Train Tech Signals For Dummies

[tonycoops]

Hi, please excuse my stupidity, but I'm afraid I might be getting to old for this pc oriented stuff. I have been using Railmaster for a year or so now and have got on with it really well. So much so that I recently thought I'd give these Train Tech signals a go, as everybody seems to give the impression they are really easy to set up.

Somehow or other I managed to get a 2 aspect home signal working fine the other night, although I'm not entirely sure how. The next day I tried a 2 aspect signal with route indicator, and that was my downfall. I think I'm losing the plot because I can't even see where to start on this one.  Could somebody please give me an idiots guide from start to finish on how to go about setting these up in Railmaster.

I want to operate the Route Indicator myself, and not have it linked to a set of points, as my track is bi-directional.

I am using the latest version of railmaster, through Windows 8, and an e-Link. The 2 signals that I have at the moment are :-

DS1- Home Red-Green, and DS1- Home Red-Green + Route Indicator.

Thanks for any help that you can offer. I realise this is probably very easy, but believe me, I just can't get it.

Tony.

[Chrissaf]

Do you have RailMaster Pro?

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Although theoretically you can operate Train-Tech 2 Aspect signals with RailMaster 'Standard' edition. The bulk of the Train-Tech support has been written into the RailMaster Pro edition. So to get the best out of Train-Tech signalling you need to upgrade to Pro if you haven't done so already.

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When you say 'Route Indicator' can you be more specific. Do you mean 'Feather', if so which one, 'right or left' OR do you mean 'Theatre' indicator (box with a custom character in it). All three of these options are (I believe) controlled the same way, so the answer is not critical, but a nice to know for the detail.

/media/tinymce_upload/5851df5adfac2f52b7fc3edc0921fe39.jpg

Extract from TT web site: Please note that the Theatre indicator can display one user defined number, letter or character easily made on the 5 x 5 matrix and can only be switched on and off from the controller, not changed to other characters.

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For the time being, I'll leave the 'How To' set them up for other's to reply with, as I do not have any Train-tech signals or RM Pro myself.

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TIP: As this is your first post, just be aware that the 'Blue Button with the White Arrow' is not a 'Reply to this post' button. If you want to reply to any of the posts, scroll down and write your reply in the reply text box at the bottom of the page and click the Green 'Reply' button.

[pd91223]

Hi Tony. Welcome to the Forum.

 

The best way to achieve what you want is to give the signal two separate DCC addresses. You've set up the basic signal ok, so I won't re-explain that bit. For the route indicator, you need to touch the Learn contacts a few times until the route indicator flashes. It's then ready for you to send a DCC address (different from the signal itself, but doesn't have to be the next sequential address) from RM. The route indicator will then stop flashing. Synchronising to a point (which you've said you don't want) is merely a matter of giving the route indicator the same address as the point. SIMPLES!  😀

 

Just be aware that there are some issues with Train Tech signals with the latest version of RM, which I'm hoping might be fixed once we receive the next update.  🤐 For example, have a look at this one:

 

https://www.hornby.com/uk-en/forum/train-tech-signals-out-of-sync-with-railmaster-diagram/

 

All the best.

[St1ngr4y]

Hello Tony,

I have one Traintech 2-aspect homesignal with left indicator on my layout, and the image below, hopefully, will show you how I configured it. But first, I need to point out that this is a "fudge" until such times as the Railmaster software is updated to cater for route indicators correctly. PD91223 is entirely correct in everything he said in his post. You need two separate signal icons to control the signal. In the example below from my layout, the two addresses I chose were 110 for the main 2-aspect signal itself (on the right), and 111 for the route indicator (on the left). The configuration for each of these elements is shown in this image:-

/media/tinymce_upload/1006995818416fc857f92705630bbe51.pngThe configuration for the route indicator is shown in the top window. Notice that the description I chose from the list is "2 aspect Home + Route (L)". This causes the actual route indicator to appear as part of the icon on the track diagram. I have added to each configuration an entry in the column headed "Other point/signal". This is entirely optional, and is an attempt to add a bit of authenticity, so that the route indicator is not lit when the main signal is red. It works to a certain extent, but there is a small bug which causes a subsequent click on the main signal to switch briefly then to go back to the previous asoect, until the icon is clicked again.

