No Loco Sound Control With Networked Laptop

[Fishmanoz]

Trust you got the immediate auto response from HRMS Kev?  If not, your virus software is blocking you. 

[Augustus Caesar]

I've had a response from HRMS and yes, they are working on a solution. I can't yet offer up the rest of the message I got but I did ask if I could post it. As yet I have heard no more on that one. However, it won't change anything really so it may just be that a fix will be forthcoming hopefully sooner rather than later.

I don't mind waiting as long as it does fix the issue... but it's on its way it seems... yay!

[Kev2583]

 Hi,  I got the auto response and a day later I got another email just telling me that they were looking into the issue and would contact me later.

I agree its worth the wait if they come up with a fix.

regards, kev.

 

[Augustus Caesar]

Fingers x'd then... :-)

[RDS]

When Kev2538 first raised this thread regarding Network sound, I commented vitually straight away saying I could not recall having seen anyone mention networking before.

 

However, I have myself just purchased a 2nd copy of RailMaster and I am currently experimenting with Networking.  My layout is controlled by the Elite Controller, connected to a Windows 7 Laptop, running my first copy of RailMaster (Pro).  This laptop (the Master Computer) uses a WiFi connection to other XP computers on my Home Network, one of which has now had my 2nd copy of RailMaster installed.  

 

So far, I have added the ip address of the Laptop to my XP Desktop and the Networking icon has appeared on the XP RailMaster screen.  I have copied my layout and all my programs from the Laptop to the XP Desktop (the Slave Computer).

 

Question 1:

I don't have Loco's defined on the slave computer though.  Do I need to copy a file across to the slave computer to be able to view the Loco's?

 

Question 2:

I am able to click on a set of points on the Slave computer and this changes the Points on the Actual Layout and the Blue Point indicator bar changes on the Master Computer screen.  However, there is no Blue bar showing on the Slave screen.

 

[96RAF]

Q1 - yes - copy your layout file across to the other laptop and anything else that looks as though it is custom to you like locos.

Q2. Other people are talking to this on the forum.

My personal problem is I can't get iTunes to talk to AppleTV  (all of 6 ft away) either through Powerline plug-in network adapters or by way of wireless. It worked fine 2 nights ago and now it doesn't - so do not ask me to advise you on networking problems as I am probably the wrong help desk at the moment.

[RDS]

Q1 - yes - copy your layout file across to the other laptop and anything else that looks as though it is custom to you like locos ...

 

 Thanks but which file contains the Loco data?

(Sorry to hear about your 'network' problem)

 

[96RAF]

Don't have the trains pc on at the mo so can't open RM. Look for anything that has loco in the title, probably a .dat file.

[RDS]

... Look for anything that has loco in the title, probably a .dat file ...

Found it - resource.mdb

 

 

[RDS]

I too, have noticed some of the above.  In summary:

- When operated from the Slave the blue indicator lights for points do not work on the Slave, even though they work on the Master and the actual relevant points do change.

- Loco actions on the Slave are reflected in the icons on the Master (but never viceversa) - I don't have sound so cannot comment but speed, lights and throttle position are correct.  The Loco responds correctly

- I cannot change Loco direction from the slave but instead I get a warning message box up saying - 'There is no active DCC controller attached to your computer.  If a DCC controller is present then it has not initialised correctly and you should check the USB cable connection, ensure that the controller is switched on and check that the correct driver is installed. See the pdf guides.'

I would have thought that when the Slave computer is displaying the Networking icon (instead of the Elite symbol) that the software should be aware that there is no DCC controller present and in this case the above warning message should not appear.

- When clicking on a route on the Slave, the point changes are correctly carried out but a warning message box stating 'No confirmation was received from the Master Terminal.  Please check that that it is running.  You may need to restart RailMaster'.  Despite this message, the Point indicator lines on the are shown on the Master and change correctly.

[96RAF]

@RDS

I would flag that little lot up to HRMS via RM as a snag.

