Rocrail Digitrax

[GrahamHale]

Rocrail  Digitrax

Stroke. Left arm, Left leg, Voice.

Detection & Signaling 

 

Help ??????? 

 

Winsford

Edited October 19, 2019 by GrahamHale

[WIMorrison]

Some context and a narrative may enable people to understand what issues you may have - presently it is rather lacking and impossible to work out what the question is, let alone how to answer it 

[GrahamHale]

I am writing this email on behalf of my Dad - he had a stroke 10 years ago and is unable to communicate easily.

 

My Dad has setup a model railway in his garage and he is having difficulties with it. From what we understand it runs in manual mode, however he cannot get it to work in an 'automatic' mode. Here are the specifications of it:

 

Digitrax;

 

DCS210 DCC Command Station & Booster (not sold separately, DT500 Advanced Super Throttle with Infrared Capability, BDL168 LocoNet Occupancy Detector, 16 Detection Sections, RX4 4-Zone Transponding Receiver Add-on for BDL Series Detectors, PR4 USB to LocoNet Interface with Decoder Programmer, Computer.

 

Rocrail  or Train Controller,

 

Would you be able to offer any advise on how my Dad can get it to run in automatic mode?

 

Many thanks for your help.

 

Kind regards,

 

Sarah (on behalf of Graham)

[WIMorrison]

Sarah

 

sorry to hear of your dads issue - can you ask him whether it is RocRail or Traincontroller that he is using as they are very different and whilst there are people here that can help with TrainController I havent seen anyone mentione that they use RocRail but know knowing which program will enable the right questions to be asked.

 

I am sure someone will solve the issue (not me unfortunately as I use another program) .

 

Fingers crossed someone come along soon (and hopefully quicker than the real trains :))

[GrahamHale]

Morning Alan,

 

Many thanks for your responses. My Dad has drawn a diagram of the setup but I'm unsure whether this will help? As you say, as the system already runs in manual mode my Dad thinks that the hardware is setup correctly.

 

My Dad lives in Winsford, Cheshire - do you know anyone locally that could possibly help him if we don't come up with a solution via email? He got your details from RM Web which is website he follows.

 

I really appreciate your time in trying to help us. My Dad's email is graham.hale@sky.com if it's easier to reply via email?

 

RocRail

 

Many thanks,

 

Sarah

[RAF96]

Try the Rocrail forum, which is very helpful.

You do have to provide certain files with your quiry but there is a ‘collection’ facility within Rocrail that does this for you.

Good luck with it.

[5BarVT]

Morning Graham/Sarah,

 

Also sorry to hear of Graham’s condition.

A question which may help define the assistance required: has Rocrail worked previously on this layout?

If it has, then it’s a case of finding what has gone wrong.  If it has never worked, then it’s a case of assisting with a first time set up.  Although I use Traincontroller myself, I know that there was a lot of setting up to get the TC to understand the layout and the trains on it. There are ways of testing the set up with simple things to see how far things are connected. 

Paul.

[BoD]

I use Rocrail to control my layout automatically or manually and sometimes half way between.  It was a fairly steep learning curve.

 

What has your dad done so far in Rocrail (or Train controller)?

Has he set up a mimic of the layout and allocated the occupancy detectors to blocks.

How is he controlling the points?

 

In the rocrail documentation there are couple of walkthrough tutorials to set up or download fictitious layouts to understand the steps in setting up Rocrail for manual or automatic or operation.

[GrahamHale]

I am writing this email on behalf of my friend - he had a stroke 10 years ago and is unable to communicate easily.

 

He has setup a model railway in his garage and he is having difficulties with it. From what we understand it runs in manual mode, however he cannot get it to work in an 'automatic' mode. Here are the specifications of it:

 

Digitrax;

 

DCS210 DCC Command Station & Booster (not sold separately, DT500 Advanced Super Throttle with Infrared Capability, BDL168 LocoNet Occupancy Detector, 16 Detection Sections, RX4 4-Zone Transponding Receiver Add-on for BDL Series Detectors, PR4 USB to LocoNet Interface with Decoder Programmer, Computer.

 

Rocrail  or Train Controller,

 

After numerous conversations and email exchanges with a variety of dealers Grahan's train issues remain unresolved.

 

Would you know anybody in the model railway community in the cheshire area who would be able to visit Graham in his property to enable him to demonstrate the difficulties he is experiencing? Tea and cake will be on offer.

 

We have tried to make contact with David Townend of McKinley Railways but have not been able to find either an email address or a phone number.

 

Many thanks for your help.

 

Kind regards,

 

Neil (on behalf of Graham)

[WIMorrison]

Have you tried contacting Chester Model Railway club?

 

http://www.chestermodelrailwayclub.com/

 

If they are too far away then I am sure they will know someone more local who may be able to help, though knowing whether it is RocRail or Traincontroller is very important because they are completely different and to get the right support you will need to be able to tell them. Generally looking at the Help, About tab on the program will tell you what it is.

 

EDIT - seems that they now use Facebook rather than the website

 

https://www.facebook.com/chestermrc/

 

I am sure either one will get through to them.

 

The other place to look is http://www.ukmodelshops.co.uk/other/clubsheader.php

 

 

Edited October 31, 2019 by WIMorrison