JMRI users

Re: JMRI & Engine Driver Issue

Akersp62@... (Peter Akers) — Sat, 05 Apr 2025 05:21:13 -0700

What is the address of the loco?
If it is below 127, is it a long DCC address or a short DCC address?

NCE is one of a small number of systems that allows you to put what are essentially short address in the long address CVs.

Peter Akers聽
[South East Queensland - Australia - UTC+10]聽

Re: Experimental "Flatpak" distribution of JMRI

jimalbanowski@... (Jim Albanowski) — Sat, 05 Apr 2025 05:15:57 -0700

Linux Crew:

Playing further with my flatpak install...

One hoped for feature with a Linux release is a seamless update of a system.

The flatpak install uses the same files structure for data but I have a problem finding the "programs" the scripts...聽 No big problem there were launcher icons installed in "other" in the start pane but I wanted to update desktop icons that are easily built in Mint Cinnamon.

The help show files gives me an /app/share/JMRI but that's not obvious where that actually is... there is no app directory in Home or the higher File System...

So for me... interesting... but I would ask the developers to get the install to 100% of the standard we have or not worry about the flatpak version...

I have several Linux/Mint/JMRI installs that I've gifted/built on recycled PC's that the easier an update the better... We are generally talking "noob" class computer users let alone Linux users.

Jim Albanowski

Re: JMRI and LogicX driving Signals

kcameron@... (Ken Cameron) — Sat, 05 Apr 2025 05:14:11 -0700

Randall,

聽

What system is your layout? Like what system are you using for the turnouts? Driving a signal lamp is really the same as driving a turnout motor. At least to JMRI. Look at 鈥楽ignal Heads鈥�, most of those outputs are using a turnout entry to drive the lamps.

聽

-Ken Cameron, Member JMRI Dev Team

www.jmri.org

www.fingerlakeslivesteamers.org

www.cnymod.com

聽

Re: Signal Controller Board Suggestions

kheywood@... (Ken Heywood) — Sat, 05 Apr 2025 04:32:07 -0700

You might also look at the standalone application for yard ladder control which I also implemented.

Yard Track Selection Via Single Button Press For 6 Track Yard

Ken
NYNH&H, Old Colony Division, Cape Cod Branch (1949-1959)
Loconet * JMRI 5.11.4 * OSX,Win10,Ubuntu

Blog: 聽Cape Cod Railroad (HO) 鈥� Newbie of an Oldie

Youtube: Ken's Channel

Re: Signal Controller Board Suggestions

kheywood@... (Ken Heywood) — Sat, 05 Apr 2025 04:27:25 -0700

I use QuadLN_S boards for my turnout, detection, and signal interfaces.

When used with JMRI Signal Mast Logic, the Quad translates Loconet signal messages into LED aspect indications.

https://www.n3ix.com/quadln_s-loconet-servo-decoder-family/

I run my entire railroad with JMRI and the Quads.

Top of Blog: 聽Cape Cod Railroad (HO) 鈥� Newbie of an Oldie

Ken on Youtube

聽

Ken
NYNH&H, Old Colony Division, Cape Cod Branch (1949-1959)
Loconet * JMRI 5.11.4 * OSX,Win10,Ubuntu

Blog: 聽Cape Cod Railroad (HO) 鈥� Newbie of an Oldie

Youtube: Ken's Channel

Re: Difference Between Compare and Reset

Donshroyer@... (Don Shroyer) — Sat, 05 Apr 2025 02:21:14 -0700

Phil G,

聽

Changing CV 29 to 7 results in the loco responding to the short address in the same way as previously reported. Meaning sounds are fine, but no loco movement.

聽

Regards

聽

Re: Difference Between Compare and Reset

Donshroyer@... (Don Shroyer) — Sat, 05 Apr 2025 02:06:07 -0700

Peter,

聽

I had changed the Brake Key to FKey 7, but I always check to confirm that all FKeys are Off.

