What is JMRI?

JMRI 2.3.6

A new test version (2.3.6) was released on November 16, 2008.

The key changes since test release 2.3.5 include:

• Improved Throttle options: You can now label what each function key does for each locomotive in DecoderPro, and have those automatically shown when you open a throttle for that locomotive.
• Tools to make it easier to download new decoder definitions from a local file or via the Internet.

For the complete list of changes and download links, see: JMRI 2.3.6 Release Notes

DecoderPro and Monday Night at the Movies

Joe Fugate filmed some of the JMRI clinics at the NMRA 2008 Anaheim meeting for Model Railroad Hobbyist emagazine. They're now running the DecoderPro clinics as part of their "Monday Night at the Movies" series on the Model Railroad Hobbyist web site. It's a great way to see the clinics if you couldn't get to the NMRA convention!

Court Gives JMRI Important Victory In KAM Dispute

JMRI is an informal open-source group. We do this for the joy of model railroading, and don't produce anything for profit.

One of our members is currently defending our right to continue against patent litigation, cybersquatting and copyright infringement by a wealthy individual who has far outspent us. While we believe we can succeed with substantially less than than the $1 million he could afford to spend, we still need your help to prevail. Please donate -- $1, $5, $10, $25, $50, $100 or more -- to help us in this fight.

For more information on the legal dispute between Bob Jacobsen and Matt Katzer et al, including information on allegations that JMRI infringes Matt Katzer's patents and evidence that Katzer has misused the JMRI decoder definitions, please see here.

The most recent event: The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Washington, DC, USA) upheld JMRI's copyright in what's been called an "important ruling for open source". More information is available on our updates page, and links to a lot of articles and commentary can be found on our "Articles by Others" page.

XTrkCad and JMRI

XTrkCad is a great, free tool for designing your layout that's being developed by a group of model railroaders.

XtrkCadReader is a new JMRI tool built by Giorgio Terdina to take layout information created by XTrkCad (XTC files) and convert it to a form that JMRI can read (XML files).

This tool lets you import your physical layout design from XTrkCad directly into JMRI so you can easily set up controls for the layout you've built.

JMRI at NMRA Anaheim Convention

We're planning six JMRI clinics at the NMRA 2008 convention in Anaheim, along with our traditional user get-together. For more information, please see the schedule page. Hope to see you there!

Finding Fellow JMRI Users

The best way to learn about JMRI is often from somebody in your own area. There's a lot about it that's just easier to demonstrate than to describe over email. JMRI users (and model railroaders in general) tend to be helpful, interesting people, and are often amazingly helpful. But how to find somebody local?

We've set up a "Frappr" web site that lets JMRI users mark where they're located so others can get in touch. People can add themselves to it pretty easily. If enough people do that, it'll be a useful tool when looking for somebody in your local area. More here..

JMRI 2.2 Production Version

A new production version (2.2) was released on July 13, 2008.

For more information, please see the Release note, which also contains the download links (after some information which we hope you'll read!).

KAM Dispute

JMRI is an informal open-source group. We do this for the joy of model railroading, and don't produce anything for profit. One of our members is currently defending our right to continue against patent litigation, cybersquatting and copyright infringement from a wealthy individual who has far outspent us. While we believe we can succeed with substantially less than than the $1 million he could afford to spend, we still need your help to prevail. Please donate -- $1, $5, $10, $25, $50, $100 or more -- to help us in this fight.

For more information on the legal dispute between Bob Jacobsen and Matt Katzer et al, including information on allegations that JMRI infringes Matt Katzer's patents and evidence that Katzer has misused the JMRI decoder definitions, please see here.

Help Pages Online

The JMRI applications have a built-in help system. It has lots of information, including overviews and window-specific information. The pages are simple HTML, and users are encouraged to add missing information. The help information is available online via either the index or table of contents.

CATS

The Crandic Automated Traffic System (CATS) is a JMRI-based application by Rodney Black for controlling and operating a model railroad. There's more information on the CATS web site.

JMRI wins Duke's Choice award from Sun Microsystems

Sun Microsystems has awarded JMRI a 2006 Duke's Choice award. Also called a "Dukie", this award is given annually to "some of the most clever, practical, and inspirational Java technology applications on the planet". The award was presented at the annual JavaOne conference on May 14th by James Gosling.

JMRI won for it's community, it's use of Java technology to empower people all over the world to contribute, and for the impact it's had.

(Press release)

New Wiki provides additional information

A Wiki is an online tool for gathering, organizing and presenting information. The best known is Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia. JMRI now has a Wiki of it's own where users can add their own hints and tips, look up information they need, and build an ever-increasing set of documentation for each other.

You can start at the top page.

Check out the new "clinics" page!

Several users have contributed their clinics for our new clinics page. There are both conventional handouts and slides, and also some neat interactive clinics for DecoderPro® and PanelPro™.

Decoder ID pages

A new "Decoder ID" page has been added to the web. Automagically created from the current DecoderPro definitions, it provides easy access to all sorts of information about decoders.

Contribute more information to our decoder definitions, and help these pages become even more useful!

How can you use JMRI?

There are several different ways to use JMRI:

1. Use DecoderPro® to configure your locomotive decoders and keep a roster of your DCC equipped locomotive fleet.
2. You can use PanelPro™ to run locomotives, throw turnouts, control signals, and even create control panels. But you shouldn't expect it to be as powerful as a commercial layout management program such as WinLok or Railroad&Co; JMRI isn't meant to compete directly with them.
3. You can use the JMRI interfaces to write programs for your own layouts. Making this easy is an important goal. This can be done via our scripting language, or by adding new Java code to the program.
4. You can write new general-purpose tools. Although this is a little harder than writing automation for your own layout, writing tools that other people use can be very satisfying.
5. You can implement the JMRI interfaces for a new system. Having JMRI work with other systems is an important goal. Once an implementation for another system works, the general tools (e.g. symbolic programmer, automations tools, signaling, etc) can be immediately used.

More Info on the JMRI project

JMRI is intended as a jumping-off point for hobbyists who want to control their layouts from a computer without having to create an entire system from scratch.

To do this, we've split the problem into two parts with an interface in-between:

• "Above" the interface are the cool tools that people want. We provide programmers for DCC decoders, layout controls, automation tools, etc. People are continuously contributing better and better tools that still will work on lots of type of computers, with lots of types of layouts.
• "Below" the interface lies code that connects to specific layout hardware. We connected to a full range of systems: C/MRI, Digitrax, EasyDCC, Lenz, NCE, etc. We are certainly interested in connecting to other systems.

The long-term strategy is to:

• Create a set of publically available common interfaces for model railroad control code, suitable for use with any type of layout, from any type of computer.
• Make these useful by providing quality implementations for as many types of layouts as possible.
• Encourage interoperability of layout hardware and software through the use of common interfaces.

In the short term, we've created several programs based on the JMRI libraries to move the project along and demonstrate its capabilities. (Why so many programs?...)

The most popular is DecoderPro, a better tool for programming decoders. It simplifies the job of configuring complicated DCC decoders by providing screens on which you can select the various options and values you want. These screens show the exact contents of each specific decoder type. Both the programming screens and decoder information are stored in text files, so you can make up new ones as desired.