Mantagt

Hi all After some thought I decided to modify the vans using Parkside PA34 mounting blocks. The tops of the blocks have raised sides and these were filed down to give a flat face. The van chassis was separated from the body, for ease of handling, and the existing coupling mountings cut down until level with the underside of the buffer beam and the underside of the chassis rails (solebar?), the mounts are hollow and can cause the cut to wander. Using liquid glue the mounting blocks were fixed with the rear faces flush and the front face square to the buffer beam, with the old mount being hollow the glue can be used above and below the block for extra strength. Once the glue had set an NEM pocket was clipped into place. A small NEM tension lock coupling and a Kadee No. 18 coupling were each fitted and both found to be at the correct height and couple as they should. The vans will run as a pair so only one end of each has been modified, and the hook tails on the inner ones shortened to be above rail height. I hope this solution is of use to others with a similar problem

All four couplings on the two vans are flat and as supplied. I have some stepped couplings and these would almost sit on the rails if fitted.

Hi Chris Thanks for the link. It will come in useful as I convert my stock. Hi Gitter You are correct about the Kadee couplings. However as far as I can make out the nem couplings come in different lengths but only one height. The whisker coupling No.147 is underset and raises the coupling head but only to the same height as the nem coupling. Just to expand the problem details. The tension lock couplings are held firmly in the mount, no sag, but are too low to couple to anything else and the hooks tail is below rail height and fouls anything between the rails ie points. If manually coupled the van lifts in the forward direction and in reverse the couplings override and foul. With Kadees fitted they will couple up just but the metal tail is below rail height and again fouls the points. The only solution I have come up with, no matter which coupling I use, is to hack off the existing mounts and glue on new ones at the correct height. Not something I would expect from a relatively new model.

I have two Hornby CCT vans, R6683B & C, and neither will stay on the track. The problem appears to be that the couplings are too low. I have not been able to find a raised nem coupling, I am also converting some of my stock to Kadee couplings but the same problem applies,no raised coupling to suit. Before I resort to surgery on the vans I thought I would ask if anyone else has this problem and has found a solution. A forum search has not come up with anything. Thanks in advance

Hi WilliamDavid I have just read your post and made time for a quick test. Thanks to your perserverence I no longer have the double pulse problem. Latched functions stay on and switch off when I want them to, momentary functions switch once so no double horns etc. Well done and many thanks.

WilliamDavid Yes I still have the double pulse problem, I am using a Lenovo laptop with an old acer tablet and old sony phone, both adroid. Chrissaf Have retried RM and it booted up as before with no errors however the points reset in sequence at about a second each! Once fully up and running I checked the last 4 lines of the ini file and they read as follows Alternative comms=1 Alternative comms2=1 Check controller=0 Check controller2=1 (in that order) I altered Alternate comms to 0 and got the message that connection to the Elite had been lost. I shut down RM and restarted the computer then restarted RM and the fun started. It could not connect to the Elite, controller a, it then tried the elink and it required an update to 1.07 then went through the usb routine, you known the rest. Eventually I managed to alter the Alternate comm back to 1 and shut everything down. Restarting the computer and RM worked again including the slower points reset. I have shut things down and am looking for a dark place to hide in. Unfortunately for the next week or so I have little time free for the layout so getting HRMS to log in is not an option, though I did try a help request earlier but it did not connect and in fairness to HRMS nothing is connected to the elink so could give the wrong impression. So in the end my ini file is wrong but it works. Over to you and keep up the good work.

Hi all I managed to get some time on the layout today and after a couple of jobs using 1.69 rev2 I decided to retry the update. Once installed RM booted up, connected to the Elite and after a couple of bleeps connected to the Elink, it then quickly reset the points on the plan and everything seems to work as it should. No popups or errors appeared and the usual suspects, comms ini files etc seem in order. Out of interest I tried my HH and though it worked in a fashion it did not pick up my licence, still had the double pulse error and was unstable. I switched everything off, waited a while and did my usual start up routine. RM started up with no problem at all - result! The only differences I noted were the Elink switching off, pausing, and restarting (I assume to reset on start up but never noticed this before) and the points resetting very quickly, the old method used to go though a sequence. I don't as yet have the point motors connected but it does seem a little quick for the Elink and motors to react. I didn't have time for a long test session but with my set up RM does seem to be working again.