聽

Phil G,

聽

Let me try that and report back.

聽

Regards

JMRI and LogicX driving Signals

randall@... (Randall Jones) — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 21:36:31 -0700

Wanting to drive a Signal based on a decision 'to set green / red' from a LogicX - already set a sensor 'light' on the screen and switch turnouts,, looking for guidance to then set a dwarf signal.

聽

unable to use turnout motor switches as there are two x three-way turnouts used.

聽

If there is a write up or Youtube I would appreciate in pointer, all i have seen so far are track sensor based and switched from a single turnout motor.

聽

Happy to answer any questions...

聽

thanks

Randall

Signal Controller Board Suggestions

randall@... (Randall Jones) — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 21:24:43 -0700

I have JMRI LogicX working through a tree/ladder of turnout to set 'a road in a yard' to the 'Main' from a touch sensor on a Panel.聽 Due to space, I am using two x three-way turnouts meaning I cannot use the turnout motor internal switches to switch leds on the Dward Signals on each road.

聽

On the screen, I have a 'sensor' light next to the Road when it is clear to the Main.聽 All good so far and works fine.

聽

Looking now for an addressable signal controller board to receive a JMRI command to turn a 'dwarf' signal from 'red' to 'green' when the sensor on the panel is selected (when it sets the required road to main).聽聽The signal controller will connect to an AUX bus connected to, in this case, a NCE PowerPro Controller.聽

聽

What Signal Controller Boards are you using to take the command to change the LEDs from JMRI?

聽

happy to answer any clarifying questions!

聽

Thanks

Randall

聽

Re: JMRI & Engine Driver Issue

mstevetodd@... (Steve Todd) — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 15:27:32 -0700

Richard,

Please post a screenshot of the About screen from EngineDriver while connected.

What address (exactly) are you typing in? NCE has some odd addressing, IIRC.

Also, try turning off the track power from EngineDriver and controlling Turnouts from EngineDriver. All of these will help narrow down the problem.

--SteveT聽

JMRI & Engine Driver Issue

supanedbb@... (Richard Lea) — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 15:19:40 -0700

Hi,

聽

Edit

Posted聽1 hour ago

One for the more learned amongst us to have a look at.

聽

I have the following set up聽:

聽

NCE Powercab, JMRI running on a Raspberry Pi via NCE USB using M Steve Todd's files, Panel Pro with a touchscreen panel to operate turnouts, turnout motors are DCC Supplies Cobalt Digital IP.

聽

The touchscreen panel works exactly as intended to control the turnouts.

聽

I would like the ability to use my phone to become a second throttle.

聽

With Wi-Throttle server running, I connected my phone to the WiFi network created by the Raspberry Pi, opened up the Engine Driver app & connected to the server.

聽

And here is where it goes wrong. Typing a loco address and then trying to move something , absolutely no response from the loco. If I try to operate a turnout motor via the accessory address , it works perfectly. The loco isn't stuck in consist mode as it works off the bat from the NCE handset using the same DCC address so as far as I know I'm not using the wrong address.

聽

On the Wi Throttle server screen I can see the phone throttle is connected and even the address of the locomotive I'm trying to control. The Track power is on.

聽

Can anyone give any pointers here?

聽

thanks in advance

Re: Difference Between Compare and Reset

ulvestad@... (Peter Ulvestad) — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 14:55:16 -0700

Testing the brake is simple. F11 is the default for these decoders. Make sure F11 is off.

--
Peter Ulvestad
Linux Mint 22.1, JMRI 5.11.4plus, Java 21.0.6
JMRI Users Group Moderator ( /g/jmriusers )
JMRI Developers Group Moderator ( https://jmri-developers.groups.io/g/jmri )
Tam Valley Group Moderator ( https://tamvalleydepot.com/ )
Sprog-DCC Group Moderator ( http://www.sprog-dcc.co.uk/ )
Edmonton Model Railroad Association ( http://www.emra.club/ )

Re: Difference Between Compare and Reset

phil@... (Phil G) — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 13:16:13 -0700

Just for a sanity check, if you change cv29 to 7 does it respond to the short address??

