St1ngr4y Posted June 4, 2015 Share Posted June 4, 2015 Hi AC,I think you mis-understood my first question. I was referring to Railmaster programs, not pc programs such as Railmaster. I use Railmaster programs extensively to run my trains, and my only reason to buy an extra RM license for a slave pc, would be to run more RM programs from there.Ray Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Augustus Caesar Posted June 4, 2015 Share Posted June 4, 2015 Hi AC,I think you mis-understood my first question. I was referring to Railmaster programs, not pc programs such as Railmaster. I use Railmaster programs extensively to run my trains, and my only reason to buy an extra RM license for a slave pc, would be to run more RM programs from there.RayAh... Apologies for that! I am not sure if the long term status of a slave unit as Hornby see it will allow extra programs to be run from it rather than the master if that is what you are saying as the units should ideally be identical... thus the master and slave idea.Having said that, in theory, it should be possible to copy all programs to each machine and just simply run things from either. The notebook is wireless so as long as there is a wireless connection to the master (if using the notebook as a slave) then you should be OK. The way I see it is this: if RM can be installed to a slave and run well then copying programs over to mimic the master (so you have a handheld slave for example) by having that slave s a notebook then it will be good to go.Why not have a pop at installing the trial version on the notebook and see how it communicates when you copy one of your programs to the notebook?I hope this is what you mean as I would hate to get this wrong twice!! :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
St1ngr4y Posted June 5, 2015 Share Posted June 5, 2015 Hello again AC,I installed an evaluation copy of RM onto the notepad, and thanks to your excellent Help Website, I fixed the IP addresses of the Master pc and the notepad as the slave. I copied the database files, my layout file, and all of my existing RM programs from the Master to the slave via an external hdd which I have networked and I use for backups.I was able to configure the slave as directed - ie Controller none, the ip address of the master pc, and I set the default layout to the file I had copied. The slave connected to the Master ok and on the slave, my full locomotive list appeared and I was able to operate sounds on my sound locos from the slave. The track plan displayed to its full size, but none of the points had their red/green buttons. I suppose this is a restriction of it being an evaluation copy. Also, the dropdown list of Railmaster programs was absent. The question is - is this because it is an evaluation copy or because it is a slave? If the former, then I cannot test my original first two questions about running RM programs on the slave without purchasing a license. Also, since I have the ProPack version installed on the Master, I assume I will have to buy a second license for this also for the slave. Perhaps HRMS can provide some feedback to this post?Ray Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
96RAF Posted June 5, 2015 Share Posted June 5, 2015 I can answer a couple of those Ray.The evaluation copy limits you to 2 locos, 4 points and I believe x lines of a single program.I'm surprised your full list of locos shows up.To fully 'evaluate' this master/slave thing you need full licences, although you do not need Pro at this stage unless you want to test stuff that is Pro specific - e.g. voice, more complex signalling stuff, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDS Posted June 5, 2015 Share Posted June 5, 2015 ... Also, the dropdown list of Railmaster programs was absent ...Ray, I have emailed you separately - but for the benefit of others.Programs cannot be created or run on a Slave. Selecting the 'Edit Program' icon on a Slave PC, results in the following message:You cannot run or create programs on a Slave Terminal. You should create and run programs on the Master Terminal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
St1ngr4y Posted June 5, 2015 Share Posted June 5, 2015 ... Also, the dropdown list of Railmaster programs was absent ...Ray, I have emailed you separately - but for the benefit of others.Programs cannot be created or run on a Slave. Selecting the 'Edit Program' icon on a Slave PC, results in the following message:You cannot run or create programs on a Slave Terminal. You should create and run programs on the Master Terminal. What a shame! I'll have to find another use for the notebook - maybe to browse the Forum while I'm watching the telly :-)Ray Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDS Posted June 5, 2015 Share Posted June 5, 2015 ... What a shame ... Yes, I am disappointed as well because I had hope to be able to write programs and test them from the Desktop. Because this is a standalone copy of RailMaster, I can still write them but I will have to transfer them over the network (or of course use a longer USB lead to connect the Desktop into the Elite and write them and run them from there - no big deal but it would have been nice) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishmanoz Posted June 5, 2015 Share Posted June 5, 2015 So I wonder what happens if you use the slave to throw a point or switch a signal that calls up a program as part of its setup? Will probably work as all of that info will be stored on the master where it was created in the first place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kev2583 Posted June 6, 2015 Author Share Posted June 6, 2015 Hi, Just a thought, If I'm thinking correctly you could use team viewer to create and run programs from the slave?? Kev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
