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Sorry to have been so out of touch; I've been working on the PC <-> MS100 connections.
To make a long story short, I've uploaded a test installer to:
for a DecoderPro version that should be able to talk to an MS100 on most(?) PCs.
I would greatly appreciate it if people could give it a try and let me know whether it works. I've tried it with an HP PC under Win95 and XP Personal Edition. I'm particularly interested to know if it installs properly and works on other windows versions, and if there's any particular hardware that it has trouble with.
Thanks in advance.
Bob
--
--------------
Bob Jacobsen (Bob_Jacobsen@..., 510-486-7355, fax 510-495-2957)
Am working off a huge email backlog, call if it's urgent.
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Bob,
I just tried the lastest version Decoder Pro (0.9.3.4) with Java package (1.4.0_01) real quickly on a Dell GX1, PIII 600 mhz, 256MB ram, Com1, and Windows 98SE.
This is a very quick test.
1) Installed then booted latest version of Decoder Pro
2) Set Layout Cnnection to LocoNet MS100
3) Set Serial Port to COM1.
4) Set Command Station to DSC100
5) Set GUI to Windows
6) Saved Preferences.
7) Restarted Decoder Pro.
8) Started Debug LocoNet Monitor.
9) Saw messages as I turned the knob of a throttle.
10) Messages indicated that slot 1 speed was changing. My engine with address 8127 changed speeds with the throttle.
The basic test indicates that Decoder Pro is communicating.
One quick suggestion. It would be nice to see the locomotive address in the LocoNet Monitor screen.
Al
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----- Original Message -----
From: Bob Jacobsen
To: jmriusers@...
Sent: Wednesday, July 03, 2002 11:20 AM
Subject: [jmriusers] MS100 connections from the PC
Sorry to have been so out of touch; I've been working on the PC <->
MS100 connections.
To make a long story short, I've uploaded a test installer to:
for a DecoderPro version that should be able to talk to an MS100 on
most(?) PCs.
I would greatly appreciate it if people could give it a try and let
me know whether it works. I've tried it with an HP PC under Win95
and XP Personal Edition. I'm particularly interested to know if it
installs properly and works on other windows versions, and if there's
any particular hardware that it has trouble with.
Thanks in advance.
Bob
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One quick suggestion. It would be nice to see the locomotive address in the LocoNet Monitor screen< Al, Not sure this would be possible until we have a feedback scheme in place, like the current Digitrax or what NMRA is looking at? Or do I misunderstand this? Jon Miller AT&SF For me time has stopped in 1941 Digitrax DCC owner, Chief system NMRA Life member #2623 Member SFRH&MS
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Jon,
I do not know how to express this very well so please try and follow my reasoning.
Each time a locomotive speed message is sent from the throttle to the locomotive the packet includes the locomotives address.
It is there for reasonable to assume that the locomotive address can be extracted from the packet by the Decoder Pro software and displayed in the LocoNet Debug window. I use long (extended) addressing. When I saw slot 1 in the LocoNet Debug window I was controlling a locomotive with address 8127.
I hope that this answers your question.
Al
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----- Original Message -----
From: Jon Miller
To: jmriusers@...
Sent: Wednesday, July 03, 2002 12:21 PM
Subject: Re: [jmriusers] MS100 connections from the PC
>One quick suggestion. It would be nice to see the locomotive address in
the LocoNet Monitor screen<
Al,
Not sure this would be possible until we have a feedback scheme in
place, like the current Digitrax or what NMRA is looking at? Or do I
misunderstand this?
Jon Miller
AT&SF
For me time has stopped in 1941
Digitrax DCC owner, Chief system
NMRA Life member #2623
Member SFRH&MS
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At 12:46 PM -0400 7/3/02, Al Silverstein wrote: Jon,
I do not know how to express this very well so please try and follow my reasoning.
Each time a locomotive speed message is sent from the throttle to the locomotive the packet includes the locomotives address.
It is there for reasonable to assume that the locomotive address can be extracted from the packet by the Decoder Pro software and displayed in the LocoNet Debug window. I use long (extended) addressing. When I saw slot 1 in the LocoNet Debug window I was controlling a locomotive with address 8127.
I hope that this answers your question. Thanks, I think I understand. The answer is "yes and no". The LocoNet message we're displaying doesn't carry the locomotive address, just the slot number. But the program does have a SlotManager, which in many cases knows the locomotive number. It's a good idea to add that info to the monitor display, I'll do that. But it won't be 100% present without some work. In DecoderPro, the slot monitor is passive; it just looks at the information it sees go by on the LocoNet. The way it knows what's in a slot is to see the contents go by in an acquire, dispatch or update operation. So the monitor will only have the address available after it's been watching for a little while. I'll have to see whether that's a real problem or not; I'll do some tests later today. The full JMRI library has an active slot monitor, which asks the command station when it needs info. I'd left that out of DecoderPro because it wasn't really needed, and because it causes some extra LocoNet traffic. But I should look into whether it would be good to add it. Thanks for the suggestion! Bob -- -------------- Bob Jacobsen (Bob_Jacobsen@..., 510-486-7355, fax 510-495-2957) Am working off a huge email backlog, call if it's urgent.
