Announcement From The JMRI Community - 25 YEARS!!

The Java Model Railroad Interface (JMRI®) community announces two major milestones:  the 25^th anniversary of the first use of JMRI and the 10,000^th update to the Java Model Railroad Interface software used by almost 50,000 model railroad hobbyists for managing and operating today’s digitally controlled model railroads.  With over 300 developers worldwide having contributed, the “community sourced” JMRI project began in 1999 to provide a way for model railroaders to manage the complexity of train engines fitted with digital decoders.  Today, model railroaders worldwide use the greatly expanded JMRI system for everything having to do with the development and enjoyment of modern model trains and layouts.

Bob Jacobsen, a member of the original team and still a senior developer, said “JMRI has helped bring the sophistication of modern electronics and computers to thousands of model railroads - all based on open source software.”  Not only model railroad hobbyists, but millions of people of all ages have seen JMRI in operation at holiday train displays, hobby shows, and train exhibits at multiple museums around the world.

 

“JMRI was one of the key steppingstones in the wide adoption of Digital Command Control across the model railroading community by making the process of implementation easier, visual, and common across all manufacturers,” noted Peter Ely, a founding member of the NMRA DCC Working Group.  “JMRI itself grew in complementary directions to allow the typical model railroader to do things at the system-wide railway level only dreamed about by the original working group.”

Jacobsen said that JMRI development continues to keep pace with changes in technology and that another 10,000 updates are likely over the next decade.  It is through the continued interest and contribution of time and effort of the community members that JMRI feature are expanded and technology updated.  Interest in JMRI extends over dozens of user forums and social media platforms, with over 8,000 users participating in the primary user forum on groups.io, asking questions and contributing answers and suggestions that are used to expand and improve JMRI capabilities.

 

Congratulations and thanks to all who have participated in using and improving JMRI, now and into the future.

 

About JMRI 

The Java Model Railroad Interface project was initially a modest undertaking of some dozen model railroad hobbyists who wanted to bring their computer skills to the emerging field of digitally controlled model trains.  Forming an open source software development project, their first output was called DecoderPro® and provided easy-to-use screens for managing “configuration variables” in the small computers that manufacturers and hobbyists were installing in train engines.  The effort expanded to create PanelPro^TM with features for controlling all types of electronic devices and automating train operations by monitoring sensors around the layout.

Unfortunately, the community was soon embroiled in a copyright and patent dispute that resulted (after seven years of litigation) in the landmark Jacobsen v. Katzer case that helped establish the legal basis for today’s open software movement. The Electronic Frontier Foundation cites this case as one that has allowed the internet to flourish and find its way into millions of computers in homes, offices, and businesses.

 

JMRI today provides functions including management of Digital Command Control decoders in train engines, cars, and other devices, graphic display of small and large train layouts, on-line real-time operational monitoring of sensors and other devices, automation of train operations, and management of realistic train operation scenarios.  JMRI also provided the first widespread implementation of the WiThrottle protocol.

 

New releases of JMRI are made available to users approximately monthly.  JMRI is comprised of several thousand source files available at GitHub, the free open source code repository, and is maintained and expanded by community members.  One of the milestones celebrated today is the 10,000^th developer update to the JMRI repository on GitHub, indicating the robustness and on-going development of this important open source project.

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ESU has Moved Offices!

BREAKING NEWS!!

ESU, LLC has loaded up our offices in Pennsylvania, hitched up the wagons, and pointed them west! The journey across the USA was great and we are now getting our new facility set up in beautiful Colorado Springs, Colorado!

Starting on Monday, August 19th ESU, LLC will re-open our US office at this address:

ESU, LLC 3625 Betty Dr., Suite A Colorado Springs, CO 80917

Telephone: +1 (570) 980-1980
Fax: +1 (866) 591-6440

Tech Support Hours:
Tuesday and Thursday 8:00 AM to Noon Mountain Time

<Update 2025-06-24>
Office Hours:
8:00 AM  to Noon Mountain Time

<Author's note>
For repairs, call them first to be sure you give them the information they need.

Rest assured that we are committed to continuing to serve all of our dealers and customers in the same high-quality manner that you’ve come to expect from ESU, LLC.

While we set up the new facility during our summer break, we continue to ask that no items be sent in. We will once again accept items at the new facility beginning on August 19th.

