I don't know what the current limitations are on the voltage sources / outputs.  To drive a smoke unit you may wish the add a relay to switch a direct battery connection to the smoke unit.

The 65012 bolts right on so that part is easy.  The difficulty depends on if you need the wires to go to the engine or remain in the tender.  If the tender, then I would use the 65012.  If the wires need to go to the engine, then you will have to figure out how that is best accomplished.  So putting the triggers in the engine would be cleaner and maybe easier.  

For running the sierra sound units just add a pwc filter to the power supply output.  You can buy these (they are not polarity sensitive) or build your own.

For sensing bell and whistle I never use the 65012 as it is just 2 reed switches Normally open.  LGB uses the center lead as common ground in their engines.

Left rail is bell and right rail is whistle/horn.

I get glass reeds and glue them inside the LGB bottom plate as there is a recess for them at one end and a gap in the top plate for wires.

Also I have used flat or round reed sensors on engines that did not have a place for the reeds inside.

LGB 2080 engines with mechanical sensors can have round reeds replace these (they fir perfectly with glue to hold them in place) and get rid of the 'treadles'.