GerryPerry Posted May 16, 2014 Share Posted May 16, 2014 HI Some REALLY interesting thoughts here and clearly indicate experience and knowledge. Let me make a remark on the API point on which it was said ( I paraphrase) that Hornby might not wish to invest the resource ( or implied commercial risk) to publish an open source document. One only has to look at the most successful SW and HW companies we admire most to see this IS a route to success ( and domination in many cases ). It is in fact a very effective way to get both FREE resource for the supplier and a wider more committed "buy in" from a significant slice of their customer base. Be in no doubt :- That is why the companies we most admire do it ! To illustrate the negative commercial aspects of any cloak of mystery:- After 60 years of parental urging I am about to retire and join this hobby. With my professional interest of Electronics and software I expect my emphasis to be operational rather than extreme modelling and I really like the potential in this direction ( especially the VERY cheap RFID / NFC for LD and so much more ). But one simple question to which I cannot find an answer : will ELINK work with JMRI ? If so I will use RM and ELINK and so be "Hornby" for sure and then explore JMRI. If not I will be disappointed and go a different route. Of course I am but one individual but the fact that I find contradictory views on the simple question does, I submit, illustrate a certain 'cloudiness'. As I say at the top : a great and thought provoking forum thread Gerry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDS Posted May 17, 2014 Share Posted May 17, 2014 @GerryPerry Hi Gerry Welcome to the forum. I notice that you have mentioned API. We have a separate thread running under this Hornby RailMaster section, named 'Desirable features for future RailMaster Software Updates'. The last entry to that thread was 20 days ago but it has collected quite a number of very interesting suggestions and API has been referred to on there (starting on page 2). If you have not done so already, you may like to view the thread and add your own thoughts about API, or any other suggestions for future updates. Hornby RailMaster support are aware of the thread and have been very positive towards a number of suggestions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
96RAF Posted May 17, 2014 Share Posted May 17, 2014 @GP Greg99 is a JMRI man and he told me awhile back that eLink is a no-go, although he hadn't had time to work out why. I have found eLink works after a fashion with Rocrail, although it does send multiple iterations of any points commands. My points system incorporates relays so you can count them clattering. What happens with loco commands I'm not sure but they respond as if OK. I seem to remember reading somewhere that RM send point commands twice to increase the chance of any sticky point firing. It would need someone with monitoring/measuring kit to explain exactly what is happening in each of these applications. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
St1ngr4y Posted May 17, 2014 Share Posted May 17, 2014 RAF96 said: I seem to remember reading somewhere that RM send point commands twice to increase the chance of any sticky point firing. It appears to me that RM sends point commands twice if you press a red/green button on the display, but if you execute a point switch in a program, it only seems to send it once. Also, if you are nimble enough with your mouse to click a number of red/green buttons in quick succession, the second commands seem to be stored up so that when you have finished clicking, you hear a very rapid succession of point firings occur within about one second. Ray Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
96RAF Posted May 17, 2014 Share Posted May 17, 2014 St1ngr4y said: It appears to me that RM sends point commands twice if you press a red/green button on the display, but if you execute a point switch in a program, it only seems to send it once. Also, if you are nimble enough with your mouse to click a number of red/green buttons in quick succession, the second commands seem to be stored up so that when you have finished clicking, you hear a very rapid succession of point firings occur within about one second. Ray @ray I'll listen to my relays clacking next time I run a program. I found that rapid firing points manually by mouse always locked the eLink and I had to restart RM. You could still press buttons on screen and RM responded by changing the screen but the eLink wasn't hearing the commands or if it was it was ignoring them. I put this down to probably being my USB connection and didn't bother reporting it as a glitch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MetmanUK Posted May 18, 2014 Share Posted May 18, 2014 GerryPerry said: HI Some REALLY interesting thoughts here and clearly indicate experience and knowledge. Let me make a remark on the API point on which it was said ( I paraphrase) that Hornby might not wish to invest the resource ( or implied commercial risk) to publish an open source document. One only has to look at the most successful SW and HW companies we admire most to see this IS a route to success ( and domination in many cases ). It is in fact a very effective way to get both FREE resource for the supplier and a wider more committed "buy in" from a significant slice of their customer base. Be in no doubt :- That is why the companies we most admire do it ! To illustrate the negative commercial aspects of any cloak of mystery:- After 60 years of parental urging I am about to retire and join this hobby. With my professional interest of Electronics and software I expect my emphasis to be operational rather than extreme modelling and I really like the potential in this direction ( especially the VERY cheap RFID / NFC for LD and so much more ). But one simple question to which I cannot find an answer : will ELINK work with JMRI ? If so I will use RM and ELINK and so be "Hornby" for sure and then explore JMRI. If not I will be disappointed and go a different route. Of course I am but one individual but the fact that I find contradictory views on the simple question does, I submit, illustrate a certain 'cloudiness'. As I say at the top : a great and thought provoking forum thread Gerry Hi Gerry, It is my posts on the other thread that RDS refers to. Its good to hear another voice supporting the API concept especially in such a powerful yet succinct way. I fear that Hornby are not open to such a proposal as they concentrate on their own programming language and development environment which must be very expensive to develop and support. Short sighted, yes, but understandable given the market they are aiming at. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MetmanUK Posted May 18, 2014 Share Posted May 18, 2014 I meant to add ..... The apparent limitations in the RM programming language can be seen in the context of the requirements for LD that posters have mentioned previously. These will be especially noticeable as users wish to (or are 'forced' to) push it's boundaries. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tonyob Posted November 21, 2020 Share Posted November 21, 2020 Does Hornby railmaster have a loco detection system up and running . i have searched the internet and all post go back to 2014 but do not seem to be conclusive.1. Did the detection system come out.2. Can you buy it.3 Does it work.4. If it exists is there a video of it in operation.5. Or was it never released and was it a white elephant. Tony. Very confused about this one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
St1ngr4y Posted November 21, 2020 Share Posted November 21, 2020 Hi Tony, 1. No2. No3. Don't know 4. Never seen one5. It has been promised for years, but everyone has given up on it. Ray Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrissaf Posted November 21, 2020 Share Posted November 21, 2020 All I can add, is that HRMS use a development prototype version of some of the LD componentry to perform locomotive scale speed profiling for the RailMaster locomotive database. And as such, it has never gone past the developement prototype stage as far as we know. Never gone into manufacturing production and probably now never will. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigNoj Posted November 21, 2020 Author Share Posted November 21, 2020 Support 558 postsPlease be patient regarding Loco Detection. This is a highly sophisticated system including four components: RailMaster software, loco detection module, track sensors and loco ID tags. This system is currently undergoing testing and manufacturing mustalso be planned. It is the most sophisticated and best value-for-money system of its kind and it is important that everything is correct from the outset. We do not want disappointed users.Any RailMaster users will have seen the array of functions thatcan be triggered within the loco detection sensors on the track design part of the software. Additional functionality is being built into the programming system too. It will be worth the wait and we (and the testers) are excited about this new developmentfor RailMaster.We hope to have Loco detection available within a few months, barring manufacturing delays. RailMaster can be run well without Loco Detection, although we do recognise that Loco Detection adds another level of sophistication to the overallsystem as, for example, the HandHeld apps did.We will make an announcement as soon as it is available.Posted at 10:56:48 Wed, 7 Aug 2013 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrissaf Posted November 21, 2020 Share Posted November 21, 2020 I would point out that text was posted by support Aug 2013 which was seven years ago. Therefore their mention of: We hope to have Loco detection available within a few months, barring manufacturing delays. is now somewhat past any reasonable sell by date. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now