JJGraphics

Which Speedometer App are you using on your phone? John

That is a real bonus when it happens. The ones bought by my clients occasionally had better video cards or more storage than advertised, but the most frequently-seen "upgrade" was more RAM than advertised. John

£300 is unlikely to get you anything worthwhile and will probably not net you anything that will drive that ancient Syncmaster 226BW which dates from around 2007. Older versions of CS will not run reliably on macOS newer than 10.10; older versions of QXP will not run reliably on macOS newer than 10.10.5 Many things have changed since the days of PPC-based Macs and unfortunately, much of what you have on those old HDs will probably not be much use. John

VueScan is excellent on Mac and your won't regret moving over to macOS. An iMac will do everything you need without fuss, but if you are serious about photography make sure you get one which is suitably specified, and when you buy it, be careful about secondhand machines offered by private sellers. Unless you know exactly what you are doing, you could end up with a nasty surprise! If you don't want to pay the full price of a new one, rather than risk secondhand, consider a Refurbished one from Apple themselves. The refurbished machines come with a full guarantee and support from Apple, just like a brand-new machine. They have been back to the factory in Cork, fully inspected and any cosmetic or functional parts replaced before they are completely wiped and a brand-new macOS installed. They are then tested and packed. Over the years my clients in the graphics industry bought almost 100 refurbished Macs from Apple in this way and every one was absolutely fine. Look here: https://www.apple.com/uk/shop/browse/home/specialdeals/mac The list of machines available is on the left and changes every day. John

A bit O/T, but one of my neighbours who has the current BT router suddenly started to experience strange problems with his home network a month or two back after British Gas conned him into having a Hive setup and their "engineer" came and installed it. When my neighbour complained, BG just shrugged their shoulders and offered to send someone to look at it more than a week later. The "engineer" that came said there was "nothing wrong" and went away leaving the problem unsolved. I offered to help, spent time troubleshooting, and found that the Hive gear was interfering with the DHCP server in the BT router, causing it to fail to lease IP addresses to the devices on his network. Suspecting the BT router, I tried changing the BT router to a good quality non-BT device, but as that made no difference it was obviously the Hive causing the problem. I could probably have resolved the issue by allocating fixed IP addresses to his devices, but by then he was completely fed up and he asked me to disconnect the Hive as he had discovered it was a complete waste of time (and money) for him. Further O/T: He has since had the Hive thermostat replaced with a modern Drayton wireless programmable thermostat which does the job admirably, and has also changed from British Gas to another supplier and saved himself a considerable sum of money in the process. But, as often happens, thereby hangs a tale: British Gas had also conned him into having one of their wonderful (NOT) "Smart" meters. The new supplier cannot read the smart meter remotely, so he has had to go back to reading the meter himself and submitting the readings online . . . hardly what you call progress! John

I used a 100Ω resistor and unsoldered one end after programming. I understand that if the resistor is left in place it may get very warm. It is not absolutely necessary to be able to read back the CVs as there are relatively few to be set and if things go wrong it is easy to reset the decoder to default and start over. You can write values into one coach on the Programming Track making notes as you go and then set the CVs the same for other coaches if you want them all to have the same effect, or possibly Program on the Main if you prefer to keep coaches in a fixed rake and have the same lighting effect and brightness in all. One address will then switch on all the coaches at the same time, but for this you will normally have to set all the decoder addresses before you PoM the whole rake. I don't know the answer to your question the other connections you asked about . . . I'm sure somebody will! John

Absolutely. They are excellent units. You only need to put the load resistor on if you want to read back the CVs. John

Totally agree . . . network issues are almost always related to the switch. Numerous customers I encountered over the years using unmanaged switches in my sort of working environment (numbers of Macs running graphics and/or video applications) which resulted in seriously large files being handled across a network were a constant source of trouble. The customers would do almost anything other than replace the switch. I even had one who spent a fortune on a new Windows server which actually made matters worse as the person who set it up did not really understand what was necessary. "They told me this xx-port switch would be fine," was the predictable retort when I explained what I suspected in most cases was the problem, having spotted the cheap unmanaged switch which they had been sold by someone who should have known much better. When I would take along a fully-managed switch and substitute it for theirs, there was usually disbelief in the astonishing increase in network performance and reliability, eventually followed by the reluctant but resigned production of the cheque book! John

I'm attempting to help a friend with a lighting issue on one of his DCC models and to resolve the problem it will be necessary to re-map some functions on a decoder. He has a Gaugemaster Prodigy Advance2 Controller and I need to know which of the F keys on that particular controller are Latching and which are Non-Latching to avoid mapping a lighting function to a Non-Latching key (which is currently the source of the problem). I know that the F0 and F1 keys are Latching and that the F2 and F3 keys are Non-Latching, but could someone who has a Gaugemaster Prodigy Advance2 confirm which of the other keys are Latching and which are Non-Latching, please? John

Or should that be 25% UNavailabilty? Pretty appalling statistic whichever way you put it!

DEFINITELY not often enough!

Do MPs have any idea about anything?

A good bit more than under the bridge!

Is it not time that legislation was introduced that would allow NetworkRail and the TOCs to fully recover all their losses from these incidents and also to introduce seriously punitive fines for the owners or operators of vehicles involved in bridge strikes . . . or am I completely missing something here?

. . . last Grandson at least throughout his time at school . . . I very much doubt it will!

Has anybody else noticed how it jerks slightly a second or so before moving off? John

Nothing.

Thanks. I'll be in touch! John

A related question . . . will the new project be available and sound OK in one of the re-blown Hornby 08s on offer at DCKits? John

A sad reflection of the way a lot of young people are these days!

Very droll! JJ

Working now! John

Does not work . . . returns 404 Not Found error. John

That is exactly the sort of thing I have in mind, with the addition of the clack of the keys as the signalman replies to the bell code. The background noises could be set to play randomly like the safety valve, coal shovelling etc., on loco sound decoders. John

Bringing this thread to life again . . . Anyone made any progress with the idea of signal box sounds or would be interested in the idea of doing some basic sounds on a decoder? I would be interested in a modest selection of sounds for a small branch line terminus box . . . just to add a bit of interest and entertainment value. John