iPhone as handset

[Exetersteam]

OK, having upgraded to Railmaster Pro I have decided to use my iphone as a handset.

Fell at the first hurdle. I have downloded the app from my-apps.eu but I can't get it to work or find out how to pay for it.

Basically the app just sits there saying "Railmaster 1.23 for iPad/Pod/Phone Connecting to 192.168.0.1.30" occassionaly it changes to a 31 instead of 30 but nothing else happens. I had my internet router turned on as well as the computer (windows 10) I run Railmaster Pro on.

What am I doing wrong? Is the IP address right and if not how do I know? Is it the IP address of my router or the Windows computer  I run Railmaster on?

All help apreciaited for this IT numpty.

[Chrissaf]

Very few people, if any, have managed to get this working flawlessly and robustly. Hours and hours of forum time have been expelled trying to help others in a similar situation. If you look at the timestamp on this reply, you will see that 4 hours have been spent writing and editing this one reply alone.

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To see some of these previous help attempts use the 'Search Forums' tool and search for iPhone

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Basically the APP just sits there saying "Railmaster 1.23 for iPad/Pod/Phone Connecting to 192.168.0.1:30" occasionally it changes to a 31 instead of 30 but nothing else happens.

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The following description assumes that you have given my IP Addressing Tutorial (see further below) a read through.

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192.168. is the IP Network ID, this is pretty much a default Network ID for every basic home network. My own home Network ID is also 192.168. as is 'Uncle Tom Cobley and all'. The reason that we can all use the same Network ID is because this 192.168 Network ID is a special IP Address that does not get advertised out on the Internet.

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The 0 after the 168 is the sub-net (don't be too concerned about this at present).

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The 1 as in 192.168.0.1 is a host address (host in this context is a device in your home that communicates with your router). The 1 is an octet which means that it can be any number between 1 and 255 (255 is reserved for special use). So let us say that you have a number of home devices that connect to the Internet via your Broadband router, these following addresses are documented below purely as examples.

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192.168.0.1 might be your Desktop PC.

192.168.0.254 might be your Internet router.

192.168.0.2 might be your RailMaster PC / Laptop.

192.168.0.3 might be your iPhone.

192.168.0.4 might be your Smart TV.

192.168.0.71 might be your BluRay player.

etc

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These fourth octet numbers between 1 & 254 are assigned automatically by your router without any input from you the user via DHCP (Dynamic Host Control Protocol). Therefore you could potentially have up to 253 home 'Internet connected' devices plus your Broadband router. I purposely used .71 in my example IP Address list just to demonstrate that DHCP doesn't always assign addresses sequentially.

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The :30 at the end is a TCP port number (not important to know about this at this time).

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So your iPhone message:

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"Railmaster 1.23 for iPad/Pod/Phone Connecting to 192.168.0.1:30"

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Is trying to find the PC / Laptop that is running RailMaster on TCP port 30. It is under the impression that your RailMaster PC / Laptop has the IP address 192.168.0.1 which may or may not be the case. There is no guarantee that your RM PC has the 192.168.0.1 address, because the actual address will have been allocated dynamically by DHCP when the PC / Laptop was turned on and booted up.

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To display the IP address currently being used on your W10 RailMaster PC / Laptop .

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1. In the bottom left task bar search box, type CMD
2. In the search results list, click 'Command Prompt' at the top of the list.
3. In the DOS 'Command Prompt' Window that opens, type IPCONFIG followed by 'enter' or 'return'.

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Look for the line IPv4 Address ....... 192.168.xxx.yyy where xxx and yyy are the sub-network and host octets for your particular PC / Laptop home network.

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If this displayed IPv4 address IS NOT 192.168.0.1 then that is why your iPhone cannot find and/or connect to RailMaster.

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This is where setting a 'Fixed IP Address' comes into play. You can either manually configure your RailMaster PC Laptop to always use 192.168.0.1 as a permanently fixed IP Address, but only as long as your IPv4 Address displayed using the IPCONG command is not 192.168.1.yyy. See the 'RailMaster Help Site' discussed below to set a 'Fixed IP Address'.

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OR you can reconfigure the iPhone APP to use the IPv4 Address that you find has been assigned by DHCP using the IPCONFIG command. But note this, if you reconfigure your iPhone APP to use the currently assigned address for RM, be aware that due to DHCP, this address is liable to be refreshed and changed, so you may have to continually reconfigure the iPhone APP to each new assigned address.

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Getting the iPhone APP to communicate to RM is the relatively easy part using the guidance above. Getting it to work thereafter to control the layout is the hard bit. Most have given up, and adopted 'TeamViewer' instead (which is free). Note that the mobile functionality in RM was updated in the 1.7x versions of RM, so if you haven't upgraded RM already then I suggest that your starting point is to upgrade to the very latest 1.72 RM version.

