Klaus, Dave, Stephen and Charles,

Thanks for all the help.? I've played with notch setting both ways - Idle sound just at idle and idle both at idle & notch 1.? Seems like the latter is more realistic. Per Dave (and others), at idle, generator excitation is off (zero traction motor voltage); at notch 1 diesel still at idle but excitation step 1 is ON thus traction motors are powered albeit at a low voltage.? Note that this is a very old DC generator control system.

Stephen, you stated that "What bothers me much more is to have engine start-up and shutdown sounds play every time the train is started and stopped. Locomotives are not routinely shut down just because the train has stopped. If did this, I would add the Stop position to the throttle and make use of that."

However, I?have only experienced VSD auto engine shutdown when I made an XML editing error (see below).? Stop/start is controlled by the "Engine Start" button in the VSD Manager Pane or, per Klaus, by a dedicated function button with the following in the config file:

<sound-event name="ENGINE" label="Throttle" buttontype="ENGINE">
Some painful advice:?

First, Do not try to transfer wav files from one .zip folder to another .zip folder.? This drives JMRI nuts.? Lots of error msgs.? When my wav files are obtained from a .zip folder I learned to first copy them into a regular file, then make the transfer to the VSD .zip (aka .vsd) sound folders

Second, make sure that the initial?<decel-limit>0</decel-limit> is always a 0.? In editing between a "0" notch and a "1" notch config file I erroneously had a?<decel-limit>1</decel-limit>.? That little 1 resulted in the engine not starting, but running (when "functioned" ON) upon throttle application and then shutting down at 0 throttle.? Drove me crazy.

Conrad

Remember that it is the board number that you address, not the sensor number so board number 1 addresses sensors 1-16 Off hand I think my boards start at no 7 which means the sensor addresses are 97 and upwards

I think this is the page you should be looking for to deal with the CVs?

The BDL168 uses current flow to detect occupancy so will not be affected by any magnetic material in your ballast.? However, your other concerns about the magnetic properties need to be addressed for reliable operation.

Maybe it is worthwhile to scrap the Superior Scenic ballast and find a substitute - cost a little more no but save forever future headaches.
--
Dale Gloer
Layout Supervisor, Southern Alberta Model Railway Club

If you want to complicate things further, some EMD locomotives are equipped with "Switcher Mode." This may be turned on by a simple bat handle toggle switch somewhere on the control stand, or may be one of the lineup of on-off switches originally built into the stand.

When implemented, nothing is different until the throttle is moved to Run 3, at which time the amps and pull jump up significantly, goosing the locomotive and its cars into motion. It is extremely helpful when kicking cars. We do not often kick model cars, but this operating mode would make flat switching less frustrating than dealing with very slow starts of models.

If the throttle is held in Run 2 for, say, 10 seconds, then moved to Run 3, there is no sudden jump in loading. It stays normal.

You should be able to get the same effect by setting your starting signals to get the locomotive moving quickly in a particular throttle notch.

All the above is from personal experience in a relatively limited number of locomotives in a short line setting, with locomotives that had already had a long life, so I have no idea how or how much they might have been modified throughout their lives.

Steve Bartlett

Hi all, brand new to JMRI and DCC so trying to get my head around things. I have an NCE powecab with usb module setup on a test track and have that working correctly, also using Megapoints DCC module and servo controller. I have manage to control my loco from the on screen throttle but cannot seem to find a way to connect to the megapoints boards. I have the dcc module set to gateway mode and the servo controller as slave. Power to the dcc module is taken from the main control board.
?I have setup configured a set of points in layout editor and can control these. I cannot for the life of me get the NCE to talk to megapoints. I am hoping that someonehere? a lot more experienced in the black arts can point me in the correct direction. Many thanks in advance, I don't suppose this will be my last plea for help. cheers

Hi.? ?Yes there is only one command station the?PR4 is the USB to LocoNet Interface with the PC.? I have the MRC and point/turnouts system connected on coms port 3 of the PC with the? MRC 0001515 Wireless Computer Interface.
then the PR4 is USB connected to coms port 4 of the PC.?
The part I am struggling with is how to change a CV on the BDL168, as I do not have the command station. I think reading the JMRI notes you can do it from JMRI??