St1ngr4y Posted June 6, 2015 Share Posted June 6, 2015 Question 3 on my earlier post asked for guesses as to whether LD events would be picked up by the slave. But if they are, and the LD sensors are stored in the layout file which is present on both master and slave, it is pointless for the slave to do anything in response because it would only be duplicating what the master will be doing.Ray Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDS Posted June 6, 2015 Share Posted June 6, 2015 ... I wonder what happens if you use the slave to throw a point or switch a signal that calls up a program ...Hi FishyI can confirm that it does indeed run the program, when a Point that has been set to run a program is switched from the Slave.The program steps are only displayed on the Master though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Augustus Caesar Posted June 9, 2015 Share Posted June 9, 2015 I would have thought that if you buy a seperate license for RM to run on a slave it would be pretty much a waste of money if you could literally ONLY run or build programs on the master unit. What this means is that the slave unit therefore cannot allow such programs to run or be written and therefore a full license would be a total waste of money and not, quite literally, a purchase of software that is capable of running the same as the master with less functionality. So why, therefore, are Hornby charging full price for it?Until the software is sorted I don't think we are going to get to the bottom of this quickly. Whatever is shown on the master and whichever way it is implemented should also show on the slave unit. And whatever instruction one passes on the slave should also immediately be shown on the slave. If a modeller buys a second license for any piece of software they should be guaranteed FULL functionality as per the original purchase. If the second license is to work on a lsave unit with LESS functionality then the price should be reduced. Otherwise Trading Standards may have a case to force Hornby to answer to. This is not a criticism but an observation and while the software is being looked at re networking we should be careful as to how we explain the anomolies of the software so far. An update is imminent anyway one would think and testing by the developers can only be passed when no more issues are detected which would delay any release of an update. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Augustus Caesar Posted June 9, 2015 Share Posted June 9, 2015 Hello again AC,I installed an evaluation copy of RM onto the notepad, and thanks to your excellent Help Website, I fixed the IP addresses of the Master pc and the notepad as the slave. I copied the database files, my layout file, and all of my existing RM programs from the Master to the slave via an external hdd which I have networked and I use for backups.I was able to configure the slave as directed - ie Controller none, the ip address of the master pc, and I set the default layout to the file I had copied. The slave connected to the Master ok and on the slave, my full locomotive list appeared and I was able to operate sounds on my sound locos from the slave. The track plan displayed to its full size, but none of the points had their red/green buttons. I suppose this is a restriction of it being an evaluation copy. Also, the dropdown list of Railmaster programs was absent. The question is - is this because it is an evaluation copy or because it is a slave? If the former, then I cannot test my original first two questions about running RM programs on the slave without purchasing a license. Also, since I have the ProPack version installed on the Master, I assume I will have to buy a second license for this also for the slave. Perhaps HRMS can provide some feedback to this post?RaySome of the issues you face here may be simply due to the software not communicating correctly which is one of the things I have contacted HRMS about. If this is the case we may see an improvemnt very shortly. If not keep a note of such issues and we can put them all to HRMS in one go if need be in future. This will help us with centralising issues and help HRMS to quickly note and identify any fixes needed to be implemented. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDS Posted June 9, 2015 Share Posted June 9, 2015 ... therefore a full license would be a total waste of money ... I didn't know that when I bought it. The RailMaster manual contains very little information about Networking and certainly does not say what will or will not work. I am putting together an email to send to HRMS that lists out what does and does not work but of course I have no idea if the problems I have experienced were to be expected or not.I certainly did not expect them!My second copy can of course be used to write and run programs, when connected to the layout, via it's own USB lead but that is not what I actually wanted to be able to do. The resulting program could then be copied over my Network to my usual Master terminal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Augustus Caesar Posted June 10, 2015 Share Posted June 10, 2015 ... therefore a full license would be a total waste of money ... I didn't know that when I bought it. The RailMaster manual contains very little information about Networking and certainly does not say what will or will not work. I am putting together an email to send to HRMS that lists out what does and does not work but of course I have no idea if the problems I have experienced were to be expected or not.I certainly did not expect them!My second copy can of course be used to write and run programs, when connected to the layout, via it's own USB lead but that is not what I actually wanted to be able to do. The resulting program could then be copied over my Network to my usual Master terminal. The ideal scenario here would be (and should be - if it is not already) that the second license purchase would not interfere with any programming function at all and would allow the full programming options to be available as is the original install to the master unit. The second option would be for the slave to see what is in the master settings, including programs etc., and copy them over automatically. One may even suggest that a tick box be selected IF the user wants to copy over programs and a choice of leaving that unchecked if they DON'T want programs copied over. I can see an obvious reason why, maybe, that programs wouldn't be mirrored and that is because writing a set on the master would be the norm and if stuff were copied over it would be difficult to have the slave actually mirror changes to the said program being altered on the master during a 'live' session. The user would almost certainly have to keep asking the master to transfer the file manually or at least have an option after the original save to copy it over. We can no doubt now maybe see why they aren't mirrored. But that doesn't offer up any good reason for the software to not mirror ITSELF properly, re functions etc., while in use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