From the reports on this forum I don't think they have the master/slave thing ackling properly yet, so the more people reporting in with data the better they will be able to work out a fix for the problem.

Certainly the error messages are inappropriate for the events.

[Fishmanoz]

RDS, do you have controller set to None on the slave?

 

Apart from that, you seem to have the same problems as everyone else, but suggest you add your voice to them via email anyway. 

[RDS]

RDS, do you have controller set to None on the slave? ...

 

Yes

 

 

[St1ngr4y]

... Look for anything that has loco in the title, probably a .dat file ...

Found it - resource.mdb

 

 

It's encrypted Dave. Now there's a challenge !!!

Ray

 

 

[RDS]

Hi Ray, I know what you mean!

However, I was able to just copy it across to the slave PC and it seems to work fine.

When I get a minute, I will have a scan through the instructions in the RM manual but I do not recall seeing it mentioning anything about copying files across from Master to Slave.  (I hate reading instructions and they normally fall into the 'If all else fails, ...' category)

[Augustus Caesar]

Just got back a few hours ago after a little break so have skim read the last few posts. I've had one email from HRMS asking a few questions to which I have just answered and have tweaked their interest in a few areas where most others won't notice stuff.

More when I get some detail back.

[Augustus Caesar]

I too, have noticed some of the above.  In summary:

- When operated from the Slave the blue indicator lights for points do not work on the Slave, even though they work on the Master and the actual relevant points do change.

- Loco actions on the Slave are reflected in the icons on the Master (but never viceversa) - I don't have sound so cannot comment but speed, lights and throttle position are correct.  The Loco responds correctly

- I cannot change Loco direction from the slave but instead I get a warning message box up saying - 'There is no active DCC controller attached to your computer.  If a DCC controller is present then it has not initialised correctly and you should check the USB cable connection, ensure that the controller is switched on and check that the correct driver is installed. See the pdf guides.'

I would have thought that when the Slave computer is displaying the Networking icon (instead of the Elite symbol) that the software should be aware that there is no DCC controller present and in this case the above warning message should not appear.

- When clicking on a route on the Slave, the point changes are correctly carried out but a warning message box stating 'No confirmation was received from the Master Terminal.  Please check that that it is running.  You may need to restart RailMaster'.  Despite this message, the Point indicator lines on the are shown on the Master and change correctly.

There are communication problems being highlighted to HRMS by myself and at least two others on here for different reason regarding the PC/laptop (master) and PC/laptop/tablet (slave) network facility.

While some functions work on the slave others don't and it seems to me a little random where the effects are happening. One or two have sound problems and myself it is loco lights and function button issues. There are more of course and they are looking into these. Frankly, until members started using this facility the problems never arose so a lot of this will be news to them. As more of us have problems arise they will be able to pinpoint any issue all the easier we hope.

The blue lights, sound, loco lights, function buttons are ALL having problems on the slave. The master units everyone has wired up are all working as they should with their own seperate issues for example. It is the slave units that are causing problems.

As the master unit handles signals passed to it from the slave the latter should automatically mirror the master unit as it does when using a throttle for example. Push that up for acceleration on the slave and you see the controller move on the master. That is how it should be all the time. EVERY operation on the slave should automatically be mirrored on the master.

As they are not it is clear there is a communication problem going on. Maybe it is down to timing as the data is passed back and forth and maybe packets of info are being lost thus giving the appearance of no connection or an intermittent one between master and slave.

Hopefully I will have some information soon or at least it will be posted here by HRMS themselves.

As per the network icon RDS... you are right in that when it displays then that is all you should see and not the DCC Controller icon. However, if the signal (communication) between master and slave is being lost intermittently then a warning message is bound to appear some of the time as the timing between the loss is long enough to trigger it. The icon may not always disappear when this happens as, again, the loss of communication may not be great enough to trigger that too.

