Finn1707822223

Hi Does anyone know who the company is that supports the Railmaster software? I have had some bugs reported with them for over three years now and when i ask about an update all i get is "it will be fixed in the next update". I was promised a partial update in December last year with a major update this year, but neither have materialised. is this software actually still supported or is some one just fobbing me off!

Just had an update from RailMaster support after chasing them about a bug that was reported more than two years ago. "Hello Finn We are preparing an intermediate update, which we are hoping to release before the year end. There will then be a major update release, with other things, in the New Year. Regards RailMaster Support" Sounds hopeful.

Sorry to ask, but if I join the collectors club do I get 10% off what I buy as well as the hobby reward points or are the reward points the discount? Thanks Finn

On the end of the bug report that i have posted was the reply's from RailMaster, the last one is this when i pressed them for a date. Dear ***** Due to the amount of work involved in what we are doing, we dare not publish a date, or even an estimated one. Let's just say that it will be this year. We may issue an intermediate maintenance udpate to deal primarily with new locos, accessory decoders and loco decoders. Regards RailMaster Support so one can hope that it could be Xmas 2023, but they cannot spell update correctly so who knows joy

Just a thought about the new system. It runs on Bluetooth and this will have a couple of things to consider: 1, Bluetooth has a finite range, so large layouts may need some sort of Bluetooth repeater to increase range. 2, If you have a layout that has tunnels, depending on what they are made out of the Bluetooth signal may be lost as it cannot get through the scenery and tunnel walls. I am not trying to trash the new system, but as a controls engineer I believe there is still a massive amount of things that could be done with Railmaster if the bugs are fixed and some fresh ideas and perspectives are fired at it.

BUG No 1. Scale Speed Error. Reported 20/06/2021 Railmaster version 1.74.2 When trying to configure the Speed Factor settings on Railmaster there is an error on the configuration page. On the dropdown box select the 6.274m (OO/HO Hornby) option and set up the x8 R603 3rd radius double curve trac sections as listed on the Speed Factor box when this option is selected. When the track is assembled, it soon becomes obvious that x8 sections of R603 track is not 6.274m long. The Railmaster guide has a screen shot of the Speed Factor popup box that was different to the one that is seen in the software, this box showed the time to travel 6.274m requiring “Oval of 4 R603 Long Straights + 8 R8262 4th radius double curves”. The track was assembled using the SCARM software to check that the length of this oval, was in fact 6.274m long and the software confirmed this. RAILMASTER SOFTWARE v1.74.2 RAILMASTER GUIDE The question for this section is, should this test be done on a circle of 3rd radius track as stated (a distance of 3.173m), or should it be done on an oval measuring 6.274m long? This may seem an obvious question, but it will depend on what is written into the code for the measurement, is the distance 6.274 used or is it 3.173 in the calculation for Speed Factor. After more testing with the scale speed and would like to share with you my findings. The loco for the test was a Hornby R3269 CLASS 43 HST Pack. The test track was 4 x R603 long straights & 8 x R8262 4th radius curves, a track length of 6.274m. Hornby Railmaster version is v1.74.5. Timing and speed calculations done with https://www.entwinesolutions.co.uk/scalespeed/ speed calculator. After the loco had been warmed up for two minutes the scale speed settings were set to: Real Loco Maximum Speed (MPH) = 255 Time to travel (drop down list) = 6.274m (OO/HO Hornby) Time to travel (Numeric Entry Box) = 45 These settings were set so the loco would run at its maximum speed around the track and gave a lap time of 5.93 seconds. The track distance of 6.274m and time of 5.93s per lap gave a scale speed of 180.26mph. Next I altered the scale speed settings to: Real Loco Maximum Speed (MPH) = 125 Time to travel (drop down list) = 6.274m (OO/HO Hornby) Time to travel (Numeric Entry Box) = 5.93 I saved the settings, restarted Railmaster and ran the loco at the new maximum speed of 125mph and got a lap time of 10.56s. The track distance of 6.274m and time of 10.56s per lap gave a scale speed of 101.25mph. With the measured speed of the loco at full speed the new values entered into the T to T Numeric Box should have slowed the loco down to give a scale speed of 125mph, it took it below the correct calculated speed to 101mph. It is not until I enter a value of 6.65s into the “Time to Travel” Numeric Box do I get a speed close to the 125mph of 127.66mph with a lap time of 8.38s. It is odd that a longer lap time of 6.65s rather than 5.93s gives the faster speed, normally a shorter lap time would indicate a faster speed. Can you check the code that the “Time to Travel” Numeric Box feeds into as it looks like the calculations that work out scale speed that are affected by this input have an error in them. REPLYS FROM RAILMASTER SUPPORT. 07/07/2021 Hello We will let you know when we have an answer for you as this requires some time to be spent setting up the example loops, then testing a variety of locos with controllers for timings and double-check the lengths. Rest assured that we have not forgotten about you and will let you know our findings as soon as we have finished looking into this. Regards RailMaster Support 06/01/2022 Dear ***** We are currently incorporating several fixes and improvements into the next version of RailMaster and all must be working correctly before the update is released. Regards RailMaster Support 11/01/2023 Dear ***** We cannot give you a date for the udpate as quite a lot of work is involved with it, not just including the software. As soon as it is ready, the program will let you know. Regards RailMaster Support 11/01/2023 Dear ***** Due to the amount of work involved in what we are doing, we dare not publish a date, or even an estimated one. Let's just say that it will be this year. We may issue an intermediate maintenance udpate to deal primarily with new locos, accessory decoders and loco decoders. Regards RailMaster Support

