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Happy New Year everyone, It looks like the INI file change for the startup layout size might have been implemented as a result of this thread. Ray

Hello Mick, Merry Christmas and welcome to the Forum. To investigate your problem, I created the following test layout, and set that to be my default layout in Settings ..... /media/tinymce_upload/60590c3625cfc4599296332276cb004a.png This is how it looked on the main screen without any routes configured. I then went into the layout designer and added two routes as follows ... /media/tinymce_upload/9d313563574fa94923836182dad5d170.png On exiting the layout designer, the routes listbox was absent from the main screen, but after closing and reloading Railmaster, the listbox appeared in the top right corner like this ...... /media/tinymce_upload/07acc064c822f3a9512f3fb3361b2828.png Clicking on either entry "Crossover" or "Main Line" in the listbox, switched the points as desired. I hope this helps. Ray Note to Moderators: Should this thread be moved to the RM section ?

Hi John, I use programs to operate my trains. Have you considered using programs to set routes? There isn't too much advantage doing this, but you can invoke a program from an icon which can be placed anywhere on your layout diagram, instead of using the floating button bar. Ray

Hello there, Although I don't use routes in my normal operation, I thought I would have a go at reproducing your problem. In my opinion, I think Railmaster seems to have problems with the last button added to the floating button bar. The best result I was able to get is summarised in this picture ... /media/tinymce_upload/755be648c2df8c7a9355d629de6d42bf.png I set up six routes as shown in the top box, which is the main "routes" listbox which appears at the top right of the main window. Clicking on any of these entries operates the selected route without a problem. I then added the first three of these routes to my button bar, which already contained four buttons used to zoom the display to different parts of the layout. However, in order to stabilize the new buttons, the only way I could do it was to add an extra button, configured to play the RM "Birds" sound. This configuration seems to be stable and remains intact after Railmaster has been closed and re-opened. By the way, when one of the "route" buttons is pressed, the corresponding entry in the "Routes" listbox is highlighted with a blue background as shown above. The only problem with this configuration is that if you ever press the "Birds" button, the sound starts, and continues forever. If you click the button again, the sound stops, but then starts up again after a second or two. Anyway, some you win, some you lose. For information, details of the buttons on the button bar are held in the file "ProgButtons.dat" in the Railmaster folder. The contents of the file for the configuration shown above are.... PLAN:Goods Yard~-28:-21 PLAN:Engine Shed~-13:-26 PLAN:Home~-1:-1 PLAN:East Station~-28:-1 ROUTE:HS1 to P1~HS1 to P1 ROUTE:HS1 to P2~HS1 to P2 ROUTE:HS1 to P3~HS1 to P3 SOUND:Birds~L_Birds.wav I hope this helps. Ray

Hi Tony, 1. No 2. No 3. Don't know 4. Never seen one 5. It has been promised for years, but everyone has given up on it. Ray

My reason for asking was.to determine whether the problem could be communications between the pc and the Elite. I recently replaced my Elite with an eLink because the Elite often stopped communicating with the Pc after an hour or so of operation. As with LNERGE, the Elite would continue to work independently. Ray

Do you control the locos through Railmaster and, if so, do you lose control of locos when the points stop working? Ray

@Stagman Hello, and welcome to the Forum, This may sound like a daft question, but are you sure your RIGHT mouse button is working ok. In the Design Window, if I LEFT click a point button, a square surrounds the button, but when I RIGHT click, the configuration window opens and there is NO square around the button. In windows, it is possible to swap the functionality of the mouse buttons around, so that left-handed people feel more comfortable. Is it possible that this has happened on your pc, accidentally or otherwise? Also, if you don't want to delete a button as suggested by Chris, have you just tried adding a new pair of buttons, and right-clicking those? By the way, what sort of details do you want to change on your points following your re-plan. I have a utility program which may help. Ray

Hello again Peter, I have now added printing functionality to the Points/Signals display in the utility program, I have also updated the documentation files to include these new functions. Again, if you give it a try, let me know how you get on. Ray

@RAFT I know you were having problems with your Railmaster installation. Did you manage to sort out those problems, and if so, did you get to try the programs I suggested above? Ray