[RDS]

The one I find really strange is the Points indicator problem because when the Points are operated from the Slave, the Points do change, the indicator changes on the Master screen but not on the (Slave) computer that initiated the change.  Surely, that is not a communication issue between Master and Slave but a communication issue between Slave buttons pressed and Slave Layout updated.

[Fishmanoz]

Easy to hypothesise this:  change point on slave, data passed to master and to controller to complete action; action completed and layout updated on master; master tells slave to update layout; data lost and slave layout not updated.

 

I'm suggesting the slave does nothing itself, except pass commands to the master and receive data updates from it to display the result on screen.  Failure of Comms in either direction will then give problems.

[St1ngr4y]

My wife has passed to me a notebook computer which she doesn't use any more. It has Windows 7 but only 1GB memory. I was thinking of buying another RM license to install on this pc and use it as a slave. Before I do that, however, I have one or two questions which I hope someone may be able to answer....

1. Is the slave able to run programs?
2. If (1) is true, can the master and slave both run a (different) program at the same time without adversely affecting the performance of the other?
3. The answer to my 3rd question will probably need a guess - when LD arrives, will both master and slave be informed of LD events?

Ray

[Augustus Caesar]

My wife has passed to me a notebook computer which she doesn't use any more. It has Windows 7 but only 1GB memory. I was thinking of buying another RM license to install on this pc and use it as a slave. Before I do that, however, I have one or two questions which I hope someone may be able to answer....

1. Is the slave able to run programs?
2. If (1) is true, can the master and slave both run a (different) program at the same time without adversely affecting the performance of the other?
3. The answer to my 3rd question will probably need a guess - when LD arrives, will both master and slave be informed of LD events?

Ray

In order to answer your question St1ngr4y we would need a little more info. A notebook is a little like a laptop but some don't really work well when attempting to install certain programs and some don't allow installation at all like a netbook.

Pass on the detail of the notebook like make, model number and version of Win 7 (Basic, Home, Pro or even Enterprise). The more you can give I am sure someone like myself or another well informed member can tell you more. If you mean the machine is really a laptop (some call them notebooks but that is strictly incorrect) then the answers are much more simple to offer up.

 

 

[St1ngr4y]

My wife has passed to me a notebook computer which she doesn't use any more. It has Windows 7 but only 1GB memory. I was thinking of buying another RM license to install on this pc and use it as a slave. Before I do that, however, I have one or two questions which I hope someone may be able to answer....

1. Is the slave able to run programs?
2. If (1) is true, can the master and slave both run a (different) program at the same time without adversely affecting the performance of the other?
3. The answer to my 3rd question will probably need a guess - when LD arrives, will both master and slave be informed of LD events?

Ray

In order to answer your question St1ngr4y we would need a little more info. A notebook is a little like a laptop but some don't really work well when attempting to install certain programs and some don't allow installation at all like a netbook.

Pass on the detail of the notebook like make, model number and version of Win 7 (Basic, Home, Pro or even Enterprise). The more you can give I am sure someone like myself or another well informed member can tell you more. If you mean the machine is really a laptop (some call them notebooks but that is strictly incorrect) then the answers are much more simple to offer up.

 

 

Hi AC,

Thanks for replying to my post. The notebook is an Asus Eee pc 1015BX (seashell series). It has Windows 7 Starter (SP1) 32-bit o/s installed. It has 1GB memory (749mb usable). It has a AMD C-50 1.00 Ghz processor. The fixed disk C: is 100GB but it also has a second fixed disk D: of 183GB of which 35GB is used. I suspect it is bootable into a different o/s which is resident on that disk, but I haven't investigated that at all.

Is the Starter version of Windows what you refer to as Basic or is it even smaller? Incidentally, do you know if this would qualify for a free upgrade to Windows 10 (Starter or otherwise)?

Ray

 

 

[96RAF]

See below :

Edit - the table lost its formatting so I had to fiddle it.

