Railmaster 1.66 problems

[mikejj101]

Following the installation of RM V1.66 my TTS steamers appear to have lost all the sound descriptions from the control pads on screen. When you point at the button F0, F1 etc... there is a pop up telling you what the function is but before it was on the pads. My Flying Scotsman R3284TTS has now lost it's sound completely. Attempting to read the chip in eLink produces a message that the decoder chip is not in the database.

I've read the codes for R3285TTS Gadwall which still has working sound and it reports that the chip is from Atlas Model Railroad Co. compared to the chip readings from R3284TTS Flying Scotsman that reports the chip is from LDH.

I am going back to RM 1.65.2

M

[HornbyRailMasterSupport]

As we have received no other reports of this issue (the update was released worldwide for automatic download) it seems that something is amiss on your particular installation, possibly a corruption in the download.

 

There is nothing in the software which alters loco settings outside the locos editing screen, so it may be that your locos file is corrupted (although this is also not touched during any update).

 

Try manually downloading and installing the program from www.rail-master.com/rm_setup.exe to see if this corrects the issue.  If your locos resource.mdb file has become corrupted (i.e. the issue is not resolved through the fresh installation) you can send the file to our support team at support@rail-master.com and we can take a look at it.

 

If you have a small roster of locos in your database you could always delete the resource.mdb file, install the program again from the link provided (which will create a new, blank file) and enter your locos again.  When you delete the resource.mdb file, also delete the func_en.dat file, which contains details of all loco sounds so that this too is re-created.

 

We are reasonably certain that nothing, by design, in the software can afffect your loco sounds the particular way you have described.

[mikejj101]

Thanks for the prompt reply.

Apparently 

St1ngr4y

has sound issues as well.

I'll try your suggestions. Meanwhile I've re-installed 1.65 and all my sounds have come back.

Cheers

Mike

[WilliamDavid]

I had to do a reinstall on my tablet, and so had to reinstall Railmaster.

None of my TTS locos have the sound functions now.

There is a clear issue here.

Please fix it.

[HornbyRailMasterSupport]

Would one of you who is having this issue please send in a Help Request from within RailMaster so that we can log into your computer to see what may be happening.  Several thousand systems have updated and we have only seen this issue mentioned here by two people.

[WilliamDavid]

Would one of you who is having this issue please send in a Help Request from within RailMaster so that we can log into your computer to see what may be happening.  Several thousand systems have updated and we have only seen this issue mentioned here by two people.

Request sent.

[mikejj101]

I have now resolved my problems with Rev 1.66

I have re-installed RM V.1.64 and then updated it to V.1.66. This has resolved all my issues regarding sound functions on TTS locos. I might add that I did a complete de-activation and then unistall of RM followed by a clear out of all the RM files by deleting the actual Railmaster folder. Obviously I've had to start inputing all the engines again but that is just part and parcel of fixing my issues.

There is obviously something amiss with the update process but as I've now sorted my issues I'm happy.

Now if only I can sort out these useless points decoders.......

Cheers 

Mike Jones

[Fishmanoz]

That is a bit weird Mike.  That whole de-activate, uninstall, reinstall, reactivate, update process should have achieved precisely nothing, it should have taken you right back where you started.  It is certainly not a usual or recommended way to fix RM problems.

 

I take it you didn't send the Help request to HRMS either?  Without this, neither you nor they know why you had the problem in the first place, so no info on fixing a possible subtle bug. 

 

But glad you are up and running now without having to reconfigure all of your sounds manually.

[HornbyRailMasterSupport]

The only thing we can think is that Windows may have somehow locked the file that contains the sound function for particular versions of the software and not allowed the file to be overwritten or read when upgrading from 1.65 to 1.66.  We know that Windows does some odd things regarding security and this could be one of them.  If we had logged in, after looking at the functions file would would, as a last resort, have completely uninstalled and installed afresh as we know the setup file fundamentally works.

 

It's a good job that this is not a widespread issue and only limited to a couple of installations.

 

With software, a considerable amount of developers' time is spent battling against Windows and third party applications (like antivirus software) so we always live and learn!

[Augustus Caesar]

While only two have reported these issues there may have been more but the user may simply have fixed the problem themselves. The numbers will be extremely low and as HRMS has stated it is a good job it is only a very tiny number with this affecting their installations.

