Any sign of the New version?

[walkingthedog]

RM 1.62. Have just downloaded and installed on windows 7. Agree, it works ok, but is incredible slow to load, compared with previous version. You could make a cup of tea, while you wait. I have changed nothing on my machine. Would be interested to see what others think. john

Maybe you should have upgraded to W10 John.    Ha ha . 

[Yelrow]

WTD, I was expecting that comment so was not disappointed. However, if you read the posts, you will see, its already been mentioned for windows 10. I imagine, its sommat to do with Elink fix.  On the quesstion of windows 10, did you read Nicks reply to Graskie. You follow the leader guys, will all get your comuppance. I have marked the calender, with the proposed date, that its due. john

[walkingthedog]

I'm just fishing John. Baiting the hook and waiting for you to bite. W10 works fine for me and I'm very happy with it, in fact very very happy. I stand by what I say about updates though, they are not unique to W10. Don't have any problems with DC..

[RB51]

I have W10 and RM 1.62. Apart from a greyed out Elite icon and an annoying warning about a static IP address issue (neither of which make any difference to control) both bits of software are working fine and I see no reason to roll back to W8,1. R-

[Yelrow]

Rog, surely the whole idea of the  1.62 fix was to solve the elink, and Elite probs. Do HRMS know about your Elite fault. I knew RDS, had it before update, but why is it not fixed. Same goes for IP.. As for windows 10,  you must follow your instinct. Only time will tell if it was correct. john 

[walkingthedog]

John I'm afraid your anti W10 campaign is getting out of hand. Calm down. Even when it's perfect in everybodys eyes I get the impression it won't be in yours. It just playing trains on here, nothing more. 

[RB51]

I can only speak for the Elite issues (not being an e-link user) and over the last few days have had a considerable exchange of e-mails with HRMS primarily, I think, as I have a Dell laptop for which a BIOS update had been issued by Dell. That meant that part of the problem was out of the way. Keep in mind that none of this was of Hornby's making. Keep in mind that they have been working long hours to find a work around. Keep in mind they did not have to release 1.62 today. RM John, whether you like it or not, is largely fixed. It is certainly usable with no loss of functionality at all. If I am not concerned about it - why are you? R-

 

P.s John, have a look a Stingray's post 3 or 4 down in the DCC>Windows10 thread. Flawless is the word you'll find. R-

[Nick_]

John, how slow is slow? On my Windows 7 PC Railmaster 1.62 takes just under 40 secs from double clicking on the icon to running a loco. During startup it sets up 16 sets of points. on my Windows 10 laptop it takes 47 secs, but then the laptop has a significantly slower harddisk. 

[St1ngr4y]

I downloaded v1.62 this morning (Thursday). I use Norton 360 on my RM pc, and the first time I loaded up RM after the 1.62 installation, Norton displayed a message as shown in this picture:-

/media/tinymce_upload/cb2eb11be67060f6201400e7ab73701b.png

I selected "Allow always" and the message has not re-appeared during any RM loadings. Is this something different that RM is doing during startup, and could this be causing the delays which some people are experiencing?

 

Ray

[St1ngr4y]

I have just sent a post containing a picture of a 1.62 "Incident", but until it has been approved, let me comment on another feature of the update. An INI file entry has been introduced "Double Pulse=n" where n can be 0 or 1. This is to allow users to have RM send only one pulse instead of two, to a point when it's red/green button is pressed. I believe Double Pulse=0 means send only one pulse, and Double Pulse=1 means send two pulses (as it did pre-1.62). Two things arise from this.....

1.  If you install 1.62 without adding this line to the INI file, then it seems to default to Double Pulse=0 i.e. it will send only one pulse to a point where before it used to send two.

2. When two pulses are sent, there is another INI file setting which determines the time delay before it sends the second pulse. This is useful in allowing time for a CDU to recharge.

 

When two pulses are in operation....

If you have a point configured to switch other points, say 2 others, then when that point is switched, you hear the first point switch, then simultaneously the 2nd pulse to the first point with the 1st pulse to the second point, then simultaneously, the 1st pulse to the third point with the 2nd pulse to the second point, then finally the 2nd pulse to the third point.

 

Now imagine what happens when only one pulse is in operation......