Thanks, have ordered the diods and resitor.

I have a question that while on the surface it may seem off-topic but this is the only forum that I feel I can get a knowledgeable answer. I am a Digitrax user and as funds become available, I am setting up a detection system using the SE8c for the signaling and the BDL168 for detection.

?

Now for the off-topic part of my question. As I accumulate funds for signaling and detection, I am working on other aspects of the railroad…at the present time, I am working on ballasting the track. There is not a single type of ballast product that correctly models the ballast on the railroad I am modeling so I have been blending three different types. One is from the company Superior Scenics. After blending about half a quart of ballast yesterday evening with this product in it, I discovered that Superior Scenic ballast has some MAGNETIC rock in it, probably iron. I have yet to lay any of this ballast down but I am now concerned that with a magnetic ballast, detection and/or signaling might adversely be affected. I know fully well that magnetic particles, should they get into a motor will destroy it and I am also aware that any tank mounted speakers could pick it up and the sound would be detrimentally affected. Does anyone know, or have experience with, detection/signaling over trackage with a ballast that contains magnetic particles/granules?

?

Thank you for any and all comments,

?

Jim Shellhaas

Westfield, IN

Good morning Dave
Sorry for the delay in replying, didn't get back until 0200 Friday.
I have run through your modified panel. I modified the original startup files as can be seen here. I hope this is correct.
With the above changes I tried the changes to the panel.
Observations:
SD2 and SD3 both have included unwanted signal aspects (Flashing Red & Yellow, Double Yellow) . The latter becomes apparent when SD3 is yellow - SD 2 becomes Double Yellow. I could not find a way of restricting these unwanted aspects
The indivual heads of the Mast SD2 do not display. SD7-9 are the heads that communicate to the Software Node via the Turnout Table. For this reason to hardware gantry signals do not update the physial signals.
Signalling follows the routing and, depending on the destination mast, displays the correct SD2 aspect.
I could not find an entry for virtual Signal SD2 in the tables.
I suspect I have an error in my loading of the startup files.
Thanks again for your support.

follow the link provided and download the .EXE file as it is the Windows version of JMRI 4.17.5 ...? Jenkins builds are one step before a JMRI Test Release.

Be aware that your Anti-VIrus app may flag the file as a potential malicious file. IF this happens tell the AV the file is safe.

Marc

I have a Gaugemaster (MRC) Prodigy 2 and what I did was to make a virtual ground using 2 diodes on the track output of the Prodigy, feeding into the then feed them into a 1k? resistor.? For the railsync signal which is required for the BDL 168s? as I was worried about the 15V output going into the 7v no 1 pin (White on a loconet cable) on loconet, I put another 1k resistor in the non return leg of the Prodigy. I now have a DCS 50 Zephyr running as a master for track detection and the Prodigy for loco control and the system works well. The link for the railsync is here?
and the virtual ground link is here.

Ken,
This whole discussion is my fault and the results of my laziness. Instead of doing it myself I wanted the easy way and have someone tell me the answers. It turned out for the better because it forced me to do it myself.

I have everything from the throttle to the Base station, the LCS devices as well as logic and protocol analyzer. That's how
I was able to see and verify what was what. I even captured the hex sequences on the knob rotation. With that I created
as design map in excel that lets me see whats needed. I learned NetBeans and its debug to see what Java is doing.
Now its just a matter of inserting the necessary code to carry out those instructions. My plan and next step is to build a GUI interface and run it parallel. If it compiles I'm done But the point of all Self Development. Which is why I'm happy with the way
it turned out.

Always think to the future and Always have a back out plan. Because any plan without a back out plan is called a suicide mission.? Thanks for the input
Inobu?



?

