JMRI ver 4.14+Rd060e0b. Java ver 1.8.0_201. JMRI settings NCE, NCE USB, com 3, V7.x.x (also tried V6.x.x), Power cab, N, NCE, 9600 baud. ?USB board has no jumpers installed. ?Windows device manager has driver installed on com 3. Driver is 10.1.6.2388. ?JMRI system console reports warn timeout on reply to message AA consecutive timeouts = 0 in nce.ncetrafficcontroller. ?Warn incorrect or no response from nce station.using 2 power cab throttles set to ID 2 and 4. Assuming usb board is set to ID 3 with no jumpers installed. ?We tried another usb board and changed both cables. Still not able to connect to nce system. This had been working and just stopped working recently even though nothing changed to the best of our knowledge.

Here is pic of the number 4 switch with a DS51K1 installed.
These work fine on my layout.


Jay

I’ve been having troubles where my Mac no longer communicates with the layout, which is a PR3xtra, a DCS210, DB210 and two PM42s. I get no errors when starting up PanelPro but when I go to the LocoNet menu to try and read anything, it fails. I know the PR3xtra works because I can use a Raspberry Pi in place of my Macintosh and all is well.

So that leads me to believe there is a problem with serial communications. Any suggestions on how to diagnose?

Hi Jerry and everyone else, thank you for the feedback so far, ? currently I'm using Jeff Bunza's code scan_sensors.py script to connect the IR / Arduino to JMRI which seems to work without any problems, but i'm interested to explore other methods to achieve better occupancy detection. My setup is very basic at the moment as I get to grips with DCC but i'm willing to test out any code and try to provide feedback. ? I will try to workout some logic with entrance and exit sensors possibly pseudo sensors controlled by scripts,? but I better write some stuff down and do some testing before I waffle on about something that has a strong chance of not working :)

Steve -

Bob is right - ?it can get tricky! ?But I am doing exactly what you are looking at: IR sensors at block entry and exit, ?monitored by an Arduino acting as a C/MRI node, talking with JMRI. In fact, I am in the middle of writing this all up to share somewhere. ?It’s particularly interesting because I can set up monitoring of three blocks on a single Arduino nano for under $10 in components. ?I would be ?happy to share my Arduino code and write-up to get your comments as long as you recognize this is still a “work in progress.”

Rizwan: It looks to me that you have everything wired correctly and the problem is that you may not actually be sending the trip/close signals from JMRI. (BTW I agree with gs that no harm is done by sending repeat trip or close signals. I do that to ensure various "wake-up" messages that may or may not be sent by my Digitrax DS51 after powering up haven't confused the decoder. I have programmed a dozen DS51K1 decoders on Kato #6 HO turnouts). Do you have any other stationary decoders on your layout and if so is your DCC setup of JMRI/Sprog successfully controlling them? If "yes" then your problem is in the way you are adding and operating the DS51K1 in JMRI. You might try posting on the JMRI forum?/g/jmriusers/topics.

Jan

Rizwan M

I've programmed at least 30 of the?DS51K1.? As I said above - once the yellow wire is connected, it goes into a "listening" mode.? ?The next time a turnout command comes down the rails it does two things. 1) It sets the address to whatever was sent.? 2) it executes the command.? It won't hurt anything to send the open/close commands a couple of times before disconnecting the yellow wire, but it doesn't accomplish much either.? All it does is reprogram itself to the same address every time you send the command.

I think you are making your job a lot harder by trying to program the decoder inside of the switch machine.? Given the amount of time you have spent trying to debug this, I think it's time to remove the decoder, program it outside of the switch.? Test it by connecting to the switch with jumper wires before re-installation.

When you have a problem to solve, you need to remove as many variables as possible.?

By the way, you probably know this, but the photo, the mechanical switch link is not inserted into it's mating hole.? If you don't put that back in place the turnout will never change position.? Check both ends of the link.? ?(It's the silver wire that looks like an unbent paper clip.? It's in the lower right part of the photo.)

gs

It looks like the group does not allow photos.

