You may have noticed all those blinky lights on the ProtoThrottle and its receivers. Yes, Nathan and I are fans of LEDs on the stuff we build. There is a small coolness factor, but more importantly, for products going out into the wild, beyond our loving care (and our ability to see and touch them), […]
There are two main braking modes in the ProtoThrottle. The default mode is a basic on/off (VAR BRK = OFF) brake. When you move the brake handle right, past the brake threshold (approximately mid-way), the assigned brake function is activated in the locomotive decoder. When you cross that threshold moving the brake handle left, the […]
We will be attending the St. Louis RPM Meet this Friday and Saturday (July 20-21, 2018). Please stop by and say hello. New for this year… the ProtoThrottle! No more waiting as it will finally be available for regular sales. Following the RPM, we will make it available on our website, along with our two […]
Today, we just finished shipping all the ProtoThrottle pre-orders. Thank you to all who ordered and we look forward to seeing where this goes in the future. For those who missed pre-orders, we will be at the St. Louis RPM Meet this coming week, with throttles for sale, and then they will be available on […]
The handles on the ProtoThrottle come pre-calibrated and should not require any additional adjustments. However, there may be times when you want to adjust the point at which the horn or on/off brake activates. The threshold menu is for doing just that. It allows you to calibrate the horn and brake levers to suit your […]
The final face plates, with lettering engraved, arrived Friday and all the assembled ProtoThrottle circuit boards came in last week. Nathan and I also spent a fun weekend building all the receiver boards we need (and more). With that, everything is in place to begin final assembly of the throttles, testing, packaging, and yes, eventually, […]
Just wanted to give a quick update on the ProtoThrottle… The face plates have been machined and anodized. They are currently awaiting one last machining step to engrave the lettering. The assembled circuit boards have also started to arrive and all the other pieces to make the throttles are ordered and (mostly) in hand. We’re […]
After Monday, April 30, ProtoThrottle pre-orders – at the discounted price – will no longer be accepted while the initial manufacturing run is in progress. The throttle will again be available for purchase starting approximately late July. We have extended the pre-order deadline until April 30 to accommodate ProRail participants who will have a demo […]
While most typical MRServo installations are done beneath the layout, one of our customers had a unique situation where the area under the turnout was obstructed. Many thanks to Tim Mann for sharing this method and sending us photos of his installation. Tim’s full set of installation pictures can be found on his Flickr page.
Many of you already know that Iowa Scaled makes both kinds of detectors – an optical detector known as the CKT-IRSENSE, and a current detector known as the CKT-BD1. When discussing detectors a few months back, Michael and I thought it would be interesting to compare ours with the various other products on the market […]