Windows and its security could be to blame but it is also possible that code is being misread or files are becoming corrupted or misinterpreted. There are many reasons for this and I would not want to go over them all as we could be reading a good few lines of explanations without actually getting anywhere.

The probability of the software itself causing issues is not high and HRMS have been very helpful here for which I am sure, as will many others be, that it is reassuring to have them look at faults no matter how small. After all it is in their best interests to keep users on board and have them running flawless operations of their layouts.

As one, mikejj101, has now sorted their own issue it is hoped that, with remote help maybe, the other can be sorted as well so at least HRMS can see what is going on and confirm the software, hopefully in itself, is not at fault.

[Fishmanoz]

A small point but it is 3 not 2 who have reported problems with sounds - Stingray, mikejj and WilliamDavid. 

[Chrissaf]

My 1.66 update experience.

.

I don't have any TTS sound locos, but I do have a couple of Hornby Rnnn XS factory fitted sound locos (using the Loksound decoder).

.

Given the reported issues in this thread. Rather than allow RM to self update during the start up sequence. I decided to manually download the RM 1.66 installation file from the forum link and 'run it as administrator' before starting RailMaster to be as 'belt n braces' as possible.

.

After the update completed and starting RailMaster. The first Hornby Loksound equipped loco I checked had blank function buttons on the large throttle, but oddly the small throttle was correctly labelled.

.

In hindsight, I should have checked the other sound loco throttles first but didn't. I went straight to the 'Loco Configuration Screen' and called up the loco with the missing large throttle button labels instead.

.

Oddly, all my functions in the 'Loco Configuration Screen' were still showing as normal. I clicked the 'Green Tick' "Save Loco" button and exited the configuration screen.

.

Going back to the large loco throttle, I found all my function button labels had been restored. Checking the large throttles of all my other sound locos found no further errors or missing labels. Whether or not I would have found them missing on the other locos too if I had checked them earlier.....I will never know......hence the 'hindsight comment' above.

.

So although I too appeared to have suffered from a sound function button label issue at least similar to others reported here. I was fortunately able to easily and quickly recover from it. I assume using the 'Save Loco' button overwrote any file corruption that might have been present as a result of the 1.66 update.

.

EDIT: PS - RailMaster on dedicated Windows 10 Home Edition laptop.

.

Maybe the issue is more widespread than HRMS think, but like me, the other affected users have resolved the issue themselves and not bothered to report it in via the RM 'help' system.

[WilliamDavid]

I imagine that very few Railmaster users actually have TTS locos,  they would not have noticed the issue

 

I have sent this list to Support, and am going to do another install

 

R3592T Class 31                  no sound functions

R3284 Flying Scotsman      no sound functions

R342T Tornado                    all sounds listed

R3244T D of G                      F1 and F2 only

R3370T King Richard           no sound functions

R3285T Gadwall                   all sounds listed

R3395T Mallard                   all sounds listed

R3246T Cock o’ North         all sound listed

 

All other TTS locos                no sound functions

 Reloaded wth no change.

[St1ngr4y]

Since HRMS identified the file Func_en.dat as the file containing the list of functions for each loco, I have been having a close look at this file just now. Before I started the file was 5108 bytes in length, it had a modified date/time of 11/8/2017 11:38 and an Accessed time of 11/8/2017 18:06. On examination of the file contents, there doesn't seem to be a record for R3592T. The last three records in the file are :-

 

LOCO:R3244T,

F1:Sound on/off

F2:Long whistle

 

I then re-installed using the link at the top of the forum, and repeated the exercise and the contents of the file are still the same.

 

Just in case I am doing something silly in the new locomotive configuration, I have screen dumped the stages I went through:-

 

/media/tinymce_upload/e5f71f4b24596de20a07185244b0a715.png

 

I would have thought that the functions should have been filled in after step 2 above.

 

Ray

 

[Britannia Builder]

I have the same issue as Ray - I upgraded to 1.66 a few days ago, and today I set up the R3592T Class 31 TTS (I have the loco on order at the moment) but the sound functions were 'not used' on the loco setup screen.

 

My other TTS locos (Duke of Gloucester and Class 47) are fine - no problem with missing labels on the function buttons.

