ipad software

[Mike_G]

Hi

 

Just to make a small point

 

JMRI is as good as and in some cases a better system than Hornby, althou not as user friendly, and its completely free

 

i can also use this on my layout, and did so before the railmaster came out

 

Mike

 

[LMSTim]

Excuse me??? You state "it is not possible to get a complete Hornby system for the price you say". What an incredible statement to make. The fact is that you CAN buy the complete system for the price I mentioned. What you have said is UNTRUE!!!!

 

With

 

the greatest respect Mike, you are talking total and utter rubbish. You now go on about additonal (non-required) hardware for the system ... why not bring locos and wagons into it too ... utterly incredible. You have no reasonable argument to make.

 

Face

 

it Mike .... you are completely and utterly wrong and have deliberately misled people loking for information on here. You have been found out and you don't like it.

 

You also mention the voice control system and have no idea whether it will included

 

free in an update or chargeable. You clearly have no idea what you are talking about, and it is people like you who cause confusion amongst people who simply want to play with trains and look to this forum for advice.

 

[LMSTim]

If people want to go with JMRI that is fine. RailMaster was clearly made for the rest of us (99%) of users who don't want to spend our lives setting up highly complicated software. Also, we like the fact that RailMaster has:-

 

1,500 locos built in,

 

fully profiled

True scale speed operation

Operation out of the box

An optimised touch-screen interface

The best integration with the Elite

 

From all my research, I can find no other software in the world which does this. That is a major plus

 

for me and makes it a no-brainer.

 

Anyway, this is merely an aside. I am not going to compare one PC control system to another. I am merely replying to your outrageous statements that "ALL OTHER SYSTEMS" apps are free. This is patently NOT TRUE.

 

Using

 

your own latest argument then Hornby RailMaster HandHeld apps are also free as they are useable without having to pay. You only pay fr more functionality just like with the RailMaster PC software itself.

 

I suggest you just apologise for misleading the

 

public and go and play with your trains with all of your free stuff!

 

[Mike_G]

Hi

No my friend

you talk about a complete control system

railmaster is only the means to control the other items

 

without them you dont need railmaster / e-link

agreed some of the items you could use with never mind what control system

 

you go for

althou in some cases it could be better value,, i can get a point decoded for the same price as a hornby one that will control 8 not 4 outlets, but its not in a nice fancy case

like i said before , i decided to go the hornby road as being

 

british, ( althou living in France the last 21 years ) to support a british model railway company, and the price per item is good value, its just the way they seem to move the goal posts all the time,

 

and by the way before you talk about misleading

 

others

maybe you should declare your real position regarding your involvement with hornby

as you seem to have much more inside info than is available to the general public

i only can say whati see from a consumers point of veiw

 

Mike

 

 

[stevecamden]

 

Just to change the subject of 'value' for a moment and I am with LMSTim on this - Railmaster suits my needs at an affordable price. But, I have a 2nd PC running a eval copy of Railmaster with the reduced functions. I am fine with that, but do you think

 

there could be a app for a 2nd PC? ( I know its not the right terminology, but you get my drift)

[LMSTim]

It is clear that Mike_G is unable make a true, lucid, coherent statement.

 

He makes outrageous statements to deliberately mislead people. This is at best misleading and worst plain lying.

 

And ... let's see ... he owns, uses and favours JMRI,

 

a competing product so therefore goes out of his way to rubbish Hornby's products. There's a surprise! I believe now, that all intelligent readers of this thread will be able to judge for themselves after what has been said. I simply could not let Mike_G get

 

away with making the absurd and misleading comments he has made.

 

Mike_G has nothing to add, as there is indeed nothing to add just to speculate about who I am or my alleged involvement with Hornby. This makes me laugh and is the sign of a losing argument.

 

Oh,

 

and by the way Mike_G ... I am NOT your "friend" and this state of affairs is highly unlikely ever to exist between us. I prefer the friendship of people whose IQs are higher than that of a duvet.

 

 

 

[LMSTim]

Hello Stevecamden

 

You make a valid point about the pricing of subsequent copies of RailMaster used on a network (running on PCs that than the newly launched apps) and it is a question I have asked myself.