Phil G

Re: Train tracking, dealing with gaps

george.hofmann@... (George Hofmann) — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 12:06:14 -0700

The 'delay to inactive' technique worked. I'm glad that I was made aware of these 'debouncing delays'. I think they might be useful to clean up some flaky sensor data that we have been dealing with.

聽

George

Re: Experimental "Flatpak" distribution of JMRI

heller@... (Robert Heller) — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 10:12:24 -0700

I understand that. The "tricky bit" for both MS-Windows and MacOS installs is
getting and installing the "proper" JAVA JRE, not actually installing JMRI
itself. That seems to be what non-techies seem to have the most trouble with.
And probably the most confusing thing is that the version of Java at java.org
-- Oracle's JAVA -- is the wrong one. This is where something like a "Flatpak"
type of install might be helpful.

Getting the correct version of JAVA for *Linux* is pretty trivial, by
comparison, since almost all Linux distros have OpenJDK in their repo. Here
having a RPM or DEB package with a proper depenency for OpenJDK could be
helpful, eg:

sudo apt install ./jmri-5.12.deb

would then go after openjdk-17-jre (and openjdk-17-jre-headless)
automagically.

At Fri, 04 Apr 2025 10:29:53 -0500 "Dave Sand" <ds@...> wrote:

Robert,

The macOS install is essentially the same as the Linux install. Download a DMG, open it and drag "JMRI" to "Applications".

Dave Sand

----- Original message -----
From: "Robert Heller via groups.io" <heller锟絜psoft.com@groups.io>
To: jmriusers@groups.io
Subject: Re: [jmriusers] Experimental "Flatpak" distribution of JMRI
Date: Friday, April 04, 2025 8:34 AM

This seems like a "solution looking for a problem", at least for *Linux*.
Since JMRI is in JAVA and requires nothing outside of JAVA's JRE and
installing a suitable JRE under Linux is "trivial" (compared to MS-Windows or
MacOS), I am not sure how truely useful or needful this is.

I can see a flatpak (or similar) for MS-Windows or MacOS, since it appears
that those two O/S's have the greatest problems with installing JMRI, mostly
caused by confusion about installing the proper version of a JRE.

*I* would find a Linux "Flatpak" distribution of JMRI to be far more hassle to
deal with than the current Linux distribution methodolgy of JMRI. Actually, I
expect that the current Experimental "Flatpak" distribution of JMRI won't work
on my machine(s) anyway -- I expect it is a x86_64 Flatpak and all of my
machines use ARM processors. And this brings up a *new* issue that will
complicate things: there would need to be *four* Linux flatpaks: ix86, x86_64,
armv7l, and aarch64.

My only thought about "improvements" in the Linux distribution of JMRI would
be the creation of .deb and .rpm distrubutions of JMRI. I realize that JMRI
will never be in any Linux distro repo and I understand why that is, but a
self-made .deb and .rpm with a proper openjdk-XX-jre depenency could be
helpful. *I* could probably help with creating the necessary control files to
help with this, if anyone is interested.

At Fri, 4 Apr 2025 08:19:38 -0400 "Bob Jacobsen via groups.io" <rgj1927@...> wrote:

A user has been interested in possibly distributing JMRI as a 茂驴陆茂驴陆茂驴陆茂驴陆茂驴陆茂驴陆FlatPak茂驴陆茂驴陆茂驴陆茂驴陆茂驴陆茂驴陆 for Linux. I don茂驴陆茂驴陆茂驴陆茂驴陆茂驴陆茂驴陆t know much about that method, but apparently the distribution file also includes the JRE, so it茂驴陆茂驴陆茂驴陆茂驴陆茂驴陆茂驴陆s (at least in theory) easier to install.

