Route Setting in RailMaster PRO

[Chrissaf]

I have tried programming the floating buttons to set routes but sadly without success.

I have set the routes in the track plan and when I open a new button the routes are there in the drop down menu. I selected a route from the drop down menu, saved it and all seemed OK until I wanted to use it. I pressed the button and yes the points all changed... but only once. The second time I tried it the button did nothing. I had the same problem with sounds... works once and then nothing.

Any ideas what I am doing wrong?

[St1ngr4y]

Hello there,

 

Although I don't use routes in my normal operation, I thought I would have a go at reproducing your problem. In my opinion, I think Railmaster seems to have problems with the last button added to the floating button bar. The best result I was able to get is summarised in this picture ...

 

/media/tinymce_upload/755be648c2df8c7a9355d629de6d42bf.png

I set up six routes as shown in the top box, which is the main "routes" listbox which appears at the top right of the main window. Clicking on any of these entries operates the selected route without a problem.

 

I then added the first three of these routes to my button bar, which already contained four buttons used to zoom the display to different parts of the layout. However, in order to stabilize the new buttons, the only way I could do it was to add an extra button, configured to play the RM "Birds" sound. This configuration seems to be stable and remains intact after Railmaster has been closed and re-opened. By the way, when one of the "route" buttons is pressed, the corresponding entry in the "Routes" listbox is highlighted with a blue background as shown above.

 

The only problem with this configuration is that if you ever press the "Birds" button, the sound starts, and continues forever. If you click the button again, the sound stops, but then starts up again after a second or two.

 

Anyway, some you win, some you lose. For information, details of the buttons on the button bar are held in the file "ProgButtons.dat" in the Railmaster folder. The contents of the file for the configuration shown above are....

 

PLAN:Goods Yard~-28:-21

PLAN:Engine Shed~-13:-26

PLAN:Home~-1:-1

PLAN:East Station~-28:-1

ROUTE:HS1 to P1~HS1 to P1

ROUTE:HS1 to P2~HS1 to P2

ROUTE:HS1 to P3~HS1 to P3

SOUND:Birds~L_Birds.wav

 

I hope this helps.

 

Ray

[Exetersteam]

Thanks for this Ray. Yes, all works perfectly from the main route display at the top right of the screen and when a floating button plays nicely, the route is blue highlighted in the route box. I will try the "birdsound" solution and see what happens. You are right in that the floating buttons seem very unstable.

I am finding the route setting very useful because by way of example, to get from the outer main line to the shed area, a loco has to traverse 11 sets of points!

Cheers

 

John

[St1ngr4y]

Hi John,

 

I use programs to operate my trains. Have you considered using programs to set routes? There isn't too much advantage doing this, but you can invoke a program from an icon which can be placed anywhere on your layout diagram, instead of using the floating button bar.

 

Ray 

[96RAF]

Something that can be set up in Rocrail, which could I am sure be worked into the RM coding fairly easily is you can auto-generate every possible route in either direction on a track-plan from a single menu item, then you can set buttons on the plan at each ‘waypoint’. Setting a route is as simple as selecting a start and end button as well as any mid-route option button(s). Rocrail then sets the points (at a user defined interval) accordingly in sequence and if loco detection/block sensing is installed it will lock that route against transgression by other routes until any associated blocks are cleared by the current route.

 

What is missing? - block detection from Hornby - only 5+ years late.

[Exetersteam]

Thanks guys. I like the idea of the "programme" icon on the plan and will look into it. The Rocrail option is a bridge too far for me at the moment.

I have used "programmes" with mixed results. I set one up to run my sound fitted Dapol bubblecar from the bay platform at the main station to the BLT bay platform. The run is about 60ft including a bank which resulted in some vague stopping distance issues. I solved that with ABC braking modules but sycronising this with sounds in the programme resulted in sounds going off in odd places after a couple of runs! A function of timing versus distance I guess.

[Exetersteam]

Well, I have tried Ray's suggestion of using programmes and putting the icons on the track plan and it works perfectly for what I want - sorted! Thanks.

[96RAF]

Hornby unfortunately seems locked onto control by time.

 

The Sapphire decoder auto-operations feature and RM programs all operate on a timed schedule, which can obviously be converted to distance if you can control the speed, but you can’t guarantee this so control accuracy drifts over time, compounded by positional errors, which build up with each iteration of a programmed event.

 

Lenz ABC stopping accuracy is supposedly based on distance, but I imagine that is also internally just a time based conversion.

 

Until we get positional loco detection then I am afraid we are stuck with this vague control accuracy.

[BagEndJct]

I use programme icons on my layout extensively. Each siding, for example, has an icon at the end to set a route in or out of it. I have created my icons using 'Da Button Factory' - https://www.clickminded.com/button-generator/ 

It takes a bit of getting used to but I have produced a nice series of icons which mean something (to me!).

 

Icons should be created at 50x50 pixels and saved as .GIF files, then placed in the main Railmaster directory with a name starting with "Button_......"

[RDS]

I have used the program icons in a similar way to BagEndJct. 

 

Each one of my Loco's has its own nominated Siding.  There is still work to do to complete it (that will never happen!) but the sidings that have a number between 1 and 4 on them, means that a single click on that icon will take the Loco from that siding to the relevant loop (1 being the inner loop)

 

The icons on the loops represent Loco id's, so for example the icon showing 66 will move the Class 66 from that approximate position on the loop, back to its own siding. 

 

/media/tinymce_upload/e46fb639352d2bd6bff652f4f5bbf520.JPG

The drop down menu in the top right corner, is another way I have created routes.  The picture only shows Loop 1, 2 and 3 but there are further entries such as Loop 1 to Loop 4, Loop 4 to Loop 1, etc which set the relevant points.

[BagEndJct]

Interesting stuff RDS.

 

I also use program icons on my main station platform lines. Each program sets all signals and points for services leaving that platform.

 

I have further program icons down the side of my track plan, each of which plays one of many announcements that I have recorded/created. (The announcements are made up of snippets I have recorded, eg "The train standing at" + "Platform X"  + "is for .........". I use my video editing software (Vegas Pro) to combine these snippets into the required announcements then apply a suitable echo to the whole media track - making them almost inaudible, of course!! I find my announcements add a lot of pleasure to the operation of my layout).

[RDS]

@BEJ

The more I use RailMaster the more I tend to appreciate the features it offers. 

I might have a play with sounds sometime after reading your ideas!

[BagEndJct]

@RDS I use a small (but good quality) Bluetooth speaker underneath the board to play sounds and announcements. It works really well. I have a neighbour who has a really good "announcer's voice" and she has happily recorded clips for me, so we have both male (me) and female (Maggie) announcements counfusing the passengers!