 

Purely out of interest, and to get

 

some kind of consensus, we don't necessarily want to pay the same full price of a subsequent RailMaster PC package on a network, especially when you consider that certain things are disabled in slave mode, like programming.

 

What do you think would be

 

a fair price, bearing in mind a full copy retails for £65 and can be bought for around £48?

 

I, myself, was thyinking around the £29.99 mark?

 

[LMSTim]

That's £29.99 retail, which would probably end up being about £20 in shops and online.

 

[stevecamden]

Well I had hoped that perhaps if you already had a full copy of Railmaster, then one subsequent reduced functionality slave copy might be free. Infact, all that the Railmaster software would need to do is to recognise that the slave copy/eval copy is attached

 

to a full license.

 

If this isn't the case, then I think Hornby might consider a 2nd PC app with increased functions but less that the main version. Perhaps four locos and unlimited points/accessories etc. For this, I would see a value of around £25-£30.

 

Not

 

wanting to 'make up' Railmaster strategy on the hoof - it would seem rather prudent of the Hornby team to keep us early adopters 'sweet', I would have thought.

[LMSTim]

We're thinking along the same lines, although I wouldn't want any restrictions on loco or point numbers on the slave PC copy for, say, £30.

 

I suggest you put it to Hornby or use the Help Request system to send in your thoughts. I certainly will.

 

I

 

think the networking function is a powerful feature, which more people could take advantage of, what with second hand PCs being available for a low cost or users having another old PC around, anyway.

 

[stevecamden]

To be honest, I am more likely to use the 2nd PC than the i-device. This isn't that I am against the i-app technology, its just that my particular layout doesn't really lend itself to 'walkabout mode' if you get my drift.

[wiggy25]

Heated debate!

 

The pricing that has been commented on seems a bit odd.

If you have a layout that was say run using a Select then you will probably have accessory decoders already fitted.

 

So to "upgrade" the Select you could buy the Elite

 

at RRP of £219.99

 

Or you could buy the new E-link(with RailMaster) for £84.99 and have a full DCC control system that can read write CV's and control everything using a PC.

With the bonus of being able to have basic automation and lastly to have

 

voice control and detection(both at a later date)

 

That to me is a VERY cheap mid-high end system, even with another £9.99 for the app at £94.98 it's still very good value for money IMHO.

Also another £30 doesn't seem too bad for a full slave system

 

to use on another laptop, still only takes the price to £124.98......£24.99 more than a Select!!!!!!!!!!

 

Anyway, enough of this joviality!

I'm still having a few issues with the tablet but getting there; as always the RM support team are very helpful

 

and are trying to make as many devices work as they can, so a big thanks to you for the continued help!

 

As I take my layout to exhibitions, how will the table connect to the laptop running RM if there is no Wi-Fi connection?

I assumed that as both

 

laptop and tablet had Wi-Fi they would connect to each other, but I now think I'm wrong and the table still needs to connect via the router.

 

It was just something else to be able to demo, as I have two Selects connected to the Elite for the kids to

 

play with, I thought it would be nice for the grown ups to pull out their phones or tablets and also connect and have a play.

 

This looks like it won't be possible unless the venue has Wi-Fi that you can access.

 

Cheers

 

Ian

[LMSTim]

If you take your layout out and about you will need to take a wireless router (or access point) with you too, to act as the hub of wireless operations. I know hornby Magazine and Hornby themselves do that when they go on the road.

 

You need to be

 

really careful with allowing strangers to log in to your RailMaster using their own hand-helds. That could cause chaos.

 

I will be exhibiting my own layout with railmaster and the hand-helds later in the year and will use a spare wireless router I have.

 

The bonus with this router is that you can also plug in a USB mobile broadband connection and have your own little WiFi Internet hotspot. I think you can buy the router (TP-Link) from Amazon for around £20.

 

 

[LMSTim]

There's also this battery-powered wireless router in case you don't have mains, or enough plugs.