 

Regards, John

[St1ngr4y]

Further to my earlier post, the last 5 locos present in the Func_en.dat file are:-

 

R3285TTS Gadwall

R3395TTS Mallard

R3245TTS Tornado

R3246TTS Cock O' The North

R3244TTS Duke of Gloucester

 

These are the only TTS locos in the file. The first four of the five have all of their functions defined, but the last one, R3244TTS, only has functions F1 & F2. It is as if the file has been truncated at this point. Tonight, I renamed the file to Func_en_Ray.dat, then did the install again. The setup created a new file, but it was the same size and content as the renamed one.

Hope this helps

Ray

Edit: Forgot to mention - none of these five TTS locos are available for sale on the Hornby website.

[HornbyRailMasterSupport]

We have made the latest locos functions list available as an automatic download so that, irrespective of security settings, the file should hopefully download silently and be updated.  The file size should in fact be 9,097 bytes in size and should update itself even after RailMaster 1.66 is installed.

 

For those affected, run Railmaster and see if it updates and then if the latest loco sounds are available.

 

[westernwill]

Just checked my file which downloaded at 8 this morning. says 8.88kb which sounds right.

 

I am still running on the previous version of RM, not got round to updating yet.

[St1ngr4y]

We have made the latest locos functions list available as an automatic download so that, irrespective of security settings, the file should hopefully download silently and be updated.  The file size should in fact be 9,097 bytes in size and should update itself even after RailMaster 1.66 is installed.

 

For those affected, run Railmaster and see if it updates and then if the latest loco sounds are available.

 

Good morning HRMS,

I just loaded up Railmaster, but it didn't  seem to download anything. In the log file I found these entries:-

 

16/08/17 09:14:02 Check need for: FUNC_EN.DAT (Size=9097 Date=08/08/2017)

16/08/17 09:14:02   Installed size=5108 installed date=11/08/2017

16/08/17 09:14:02   No need to download FUNC_EN.DAT

 

Is it because of the date of the "new" file being earlier than the one already installed? How about if I renamed the installed file?

Edit: I renamed the file, then reloaded RM. This time it has downloaded the 9k version.

 

Ray

[St1ngr4y]

I have just deleted and re-inserted my R3592TTS into the locomotives list, and the functions were added successfully. One small point , however, the two functions F8 Thrash and F9 Cold Start, according to the Class 31 TTS manual, need to be Toggle functions, so they should have "on/off" added to their descriptions. The same may apply to other similar TTS locos in the Func_en.dat file.

 

Ray

[HornbyRailMasterSupport]

The date of your file (presumably due to downloading the setup again subsequent to the 1.66 update being made available) was later than the file we uploaded so we have set it to today's date, which means it should download automatically now (although perhaps not if you just downloaded it earlier today).  The Thrash and Cold Start and on/off latching have been rectified.

[WilliamDavid]

I have reinstalled on two of my devices, and all seems well.

Thanks for your efforts, RM Support.

[Britannia Builder]

Yes, my Func_en.dat has now updated and my Class 31 TTS now shows the sound functions (I had to delete it and set it up again to get the new data).

 

Regards, John

[St1ngr4y]

The date of your file (presumably due to downloading the setup again subsequent to the 1.66 update being made available) was later than the file we uploaded so we have set it to today's date, which means it should download automatically now (although perhaps not if you just downloaded it earlier today).  The Thrash and Cold Start and on/off latching have been rectified.

The first I knew of 1.66 was from a new thread posted by Rob on this Forum on 11/08/2017. On the evening of that day, I used the link at the top of the Forum to download the setup file and I ran the installation. This is why these properties (which I posted earlier in this thread) were set:-

... the file was 5108 bytes in length, it had a modified date/time of 11/8/2017 11:38 and an Accessed time of 11/8/2017 18:06.

 

I would guess that the Accessed time is when I did the installation, so this 5k loco_en.dat file was installed then, and has been on my RM pc ever since, until I renamed it today then re-loaded Railmaster.

Ray

[St1ngr4y]

I have just re-downloaded the setup file using the link at the top of the Forum, and the loco_en.dat file installed by that setup is still the corrupt 5k file. I then loaded up RM, and the new 9k file was installed. So, could it be that those people who got 1.66 via RM itself were ok, while those of us who used the link at the top of the Forum received a corrupt file?

Ray