As an experiment, you can find a 5.10 distribution in this form at

https://github.com/JMRI/JMRI/releases/download/v5.10/jmri.5.10.flatpak

For more on this, see JMRI/JMRI Issue 11658:

https://github.com/JMRI/JMRI/issues/11658

Is anybody familiar enough with this distribution method to be able to try it?

Is this something that we should do on an ongoing basis?

Bob
茂驴陆茂驴陆茂驴陆茂驴陆茂驴陆茂驴陆
Bob Jacobsen
rgj1927@...

--
Robert Heller -- Cell: 413-658-7953 GV: 978-633-5364
Deepwoods Software -- Custom Software Services
http://www.deepsoft.com/ -- Linux Administration Services
heller@... -- Webhosting Services

--
Robert Heller -- Cell: 413-658-7953 GV: 978-633-5364
Deepwoods Software -- Custom Software Services
http://www.deepsoft.com/ -- Linux Administration Services
heller@... -- Webhosting Services

Re: Sensor Query wrong for Digitrax BDL716 in 5.11.4

steveo@... (stevemac) — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 09:13:57 -0700

Thanks for the sensible explanation. I didn鈥檛 have detection in the yard until I bought a second unit so I didn鈥檛 notice.

Re: Sensor Query wrong for Digitrax BDL716 in 5.11.4

one2beros@... (Inobu One) — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 09:01:29 -0700

I don't think the BDL's have the ability to respond to a query.

聽

It would imply that the BDL has the ability to read an translate a query message and the perform a status lookup

on a particular detection port.

聽

The BDL creates messages based on trigger events. Only when a unit enters a block or exits a block will a message be generated.

聽

Inobu聽

Sensor Query wrong for Digitrax BDL716 in 5.11.4

steveo@... (stevemac) — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 08:40:33 -0700

Version 5.11.4+ R87a9dadc80 (Java 17.0.13)

The BDL168 is discontinued and replaced with BDL716 which I have two installed on LocoNet.

聽

Upon starting JMRI,

if the sensor is high as indicated by the LT5C LED, JMRI shows UNKNOWN then INACTIVE when I QUERY (wrong)
if the sensor is low as indicated by the LT5C LED, JMRI shows UNKNOWN then INACTIVE when I QUERY (correct)

During use the sensors correctly show inactive and active so changed states work correctly.

I don't recall this behavior using version 5.10 but I could be mistaken and I also added a second BDL716 at the same time I upgraded JMRI.

The problem is JMRI doesn't "see" the trains sitting in the yard although the LT5C clearly shows high/active so I have to run the train out of the block and back in to initialize the sensor at the correct level.

聽

//stevemac

Re: Experimental "Flatpak" distribution of JMRI

ds@... (Dave Sand) — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 08:30:38 -0700

Robert,

The macOS install is essentially the same as the Linux install. Download a DMG, open it and drag "JMRI" to "Applications".

Dave Sand

Re: How to delete a turnout with jython

ralphsokel@... (Snorkel) — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 08:19:58 -0700

I note that scripting and Java is listed in the layout automation section of the JMRI website. Perhaps that is why I am sensing discomfort with regard to what I thought was a simple programming question. No I do not intend to run scripts to operate an actual layout that would involve deleting turnouts or anything else. However, I do find that working with the layout editor and Panel Pro in general is frustrating and I am exploring alternative approaches to getting things done. For example I have used the AnyRail scripts to set up initial panels and found that the exported file from AnyRail has seemingly added tiny track segments with the incorrect block assignments around turnouts and that requires painstaking editing before signal masts can be placed easily. Additionally, part of the AnyRail to JMRI process involves using a script to place sensor icons. It places them directly over a track segment selection circle, making it almost impossible to select the icon to move it. I have not looked yet but have to believe it is relatively easy to iterate over the sensor icons and change their coordinates. Probably easier to edit the existing script for my own use to permit an offset when adding the sensor icons. But it might turn out to be useful to know how to delete things as part of an editing procedure and that is basically all I was thinking about.

-Ralph