 

Windows 7*

Windows 7 Starter, Windows 7 Home Basic, Windows 7 Home Premium all go to Windows 10 Home

Windows 7 Professional,  Windows 7 Ultimate go to Windows 10 Pro

 

Windows 8**

Windows 8.1***  goes to  Windows 10 Home

Windows 8.1 Pro, Windows 8.1 Pro Student,  Windows 8.1 Pro WMC  go to Windows 10 Pro

Windows Phone 8.1****  goes to Windows 10 Mobile

 

*Must be running the latest version of Windows 7 (Service Pack 1) to receive the free upgrade to Windows 10 via Windows Update.

**Must be running the latest version of Windows 8 (Windows 8.1 Update) to receive the free upgrade to Windows 10 via Windows Update.

*** Also applies to Windows 8.1 country specific editions, Windows 8.1 Single Language, Windows 8.1 with Bing.

****The availability of Windows 10 upgrade for Windows Phone 8.1 devices may vary by OEM, mobile operator or carrier.

“N” and “KN” editions follow the upgrade path of the parent edition (e.g. Windows 7 Professional N upgrades to Windows 10 Pro).

Some editions are excluded: Windows 7 Enterprise, Windows 8/8.1 Enterprise and Windows RT/RT 8.1. Active Software Assurance customers in volume licensing have the benefit to upgrade to Windows 10 enterprise offerings outside of this offer.

[St1ngr4y]

See below :

Edit - the table lost its formatting so I had to fiddle it.

 

Windows 7*

Windows 7 Starter, Windows 7 Home Basic, Windows 7 Home Premium all go to Windows 10 Home

Windows 7 Professional,  Windows 7 Ultimate go to Windows 10 Pro

 

Windows 8**

Windows 8.1***  goes to  Windows 10 Home

Windows 8.1 Pro, Windows 8.1 Pro Student,  Windows 8.1 Pro WMC  go to Windows 10 Pro

Windows Phone 8.1****  goes to Windows 10 Mobile

 

*Must be running the latest version of Windows 7 (Service Pack 1) to receive the free upgrade to Windows 10 via Windows Update.

**Must be running the latest version of Windows 8 (Windows 8.1 Update) to receive the free upgrade to Windows 10 via Windows Update.

*** Also applies to Windows 8.1 country specific editions, Windows 8.1 Single Language, Windows 8.1 with Bing.

****The availability of Windows 10 upgrade for Windows Phone 8.1 devices may vary by OEM, mobile operator or carrier.

“N” and “KN” editions follow the upgrade path of the parent edition (e.g. Windows 7 Professional N upgrades to Windows 10 Pro).

Some editions are excluded: Windows 7 Enterprise, Windows 8/8.1 Enterprise and Windows RT/RT 8.1. Active Software Assurance customers in volume licensing have the benefit to upgrade to Windows 10 enterprise offerings outside of this offer.

Many thanks for that, Paul

Ray

 

 

[Augustus Caesar]

You should be able to install programs to this model and that will include RM. You will need an external DVD drive to do it though or you could just use a USB stick for RM as it is small enough.

An upgrade to Win 8.1 is linked to on the Asus site and, yes, you will be able to upgrade to Win 10. Wait for the official release though. Upgrades to Win 10 are free for the first year to users of Win 7 and later. Your version is covered as RAF96 says above. Some caveats are noted but they shouldn't worry you.

The second OS is another drive as you say. It is actually what Asus call a faster boot drive option. The OS that is installed here though varies on different Asus models. You'll need to check the manual to see how to run that as BIOS changes may be required or even the use of a Hot Key.

The memory is fixed to the motherboard and there is NO slot to upgrade that so you are stuck with 1GB RAM.

There are one or two interesting bits on this machine and I suggest a browse of the manual (downloadable if you haven't got it) to see if anything is of interest to yourself.

BIOS updates are available if required and can be installed from within Windows.

Hope this helps St1ngr4y...