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Bob, I downloaded the installer and it ran clean on my W95 machine. The new version appears to work OK. Unfortunately it is not near teh railroad and I have no loco net connection to it to try at the moment. I also have a laptop with W2K on it which doesn't work with the prvious version of Decoder Pro. I downloaded the installer to it and when I try to start the installer I get a nasty message in a popup box as follows: The NTVDM CPU has encountered an illegal instruction, CS:053c IP:02b7 OP:63 65 6e 74 65 Choose 'Close' to terminate the application. There is a Close and an Ignore button at the bottom of the box. Too bad because I really hoped that Decoder Pro wopuld run on this machine. Dale. --- In jmriusers@y..., Bob Jacobsen <Bob_Jacobsen@l...> wrote: Sorry to have been so out of touch; I've been working on the PC <->
MS100 connections.
To make a long story short, I've uploaded a test installer to:
for a DecoderPro version that should be able to talk to an MS100 on
most(?) PCs.
I would greatly appreciate it if people could give it a try and let
me know whether it works. I've tried it with an HP PC under Win95
and XP Personal Edition. I'm particularly interested to know if it
installs properly and works on other windows versions, and if there's any particular hardware that it has trouble with.
Thanks in advance.
Bob
--
--------------
Bob Jacobsen (Bob_Jacobsen@l..., 510-486-7355, fax 510-495-2957)
Am working off a huge email backlog, call if it's urgent.
|
At 6:48 PM +0000 7/3/02, dale_gloer wrote: I also have a laptop with W2K on it which doesn't work with the
prvious version of Decoder Pro. I downloaded the installer to it and
when I try to start the installer I get a nasty message in a popup box
as follows:
The NTVDM CPU has encountered an illegal instruction,
CS:053c IP:02b7 OP:63 65 6e 74 65 Choose 'Close' to terminate the
application.
There is a Close and an Ignore button at the bottom of the box. That's not a good sign... Does this happen _before_ the installer splash screen comes up? And what type of laptop (e.g. what processor) is this? I'll ask the Mindvision people if they've seen this before once I get those details. Bob -- -------------- Bob Jacobsen (Bob_Jacobsen@..., 510-486-7355, fax 510-495-2957) Am working off a huge email backlog, call if it's urgent.
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Hi Bob Just a note to say thanks for all the time you are spending Decoder-Pro Jerry Walker aka n1hat Sorry to have been so out of touch;------------ --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (). Version: 6.0.372 / Virus Database: 207 - Release Date: 6/20/2002
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Bob,
Is it possible that when Decoder Pro initializes for the software to read the slots in the command station and store that information. If this could be accomplished then the slot information would be available at anytime.
Just a thought.
Al,
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----- Original Message -----
From: Bob Jacobsen
To: jmriusers@...
Sent: Wednesday, July 03, 2002 12:57 PM
Subject: Re: [jmriusers] MS100 connections from the PC
At 12:46 PM -0400 7/3/02, Al Silverstein wrote:
>Jon,
>
>I do not know how to express this very well so please try and follow
>my reasoning.
>
>Each time a locomotive speed message is sent from the throttle to
>the locomotive the packet includes the locomotives address.
>
>It is there for reasonable to assume that the locomotive address can
>be extracted from the packet by the Decoder Pro software and
>displayed in the LocoNet Debug window. I use long (extended)
>addressing. When I saw slot 1 in the LocoNet Debug window I was
>controlling a locomotive with address 8127.
>
>I hope that this answers your question.
Thanks, I think I understand.
The answer is "yes and no". The LocoNet message we're displaying
doesn't carry the locomotive address, just the slot number. But the
program does have a SlotManager, which in many cases knows the
locomotive number. It's a good idea to add that info to the monitor
display, I'll do that.
But it won't be 100% present without some work. In DecoderPro, the
slot monitor is passive; it just looks at the information it sees go
by on the LocoNet. The way it knows what's in a slot is to see the
contents go by in an acquire, dispatch or update operation. So the
monitor will only have the address available after it's been watching
for a little while. I'll have to see whether that's a real problem or
not; I'll do some tests later today.
The full JMRI library has an active slot monitor, which asks the
command station when it needs info. I'd left that out of DecoderPro
because it wasn't really needed, and because it causes some extra
LocoNet traffic. But I should look into whether it would be good to
add it.
Thanks for the suggestion!
Bob
--
--------------
Bob Jacobsen (Bob_Jacobsen@..., 510-486-7355, fax 510-495-2957)
Am working off a huge email backlog, call if it's urgent.
