Raildriver and Power Supply

[OTTODAD]

Will there ever be a Raildriver which does not need a separate power supply, using the voltage supplied by the USB port just like some external USB hard disks do ?

O t t o

[stresstool]

My RD doesn't have a separate power supply for the controls. There is a PS for the audio boom box gizmo which I used exactly once 5 years ago. I didn't care for the effect so since then I've never had the audio hooked up (or its PS) and only have a USB cable attached.

I don't recall the USB specs exactly, but I believe a device is only allowed to draw a few milliamps from the USB cable (maybe it's ~100ma). So I don't believe there is enough there to power an audio subsystem that drives much more than headphones. In any case, the controls and the LED display get their power from the USB cable.

[OTTODAD]

Thanks, Dave !

I was looking at my son's Raildriver here in the States and forgot that I too do not use it's audio system back in the UK and just plug in it's USB cable when using it.

O t t o

[RailDriver_Dan]

You are correct in that there is not enough power available from the USB port to drive our amplifier, and also correct in that the controls do not need the power supply to operate.

The RailDriver's onboard subwoofer makes the controls vibrate in frequency with the engine and this adds a sense of realism to the simulation.

Michael Hetherington, designer of the RailDriver discovered this by accident. Out of desk space, he perched the prototype of his RailDriver on top of his subwoofer during a test run, and was amazed at how it made the controller come to life.