Railstars RAILbooster

[CaptOblivious]

My company, Railstars, has been busy preparing our first ready-to-run commercial product, RAILbooster.



RAILbooster is a 3A DCC booster, designed to be inexpensive and bullet-proof. We anticipate that units will begin shipping in early February. The MSRP is 75USD + S&H, but for the remainder of January, we are offering a pre-order price of only 65USD. (Price does not include a power supply, although I have those available as well.)

You can read more about RAILbooster, and place a pre-order, at
http://railstars.com/hardware/railbooster

Of course, feel free to post questions here, or email me: dgoodman@railstars.com

If you live in the Denver area, or near enough as makes no difference, we'll have a table demo'ing RAILbooster and more at the Rocky Mountain Toy Train Show in March:
http://rmtts.com/

[The_Ghan]

Does it work with LocoNet?

Cheers

The_Ghan

[CaptOblivious]

Does it work with LocoNet?

Ghan,

I'm not quite sure what you are asking; could you be more specific? RAILbooster can be fed the RailSync signal on the LocoNet cable, but does not itself talk LocoNet (nor does it need to). I use it with the LocoNet port on my Digitrax Zephyr all the time. I'm still working up the manual, but the manual for the older LOLbooster product is still valid, and should tell you what you need to know about connecting RAILbooster to a LocoNet system.

[The_Ghan]

I'm looking at it now ...

Another topic: I'd love an accessory decoder setup to turn my sidings on and off.  By the time I wire up a couple of DS-64s to bi-stable relays on a separate circuit board with the necessary terminal connectors I'm up for over $120.  There doesn't seem to be something specific available.  Any plans?

Cheers

The_Ghan

[CaptOblivious]

I'm looking at it now ...

Another topic: I'd love an accessory decoder setup to turn my sidings on and off.  By the time I wire up a couple of DS-64s to bi-stable relays on a separate circuit board with the necessary terminal connectors I'm up for over $120.  There doesn't seem to be something specific available.  Any plans?

No plans for something like this…seems awfully specific. But I do have plans for a range of accessory decoders in general, yes. And, I'm betting that they might be flexible enough to be shoehorned into your designs. (I could design a bespoke system for you, but you wouldn't end up saving any money.) Watch for a forthcoming announcement for my upcoming line of NMRAnet products.

[The_Ghan]

Ahhh ... I see how it connects.  White and blue wire from LocoNet cable stripped down.  I get that it doesn't need bi-directional communications, but it still would have been good to have the two LocoNet ports, just as the Digitrax products do.  This is both from and ease-of-use and confidence perspective.  I've made my own LocoNet cables before.  I've also stripped a couple of cables down to experiment with "touch" connectors on the sides of my boards.  You ain't left with much "wire" after those two layers of plastic come off.

I believe LocoNet is royalty free, right?

Cheers

The_Ghan

[CaptOblivious]

I believe LocoNet is royalty free, right?

Nope! And any commercial product built around LocoNet has to be approved by Digitrax. Which is why future products will be using NMRAnet / OpenLCB, which is genuinely open and royalty free.

Ahhh ... I see how it connects.  White and blue wire from LocoNet cable stripped down.  I get that it doesn't need bi-directional communications, but it still would have been good to have the two LocoNet ports, just as the Digitrax products do.  This is both from and ease-of-use and confidence perspective.  I've made my own LocoNet cables before.  I've also stripped a couple of cables down to experiment with "touch" connectors on the sides of my boards.  You ain't left with much "wire" after those two layers of plastic come off.

RAILbooster is designed to work with every manufacturer, which means leaving off manufacturer-specific ports on pain of having a dozen different kinds! Manually stripping telephone cable is a bit of a pain, but there are tools out there that make the process instant and painless. I actually use the cable that came with my LT1 LocoNet tester, which is pre-stripped at one end!

[The_Ghan]

I take your point on various manufacturer's connectors.

Cheers

The_Ghan

[stevenh]

Nice... love everything about it... even the marketing :)

I could also use this as just a 'motor controller' after my Arduino... I was thinking of combining all the circuits I built over the months on my blog into an 'Arduino Model Railway Controller'... Maybe I still will, and then point everyone to your booster for the actual throttle control; instead of making my own :)

[CaptOblivious]

Steven,

Thanks!
Only problem is that RAILbooster is designed to shut down when it detects a DC signal (which is the only way to detect that its not getting a signal from a command station). That would be a problem, I think, but nor insurmountable. Let me think on it.

[CaptOblivious]

Well, the pre-sale offer price of $65 is now officially over. The boards should be arriving in my hands later this week or early next. But if you ask nicely, I might could do something for my forum members.