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-TL-MR3040-150Mbps-Wireless-Portable/dp/B00842KJOS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1357474077&sr=8-1

 

[wiggy25]

Hi TIM, so you don't actually need to connect to the internet, you just need this router plugged in so that tall the other devices can connect to it?

 

If that's the case could be on to a winner, as I can use one of those routers you've linked to.

I

 

thought I would then need to buy a 3G dongle and pay for internet connection etc etc.

 

But if all I need is a router...HAPPY DAYS

 

Thanks

 

Ian

[LMSTim]

That's right Ian - no Internet connection needed.

 

You're just creating a closed, localised WiFi network with no Internet.

 

[wiggy25]

Thanks for the information.

 

Just going to order one of those units, now battery or mains!

Should make exhibitions even more interesting.

 

Had a reply back from RailMaster support they hope to have the rendering sorted by the end of the

 

week to suit my Chinese tablet clone!

It looks like my model is proving very popular so probably a good idea to get RM to work on it.

 

Great news though.

 

Cheers

 

Ian

[Fishmanoz]

All, I have just been catching up with this thread after not looking for a day or so. I must say first I found a lot of valuable information here and I thank the contributors for that.

But there's a but - it would be so much more pleasant if people

 

could make their points without shouting at each other or being abusive. I think we need to recognise that a whole range of both regular and irregular contributors have valuable information for us. However, very few of us are perfect and we sometimes make

 

mistakes here or provide incomplete information and everyone benefits when the errors are pointed out politely. But I am one of those who is not perfect and maybe I have this wrong?

Enough of that and back to the interesting topic at hand, where I have

 

a couple of points to add. It seems to me that Hornby might look at providing the RM software as either a standalone licence or a network licence, or even various network licences depending on number of computers.

And for iPhone/iPad users, the iPhone

 

is itself a wireless router with up to 5 connections available via its Hotspot, so many will have no need to buy a separate router.

Finally, it will be interesting to see if Hornby try to circumvent the usual Apple policy on licensing. That usually allows

 

me to use an app I own on both my iPad and iPhone, rather than having to buy it separately for each.

I trust my information has added to the topic and that even a crude Southern Hemisphere type like me has managed to do it politely. My apologies in advance

 

if I have failed in that.

 

John

[Mike_G]

Hi All

 

Sorry to be a pain but some things here need to be put into perspective

 

No 1 i am not a dedicated JMRI used, if anything i am a hornby user and i paid for everything

i decided to suport hornby as a british company when they first

 

announced their proposed dcc system, and i have and still hold to that plan ( at the moment)

 

I started my new layout in 00 after scrapping my N gauge system,

 

i bought some 25 hornby points and several meters of hornby flexi track

i used seep

 

motors because i did not whant big holes in the board to fit hornby ones direct to the point,

i bought 5 hornby locos and decoders,and a load of rolling stock

i then bought the select ( elite was not available at this time )

i then bought an Elite

 

and used the select as a third controler

then it was reverse module and 2 point decoders ( still need 2 more of these)

then railmaster

now that adds up to a few hundred quid spent with hornby ( none of this equipment was discounted i might add) now

 

i realy need the detection system so that it can all come togeather,

 

the e-link may or maynot be an option as at the moment i cant see were it gives me anything

the elite does not,

 

the apps for the iphone would be ok as it would give a more

 

flexible approch to control

and allow 2 or 3 people to operate togeather

 

so i dont think anyone could say i was a hornby knocker, in fact on one other forum i have jumped in to defend hornby several times when people started to kick out at them as

 

just toy train manufactures and not to be tacken seriously

 

having said that i have also tried other systems , mainly because they are free, and in one case i paid for it becauce it looked good,, itfact when railmaster came out i thought they had ripped

 

it off as it loks almost identical, and is cheaper than hornby,, but it is not a large comercial company and develpment is very slow, thhe guys behind it have day time jobs to do,

 

now as i said before

the hornby system is good and in time will be

 

better

it is very cheap for what it gives you

but its not new ( the componants are out there and been there a long time )

they are just making it more affordable

but hornby need to follow through with the system, not keep jumping up new trees before

they

 

have got the fruit off the fist one,

otherwise we are going to have lots of very good / cheap units available

that we keep putting our hands into our pockets to pay for

and never getting nearer a complete system

 

like the e-link

very good

 

unit very good price

but no good to anyone that has already bought an elite

it cant do anything the elite cant already do

 

get my drift

 

and you still will not disclose your hornby connection

and with some of the things you come out with

 

there must be one

 

Rgds

Mike

 

 

[cyprusmith]

Evening all,

 

Hoping to get some feedback from other people in regards to usability of the App.