Jay

开云体育

Rizwan,

I am curious as to why you operated the turnout more than once while in program mode. The instructions say to connect the yellow wire, power on, select address, press C or T to operate and save address and then remove power and unhook the yellow wire.

It may be possible that multiple throws has confused the program.

Jim Exler, Nampa, ID

Thanks for more helpful pointers guys. I wish I had better news to share but the decoder wouldn't take an address even with the changed wiring. Jim is still right that my earlier connection was wrong but it seems like I have more than just a wiring problem.?

Here's what I did.

1. Disconnected the turnout and opened it up. Changed wiring like this.??
2. Put the backplate back on and connected it to track.
3. All of this was done with the track/layout power OFF.
4. Connected the YELLOW wire from the decoder to the curved outer rail of the turnout.?
5. Turned the track/layout power ON.
6. In PanelPro, I opened Tables >> Turnouts. Clicked "Add". I added a new turnout with hardware address "201" under "Pi Sprog Command Station"
7. I threw and closed the turnout a few times to send a few commands on the layout.
8. Turned the power OFF.
9. Removed the yellow wire from the track.
10. Turned the track power ON.?
11. Went back to "Turnout Control" and tried to throw address "ST201" a few times. Nothing happened. The track neither threw nor closed.

I think at this point that there is more to it than just the power to the decoder. I have not given up yet. I have one more turnout and decoder that I plan to connect and see if it works. I will also take this to the hobby shop to see if they can take a look.

Thanks for all the help guys. I really appreciate it.?

-Rizwan M

Fraser,

I have been testing some of your other routes.

Due to your track plan and sensor placement, there is an issue for some routes such as cc07enter -> cc05enter.

Because the left fiddle yard has 4 paths without sensors, NX discovery was able to define a direct route between cc07enter and cc05enter. It also created a route from cc07enter to fid5arr and one from fid5arr to cc05enter.

When cc07enter and cc05enter are selected, the path is created using fid5 to get through the fiddle yard. Since this is technically not a multi segment route signal fid5b is not released. If either fid5 block is occupied, fid6 is selected and there is no issue.

If the cc07enter -> cc05enter NX route is deleted then the sensor pair creates a valid 2 segment route and fid5b is released. However, if either fid5 block is occupied, nothing happens since there is no longer an alternate route through the fiddle yard.


Dave Sand

Using point sensors, like IR sensors, can get complicated. You have to consider things like intermittent activation (if the sensor goes ON/OFF/ON as the train goes by), how to handle it if a train reverses out of a block, etc.

It’s easier with more information. Some people have put two IR sensors togehter to get an idea of which way the train is going. Some use delays to avoid intermittent firing.

You can use JMRI scripts or Logix to take the inputs and figure it out. Somebody who’s done it will probably comment on that.

But if you want to use timing to e.g. check two nearby sensors to see which way it’s going, an Arduino might be a better tool.

Bob

On May 29, 2019, at 6:18 AM, SteveM <steve@...> wrote:

Hi, for various reasons I opted to use IR sensors for detecting where my loco(s) is on the track and for block occupancy, not realising (because i'm new to this) that JMRI seems to only be able to detect when a loco enters a block and there isn't a mechanism to know if it's part way through a block or even exited a block until the sensor at the start of the next block is triggered. Unlike current sensing methods with isolated track blocks etc where you know the loco and carriages are on the block somewhere and hence it is still occupied. So I was wondering if it was possible to use a second IR sensor at the end of the block section which unless it is triggered after the first sensor for the block is activated would indicate a loco is still in the block and thus it is still occupied?

Could JMRI with a block exit sensor connected in someway and possibly some scripting make this work OR alternative as I am using an Arduino for my IR sensor decoder could an Arduino sketch code be used to also monitor the block exit sensor for each block and unless it is activated following the block entrance sensor being activated would keep the block entry sensor still activated so jmri knows the block is occupied , if that makes senses. Just looking at ideas to explore, before I scrap IR sensors for block occupancy.

