Traincontroller 10 Gold Video Series

[RudyB]

Traincontroller 10 Gold 01 Install and Drive a Train

Traincontroller 10 was released September 2022. It seemed like a good moment to start a new series of videos.

Video 1 shows how to download and install TC, how to get a license code and activate it, how to connect your Digital System and how to control a train with a Train Window.

Link to video Traincontroller 10 Gold 01 Install and Drive a Train

[RudyB]

We'll create a small layout on a switchboard, with a couple of turnouts, and we'll see how we can give the turnouts their DCC address and operate them.

Link to video Traincontroller 10 Gold 02 Switchboard with Turnouts

[Richard08]

Worth noting, for balance, Rocrail can do all this stuff - and it's free (Open Source - donations accepted). From the screenshots I'm wondering if Traincontroller is actually a commercial fork of the Rocrail project.

[Bigmet]

... I'm wondering if Traincontroller is actually a commercial fork of the Rocrail project.

If you believe this is commercial advertising, then alert the moderating team.

[Richard08]

... I'm wondering if Traincontroller is actually a commercial fork of the Rocrail project.

If you believe this is commercial advertising, then alert the moderating team.

I don't believe it is as such - but if it is intended as a genuine tutorial it really should at least mention there are alternatives, which it doesn't so I did. A comparison of the various offerings would probably make a good informative (and very long) article if someone has a few decades spare. I tried JMRI (hated it), commercial demo of Big Bear Model Rail Controller (seemed incomplete) and some other one I can't remember (hated it straight off and gave up almost instantly) before choosing Rocrail.

[Bigmet]

This forum doesn't have a like/useful button, so this will have to do instead!

[RAF96]

I don’t believe it is a commercial support attempt. Ruddi is well known for his instructional videos and his Arduino series was in no way an attempt to profit from sales of the device, simply tutorials on how to use the thing for various purposes. This to my mind is Ruddi following a new interest and producing videos as he goes along for the benefit of others.
Edit - having followed the video this is Ruddi simply updating his earlier video series to cover the Gold rev 10 version. The earlier series is redily available on youtube.

[RudyB]

I did a comparison several years ago in a previous video series when I was building my model rail layout.
Rocrail (free)
JMRI (free)
Koploper (free)
iTrain
Windigipet
Traincontroller
And maybe others still ...

I started to use TC simply because I liked it the most. Which doesn't mean the same holds for others. I find that software and their ease or complexity of functionality and use can be a matter of personal taste. Just choose and use what suits you best.

[RudyB]

Traincontroller 10 Gold 03 Blocks and Sensors for Train Detection

So far we can drive a train (video 1) and we can switch turnouts (video 2), all manually. To enable automatic train control we’ll need to create blocks. Similar to a real railway, trains drive from block to block and they’ll be halted by a red signal if the next block is occupied.

At the entry of a block a track sensor detects a passing train (reed switch) or the presence of a train (current detection). Each sensor has an address. Traincontroller continuously monitors the sensors, at all times it knows which train is in which block on the layout.

Link to video Traincontroller 10 Gold 03 Blocks and Sensors

[RudyB]

Traincontroller 10 Gold 04 Automatic Driving

There are a handful of different ways to drive trains around on a layout, whereby TC switches the turnouts and signals and accelerates and decelerates the trains fully automatically:
- Autotrain by Drag & Drop. Drive from A to B
- Spontaneous Run. TC decides randomly where the trains will go.
- Autotrain Toolbar. Drive from A to B with more options, among which to store the Schedule for later use
- Schedules. User-created paths that can have multiple departure- and destination blocks.

Link to video Traincontroller 10 Gold 04 Automatic Driving

[RudyB]

Traincontroller 10 Gold 05 User Interface

The TC user interface can be modified to your personal preferences in many ways:
- Overall color scheme
- Menu and toolbars
- Window sizes and floating / docking / tabbed behavior
- Use multiple monitors

Link to video Traincontroller 10 Gold 05 User Interface

[RudyB]

The switchboard can be customized to our personal preferences by modifying background- and track colors, track widths, grid, highlighting of turnouts and reserved routes and more.

Link to video Traincontroller 10 Gold 06 Customize the Switchboard

[RudyB]

The Train Window can be customized. Colors can be changed and sliders and buttons can be sized or hidden. The gauge can be made ‘sensitive’, which means it can be clicked and the train will accelerate or decelerate to the speed that was clicked.

Link to video Traincontroller 10 Gold 07 Customize the Train Window

[RudyB]

By default the User Interface is ribbon style. The ribbon menu was introduced years ago by Microsoft, in their Office suite. While it offers a multitude of clickable links per ribbon, I find the drawback to be that things are harder to find and a change to another ribbon is needed more frequently, rendering more mouse clicks instead of less.

Luckily tho ‘old style’ UI still is available. This has the classic toolbars with clickable icons. The big plus is that icons out of different menus / ribbons can be combined in one toolbar, which leads to less mouse clicks overall. It is My preferred way of working.

The video shows how to enable the Classic UI and how it can be modified.

Link to video Traincontroller 10 Gold 08 Classic User Interface

[centenary]

Nearly £740 after dollar \ sterling conversion. Not interested at that price.