 

In my case I am an IT consultant by trade with an iPad 3 so am no stranger to the technical aspects of this solution.

 

I am having issues

 

with my iPad losing connectivity to my Hornby master server which is running on a laptop with a wireless N adapter built in. My Router and iPad 3 are also both wireless N.

 

The application will launch and connect absolutely fine however after about a

 

minute of use functions become unresponsive: throttle, points etc...

Closing and Relaunching the app on the iPad works fine again until about a minute in.

 

Now I have opened up firewall ports 30 through to 33 on my hornby server (laptop) for both

 

incoming and outgoing to see if that was causing the issue but alas the issue still persists.

 

I have further tried with a Google Nexus 7 and have the same issue meaning either the App is temperamental or my wireless router is at fault.

Seeing how

 

my wireless router can handle anything else I through at it from HD video streaming (both LAN and WAN) to high burst data transfers I am leaning more towards the app being flaking, again as its in Beta.

I have even gone as far as to run a PING test from

 

my hornby server (laptop) to my wireless router and device (iPad and Nexus 7) to prove there is no packet loss between the devices.

 

IN SHORT:- How are other people finding the app in terms of connectivity and usability?

Please could you post mobile

 

device type and hornby server type (laptop or desktop / wired or wireless).

 

Many Thanks

Mike

[LMSTim]

You should open ports 30 to 37 in your firewall and, if you haven't already done so, set a static IP address on your devices. I have found that it works fine on my Nexus 7. Firewall security can definitely have an effect and the reason I would suspect

 

that it stays on for a minute is because it is cycling through the available Ports on the IP address. On the log within settings on the handheld software if it shows lots of "Port Closed" then that indicates that something on your PC is forcing the ports closed

 

... usually security software.

 

I've found the app to be very reliable and stable, in fact a very good Beta.

 

[cyprusmith]

LMSTim - Thanks for the feedback.

 

You only need to open further ports past 33 dependent on how many wireless devices your using.

The App will initially use port 30 but if it finds its in use it will use port 31, i proved this by connecting the

 

iPad first and than the Nexus 7 and watching the log file on both devices.

 

I'm seeing no ports closed in my log file so know its definately not the PC/Server (however you want to class it).

 

The log file on the App reckons its still trying to

 

send data however nothing is being received from the PC, at this point my ping tests are showing a fully stable ping between 50ms and 180ms with no data loss.

 

I dug a second router out that I had lying around (again N technology not G) and encountered

 

the exact same issues however on the odd occasion the App would become responsive again after a minute or 2 of it being non responsive, mainly as i went to the toilet and came back so actually left it for a little time however again it would dip in and out.

 

I

 

have also managed to prove it happens on whatever function I use whether that be the throttle or points.

 

The 2 routers in question are upstairs from me so my next test is to go plonk myself down right next to it to see if that makes a difference but

 

at the moment from my personal perspective I am seeing major problems with connectivity dropping in and out.

 

Seeing as I am only using basic Windows Firewall on my PC/Server with ports 30 to 33 open with static addresses on all devices I'm a little

 

disapointed thus far in terms of the connectivity as the idea of the wireless iPad controller was for use in the garden which my wireless signal covers with ease.

 

Mike

[LMSTim]

Obviously it's a tad, not being able to see your set-up, however for me it works in a stable and continuous fashion so both the RailMaster Server and App work fine.

 

The reason I mentioned all port 30 to 37 is so that you make available the entire

 

width of the RailMaster server, even if you only have one or two devices.