 

You click on the point icon and ........

bang - RM attempts to fire all three points simultaneously. This is ok if they all work, but I have found that occasionally one of the 3 points fails to switch. I don't think it is a CDU problem because I am using ADS8 decoders, not R8247s. I think it may have something to do with the 3 DCC signals being sent down the bus in such a very short space of time. Anyway, I now have Double Pulse=1 in my INI file, so that they operate as before.

Ray

[Fishmanoz]

Interesting what the failure mechanism might be Ray.  I'm assuming that RM produces the instructions serially and doesn't corrupt them by somehow jumbling them together, so how can they be missed just because they are preceded by another?  As you are using ADS8s where each decoder of the 8 is effectively independent, why should one be affected by an instruction to another?  Easier to hypothesise an 8247 missing something to a port if it is still trying to action a preceding instruction to another port.

 

I certainly don't have the answer, I'm just trying to understand the problem, and not getting anywhere.

[HornbyRailMasterSupport]

Norton is an aggressive antivirus/firewall package so it is no doubt just noticing that the RailMaster executable is now different and simply asking for confirmation to allow it to access your network.

[St1ngr4y]

Norton is an aggressive antivirus/firewall package so it is no doubt just noticing that the RailMaster executable is now different and simply asking for confirmation to allow it to access your network.

So it may be Norton which has changed....it has never shown this message before.

Incidentally, if the router is switched off, is there a timeout period when RM is trying to make this connection?

Ray

[GWR Greg]

I do not have Norton 360 just the basic internet security. I thought it might be Norton that was slowing loading but all exception are set to "ALLOW". So cannot be Norton causing issue. Still takes 5 minutes to load.

[St1ngr4y]

I do not have Norton 360 just the basic internet security. I thought it might be Norton that was slowing loading but all exception are set to "ALLOW". So cannot be Norton causing issue. Still takes 5 minutes to load.

........... but do you keep your internet router switched on?

(I wasn't trying to blame Norton for the slowness)

Ray

[Yelrow]

NIC  C, and GREG, Timings. From clicking on RM, 22 secs to Version, 1.62.  , from clicking again to please wait 55 secs. From please wait, till points all set , ready to play, 45 secs. so total 1minute 22 secs from  commencement. Dont have problem with up to version , 1.62, but its definately longer after that. What happens in those 55 secs,  then what again in next 45, secs. Without a doubt, slower than  1.61. however, i do not have the elink, only Elite.  This is not a critiscism, as i can run the Elite, while waiting, just an observation.  This is on same laptop, with all details as before. Green Elite symbol, fine, no other messages. In the original 22 secs, i have to click to allow for Norton, but i did that also, before.  I am quite happy with RM, only post these timings as requested. Be interesting, to compare. RAY, this is with NO internet, connected.and using Windows 7. john

[GWR Greg]

Ray. Never switch off router.

I have opened RM and had task master open at the same time which shows RM as "Not Responding" when RM pauses.

[Yelrow]

Out of interest, why would you ever switch a router off. Mine runs 24-7. john

[St1ngr4y]

Out of interest, why would you ever switch a router off. Mine runs 24-7. john

Hi John,

So, too, does mine, but some people prefer not to have electrical items switched on when not in use e.g. TVs in standby etc. The point I was trying to make is that, when one pc tries to connect to another device (in this case the website where software updates are held), then there is usually some sort of timeout period i.e. an amount of time the pc will wait before deciding that the connection attempt has failed. Now, suppose this timeout is, say, 60 seconds, then those who do not have their router switched on (or those like yourself whose pc is too far from the router to connect to it by wi-fi) then their RM startup will appear to be doing nothing for those 60 seconds. That's all I am suggesting.

Ray

[St1ngr4y]

Ray. Never switch off router.

I have opened RM and had task master open at the same time which shows RM as "Not Responding" when RM pauses.

Have you noticed the CPU usage shown in Task Master for RM when it "pauses"?

Ray

[Yelrow]

Ray, Hi, all a bit technical for me, cpu usage. What do i have to do to monitor this Do i have to open task master at same time, bearing in mind, my windows is french, and i first would have to locate it.. I just click on RM, and play trains with Elite, while it decides to work. Good point about router. Internet here is so fraught, that we  would fear problems with connections, if we turned it off. We regularly loose it to Power cuts and surges, but, only for a few minutes. How long does it take your RM, to fire up. john

[GWR Greg]

Ray. I am away from home until Wednesday so look at CPU usage when I return.

