Voice Control

[96RAF]

Especially if you were overseas, having to challenge a suspect intruder in several foreign languages whilst pointing your gun at them loaded with wooden bullets.

In Cyprus it was Halt - Stamata - Dur. i.e. English - Greek - Turkish.

As RM VR understands many languages can they be used concurrenlty or do you have to select ahead of time.

No doubt an elocutionist could explain why RM oftimes falters over certain sounds and not others yet copes with regional accents.

[RDS]

Maybe but I would rather wait until the STOP issue has been sorted out.  It is a strange one because it is not as if EMERGENCY STOP and STOP actually sound the same (not at the beginning anyway).

[Tee1707818014]

No matter how many times i say sound off it will only go off if i say sound on how do you manually sync the commands?

I hovered over the 1.56 at bottom right & it defiantly says version 8 will try uninstalling avast & spybot to see if they affected RM in some way.

[SHEDINGTON]

Hi RAF96

I have mentioned this earlier in the thread "halt" would be a good word if it's programmable or amendable HRMS suggests "loco stop" ..... works well 

Don't forget it's "Halt"  3 times before you can  fire those wooden bullets legally lol

Dodge

[mal]

Hi RMS   Like many other contributors you are to be congratulated on your efforts to resolve the numerous issues which have arisen since release.   That is despite tonight being a total disaster.  The only thing I managed to confirm was that the points are now working or at least for the two points I got to alter before it went into none cooperation mode.  All the voice recognition is showing as correct  but commands are not getting to wherever.  I have mentioned this in past and the fact that I load and reload the software.  Tonight 6 times but could not after getting a couple of engines going and accepting commands just does not activate the  designated command despite being recognised by the voice dialogue box.  Seems to happen mostly when a command does not respond.   I will have another try tomorrow.  On another issue when I loaded version 8 could not make a double header as only got a list of engines but no way of getting them to merge.   Did it via elite and then voice does not seem to be able to recognise 42   (when I double head I normally start at 40)   May just be a glitch.  Just feel something is just stopping the whole thing functioning as it has done on a regular basis.    Have a good weekend    regards Malcolm

[Fishmanoz]

Malcolm, sounds like something more serious wrong with your setup than bugs. Suggest you email RM Support from within the Help window of RM and explain fully the problems you have been and are having. 

[AncientMariner]

Double heading works correctly herre. RM just stops working from time to time - nothing new there - it always has, although subjectively it happens more frequently with Voice Control. I find that loco commnds sometimes need an additional Forward/Reverse command to get them going, but I don't think that ihis is the problem you are describing. Remind me - what are you trying to run RM on? In general RM Rev 8 is doing pretty well here so far ...

[mal]

Hi Thanks for responses.  Just had another disappointing session.  Starts off okay but then just register voice and nothing else.   Great with revision 7 apart from points so a little confused if I have issue with computer why fine under 7 and not 8  But then that is computers.   I am running on windows 7.  No doubt all will come good as it certainly is the future.   Did not get chance to try double heading as trying to get voice running for longer than 5 minutes.   Malcolm

[mcrook62]

Hi

as anyone had a prefect session of running your locos points signals for about 1hr under voice control?

regards

Michael

[Tee1707818014]

RM said :There are only three things that would stop points and signals being set on startup.  1.  No DCC controller connected, 2. "Set points" not checked within RailMaster's settings and 3. If using the Pro-Pack, no startup firing order specified in the small box to the right of "Start-up position" within the settings of each point.

Hi yes you found the cause for not setting points & signals at start up. It was the pro pack firing order, I was not aware you had to manually input them again thinking they would automatically default to what was already there from 1:55. I spent the next 2 hours inputting the 102 firing orders from a copy of my log & it works now thank you so much.

 

Now just the issues with voice control for sound on & off if I say sound off, loco sound comes on , & sound on they go off no matter how many times I repeat it even the text confirms I am saying it correctly. also all the points fire the opposite way although they were correct before I upgraded to

pro pack   1:56 v8.

I am also still getting the lost the controller A message even when nothing is moving  can you remind me again what I need to do in the Ini file?

Thanks for all your assistance so far

[RDS]

A few people have commented that they are getting the spoken command correctly identified in the RailMaster Speech Window but the command is not transferred to the layout.  I have noticed this a number of times on my layout.