Hello Peter, Since my last post, I have been adding this functionality to the Utility program. So far, I have provided the facility to display all points and/or signals from a chosen layout file in a grid on the screen. You will also see two buttons marked "Print Preview" and "Print", but these are currently disabled while I develop the code behind them to provide a printed list. You can download the program from my OneDrive cloud storage using the "Spreadsheets" link in my earlier post. In the cloud area, you will see a folder marked "Utility Program", and inside this folder you will see two documentation files and two executable files. The executable RMUtil.exe is the file you can download for this new functionality. I haven't yet updated the documentation files to include the new functionality. If you decide to try it, let me know how you get on, and if you have any questions about it. Ray

Hi Graham, I have a power booster installed between controller A and the track bus. This means that short circuits which occur on the track cause the power booster to trip, not the controller. The only problem is that to reset the booster, you need to disconnect its power supply, then plug it in again. I got around this by adding a single pole push-to-break push button into the power supply cable. An alternative for floating buttons for moving your plan is by using a one-line program, with a button to run the program on your diagram. Problem is you can't use it if you're already running a program. Ray

Hi FG, First of all, my thanks for providing such a comprehensive description of your setup. You would think anyone reading wouldn't need to ask any clarification questions - however ... You mention that you use two computers and you have two controllers, an Elite and an eLink. I assume, however, from your description above that you only use one computer and one controller at a time, and when one of these combinations is in use, all three of your buses are connected to the "Track output" of that Controller ? For quite a while, I ran with an Elite as controller A connected to a Track bus, and an eLink as controller B connected to an Accessory bus. Earlier this year, I replaced the Elite with a new eLink as Controller A, so now use 2 eLinks as Controllers A & B. Past experience has shown me that the eLink is much more reliable than the Elite in "not losing" commands sent to it from Railmaster. As well as making sure that you are using the Hornby recommended baud rates for each device, you need also to ensure that this baud rate is reflected in the appropriate COMx port setting in Device Manager. Have you ever considered using your Elite as Controller A and eLink as controller B? I would definitely stick with Double Pulse = 1 in the INI file. There are two places where a command can get lost on its way from RM to the decoder - firstly in the USB link from the pc to the controller, and secondly, from the controller to the decoder. This entry in the INI file means that you are doubling the chance of the command getting through both of these journeys. When you say that commands are spuriously missed, are some turnouts more prone to failure than others ? Maybe it is worth creating one or two test programs which will repeatedly send left then right commands to one or more turnouts. Also, how much of a time gap do you allow in your programs between each turnout operation? There is an INI setting "Points timer=0.75" which prevents turnouts being changed more rapidly than this setting - maybe setting this to a higher value may help... Anyway, these are the only things I can think of right now. If you decide to act on any of them, let us know how you get on. Ray

Peter, Is this something you have tried? I didn't think that you could chain actions in this way using the "other points/signals" fields. Ray

Hello Peter, Apart from the obvious suggestion of updating your version of Excel, the only other is to let me know how you would like the points/signals information displayed/printed, and I will try to incorporate that into my Utility program (which is non-Excel). For example would it be simply one row per point or signal, like a spreadsheet, with columns for the properties of the item ? Ray

You are quite right Chris, and it shows my lack of knowledge of the Select, being an Elite/eLink user. The only thing I would add to your great post on programming TT signals is the following. When you have the signal in "learn" mode, the direction key which you then use on the Select will determine which key is used thereafter to change the signal to green so if you're programming several different signals, then it will pay to be consistent in the key used. Ray

Hi Phil, When you say you connected your signals to the Select, how did you do this - did you plug them into the track? Ray

Hello Petera, Welcome to the Forum. As Chris has said, there are a few files which are created by Railmaster in the RM folder, which are text files but they are encrypted. Among these encrypted files are Layout files (suffix .PLN) and Program files (suffix .PRG). A year or two ago, I created some Excel spreadsheets which were capable of reading such files, and displaying their contents in the form of a worksheet. They are available to download (free) from my OneDrive cloud storage are using this Railmaster Spreadsheets link. One of these spreadsheets allows you to select a layout file and display its contents in a worksheet. Included is a usage guide in both Microsoft Word and PDF formats. If you don't have access to Microsoft Excel, then let me know what you would like to display/print, and I'll see if I can add it to my Railmaster Utility program, which is also available for free download. Ray