[St1ngr4y]

Ray, Hi, all a bit technical for me, cpu usage. What do i have to do to monitor this Do i have to open task master at same time, bearing in mind, my windows is french, and i first would have to locate it.. I just click on RM, and play trains with Elite, while it decides to work. Good point about router. Internet here is so fraught, that we  would fear problems with connections, if we turned it off. We regularly loose it to Power cuts and surges, but, only for a few minutes. How long does it take your RM, to fire up. john

Hi John,

My reference to Task Manager was directed at Greg, and only because he mentioned it first. I hadn't noticed any change to the time taken to load up RM, with one exception which won't affect you. On my layout, as well as points, I also have signals, which RM sets on start up. Before 1.62, it used to set these with a half a second or so between each one. Now, it sets them all (20-odd of them) within one second...............at least it TRIES to. 1.62 has introduced for me problems with signals, which I have reported through the system, but I won't go into detail about them on here, while conversations are going on between HRMS and myself.

I'll measure the RM load up time tomorrow, as you have done, and report back.

Ray

[Mapadi]

Is there any update on the release of the new version with all locos included?  It was due  "out in a few days" according to an e mail reply back in early August

Windows10 Version 1.62 now installed and working well. Also updated Elink at same time.Can finally start to play.

[Augustus Caesar]

Well, I've been busy with networks for a few days and some complicated routing procedures, email issues, IP address problems and a BT business router that failed but gave the impression it was still working fully when some of the time it was resetting itself and occasionally losing its settings... then convincing BT their technology was pants!

 

Anyway... some points to mention since I have read the posts on this thread...

Windows 10 and the advice to wait until November etc to upgrade... why? You might as well say wait until July next year as updates will be released weekly or monthly until then and by that time it will have settled down. I can see some part of this argument but the only person who can definitively say upgrade or not is the user him/herself. That's like me having a Ford car and waiting for an new part to fix a fault after manufacture and then saying to Volvo owners to do the same. All PC's are different even if identical when built. At present there is very little wrong with Windows 10 and you should consider this... there is MORE wrong with Windows 8/8.1 so upgrading is definitely a bonus. From Windows 7 I will say it is personal choice.

If you have Norton's products installed on your system you cannot say that it is NOT slowing your system down. It is very much the opposite I am afraid to say. This program or suite of programs works very heavily in the background with processes you don't see and will almost certainly be causing at least some slow down all of the time. Advice? Get rid... same goes for McAfee. The picture uploaded earlier is only that which would allow your RM program to talk to the outside world through the firewall built in to Norton's... which is extremely agressive.

When starting RM some of you are saying that it is taking time to start... there is a possibility that background processes are running where you don't think they are on boot or while the PC has been running for a time so be aware of that. Dual or quad core processors are supposed to help with this but if several programs are running on the PC from boot up when you don't need them they will be keeping resources away from those you want to run with no hindrance.

To see what is running from boot simply click Start (Win7) and run msconfig from the text area near the start button. A dialogue box opens... click Startup. You will see a list of programs running in the background like Adobe Reader for example. Why have it running if you don't need it? Start it when required. Remove ticks from boxes for programs you don't want to run. Be careful as some are system processes. (Win8/8.1 users can type msconfig on the start screen and run from there).

No program should take minutes to load though so do have a look for processes like above that could be slowing down your system.

Turning a router off? You should always leave it on. The risk of anything drastic happening is so remote... millions the world over leave theirs on all the time which is what you SHOULD do. If you do turn it off you will lose your steady connection to the service from your ISP (Sky, Virgin etc) and will possibly have to reattain the attenuation of the signal so the service works to capacity once more. This can take up to ten days to settle and is why the service via a new provider is always a little ropy to start with when you sign up. You will notice it more if you are a heavy user but small websites wouldn't show too much of a drop. There is a small risk the connection could fail too but it is rare. Attenuation is where the service is attempting to handshake your router and find the optimum strength of signal for your exchange so download rates will vary for the time taken until this is sorted... it is an automated process and there is little worth in upsetting this by turning off routers.

Just some observations so don't them to heart esp. those who offered up info re the above... merely good advice hopefully.