Does anyone have any idea as to why this may happen?

[RB51]

As well as that one RDS I get

1. A "Speed 20" command just caused an "All Stop' It usually creates a "Speed 02" response.

2. Saying "Mallard" produces a "Point 46" response in the voice control box but the loco in question (which is DCC ID 46) responds correctly.

3. Locos sometimes run backwards - whan asked to run forwards.

4.Points are operating correctly now - although RM did store the first few commands for about 30 seconds and then processed them together in s short burst. Luckily no trains were running at that time.

I am in touch with Hornby via e-mail and will report outcome in due course.

R-

[RDS]

Hi Roger

I am only using a cheap microphone and I did not complete the voice training fully, so although I have had similar experiences to those you describe, I feel I am to blame for those happenings.  

However, when the RailMaster Speech Window correctly interprets my command, I cannot understand why this is not passed to the layout.  I am only referring to commands to the Loco's, nothing complicated like points, signals or sound (especially signals, judging by the complex discussions on another thread!)

[mal]

Hi All  Well after two very disappointing days with voice contril today was once again very encouraging.  Not perfect as one would expect but probably about 85% on the ball.   Some odd things happen though as follows:

a.    Got two engines running no problem and functions worked.  Then asked for two further engines to operate and voice commands all correct but no movement.  Tried a point voice fine but no activity.  About to close and reopen Railmaster  (I had started by downloading version 8 again after the last two days of frustration)  when suddenly other trains started and points operated.  (probably about a 5 minutes delay  - this has happened on a number of occasions to me)

b.  Had to reallocate new decoder numbers to two engines as their previous numbers would no longer respond.  Gave them 34 and 35 but got everything similar but not these numbers.   No audio command from  her ladyship saying no valid or whatever.   Then I realised that for those command to become effective I had to restart voice recognition and hey presto no problem

c.   On a number of occasions when using a function the function worked on the engine but the words of the function  eg function 3 appeared in bold red as normal but also replaced the name of the engine with 'function 3'. Odd but did work.

d.  Stop command is still fifty fifty on creating an all stop instead of loco stop.  What command does one use to get them going again without the dialogue box popping up which means you have to manually click the tick?

At least today I moved forward.      Malcolm

[RB51]

Yes - it is a bit sporadic isn't it? Sometimes all works well with commands being shown correctly on the screen and going through to the layout and other times not recognised and odd things happening (such as in my post above). I did three training sessions (took just over an hour) but then was itching to get on and use the software so maybe there is more to do. Like yourself I am prepared to accept for the time being that the reason behind the non (or wrong) action being produced is down to something that I am not doing correctly. R-

[HFM]

Not sure if this has anything to do with it but I hve noticed that sometimes windows interprets a rm command and goes of and does something on its own which has nothing to do with rm it is this time when I give a command nothing happens I now have got in the habbit of saying cancel if I dont hear rm beep at me then repeat the command

[RDS]

My understanding is that RailMaster uses the Microsoft voice command system (I must admit I did not know there was such a thing until I started using RailMaster voice control).  It therefore appears that if the command you speak is considered by the Operating System to be a Windows command, that it will be interpreted as such.  I have had all sorts of strange windows opening up when a command has been misunderstood.  I can understand this problem and as I have written before, I have put this down to a poor quality microphone.

The aspect I would appreciate guidance on is where the command has been correctly interpreted by RailMaster and displayed in the RailMaster window but the layout does not respond.  I wonder if there is there any way to 'turn off' the Windows command recognition, so that the system is only expecting RailMaster commands.

[mal]

RDS    I do not think it is your microphone as I bought a 'good one' and I get the same as you describe both with windows recognising things as windows commands and of course voice commands being correctly recognised but not being interpreted or being interpreted with some delay.   Perhaps a purpose built voice tutorial with all the railway ???commands built into it would help.   Whilst I understand the concept I do not have in depth technical knowledge to  support what I believe in that it seems from previous posts from RM that XP is better than 7/8 and as I have 7 it is perhaps too clever in picking up things.  However as I have previously stated like or not XP is now very dated and things should be able to work on all versions of windows.    But then computers are computers and seem to have their own mind at times  (interesting today news is that  they have now developed computers that do have their own mind).    It will not be long before the computers are playing trains and we are watching  !!!!!!!!!  Malcolm

[RDS]

Hi Malcolm

To be honest, I don't think it is my Microphone either but the RailMaster instructions on Voice Control, say in Red letters and I quote "Please do not contact Hornby Support with problems regarding speech recognition if you are not using a high quality headset microphone or have not trained the Microsoft Speech Recognition system completely".

