Desirable features for future Railmaster Software updates

[St1ngr4y]

I think Dave means the buttons you can place on the layout in the Layout Designer, to which you can assign programs to be run.

Having said that, is this not a fault which needs to be addressed, rather than a Desirable Feature?

Ray

[PJ_model_trains]

Dear HRMS

Can you please increase the working window size for signal set up.

The area I refer to is in Design Layout, right click signal Signal Settings, Other Points/Signal area

At present the window only allows two rows and when scrolled upwards only moves one row at a time so after two entries and scroll up one the user can only see one instruction. As this is an area where sequences are important to get right it would be much easier if the area was larger, say 4 rows for now. I am aware  you are looking at other items in this area but a little extra space would help for now and I think help others to program easier by being able to view a few more commands

Thank you

PJ

[PJ_model_trains]

1 WAY and 2 WAY SIGNALLING - in RM

The current signals are almost suitable for One Way, e.g. trains running in one direction, an oval  layout one way would be clock-wise or anti-clockwise movement only.

When I say almost suitable for one way, what I am saying is we can put them on our layout plan, where possible to the left of the track. (in some cases it is not always possible). But a set of points on an oval plan view can mean left or right on the top or the bottom of our plan view and up or down on the sides. There is no way of knowing which direction they relate to.  At present I am using text symbols and putting them next to the signals e.g. <  >  ^  v

But some track will be Two Way track, trains going left to right and back or clockwise and anti-clockwise, this means at certain key positions, block control signals for example there could easily be 2,4 or 6 signals needed, for 1,2 or 3 tracks to control both directions of travel. On a plan view it is not possible to know which is for clock-wise travel and which is for anti-clockwise travel even though the, 'keep signals to the left' principle is applied where possible.

A suggestion for consideration could be, have two different colour signal icons when adding them to the schematic layout. e.g. at present signals are black back ground with grey outer edge, they could be a different colour background or a different colour edging. 

This would mean, a person with a left to right track or a person with a clock-wise anti-clockwise track could see clearly which signal is for which direction by the colour on the RM plan. Direction indicators would also be needed as mentioned for One Way as detailed above <  >  ^  v but these can be added by the user.

HRMS or other RM users may have different ideas to get round this problem which only affects what we see on a plan view in RM, not the layout, but is a way of distinguishing signal direction.

I did wonder whether to open this as a separate thread for discussion before adding it here, comments welcome.

PJ

[PJR_slo]

I do have a touch screen and I find both the touch screen and mouse icons useless.  It would be nice if there was an ini file setting to hide these buttons.

The touch screen button would be more useful if I could define what was disallowed when it was pressed, but then it would also need to be hidden so that someone using the screen to control locos could not press it again to re-enable all the disabled items. 

As I don't allow others to use the screen to control locos (that's what the Select is for...), I really don't see the point of it.

Peter

[St1ngr4y]

I am beginning to feel a bit guilty, because I am aware that I have reported a great number of problems since v1.56 became available. With hindsight, I should have kept a record of every report I made, because now I am losing track of what I have reported and what I have not.

With this in mind I am proposing not so much a change to RM itself, but to the way faults are reported. In my view it would really help a lot if, after receiving a help request, the reply email which is sent confirming receipt of the request, were to contain a unique reference number plus the text of the fault as reported by the user. In this way, the user could use the reference in subsequent email conversations with HRMS. It would also help senior citizens like me to remember that they have already reported a fault and not to report it again (sorry HRMS) :-)

Ray

[Chrissaf]

Had a need to factory reset one of my R8247 DCC Accessory decoders to resolve a fault (kept on loosing configured port addresses). Found I couldn't write 8 to CV8 (NB1) from within RailMaster and had to do it manually with the Elite controller. I maybe missing something obvious and the write CV feature (for Accessory Decoders) is in RailMaster but hidden away somewhere.

So I think it would be good to have a more extensive CV read/write feature within Railmaster for Accessory Decoders. It does have this feature for Loco's. Rhetorical question but how does an iLink user do this if it's not supported integrally within RailMaster.

(NB1) Reset seems to be an undocumented feature in the R8247 instruction sheet. I found out about it elsewhere in these forums.

[Teedoubleudee]

Does that go for other acc. decoders? I wanted to individually set CVs on my ESU switchpilot but not possible via the "add an accessory decoder" option?

[PJ_model_trains]

At present in System Settings, in Loco Detection we have an option to show 'Point numbers on plan' This also shows Signal numbers on the plan.

As our layouts increase, and with Loco Detection coming which will be more boxes with numbers on the plan. I think it would be worth considering

show 'Point numbers on plan'

show 'Signal numbers on plan'

show 'Loco Detection numbers on plan'

as three separate options. Points and Signals options could be in General and Loco Detection in its own tag.

I currently have 34 signals on the plan, 18 points and I estimate a minimum of 22 Loco Detection sensors, possible increasing well in to the 30's

The problem with so many points and signals they tend to group together, at proposed block sections, stations, etc. which means there are also a lot of signal and point address boxes close to or overlapping each other.

