long whistle, stays on

[Yelrow]

Grassier great explanation by hornby but I still can't find the P on Rm john

[Graskie]

What "P", John?

[Yelrow]

the macro P2, to pause long whistle, once mine starts, dogs come for miles, perhaps it smells of bacon, john

[Graskie]

You just type it in, John. Click to the left of a function in the loco setup screen and type, for instance, the macro "P2~F2" where indicated. That is, once you press a function containing that macro, you should get pause sound 2 seconds and then function

 

2 (assuming that's the function you're dealing with) to switch it off. Using the macro for another function you should type in that function number after the F, rather than 2 which is the usual for long whistle. You can also amend the pause length if you wish

 

by writing a different number after the P. As I say, though, I don't have to use either the macro or on/off addition for long whistle on RM. It just sounds like a long whistle for a few seconds and then cuts off automatically. That's via my Elite, of course.

[Fishmanoz]

John, can I suggest you open the manual and look at the section on setting up functions, read right through it, then read again the posts from HRMS and Graskie.

 

Now let me summarise it all again for you. Let's assume you've set up the long whistle

 

on F2. Press F2 and the whistle comes on and stays on until either the dogs arrive or your press F2 again to turn it off.

 

But you can write a macro, using your keyboard to turn it off for you. So go back into your loco setup and the functions and click

 

to the left of the F2 function, bringing up a little screen to write the macro. What you want the macro to do is, after you have pressed F2 to turn on the whistle, is to sound it for 2 seconds, then turn it off. This means you want it to do nothing for 2 seconds

 

as it is already sounding, then turn off. So you type P2 which means pause for 2 seconds, then to turn it off you needed to type F2, which is like pressing the function button again - so you type P2-F2, do all the green ticks to save and get out of loco setup,

 

and you are done.

 

Is the light dawning?

[Graskie]

That should be "P2~F2", Fishy, although, as I say, I don't need to set that macro for some reason on my Elite/RM combination. Pressing F2 function on my RM I get a long (few seconds) whistle which then automatically cuts out.

[Yelrow]

Fishy, there in nothing in the manual, or in the post from RM support that says TYPE, both say add, had either said, type in P2-F2, i would have understood. My crystal ball, needs a bit of help these days. Now i understand you have to type it in, hopefully

 

i can stop the dogs calling, john

[Graskie]

You must use the ~ and not - character, as I mentioned above, John.

[Graskie]

Incidentally, I have just checked one of the opposition's sound locos. I have no macro nor on/off connected with its long whistle and it plays for a few seconds then just switches off automatically. Is this all a difference between using the eLink, as

 

opposed to my Elite?

[Yelrow]

graskie, may be, got to do something, to stop the neighbourhood dogs, dont want the horses coming as well. All the other sounds stop when you re hit the F whatever. Will try your fix tomorrow. incidently, does anybody have a date for P2, Cock o the north,

 

as a certain mail order firm is promoing june delivery, and my pre order was much later than that i thought, john

[Fishmanoz]

Graskie, running using the Elite on its own is one thing, via RM quite different. Elite is simply an interface having no separate part in the transaction when using RM. This way, it is the same as eLink, apart from technical detail in the actual communications

 

protocols between them which are different. And the loco brand should be irrelevant too. It can only be the RM setup for the loco and the decoder's response to it. The loco setup could well be different, given you have called up the specific Hornby loco type

 

from the RM list and set up the other brand yourself.

[Graskie]

Fishy, I know that the Elite and eLink are merely power supply intermediaries between track and RM, but I do in fact program every make of loco in the same way.

 

I first program an ID (4 digit generally, based on loco number) direct from my Elite

 

to my programming track, and then test the claimed functions from it, which can in fact be incorrect at times.

 

Then, when setting up functions on RM, I now type in functions, using the on/off addition where appropriate, with no macros whatsoever. If

 

I can find a picture of the loco on Hornby's list, I then add that, but I prefer to type in my own functions for several reasons. And don't forget that, even if you type an incorrect function, the actual one will still be actuated. In Fact, it's sometimes

 

difficult to describe some sounds!

 

I prefer my method to downloading Hornby's default ones or scrolling down a pretty long list of functions, which often does not contain the ones I want. For example, my latest loco has 27 functions! Plus another separate

 

decoder for lights and smoke! Many of those functions are not in Hornby's scroll down list and, even if they were, I find it far quicker to type them in.

 

Please ask me to try any tests you would like me to carry out on my combination, because I think

 

there's a bit of disbelief and confusion here.

[Yelrow]

Graskie, what is your latest loco, john

[Graskie]

It is basically Hornby's R 2310 Rebuilt Merchant Navy 35016 "Elders Fyffes Line" fitted with Digitrains Sound, separate smoke decoder, firebox light, directional lamps & crew.

 

[Graskie]

Correction - just "Elders Fyffes".

[Fishmanoz]

Graskie, your method sounds perfectly logical to me and, while I'm an Elite user too, I can't see any reason why anything you've done could have come out different using eLink. Given that the role of each is to generate the DCC signals to track and the

 

signal has to be the same from each to meet the NMRA standard, there isn't any room to generate anything different.

[Graskie]

I've never used an eLink, so I just can't comment on that, compared to operating RM through my Elite. Sorry, but the facts are as I stated and, as I said, if you want me to carry out any experiments with my combination, please ask. I'm afraid hands on

 

experience is worth a lot more than just reading a manual which could perhaps no longer be fully correct in certain areas such as this.

[Yelrow]

Hi, Fishy, followed graskie advice, so understand about P2, etc. Overnight long whistle has stopped, and am reluctant to turn on again for obvious reasons.If i press it just to test function, will it stick on again.My problem is with graskies wavy line,

 

not dash. My laptop is french, and wavy line is 3rd function on the key, so have to hold down other 2 . Does it have to be a wavy line, john

[Fishmanoz]

John, computer languages, and that is what this is, are very unforgiving on "syntax" or the format of commands given. They have to be exactly right. So to check the format, go to manual and look up what it says there on macros.

 

Your problem with

 

the French keyboard is another matter. I'm not sure how the French characters "map" or translate to English characters. But if the symbol is common, I expect you will be ok, but I'm not certain.