--

John H. Reinhardt

  PRRT&HS       #8909
  C&O HS       #11530
  NRail (NTrak) #54979044 (7566)

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LokSound v5 Radiator Fans Not Randomly Coming On At Lower Speeds

Making the Radiator Fans Work Randomly At Lower Speeds

Believe it or not, not all model railroaders run their trains around their layouts at 110 mph. The author is one of these individuals and he also had the problem of not being able to get the radiator fans to come on at the lower speeds. There is a logical reason for this but you have to dig down into the sound files to understand what is going on. Let's do that. We will be examining the S0709 Alco 16 cylinder 251C sound file. This discussion will cover the random functions and specifically the one that automatically controls the radiator fans.

The Random Functions

We'll start by looking at the Decoder Pane - Function Settings sheet. At the bottom of the sheet are the random functions.  See figure 1.

Fig 1 Random Functions Settings

The right side shows:

• The function button (F0 to F31) that should be triggered
• F11 is the radiator fans default
• If the Random function should be triggered while engine is stopped, driving or both
• If the Random function should be triggered only when the prime mover sound is On
• The minimum and maximum active time when the random function is active 
• The actual time is computed by the decoder between the defined range
• The minimum and maximum passive time between two Random Function triggers
•  This is the "pause", until the same Random function is retriggered

Set these values as you see fit.

The Radiator Fan Sound Scheme

Look at figure 2, the top line where share1 >= 28 and <= 34.

Fig 2 The radiator fan sound slot

If you have followed any of the author's other sound file discussions you'll know that share1 is a shared variable between sound slots in any particular sound file. This condition states that share1 must be between a value of 28 and 34 to turn on the fan. Admittedly there are other conditions, once you understand the first condition the others make sense. The [F = true] condition is automatically taken care of by the random function. So how is this going to help us? Read on.

The Prime Mover Sound Scheme
Now lets examine the prime mover sound slot shown in figure 3.
 

Fig. 3 Notches

The top of the prime mover scheme shows the notch changes from notch 2 to notch 8 and how the share1 value increases as you notch up. Think back to what the minimum value of share1 has to be to turn on the raditor fans, 28. Where does the value get to be at least 28? Not until notch 6. So if you are running your engine at lower notches, the fans will not come on randomly. 

What do we do now? There are a couple of ways to change things but we will concentrate on one of the easiest.

Now look back at figure 2. Let say we want the fans on when we reach notch 4. The share1 value there is 23. If we look back at figure 2 and we decrease all the values for fan turn on by 5 (28 minus 23) we get figure 4.

Fig 4. Lower speed values for turn-on

Burn the sound file to the decoder and you will have fans on at notch 4 (randomly). 

Loksound v4 decoders did not have random functions and the radiator fans are controlled exclusively by function key on/off (default F11). This also applies to v4 Select decoders.

Now you can see how to adjust things the way you want them. Just experiment until you get what you want. Most of all have fun!!

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The Different Delay Settings in ESU Decoders

There are two different delay settings in LokSound decoders:

 

1)  Setting CV124 bit 2 (bit value 4) takes effect only if speed is zero and Sound Slot 1 (prime mover) is off. It's a startup delay that prevents the user from activating prime mover sound and then moving off while the prime mover is still cranking over (because that's how a real loco behaves). It’s not a fixed time value but depends on how long the start-up sequence takes.

 

2)  Separately, there's a move off delay that takes effect every time speed is zero and prime mover is already running. It prevents the loco from moving off immediately and allows a prime mover spool-up time before the loco actually moves (because that's how a real loco behaves). By default it is set to 3 seconds.

 

Effect (1) can be enabled/disabled  via bit 2 of CV124.

 

Effect (2) is a different story:

• For LokSound V4 decoders, the setting is internal to the Sound Slot 2 schedule (see T1 below, units of 0.25 second). It requires you to have a Lokprogrammer and a copy of the original sound file  as you have to change and rewrite the entire sound project.
• For LokSound Select decoders, the user can't change it because the Sound Schedule part is laced out.
• For LokSound 5 decoders, typical projects have moved this setting to SoundCV13 (CV 167). You can change this with your Power Cab or JMRI DecoderPro. (I strongly recommend that you read and write down the original value in CV167 in case the effect is unwanted and you have to revert.

Thanks to Mark Granville of the ESU Groups.io forum for reminding the forum of the differences. This was in response to a question asked.

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Digitrax Signal Driver Cable Kits (SDCK) 10-pin Connector Source

Some model railroaders use up the 10-pin connectors in Digitrax's kit faster than they use the cable that comes with it. If you need additional connectors search on Amazon.com for:

"PC Accessories - Connectors Pro 50-Pack 2X5 10P 2.54mm Dual Rows IDC Sockets for Flat Ribbon Cable"

As of this post they are around $11.00 for a package of 50. That should last anyone for a while.

Thanks to the groups.io Digitrax forum for this information.

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