Thanks Steve

--
Bob Jacobsen
rgj1927@...

Thanks for more helpful pointers guys. I wish I had better news to share but the decoder wouldn't take an address even with the changed wiring. Jim is still right that my earlier connection was wrong but it seems like I have more than just a wiring problem.?

Here's what I did.

1. Disconnected the turnout and opened it up. Changed wiring like this.??
2. Put the backplate back on and connected it to track.
3. All of this was done with the track/layout power OFF.
4. Connected the YELLOW wire from the decoder to the curved outer rail of the turnout.?
5. Turned the track/layout power ON.
6. In PanelPro, I opened Tables >> Turnouts. Clicked "Add". I added a new turnout with hardware address "201" under "Pi Sprog Command Station"
7. I threw and closed the turnout a few times to send a few commands on the layout.
8. Turned the power OFF.
9. Removed the yellow wire from the track.
10. Turned the track power ON.?
11. Went back to "Turnout Control" and tried to throw address "ST201" a few times. Nothing happened. The track neither threw nor closed.

I think at this point that there is more to it than just the power to the decoder. I have not given up yet. I have one more turnout and decoder that I plan to connect and see if it works. I will also take this to the hobby shop to see if they can take a look.

Thanks for all the help guys. I really appreciate it.?

-Rizwan M

Hallo,
tried to reset ESU Lopi 4 and got that message above. Apparently the values were resetted though.
But what does that message mean ?
Thanks and regards

Joern

Blocks are not directly supported by Logix. You have to use the assigned sensor to represent the block in Logix.

Dave Sand

I'll add that the driver was updated in March 2019, so you likely need it. I
downloaded and ran the installer. Then when I connected the hardware it went
through a couple of cycles (watching the device manager) and then it was
happy.

-Ken Cameron, Member JMRI Dev Team
www.jmri.org
www.fingerlakeslivesteamers.org
www.cnymod.com
www.syracusemodelrr.org

Hi,? for various reasons I opted to use IR sensors for detecting where my loco(s) is on the track and for block occupancy,? not realising (because i'm new to this) that JMRI seems to only be able to detect when a loco enters a block and there isn't a mechanism to know if it's part way through a block or even exited a block until the sensor at the start of the next block is triggered.? Unlike current sensing methods with isolated track blocks etc where you know the loco and carriages are on the block somewhere and hence it is still occupied. ? So I was wondering if it was possible to use a second IR sensor at the end of the block section which unless it is triggered after the first sensor for the block is activated would indicate a loco is still in the block and thus it is still occupied? ?

Could JMRI with a block exit sensor connected in someway and possibly some scripting make this work? OR? alternative as I am using an Arduino for my IR sensor decoder could an Arduino sketch code be used to also monitor the block exit sensor for each block and unless it is activated following the block entrance sensor being activated would keep the block entry sensor still activated so? jmri? knows the block is occupied , ? if that makes senses. ?? Just looking at ideas to explore, before I scrap IR sensors for block occupancy.

Thanks Steve

Doc,

First, please say 'which latest' version of JMRI you are using?

Second, use the Windows Device Manager to discover which COM port the
NCE-USB is using. Do this by having it open as you plug and unplug the
device.

Third, check against the notes at ncedcc.com for the latest version of the
driver for the NCE-USB. It got smarter at some version update. Old version
would change COM ports as you moved it around the computer jacks. The newest
seems to keep track better and just use one COM id.

Fourth, which version of the NCE-USB are you using? Does it report as 6.*.*
or 7.*.*? That's in the Help->System Console, it comes back when JMRI asks
what did it connect with.

This will help us get you the right information. You may want to leave open
the console while running as it may be telling you about issues when it has
trouble.

-Ken Cameron, Member JMRI Dev Team
www.jmri.org
www.fingerlakeslivesteamers.org
www.cnymod.com
www.syracusemodelrr.org