CAN THIS BE PINNED TO THE TOP OF THE FORUM PLEASE? This is a list of bugs that have been reported to RailMaster support and have been acknowledged by a return email. Please feel free to add to this list with the following details. 1, Number of post - Use the next on from the previous reported bug. 2, Bug Name - Give it a name for us all to refer to. 3, Date reported to RailMaster Support - To help keep track of how long a fix has been needed for. 4, Version of RailMaster installed - let us know if you have the pro pack as well. 5, Detailed report of problem - Give a good full report of what the problem is with screenshots or photos if possible. 6, Update the post with any responses from RailMaster support.

Will get onto it thumbsup

I think the point i was trying for (with a rather overdramatic title laughing) is that a lot of us RailMaster users have tickets in about faults we have found with the software, but all we get back from the RailMaster support is "We will address that fault with the next release/update of RailMaster". I have had one of the fault tickets in since June 2021 about scale speed, they have acknowledged that there is a fault but and given the answer about sorting it with an update, but as yet still no fix. It would be good if RM Support could at least give us a date (or year or century) of when we could expect the next update. This does rather suggests to me that RailMaster denouement and maintenance has been abandoned and we are stuck with all of these faults and bugs. I am wondering if it would be a good idea to start a new thread that is pinned to the top of the forum, where people can post bugs that have been reported to RailMaster and have been assigned a ticket number?

Well with the release of the new 2023 range today, a new control system has been launched. The "HMDCCC" or "HM7000" control system sounds like it will finally put to death any support for the RailMaster system, not that any support is being given for RailMaster for the last few years. I personally have 3 tickets in with them about major bugs, with the only reply's being "It will be fixed in the next release". Is it time for one of two things to happen: Hornby and their subcontractor to make the code for RailMaster open source, this would allow individuals to modify it and fix issues.The subcontractor that developed RailMaster starts a yearly subscription that would guarantee bugs being fixed and regular updates for things like future windows updates. What are your thoughts?

Hi 96RAF I gather that you are referring the the release of the Hornby 2023 range with the comment of "Tomorrows launch" Mod note - that is correct i will hold fire for now and contact Hornby customer services if there are no announcements for Railmaster. thanks for the prompt reply Finn :-)

Hi Any updates on this one? sorry to keep bring it up, but i am wondering about putting a complaint into Hornby customer services about the lack of response from Railmaster support as i have other tickets in with the same response of "it will be fixed in the next update" that date back to June 2021.

Hi Just wondering if there has been any news on this one or when the updated version of Railmaster will be released?

OK, can I now politely ask people to stop giving me pointers on if my spelling is correct or what my line spacing should be. I am asking for help on solving a problem and not a grammar lesson. Respectfully FINN.

Hi the locos being used are Bachmann Branchline 25-351SF-PO Class 20's, cannot remember offhand what decoders come with these, but they are the standard factory fitted sound decoders. I am running Railmaster software on a touchscreen PC. Sorry about the spacing on the last post, done from a mobile. I will be submitting this to HRMS, but was wondering if i could pull on the forums members support in this to try and narrow things down a bit first for HRMS. If another member could try and double head two locos that are the same and see if you get the same results it will tell me and HRMS if this is a problem I am experiencing or if it is a Railmaster problem. The test to perform: 1.Put two locos that are the same or very similar on a layout, but do not couple them together, with about 3 feet of gap between them. 2.Assign both locos to double head. 3.In the forward direction, press the shunt button on one of the locos controller and note how fast the loco you have given the shunt command to compared to the other one. 4.Press the shunt command on the other locos controller and see if the first loco slows down and the second loco speeds up. 5.drop me a reply with the results of the test. Hopefully with feedback from these tests I can put together a better report for the software engineers that will be looking at the fault. Thanks :-)