@RAFT Hello, May I suggest a way of achieving your goal of synchronising the Railmaster clock to that shown on the TT SmartScreen ? It can be done by using a program or a number of programs, each setting both clocks to a pre-determined time. Here are two programs which I have created which set the clocks to 12:34 and 13:00 respectively. You could have a button on your Raimaster Track Diagram for each program you create, and one click at the start of your RM session is all that is needed .... /media/tinymce_upload/d24f8865cd0101d98b9d9243578aad09.png These programs are dependent on there being a locomotive defined for the TTSS Clock Set address of 0056, with functions F0 thru F9 being set up with descriptions of "Fn on/off". Make sure the function commands are spaced at least two seconds apart as shown - anything quicker may not work. I hope you might find this useful. Ray

I have a DCC sniffer, as described by Chris, which was built for me by a friend, and it works fine. I have often thought that it would be possible to extend its usage as, for example, an accessory decoder. On my layout, I have 10 hidden sidings each of which has an isolated section of rail which can be switched on and off to provide a "stopping" area for trains arriving in the hidden siding. At the moment, I have implemented these by using 10 Peco point motors, each having a frog switcher unit mounted on top. These are operated by a couple of ADS accessory decoders - the older ones which don't have frog switching in-built. When a train is to depart from a hidden siding, its section is switched on by the program and when the loco is clear of the isolated section, the section is switched off again, ready for the return of the train. The only problem I have is that in a small percentage of times, the switch on does not work. Although the Peco point motor has thrown, the physical contact inside the switch fails. What I would like to do is replace these switches by micro relays activated by something like an Arduino. The relay, ideally, would be one which has the target switched off when no power is applied, and on when power is applied. My main question about such a device is .... Does the Arduino need to be connected to a computer via a USB cable for its operating power, or can it use the power coming in from the DCC supply like any other accessory decoder would? Ray

Hi Bob, I've drawn some lines on your photos to try to explain it, but I've used the rear wheel in the example..... /media/tinymce_upload/0b9be5dea0351a86faf84bb162e93732.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/8f5f8f80fdd30ca18b645ff18ecc561c.jpg As you have summised, the crank pin attachs the coupling rod to the wheel, and it is the line between the centre of the crank pin and the centre of the wheel itself which concerns us. This (blue) line on the first photo goes from (roughly) NE to SW. I have transposed this blue line to the second photo, but looking at it from the other side of the loco is going NW to SE. The red line shows this angle for the wheel on this side of the loco (roughly) NE to SW, thereby making an angle (roughly) of 90 degrees (quarter of a revolution) where they intersect. I have used the word "roughly" several times in the paragraph above, but I think the angle is near enough to 90 degrees so that it shouldn't cause any problems when the wheels rotate. Ray

Could you provide more details of the conversion you have done, in particular which decoder wires you connected to what. Also, which DCC controller are you using and how you configured the address of the decoder. Ray

As an addendum to Chris's excellent summary of the 2-controller scenario, I would just like to mention specifically Traintech colour light signals. From purchase, these signals are primarily designed with legs which slot into the track under the rails, and when used like this, pick up their power and commands from Controller A via the track. However, it is possible, if desired, to remove these legs and replace them with a pair of "dropper" wires in order to connect them to seperate accessory bus, in turn connected to controller B. There is no great advantage in doing this, however, other than having the signals staying illuminated if there is a short circuit on Controller A. Ray

@Jacov Another alternative is to run your shuttle using a Railmaster program, assuming you are using Railmaster. Ray

What about the track leading onto your TT from the rest of your layout? If the bridge is lined up to this track, you can drive a loco onto the bridge, no problem. However, as soon as the TT starts to rotate, it is possible for the left rail of the bridge to make contact with the right rail of the inlet track (or vice versa depending on direction of rotation) causing the DCC to short out. This is why the solution is to remove the brass contacts from the end of the bridge rails. Ray