Hope this helps.

Ray

[96RAF]

Just to add to what Chris said about the theatre indicator. It is as stated either on or off but the number or character displayed is achieved simply by manually poking out the hole blanks in the 5x5 matrix to allow the led to shine through the mask.

[Chrissaf]

Tony, just be aware that Ray uses RailMaster Pro.....so the dialogue box choices he has described may not be available to you in RailMaster 'Standard' edition. Similarly with the icon on his track plan showing the feather.

[96RAF]

...If you wait to 2025 Hornby Railmaster might be updated to work better with train-tech signals and produce a decoder that works 4 aspect signals and route indicators...

 

RM v1.70 is rumoured to fix the multi-aspect signals issue.

 

...and you would like a 4 channel accessory decoder that could switch modes to be able to operate each of the 8 ports separately (say red or green) or together (say red, green, yellow or double yellow and/or theatre) or by way of cascade grouping (i.e. Ch 1 can fire either or all of the other 3 channels say for routing or signals, etc).

 

Then you would like RM updated to be able to use that new capability If v1.70 does not already cater for it.

 

OK...

Maybe if I asked Hornby to wave the same magic wand that was used on the Select to make it capable of changing CVs and allowing it to talk to a PC and thus operate with RM - it may also work on their accessory decoder to give you the extra capability. Anything is possible If you believe in fairies.

[tonycoops]

Hi everyone. First of all, a big thanks to those of you who have replied to my problem. Secondly, and its a schoolboy error, I should have said that I have the Railmaster Pro edition, sorry about that, I will try and remember to put that next time I'm on here, which I'm sure I will be.

It would seem that Ray's solution is what I'm after, (Thanks Ray), and I have to confess that I never gave it a thought that I would have to treat it as two seperate signals, but I can see the logic in Ray's idea.

As soon as I've been able to give it another try I shall report back.

Thanks again,

Tony.

P.S. Must sort myself out an avatar.....................

[St1ngr4y]

Hi Tony,

 

My hope is that a future version of Railmaster will treat the route indicator as a separate, configurable icon, which can be placed near to a signal, and it will "snap" into attachment to the signal, rather like the red/green buttons "snap" into position on a point. Then on the main display, the main part of the signal and the route indicator will be "clickable" separately.

 

Ray

[Chrissaf]

Post by Tonycoops reproduced below and editied to remove profanity. In this case, the word in question was removed from the forum profanity filter because it blocked an actual Hornby model name. But it is still a profanity in the context of the way it was originally used (before removal) in the edited post below.

 

Hi Ray.

I've just had a go with your solution and I'm pleased to say I now have a signal that "more or less" works. I too, hope that the future version of Railmaster becomes a reality, it would make things a lot more straight forward. Anyway, thanks again for your help, its really appreciated.

So, until my next "mistake", bye for now.

Tony

[tonycoops]

Hi Everyone,

I can only apologise for my apparent bad behaviour in the previous post, I honestly meant no offense, and I am very sorry if I caused any. I promise it will never happen again.

Thanks again to those of you who helped me out, especially Ray. I am so pleased with the outcome that I have started buying more Train Tech signals for my layout. They are however, just the basic 2 aspect ones, which even I managed to figure out.

I look forward to a future version of Railmaster that does include full support for a Train Tech signal with a "feather", but in the meantime I am very happy with rays solution.

Tony 

[Chrissaf]

I can only apologise for my apparent bad behaviour in the previous post, I honestly meant no offence, and I am very sorry if I caused any.

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No problem at all Tony, and no offence taken by anybody. The offending word used to be picked up automatically. It is acknowledged that in the context of the use of the word in your post it is an expression that many consider as in 'common use'. But just be aware that this forum operates a 100% no profanity word use rule base, which includes using hidden characters such as %*&^ to represent a profanity word. I daresay, most on here have innocently fallen foul of the automated 'profanity filter' at some time or other and been unable to determine what word in their potential post triggered it. I suspect that the auto 'profanity filter' is based upon an American word database and includes some words that here in the UK, wouldn't be looked at twice.