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TeamViewer is a utility that allows your RM screen, mouse & keyboard to be duplicated on another screen such as your iPhone. Your iPhone then remotely controls the RM application on the PC, which in turn controls your layout. Google TeamViewer to find it.

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Part of my I.T working career involved designing IP addressing schemes.

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IP Addressing is a complicated topic. It is not easy to cover it adequately or simply in a forum environment, but I have tried to cover the very basics in the earlier part of this reply above, but to gain a fuller understanding, I have written a tutorial for IP Addressing and it can be downloaded from the RailMaster support website.

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But unless you have an aptitude for technology I guarantee that my tutorial will be a heavy read indeed (even though I have tried to keep it as simple as possible). It is possible that you may even struggle with the guidance given so far in this reply above, as you yourself in your original post classified yourself as an "I.T numpty".

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But if you at least want to give it a try, then to find my tutorial, navigate to the top of the Hornby RailMaster forum section and follow the links for 'RailMaster Help Site'. Once on the RM Help Site, you want to review the Networking section in the middle of the page with regard 'Fixed IP Address' ... see page extract image below. My tutorial is downloadable from the "What is an IP Address" link. Look on the linked page for a file titled "IP Primer Version 1.1" in the third column.

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/media/tinymce_upload/9827810813a5e9f7e566b2387b7d03ed.jpg

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Note that forum member AC is the owner of the 'Help Site' and is hosting my tutorial on my behalf as it is a complimentary addition to his own documentation. AC's own articles on 'Fixed IP Addressing' on his site are appropriate for setting up RM to communicate to your iPhone.

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Just to add as a final comment. Your iPhone can only communicate to RailMaster via your router. Even if your RailMaster PC has a Wi-fi interface, it is impossible for your iPhone to connect directly to the RailMaster PC as the RailMaster software application does not support 'peer to peer networking'. Therefore your router must be switched on and in communication with RailMaster and also within Wi-fi range of your iPhone. The router doesn't however need to have a working Internet connection, this allows it to be used externally away from home, at say an exhibition hall for example.

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This is an extremely long reply and includes an image.

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Please do not use the 'Blue Button' to reply to this very long post.

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Scroll down and put any reply you want to make in the 'Reply Text Box' and click the 'Green Reply Button'.

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[Exetersteam]

Hi,

Many thnaks for this Chrissaf. I followed your advice and the tutorial and sorted out my IP address problem.

I have now been able to pay for my iphone to be used as a handset and as I wait for the confirmatory email the Evaluation version works well with no problems! Result.

Cheers

John

[Chrissaf]

Thanks John for the feedback.

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For others reading this in the future, this thread relates to an iPhone, but exactly the same IP addressing principle can be applied to any of the other RailMaster supported mobile devices, such as iPad, Windows Tablet, Android phone / tablet device etc.

[Chrissaf]

John,

I have moved your revised 'How Do I' question to a new dedicated topic thread. You can find your post and any answers it generates here:

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https://www.hornby.com/uk-en/forum/exetersteam-has-a-question-about-using-his-iphone-app-with-railmaster/

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[Exetersteam]

Thanks Chrissaf.

[Chrissaf]

ADDENDUM to my original reply above.

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See also this other thread where additional and relevant information can be found.

[4th post down on the page].

https://www.hornby.com/uk-en/forum/railmaster-and-ipad-31687/?p=1

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[Brooklyn-345325]

It seems like you're experiencing difficulties setting up and using the Railmaster Pro app on your iPhone. Here are a few suggestions to help you troubleshoot the issue:

Ensure that your iPhone and computer are connected to the same Wi-Fi network. This is crucial for the app to establish a connection with your Railmaster Pro setup.

Double-check the IP address mentioned in the app. The IP address should correspond to the computer running Railmaster Pro, not your router. To find the IP address of your Windows computer, you can open the Command Prompt and type "ipconfig" to display the network configuration details.

Verify that you have the latest version of the Railmaster Pro app installed on your iPhone. Check the App Store for any available updates and install them if necessary.

In the meantime, if you have any unrelated questions or need assistance with other iPhone-related issues, feel free to ask. For example, if you need help with deleting iPhone contacts, you can go to this article https://howly.com/article/tt-how-to-delete-one-several-or-all-iphone-contacts

[Fishmanoz]

Brooklyn, not sure why you are answering a 3-yr old post which has already been resolved successfully for the OP?

Also, it’s the HH app that goes on the iPhone, not RM which is a Windows-only program. Full details in the HH pdf downloaded to your desktop when you install RM.

[96RAF]

If you've verified the network connection and IP address, ………..

………….scroll down and tap on "Delete Contact" to remove it from your iPhone.

 

 

Again as stated by Fishy you are replying to a dead thread. The person you are advising is 3 years down the road and either they have resolved their problem long ago or they are in the wind.

This thread is locked as both posts are likely spam. Posters put on watch list.