Thanks for the reply. I have posted a couple of problems on here and on the HH thread. The last version I tried was revision 1 but this had handshake problems. At present I am laying track and setting up a track plan for which I need e-link to work. The only reason I tried 1.70 was to see if the handheld app works as this would make setting up slightly easier but it was unreliable. For now I will stay with 1.69 and maybe when work on the layout is finished I will try updating again.

Am I missing something here or just being a bit thick. I don't understand computers so talk of static IPs, ping tests, Comms, ini files etc don't mean a great deal. Fortunately I can follow the clear instructions on here to cure glitches. What I don't understand is that RM worked under version 1.69 and not under version 1.70, by reinstalling 1.69 without changing any settings RM works again. To me this says that 1.70 has messed up big time but no one seems to want to hold their hand up or sort the problem. Are they just waiting for this forum to come up with a solution. Hornby publicity department must be pulling their hair out, they spent time and money on a series of two page adverts to promote RM only for a new version to make it unworkable. Any new customers will try it ,find it doesn't work and dump it. They may not be aware of this forum or have access to an earlier working version. I think it is time for HRMS or Hornby to get their act together and post some answers

Good thinking William David I have posted this problem twice on the other topic. I have two HH licences and both have the same fault, latched functions will switch on and seconds later switch off, momentary functions will switch on and seconds later repeat. By watching the green port indicator lights I found the following. HH1 connects to port 30 and on selecting a function the first pulse is to port 30 and the second to port 31. HH2 connects to port 31 and on selecting a function the first pulse is to port 31 and the second to port 32. If both HHs are connected and a function is selected on HH1 then the computer freezes and the only way out is threw task manager and end task, probably because both HHs are trying to use port 31. As previously mentioned I have had to revert to the latest version of 1.69 to get a stable RM and am reluctant to retry 1.70

That was my first thought and it is at 0. If you check my post you will see the pulses appears to on two ports. I cannot recheck the set up as I have had to reinstall version 1.69 just to get RM to work again and the hand helds have gone back in draw until a working update is issued.

Hi fellow sufferers, Yesterday I updated RM to 1:70 and all appeared to be OK so decided to try my 2 android hand helds. Initially both fired up and worked but not reliably, they both kept loosing connection and restarting. I shut everthing down and restarted with just the tablet connected. Again RM worked and the tablet connected but still kept loosing contact with google. The track plan seemed to work provided the green icon was lit the loco screen however did not. The loco would move, reverse and change speed but selecting a function always seemed to give two pulses, lights would switch on and seconds later switch off, the engine would start and then swich off and the horn would sound twice seconds apart. I connected the phone app with the same results. At this point I decided to give up as the layout is not fully opperational and RM is not used for testing. Today I noticed revision 1 was now available and installed this. On starting RM it failed to connect to the e-link controller b so I shut down and restarted the computer, this time it failed to connect to the elite controller a. Eventually I got RM started and connected the tablet on port 30 and the connection seemed more reliable, the green icon stayed lit. The two pulse problem was still there, when a function was activated the port 30 light [green 1] flashed and swiched on, seconds later the port 31 light [green 2] flashed and turned it off. I then connected the phone on port 31 and the same thing happened flashing port 31 and then port 32. On the second attempt the function switched off and the unregisted screen appeared and the computer froze, the only way out was to use task manager and end task. When I restarted the computer RM would not fully load so switched off and gave up. Two steps forward and three back, Ithink step four will be to reinstall 1;69. Apoliges for being long winded but have tryed to descibe what has gone wrong.