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My laptop is an IBM Thinkpad T20 with an Intel Pentium III processor running about 800mHz - don't know exactly. The error happens immediately that the Command Line window opens after selecting the installer. There is nothing displayed in the Command Line window. Another piece of information which I got from observing more carefully this morning. The error popup box has a title line that says: 16 Bit MS DOS Subsytem My guess is that the installer is a 32 bit program. So, I am trying to figure out how to get W2K to give me a 32bit VDM to run the installer in. Will update you if I find a solution. Is there another way to install this version? Dale. PS: I appreciate what you are doing with this program. It is the only thing that available that can give me what I want for decoder programming. Maybe I will just have to break down and buy a locobuffer. --- In jmriusers@y..., Bob Jacobsen <Bob_Jacobsen@l...> wrote: At 6:48 PM +0000 7/3/02, dale_gloer wrote:
I also have a laptop with W2K on it which doesn't work with the
prvious version of Decoder Pro. I downloaded the installer to it and when I try to start the installer I get a nasty message in a popup
box as follows:
The NTVDM CPU has encountered an illegal instruction,
CS:053c IP:02b7 OP:63 65 6e 74 65 Choose 'Close' to terminate the
application.
There is a Close and an Ignore button at the bottom of the box. That's not a good sign...
Does this happen _before_ the installer splash screen comes up?
And what type of laptop (e.g. what processor) is this?
I'll ask the Mindvision people if they've seen this before once I
get those details.
Bob
--
--------------
Bob Jacobsen (Bob_Jacobsen@l..., 510-486-7355, fax 510-495-2957)
Am working off a huge email backlog, call if it's urgent.
|
At 12:26 PM +0000 7/4/02, dale_gloer wrote: My guess is that the installer is a 32 bit program. So, I am trying
to figure out how to get W2K to give me a 32bit VDM to run the
installer in. Will update you if I find a solution. The installer _is_ a 32 bit program. I don't know much about Windows, so left most of the installer-builder settings as they were. It's got an option called "Generate a 32-bit setup" which is checked by default. The help text is "If checked, a 32 bit setup .exe will be generated. This file will only run on Windows 9.x, Windows NT or Windows 2000." That makes me think that it should be working for you, but it's clearly not. How does Windows decide whether a .exe file is 32-bit or not? Could something have been mis-set in the .exe that confuses it, either at my end or in transmission? Sourceforge has the file listed as "32-bit Windows", so should have used that Mime-type when downloading it. Is there another way to install this version?
Not today. As part of the deal for getting the piece of comm code I needed to talk at the MS100 baud rate on Windows, I had to agree to not allow separate downloading of the parts that make it up. That includes making a .zip file available for download. I can't push too hard, because he's already been quite flexible in letting us use his commercial product. He generously let me use the $50 "one-user" license instead of the $1500 "commercial distribution" license. Investing money for a component of something that's then freely available is interesting economics... I'm still hoping that we can get a non-commercial implementation of the comm code. But that's also a free-ware project, which means that it moves at its own rate. When it's done, I can make that available like the older versions of DecoderPro, where you copy some files into specific places. But it might be a couple weeks. Bob -- -------------- Bob Jacobsen (Bob_Jacobsen@..., 510-486-7355, fax 510-495-2957) Am working off a huge email backlog, call if it's urgent.
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Bob,
Is it possible that when Decoder Pro initializes for the software to read the slots in the command station and store that information. If this could be accomplished then the slot information would be available at anytime.
Just a thought. Yes, that's what the active Slot Manager does. But that's a lot of LocoNet traffic, and it can cause problems if you start the program while the layout is running. I have to teach it to be a little smarter about which slots are interesting, so that when it sees one being used, only then does it request the contents. Bob -- -------------- Bob Jacobsen (Bob_Jacobsen@..., 510-486-7355, fax 510-495-2957) Am working off a huge email backlog, call if it's urgent.
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Bob, I have some good news. After a lot of investigation, it appears that the original download actaully appeared to W2K as a MS-DOS program and I guess that was the cause of the problem. Whe I downloaded it I did not select a mirror so I don't know which site it came from. This morning, I deleted the installer and downloaded again. This time I chose the telia (US) mirror. The download worked, W2K thinks it is a 32 bit Windows app and it ran correctly. DecoderPro starts up correctly so when I get home I will try to actually connect to the railroad and see if things will work as I expect. Will report again later. Dale. --- In jmriusers@y..., Bob Jacobsen <Bob_Jacobsen@l...> wrote: At 12:26 PM +0000 7/4/02, dale_gloer wrote:
My guess is that the installer is a 32 bit program. So, I am trying to figure out how to get W2K to give me a 32bit VDM to run the
installer in. Will update you if I find a solution. The installer _is_ a 32 bit program.
snip ...
Bob
--
--------------
Bob Jacobsen (Bob_Jacobsen@l..., 510-486-7355, fax 510-495-2957)
Am working off a huge email backlog, call if it's urgent.
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Bob Jacobsen