Calibrating actual speeds

[Michael_A]

I recently bought a little 'toy' called a 'speed wagon' from a well known auction site. This I thought would allow me to very accurately calibrate the real scale speed to the speed set in RailMaster for each individual loco, and is far easier than doing the time to complete a certain distance thing.

First point is a wish, it would be really nice if you could enter the actual speed in RailMaster as an additional option to just time to complete a set disatnce.

The second point is I cannot believe how again Hornby has built in such a fantastic idea that once again is half thought out and very, very basic in how it works! Yes you can tell RailMaster the actual speed at a given setting, but that's it. Result, it's only actually correct at that one setting!

What they needed to do was allow you to 'calibrate' by entering at least 2 if not 3 speeds into Railmaster, say a low speed, max for that loco, and somewhere in the middle, i.e. a curve, not a single point.

Has anyone else tried calibrating speeds and what is your experience? Can this be corrected further in the speed curves in the decoders?

 

[HornbyRailMasterSupport]

You are missing the point a little and need to read the section in the manual on entering speed factors manually.

Firstly, you mention that you find it "Hard to close all the configuration boxes".  If you found this hard, then having to enter multiple speeds for and measure the time for them is more complicated than the single one that RailMaster asks you to enter.  We deliberately made this function as simple as possible to use and have never received negative feedback on it before.  This was certainly not a "Half thought out" feature.  We balanced what the user is required to do in order to profle a loco against the results obtained.

Bear in mind that every single Hornby loco going back to 1975 is already profiled (and now all Rivarossi, Arnold and Jouef locos since 2007) which leaves locos from other manufacturers to profile if you wish to.  This feature is unique to RailMaster and woek involved in doing this was, frankly, incredible.  Also bear in mind that RailMaster does a pretty good job of extrapolating the one timing entered to cover the entire range of a new, un-profiled loco and the balance between work to do and results is as good as it can be to make this facility as simple to use as possible.

In the next version of RailMaster, and in conjunction with the Loco Detection System, you will be able to tell RailMaster to automatically fully profile a loco at its maximum speed then every 10mph (16kph) down to 5mph and it will do it all by istelf, then this feature will no doubt satisfy you in terms of accuracy.  It will even email yo uto let it know it is finished and also if it encounters any problems during the profiling process, as it can take over an hour to do this.  Until this comes along, the current manual and simple to use profiling system is around 95% accurate and far better than not profiling at all.

[Michael_A]

Where did I say I found it hard to close the dialogue boxes?  It might hep if you read my post properly instead of implying I don't even now what I am doing!

Also not having received negative feedback before is no excuse or defence, and that is what you are trying to do, defend inadeuqate funtionality. I also find it hard to accept this functionality was kept simple for the user. In RailMaster if you can configure a loco, operate points and signals, design a track plan, write and read CV's etc etc I'm sure we simpletons can also enter more than one value into a speed calibration window.

The fact remains, even with profiled locomotives, the scale speed is not accurate accross the speed range. I apreciate that the work that went into this migh t be 'incredible', however this is your business, we customers do expect you to put effort into making excellent products that your loyal customers spend their hard earned cash on.

Having said al that, you then contradict yourselves by saying the 'missing' functionality required to accurately profile speeds will be built into the next version. This is indeed good news, but two questions, will this be a paid for upgrade, (if so how much) and when will it be available?

Thanks

[gilbo2]

Oh dear, I dont want to get involved in this one too. I've said enough today ;-)

Has it stopped raining yet, if so I'm off to get the Sunday paper.............

[Michael_A]

I was a little put out by being told that 'I am missing the point', or 'need to read the manual', and that my post had not been read (or interpreted) correctly.

Keeping this on thread, the manual says you can 'Operate all Hornby (catalogue, Collectors Club and some special edition) locos going back to 1975, all at true scale speed'.

Unfortunatley all of the (Hornby) locos I have tried so far (my two Jintys, J52, 4MT, Class 5, Tornado, Class 110, Class 47, and T9) showed huge speed variations across the speed range. (and I have got 'use scale speed' configured)

Two Jintys and a J52 with exactly the same type of chassis, motor and decoder running on the same track, all set at a 'scale speed' of 30mph ran at compeltely different speeds. Likewise my 4MT and T9 ran at widely different speeds when set to 60mph, as did my Calss 5 and Tornado (track and wheels all clean, no hesitating or stops)  

This is what led me to try and 'calibrate' the speeds. I guess now it hasn't worked, I need to just figure out how to revert back to the original speed profile. (When I figure it out as I can't find out how to do that so far in the manual).

I will look forward to the update which it seems will allow more accurate calibration and then hoepfully a truer reflection of scale speed. Like the e-mail when it's done feature, that's nice, though would be interested to know why it takes so long.

[poliss]

Never a good idea to snap at a customer. They can always take their money elsewhere.

It's hard to tell the tone from a plain text message. Emoticons were invented to alleviate the problem, but the forum doesn't support their use. :-p

[Michael_A]

It does disturb me that they become so defensive. Of course they have to uphold their reputation and the reputation of their (excellent and innovative) products, but there is no shame in admittng that sometimes functionality is 'not optimal', and they would build a far better reputation based on trust admitting this, rather than flying off the handle in their haste to be defensive, forgeting who their customer is. Where I work we are encouraged to thank customers who give us the 'opportunity to improve', by feeding back issues. It's not what's posted here that Hornby needs to worry about, it's what we don't (or are not allowed to) post here but post on other forums as well, so it really is in their own interest to listen to feedback and take it constructively. (Just in case this thread is deleted, I saved a copy...)

So to hopefully prevent this being removed, back on topic. I found removing the locomotives and adding them again restores the defaults, including the default speed curves. So one Jinty now does 30mph at a scale speed of 35, and, er, 30mph at a scale speed of 30, and 8mph at a ascale speed of 10mph. The other, with the same chassi, decoder and motor, does 45mph at a scale speed of 35, 35 at a scale speed of 30, and 21mph at a scale speed of 10mph. I cant actually be bothered checking my other locos.

I cannot help but question the 95% accurate figure. Can anyone else on this forum achieve this level of accuracy?

So maybe this is why this functionality may be unique to Hornby (as claimed by them) In practice it is very difficult to get it to be accurate, and I suspect this is the exact reason they allow 'calibration' in the update at 10mph intervals. 

The other thing that amazed me is it will take over an hour for RailMaster to do all the calculations. Given the speed and power of modern computers I found this staggering. So 100 locos, 100 hours.... e-mail when done or not, that is some time. 

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