So, seeing as I have not got a high quality headset microphone and have not trained Speech Recognition completely I could only concentrate on the point regarding the command obviously being understood, because it appeared in the Speech window but not being obeyed by the layout.  If people with 'High Quality' systems were not suffering the same problem, I think I would have invested by now.

[mal]

Hi   Well not a good night tonight once again voice commands being recognised  (well once I sorted by headset out which lost its connection) but first time just about five minutes before the two engines responded to their commands and then could not get anything to do anything.  Several open and close RM only managed to get initial commands in.  Had programmed one engine which did not respond so switched off computer and reprogrammed a decoder of an engine that had gone back to default.   Just about to switch the main power off when out of the blue the loco I had programmed started off.  (remember the computer is off at this time and only elite on).   Seems to indicate that something is happening in the elite that is stopping commands reaching its destination.  Very odd.   We will soldier on.   I read on another thread that version 9 is imminent.   Any thoughts on the above  RMS or whoever.   Malcolm

[AncientMariner]

I managed pretty much a full day's testing yesterday, and I though that it might be of some use if I shared my experience, runnning under Win XP. RM Ver1.56 Rev 8 performed really well, covering a period of about 6 hrs. without a stop. Voice Control was workng at around 90-95% - I don't think I 'm going to get much better than that. Some observations:

1. Don't call your 0-4-0 'Pug' - almost any random noise is recognised as 'Pug' That honour now goes to 4-4-0 Railroad 'Dover' Schools SR which is the default name. I must think up something which is not so readily confused with noise.

2. Voice Recognition works better with a modicum of background noise here. Possibly a function of the mic  I'm using: a Logitech H800 with Bluetooth connectivity. Seems adequte for the task. You need at least 5 training sessions, preferably with representative background noise

3. Use Alphabetics for Route and Function names - Alphanumerics are not recognized in this context. but they are in Loco names. That means my names Siding 1,2 etc. now become Siding One, Two etc and are no longer in Alphanumeric order, but that's life!

4. One loco set off in the reverse direction (again). This seems to be the case whenever I re-instal RM for a new version or revision.

5. One Route sets some points in the wrong direction, while other Routes work correctly. Still working on that one.

6. While a Route is being set, no other command works - including Emergency Stop. That can lead to quite exciting incidents! Particularly since the route setting process can take quite some time. I'm wondering if I should keep a paperclip handy to short out the circuit in dire emergency.

9. The Stop command is still a bit flakey - sometimes it's slow, sometimes it doen't work at all. I attrubute this (without any real evidence) to the fact that the Stop command is relevant to both the Signal and Loco contexts, and RM has to try to sort out which one is relevant. HRMS will probably tell me that's totally wrong :-).

Overall - yesterday was very encouraging. Rev 8 seems to have covered all our concerns. Voice Control is now a viable utility, after a slighly unpromising start. I wonder what Rev 9 will bring?

[RDS]

@AncientMariner

That is a really interesting and useful post.  Thanks for sharing it.

Just one aspect to query:  When you say 5 training sessions, does that mean that the system continues to learn each session or does the next session just overwrite the previous one?

[St1ngr4y]

Hi RDS,

My understanding is that the more training sessions you do, the effect is cumulative. The system gets more and more used to your voice,

Ray

[RB51]

Yes - thank you Ancient Mariner. Good to know. My headset (Logitech H600) has just developed a fault so will not charge. Bah! Replacement on the way though so will do some more training (have done three sessions to date) and post my progress or otherwise on here. When the headset gets here though the guys at Hornby have said they will log in remotely and check my set-up. Good service I'd say. I can't think of another software provider who will go to the lengths the Hornby are. 10 / 10. R-

[AncientMariner]

The training sessions are cumulative; with each one the speech recognition becomes more refined. The law of diminishing returns cuts in at some point, however. I would guess that it probably isn't worth going beyond 7-8 sessions.