?

I’m a novice to DecoderPro and the following might help others

1.?????? I’ve just bought an old SprogII and installed the latest software on a laptop running Windows 7.

2.?????? Borrowed a DCC loco from a friend and checked that it ran under throttle. (Not necessary, but it proved the loco works under my DCC).

3.?????? Then clicked ‘New Loco’ on menu and ’Read type from decoder’

4.?????? Messages at bottom report looking at CV8, then 7 then 159. Loco juddered as the decoder was read. Then ‘Stopping due to error: No locomotive detected (301)’ reported.

5.?????? So repeated step 4 with the Sprog Command Monitor opened. This showed:

cmd: "C 0008"

rep: "= h30

P> "

cmd: "C 0007"

rep: "= h83

P> "

cmd: "C 0159"

rep: "= No Ack

P> "

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So the decoder was responding with the make of decoder (Manufacturer number 48, hexadecimal 30, Hornby) and the version 131. But, not finding CV 159, gave up.

?

(If you can’t carry out this step, go to step 6 and make a best guess)

6.?????? Chose the best guess Hornby decoder from the list and the ‘Create Basic Roster Entry’ box appeared. Entered the Roster ID to identify the loco. Clicked ‘read’ to identify the current address of the decoder (3 for a new decoder).

7.?????? Clicked ‘Open Comprehensive Programmer’. Entered the details for the roster.

8.?????? Clicked the CVs tab. Clicked the ‘Read full sheet’ button. The state of some CVs changed to ‘Read’. (Some CVs may remain yellow and some go red, if that CV doesn’t exist for your decoder.)

9.?????? I didn’t want to change the active address of my friend’s loco, but this should be possible by typing the new number into CV1 and clicking ‘Write’.

10.?? Closed the window, Saving if requested.

11?? Chose the new loco in the roster. Selected it and chose ‘Throttle’.

12.?? In the address panel, clicked the ‘No loco selected’ box and chose the loco.

13.?? Hopefully it should work for you...

On Dec 7, 2018, at 12:09 PM, Paul Davidson <pdavidson@...> wrote:

Dave,
Correct....all 4 Kato turnouts operate in unison...all closed or all thrown although you can mess that up because you can manually close/throw each switch independently. Also, I built an operational LE panel that uses a single turnout number to operate my double crossover turnouts with no problem.
I guess I will need to use one valid turnout number plus 3 internal turnout numbers to make all 4 turnouts work together. Adding the Logix will challenge me. I have played with it before but I was semi-lost most of the time.
Just for kicks, I created 3 internal turnouts and assigned them to the other 3 turnouts in the double crossover then added it to the panel. It added OK but would not work correctly. Every time I tried to change it, the icon rolled to a different config and eventually returned to where it started.
I wish I could repeat that fluke. Must be something more than a fluke because I still have that PE panel I created that has a working double crossover on it.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.
Paul D

On Dec 7, 2018, at 11:25 AM, Paul Davidson <pdavidson@...> wrote:

Dave,
No..... but I did not do that the last time I was successful. I tried it now and the first drag went OK but it would not let me drag the same turnout number to a second box. It said the "Duplicate Turnout Name assigned" and would not let me do it.
I am using a Kato Unitrack double crossover and all 4 turnouts operate with a single turnout number. JRMI appears to be expecting 4 different turnout numbers to operate a double crossover. In addition, I don't understand how I was able to add the double turnout previously but not now.
Paul D

From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Speed
Sent: December-07-18 8:07 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [jmriusers] MQTT Connection in JMRI

?

A few more things to think about...

- will JMRI subscribe to every topic that contains a sensor/turnout/mast? I have found there are limits (in performance and memory) for subscribing to too many things. About a year ago I created this Jython script () to publish and subscribe to MQTT for "Virtual Masts" from within JMRI. I simply used the "Username" to keep the topic for each virtual mast, which was simple at the time: "mast.0003". Today I would go with /TxNamib/mast.0001/03, where the mast.0001 is the board where the masts are connected to.?

- Do we use retention? I found it convenient in my ESP implementation to save the state of the turnout in /TxNamib/servo.0003/01 as a '0' or a '1' with retention on, so when the ESP boots up, it knows where to move the servo without keeping the state saved in local EEPROM. I know some don't like physical addressing boards, but I found it convenient to simply subscribe to /TxNamib/servo.0003/# for all 16 turnouts connected to the ESP. So if retention is used, JMRI is going to turn on and get hundreds of messages (that it needs to keep up with) and also might have the "INCONSISTENT" state if it determines the turnout to be otherwise.?

- JMRI typically (or used to) only generate a message to hardware when there is a state change, so without retention in MQTT, the servo won't know where to go until there is a change in JMRI.

- Like Bob said, somethings work different than others. A block detector sensor is by nature controlled by the block detection circuit, but a global "I need the Dispatcher's attention" sensor could be turned on by more than one. (And who turns it off?). Masts should also be single sourced, in this case I would say JMRI determines the aspect.

- Will JMRI allow us to pick what messages to send? For example, "Active" and "Inactive" versus '1' and '0' versus 'True' or 'False'? Might not sound important here, but who wrote the code on the other side, it matters over there.

- And Masts having 'Clear', 'Approach' and Signal Heads using 'Green', 'Flashing Red', 'Dark', ...? Or do we start with only Heads?

- JMRI also need to allow, not only the username and password as mentioned earlier, but also the QOS (quality of service), and other (or future), settings.

[ Disclaimer about my Jython script: I can't promise the "threading" part is working well enough, sometimes you need to restart JMRI. The JButton on the Desktop was a simple way to remove the Listeners when you needed to rename a mast, instead of restarting JMRI. ]

On Dec 7, 2018, at 10:36 AM, Paul Davidson <pdavidson@...> wrote:

Earlier I asked a question on forum about how to insert a double crossover in PE. After stumbling around, I finally got it to work. However, I no longer can get it to work (Ver 4.13.5). I must be doing something wrong. Here are the steps I am taking..
1) Open a new panel in PE
2) Use " Select the type of icon to add to panel" drop down to pick a "slip/3-way turnout/scissor"
3) In new window that opens, I select the button for "4 Turnouts"
4) I perform a "Add item to table" (using LT20 as an example)
5) At this point, I expect the "Add to Panel" button to become active so I can add the turnout to the panel but it will not become active

Somehow, this worked OK earlier with 4.13.5 but will not work now. The 5 steps work just fine for a left or right turnout but not for a double crossover (scissor on menu). I can go to a older panel I created when experimenting with adding a double crossover and the double crossover shows up and works fine. Driving me craze. What am I doing wrong?

Paul D