开云体育

Howard,
I am assuming that the MRC Elite is the "command"? station that you? use to control the trains also for controlling the turnouts.
The BDL168 needs a Loconet which you? have attached at PR4.? One of the "rules" with a DCC system is that you should only have one DCC command station.
If the PR4 is also a command station, it would be better that it not be attached to this Loconet.? What is the purpose of the PR4 that is attached to the Loconet??
The BDL168 when on a "stand-alone" Loconet (one without a command station) will require the "rail-sync" signal from the command station, in this case? your MRC Elite.
The BDL168 is the? only Digitrax accessory product that requires the rail-sync signal.
Also, the BDL168 has the "pull-up" you are mentioning.? It is one of the CV settings on the board? (check the BDL168 documentation for the CV number).? If you are using more than one BDL168, only one of them needs to have the pull-up? CV set.
I work on two layouts which are NCE with Stand-alone Loconet implementations.? One is very similar to yours but we use an NCE command station and it required connecting the rail-sync wire in
the Loconet cable to the rail-sync of the appropriate wire in the NCE cable (serial bus or the cab bus?).? In the other implementation, I use a RR-Circkits Watchman for block detection.
In this case rail-sync from the NCE command station is not needed or required and this is entirely why I went with this implementation as well as it was less expensive.? I tried the resistor / diode setup? and blew the NCE command station.? It went back for repair.
Hope this helps you.
Marshall

Being new to this what do I download from the Jenkins page there are a number of different items that I do not understand. I Thank you for your help in this matter.?

My view is that some of the things that may come from this and later LCC
will expand the flexibility of the throttle concept. My thought that
currently it only has one variable value (speed) is one limitation. Things
like brakes, intensity, volume, rotation, etc... these are all things that
might come around needing a second variable (knob on throttle). I don't know
if we'd conceive of a need for string input (voice announcements?) and
multi-state things like radio buttons could ride as Booleans (which we do)
but not as clean.

I think our basic design is flexible enough to gain some more features.
Finding examples that have them will really drive this. If we don't have
hardware to show the path, it is really hard to plot a good course to get
there.

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

Dave,

The users interface is the throttle. The throttle in JMRI is written for TMCC-1. The foundation is there, the coding needs to be
added to support the command structure of TMCC-2.

I have completed all the testing, it's just the point of coding now.

This is like facing a revolt where the masses are screaming No! We want half rations! and a faint voice yells quarter rations!
which erupts with the masses yelling Quarter Rations!

Inobu

Ken,

If you look back a few weeks ago? posted a link for the Lionels Hand Held throttle.?



Look at the addressing Function ---- Those buttons control the Parameter index in the 3 word command format.?
So the user will press different buttons that will create the command syntax. When the command word is completed the
command string is sent out. If the user does not complete the 3 word command nothing is send.

So to blow the horn, the ENG button is pushed setting up setOpCode F8, at that point the hand held will look for the address of the engine. The user will enter the ID. This TMCC ID will be appended to the command. Next the hand held will change the display from the digit pad to an icon pad. That icon pad will then allow the users to press the icon representing the command they wanted to execute. At that point the complete command is sent as the 9 hex code string. Note that the last hex value is a checksum that will be checked. That comment itself would be a trigger word as no checksum was written in TMCC-1.?

The JMRI Throttle needs to have those Parameter buttons in order to construct the command. As of right now the TMCC commands are relegated to the function keys which are predetermined. That limits the users ability to access the full complement of commands.
This whole bantering falls under the you don't know what you don't know. Every one thinks its ok because they don't know the full capabilities of TMCC-2.

TMCC-2 runs rule 17 where the lights dim when the engine takes off......That is why I used the ground light as example. Some people don't know you can access them or know they exists. Performing the simple task I persented would have reveal the short coming.??

Inobu

Forgive my intrusion into this discussion, but I appear to be missing something.

Take a look at the manual:



The controller has a lot of controls and includes a keypad that changes into different sets of icons which can trigger different features.

Since the JMRI Throttle is based on DCC practices, it cannot handle the complexity of TMCC2. I believe the real challenge of supporting TMCC2 is designing the user interface. Translating interface events into TMCC2 messages is probably trivial and is no different than translating JMRI throttle events into NCE/Digitrax/etc. commands.

Dave Sand