St1ngr4y Posted July 25, 2016 Share Posted July 25, 2016 I recently took advantage of an offer by eHattons and bought a second copy of RM, which I loaded onto an Acer tablet running W10. I decided to have a try at getting this to work as a networked slave, and I successfully established IP comms, having given this and the master pc fixed IP addresses.There are so many things which don't work properly on the slave, that I hardly know where to begin...However.....1. None of my locos will respond to the throttles on the slave.2. Of my sound locos, only those with lights configured as F0, respond to the sound buttons pressed. Those without lights i.e. no F0 configured, each sound button on the throttle activates the wrong function on the loco.3. Traintech 4-aspect signals work fine, but 2-aspect signals on the slave mimic, although they can be switched, show the opposite aspect to that shown on the master mimic or the signal itself.4. This one isn't a fault, just an observation - I have one or two icons on my mimic diagram which when clicked, activate a program. When such an icon is clicked on the slave, you get a warning message that there is no DCC controller connected and that the program may not function, but when you then click the tick button, as long as that program is present on the slave in the RM folder, it will try to execute it.Roll on the next update to see if any of this will change 😢Ray Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
St1ngr4y Posted April 13, 2017 Share Posted April 13, 2017 The ideal scenario here would be (and should be - if it is not already) that the second license purchase would not interfere with any programming function at all and would allow the full programming options to be available as is the original install to the master unit. The second option would be for the slave to see what is in the master settings, including programs etc., and copy them over automatically. One may even suggest that a tick box be selected IF the user wants to copy over programs and a choice of leaving that unchecked if they DON'T want programs copied over. I can see an obvious reason why, maybe, that programs wouldn't be mirrored and that is because writing a set on the master would be the norm and if stuff were copied over it would be difficult to have the slave actually mirror changes to the said program being altered on the master during a 'live' session. The user would almost certainly have to keep asking the master to transfer the file manually or at least have an option after the original save to copy it over. We can no doubt now maybe see why they aren't mirrored. But that doesn't offer up any good reason for the software to not mirror ITSELF properly, re functions etc., while in use. Hi AC & RDS,I've just been re-visiting this thread regarding running RM on a slave pc, and the discussions about running RM programs on the slave. Keeping the programs synced on master & slave pcs might be problematical, but how about if the programs could be kept in (and updated in) just one location, but accessible in that location by the slave. For example, either a shared folder on the Master pc or a shared folder on an external hard disc drive?I've been trying my slave tablet pc in the last day or two, and I'm still finding lots of problems with the slave, including those I mentioned earlier in this thread.Ray Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDS Posted April 13, 2017 Share Posted April 13, 2017 Hi RayI have done very little with my RM copy on the networked PC, due to the aspect of not being able to run programs. Your idea is interesting but I thought that the programs needed to be within the RM folder on the relevant PC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
St1ngr4y Posted April 14, 2017 Share Posted April 14, 2017 Hi RayI have done very little with my RM copy on the networked PC, due to the aspect of not being able to run programs. Your idea is interesting but I thought that the programs needed to be within the RM folder on the relevant PC.Hi RDS, You are quite correct. At the moment, they do need to be in the RM folder. It would require changing RM to having a user-definable folder for programs, either as an INI file entry or a System Setting entry. A while back I think I asked whether it would be possible to introduce a folder hierarchy system for programs, to help those of us who have hundreds of programs to manage. I can't remember whether I included it as a "Desirable Feature". Ray Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
St1ngr4y Posted April 14, 2017 Share Posted April 14, 2017 Still on the subject of a slave pc, the RM guide seems to be a little sparse of information for setting up a slave pc. In particular, it doesn't list any files which need to be transferred from the Master to the Slave. I can think of two examples - the main layout PLN file and the Resource file(s) which contain information about all the user's locos. Not only need they be copied across initially, but also after any changes are made to them. But, are these the only files or are there more which need to be copied across? Are there any files which should definitely NOT be transferred? What differences (if any) are needed in the INI file on the slave? What differences are needed in the System Settings, apart from the obvious ones such as IP address of Master? Ray Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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