PJ

[RDS]

I am steadily working my way through the list of Desirable Features to see which ones have been included in v1.56 (as I foolishly agreed to do a while ago!)

However, one that did not make it into the upgrade is one that I myself made on the 25th November, last year.  It concerns the space available for program lines.  I have copied it out again below but does anyone else use programing and find that a bit more space would be of benefit to read the full command?

Just above the Track Layout on the Main Screen, there is a Pink coloured area that changes to Green when a program is running. Currently when longer program lines such as 'Decelerate Forward [30 to [2]' are being executed, there is very little room left to show the name of the Loco. Sometimes only 2 characters on a standard monitor.

Would it be possible to allow more room for the program line to be displayed. 

Some suggestions for making some more room:
1) There is an area just to the left of the window where the program title is entered, that contains the word 'Program:' - The window could be moved to the left slightly, i.e. closer to the word Program.
2) The word 'Program:' could be shortened to Prog:
3) The various words being displayed to show progress of the Program could be shortened, Forward could become Forwd., Reverse could become Rev., Executing could become Exec., Accelerate could become Accel, etc etc.
4) There is small square Black box just to the right of the 'Stop the Program/Start the program Icon', that does not appear to do anything, except flash brighter every now and again. Does this box need to be there at all?

[Teedoubleudee]

Or just make the window size and column width user configurable using the click and drag method?

[St1ngr4y]

Hi RDS,

What screen resolution are you using on your monitor? I'm using 1600 x 900 and with this, all of my programming commands occupy less than half of the width of the pink/green area.

I think, just by observation, that the small black square which occasionally changes to green, is some sort of measure of an internal Railmaster queue.

Ray

[Fishmanoz]

Ability to read and write accessory decoder CVs so that full capability can be achieved with decoders such as the SC1. 

[idlemarvel]

Agreed.

On similar lines, ability to read and write CVs (on locos and decoders) beyond CV255

[Teedoubleudee]

Yep, +1 from me on that one too.

[PJ_model_trains]

Thanks Fishy

Also clear guidance in the user guide regarding, reading and writing CV's for decoders, also where to carry out these tasks, e.g. in Locomotive settings not decoder accessories.

Thank you

PJ

[PJ_model_trains]

It would be helpful if the left, right, up and down arrows used for train direction on a track was made to also include the the four diagonal directions.

This would allow us to add the arrows for bends and track on an angle when viewed on the screen.

See message 15 Oct 2014 - 14:20 approx at

https://www.hornby.com/forum/signal-direction-in-railmaster-layout/?p=1  

Thank you

PJ

[Cronan]

I would like to see online/in game tutorials. RM seems a little complex for my tiny brain. 

[St1ngr4y]

Within the Program Editor there is a facility for changing all instances of a particular loco in a program to a different loco. Would it be possible to have similar facilities for replacing instances of one point address by another, and for replacing instances of one signal address by another? In fact, any object which has an address - e.g. loco detection sensor in the future?

An even better facility would be to scan ALL program files (or a subset using wildcard file names), and to change the addresses of one or more items wherever they are encountered.

Ray

[OssieB]

Having started to add semaphore signals to my layout, could there also be an alternative to use lower quadrant signals for the track plan? I am a GWR man!

BarryO

[PJ_model_trains]

SETTING UP SIGNALS IN MAIN PROGRAM SETTING

We currently have R,Y,YY,G and flashing for Y,YY & G

We need Y+RI, YY+RI, G+RI in this section (right and left)

RI = Route Indicator/Feather

PJ

[Fishmanoz]

Sorry PJ, missed what you said above previously re loco v accessory decoders. No, definitely not in loco as it may well clash with a loco decoder ID. Most definitely to be done in the accessory decoder setup. 

[PJ_model_trains]

I totally agree Fishy

Naturally when I was told to read and write accessory CV's I first looked in the accessories section, then found it confusing being told to go to loco CV's. Although the same CV read list will come up, it needsto be in accessories section and needs to be clearly stated in the RM Guide, reading and writing CV's for locomotives, reading and writing CV's for accessories.

PJ

[Yelrow]

greetings, now we have moved to 17 sounds being the standard, 20, in some greedy case, is it not time to re-look at the up to 6 warning when programming, and move that a lot nearer to 17. It cannot be rocket science, to increase this, i hope, as it was excellent at the start of RM, but has now simply been caught up and passed by the loco sound expansion. It is a liite awkward, particularly for us older guys to keep clicking about to allow all sounds to be played on moving locos. john

[HornbyRailMasterSupport]

What warning in programming are you referring to?  Can you provide a message number.  RailMaster supports up to 25 loco functions in control.

[Fishmanoz]

HRMS, take a look at John's 6 Sound Function Buttons thread which he accidentally put in the DCC forum and you'll see what he is on about.