 

Might I suggest you download and install www.powerpos.com/rail-master/rm_setup144.exe to be sure you're using the absolute latest program, even if you already have 1.44.

 

The

 

fact that it's working continuously for me, and I too have a Nexus 7, means something is different on your set-up. It's a question of eliminating everything obvious to start with.

 

[cyprusmith]

Update No. 2

------------

 

Having just relocated myself with my laptop, iPad and Nexus 7 upstairs (right next to my router), I can confirm that the issue is still present.

Wireless signal remains the same DB strength and PING tests show the

 

same MS response rate.

 

Having read my previous posts I should of been a little more specific on the issue that I am seeing.

 

When I say the App is becoming non responsive I actually meant that the App works fine in terms of responding to my clicks

 

on screen (via pointer pen) however the laptop does not reflect the changes I requested from the App.

 

Example:- I change any setting (throttle, points etc...) on my tablet (either iPad or Nexus 7), the tablet shows the change (only throttle and train

 

mind you, point changes don't show on the App nor do point numbers show on the App), however the PC does not reflect the change.

Vice-Versa is also shown as an issue, AKA change made on laptop does not shows on mobile tablet.

 

Again, relaunching the

 

App on the tablet immediately prompts the railmaster software on the PC to flag the connection, I tell it to ignore as I cannot buy the software yet due to Beta and voula the new connection works again absolutely fine for a short period of time before becoming

 

unresponsive again.

 

I have further tested disabling the Windows Firewall completely along with the Microsoft Security Essentials Anti-Virus I am running to no-avail.

 

I have tried tweaking the update interval seconds to all possible variations

 

with no success as well.

 

At this point I cant find anything other than App communication to be the issue here.

 

----------

1 MAJOR thing I have managed to come across on the iPad app is the top train shunt button.

When the App on the iPad

 

is no longer syncing with the PC I can bring it back to life periodically with the shunt button on the top train.

 

I watch the log file when the App is not syncing with the PC and nothing updates in the log however when i press the shunt button for the

 

top loco I can see these messages appear in the log. If i change the top loco speed a few times in between these presses than the throttle change will also register in the log.

 

When you press the top loco shunt button you can see a screen refresh icon

 

in the top left hand corner of the iPad (just right of the wireless connection icon) for a brief second and then it disapears. When pressing any other button or throttle on the pad you do not get this icon. I believe this has something to do with the issue

 

and the App not correctly updating and passing commands.

 

I have also managed to in between spamming the top loco shunt button change the speed to the bottom loco (throttle two) and have it subsequently update this is on the laptop screen however when

 

you look at the log file on the iPad App it does not show the command being sent for the throttle speed change on that particular loco however it does when the App is launched/re-launched for the first time.

----------------------------

 

Upon further

 

testing while writing this, the log file seems to be be picky about what it wants to show and when as I have managed to get all different sorts of commands not show in the log file.

 

Now I have not tried any of this out with my Elite controller plugged

 

in yet and on a live track, i am purely just testing the tablets against the PC screen so maybe the commands are being passed through however just not being updated on the PC screen properly.

I doubt this is the case but will find out by next weekend once

 

I find the time to properly hook up to the elite and a live track.

 

FYI - I was testing today against the Hornby Oval Track Plan A with 1 point in these examples.

[cyprusmith]

LMSTim said:

Obviously it's a tad, not being able to see your set-up, however for me it works in a stable and continuous fashion so both the RailMaster Server and App work fine.

The reason I mentioned all port 30 to 37 is so that you

make available the entire width of the RailMaster server, even if you only have one or two devices.

Might I suggest you download and install www.powerpos.com/rail-master/rm_setup144.exe to be sure you're using the absolute latest program, even if you

already have 1.44.

The fact that it's working continuously for me, and I too have a Nexus 7, means something is different on your set-up. It's a question of eliminating everything obvious to start with.

Tim - Again many thanks for

reply.
When I try to do some further testing later on this week with an Elite Controller and Live Track I will also try another PC with a fresh install (my wired desktop) to see if that will make a difference at all.

I did download and install the

fresh 1.44 on my laptop this morning even though I had it, just to make sure! :)