parkicat

Hi all

I would like to try a Hornby TTS sound decoder, does anyone know whether it has or can have stay alive functionality?

cheers

Cathy

I am using a commercial package, iTrain (https://www.berros.eu/en/itrain/), to do the heavy work for me

 

It provides me with fully automatic operation, which was always my intention however I am also setting it up to do what you need for a friend who has a large hidden storage yard where trains come and go. His challenge is that he cannot recall what has gone into where and I am setting up Railcom on his Digitrax system to enable him to monitor just the hidden yard. When a loco enters the Railcom ID will be read by the program which is then a) displayed and b) associated with the attached train and the layout schematic shows the name of the actual train. This layout will not have automatic operation, all we are doing is solving the ability to see what is parked where. This updates automatically when the layout is started and any time a train enters a monitored section. If the Loco isn't part of an Train then all that will show is the Loco ID.

 

The schematic for the solution is attached. I am sure you could make your program read the Railcom ID and then display, I am lazy and prefer buying a product that comes with the support

Alan railcom 20180718 v01.jpg

 

The test of the concept is shown in this picture where we knocked up a test circuit

 

iTrain Alan.JPG

 

Does this help you?

 

Iain

Hi Iain

Yes it does help. It shows us that we need to make ourselves more familiar with these products before we can ask meaningful questions, I’m still struggling with how it all hangs together. We would very much like to see something like this in action, perhaps at a modellers fair. Does anyone know of any setups like this near us in Flintshire?

Many thanks, good luck with the hidden track set up.

What you want to do is exactly what I do I am also setting up an identification only system for a friends hidden sidings and that will cost ~£200

 

 

Feel free to ask me questions, I can answer more fully later tonight

 

And it doesn’t need to be expensive or complex, only cost me around £450 plus some time

Thanks Iain for your reply and the clip.  Your screen and setup looks very exciting, mine is far simpler and without the fancy controls. Is it written by yourself or is the screen layout part of the Railcom package and icons? We have 22 locos so one of the problems I have, is finding space on the screen for a schematic of the layout and the loco controls that's readable.

Many thanks  

In addition to Ron's post...     Most commercial software that does position tracking by simple occupancy (detecting "something" passing a detector).   If the software knows the starting position, and the track arrangements (what connects to what, position of turnout blades), then, with adequate sensors, its possible to follow a train around by simple occupancy detectors, and updating the position of the train.     So "identification" hardware isn't necessarily required.  

 

Adding "identification" might be useful, but it comes at a cost.   RailCom requires:  a command station that includes a RailCom cutout in the DCC signal,  RailCom detectors (there are some kit designs around, as well as commercial ones), and RailCom capable decoders in all locos.   And, there are a few devices for DCC which don't work well with RailCom signals around. 

 

Away from RailCom, there are other methods of identification, such as:  reading bar-codes placed under locos and stock,  infrared codes pulsed from a infrared LED under stock,  RFID chips in stock and track-side readers, camera identification of loco as it passes (not that hard for image processing software given a short set of possible matches), and no doubt many others.

 

 

Very large and very complicated layouts work without "identification", just using detection and knowing starting positions.   The McKinley does it (currently expanding storage sidings to carry 200(!) trains).    

Thank you Nigel.  Our layout is a home produced one, as is the majority of the software that runs it.  It sounds like RailCom require its own controller software, which I was hoping to avoid, as I have spent many happy months producing our own. For me it's all about the fun of achieving the result myself through my own blue language and eureka moments!.  However, some of your suggestions for methods of identification are very interesting, will definitely be looking at those. Another thing I've not heard of, as I'm relatively new to the train modellers fraternity is 'The McKinley'.  Will be looking into that too!

Perfectly possible and a lot of people already have layouts with this facility.

 

Exact identification of individual locos/trains, can be derived either from layout control software, or from RailCom.

 

With RailCom and more particularly RailCom Plus, the loco/train will identify itself and also provide information such as direction of travel (or intended direction if stationary), speed etc.

 

In both cases, some form of track detection is required to indicate which section, or block, of track the train is in.

 

 

Ron.

Thank you Ron for your reply.  This is the first time I've heard of RailCom, but looks like I will be hearing a lot more!!

Hi all

I think this maybe a step too far, but I may as well ask.  Is it possible on a DCC layout, to identify where on the track a specific loco is, not just that an unidentified loco has passed a sensor? and if possible feed that information back in someway to the controller?

.

Our current set up uses a Raspberry Pi and Gertbot together with software to act as the controller of the engines, points, signals and sound( work in progress!). It displays a schematic of the track with points being manipulated through buttons on the screen, the schematic displays those point changes as they occur.  As we have at least 4 tracks going around in a loop around the attic, it is sometimes difficult to understand which loco is on which track, or indeed where it is? It would be good to register the movement of locos in some way. Is it possible? 

Many thanks

I don't know where you live but you can find Digitrains &  DCKits-DEVideos at many model shows, the can demonstrate there ranges of sounds too you.

 

Charlie ( www.dckits-devideos.co.uk )

Thank you for your comments Charlie. We have now received our sound decoder, and have installed it successfully. We played a bit with the sound functions using the Powercab on a programming track and having finally understood how the sounds are generated, thanks to everyone's assistance, btw, I was able to emulate it in software so that a button on the screen switches the sound on. Obviously a button on the screen for every function of every engine is not a working solution, so I'm now thinking of sound on at startup of engine and perhaps other sounds to be based on speed, still not sure how to implement, but I shall have fun trying. Thanks again all.

Thank you Alan for your suggestions. I have spoken with Digitrains and in fact that was where we ordered our sound decoder from. However, I probably didn't ask him the right question at the time. I thought I'd try this forum first.

Regards Cath

The short answer is yes.

 

I too use a Powercab with steam locos using SWD chips. The sounds are each allocated a function number - have a look at this

 

https://www.southwestdigital.co.uk/F%20Keys/GWR%20Grp%201.png

 

Note two things about the Powercab:

 

• The "Option" key needs to be reprogrammed to address functions 10 and above, see Page 18/19 of the manual, the new value needs to be 122 rather than 94. Afterwards a single press of the Option key makes F10 to F19 available and another press F20  to F29. This is clearly seen on the screen,
• Pressing the "Momentum" key can screw some sound decoders. I opened by Powercab and put insulating tape over it to prevent accidents. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/89097-beware-nce-and-esu-momentum-idiosyncrasies/?hl=powercab

Hope this helps,

 

Dave

Hi Dave.

Thank you for your detailed response. Very useful hints. I will take a look at those links as soon as our sound decoder arrives.

Hi all

As you can probably tell from this title and description, I am new to posting on this forum, well actually new to posting on any forum!.  So I'm not sure how to start.  If I perhaps explain what my current set up is and what I want to do and then hopefully somebody will be able to point me in the right direction.  The current set up is moderately large OO gauge layout comprising of about 25ft of track, some DCC Concepts Digital IP point motors, and about 20 'steam' locos. We have a programming track and use a NCE powercab to program various addresses and CVs.  The main track, points,signals and engines are controlled through a Raspberry Pi and Gertbot board, using the open source software available with the Gertbots, which I have modified to accommodate the various engines, signals and points, each is assigned an address, two for signals and points.  I want to now move on to sound. As I understand it the original motion decoders  need to be replaced by one capable of sound as well as motion. For motion I address the short address given by the powercab to each engine.  This is my question:-  Can individual sounds e.g. shunting, whistle etc be addressed independently, or are they built in to the speed at which the engine operates?  

I'm sorry if this is basic stuff but I just cant get my head around it at the moment and could do with some guidance.