Post any questions arising from "First Steps with RR&Co"

Brian


Hi Brian,

 

 it’s not just the colour screen version of ECoS, it is the original model too.  One of the recent updates (well probably about a year ago now) had an effect on the LDT s-88’s.  This can be countered by deactivating Railcom however for those who do not wish to do that an additional modification can be bought from LDT to modify your existing LDT s-88.  New S-88’s bought from LDT will have been modified and will not have this problem.

 

cheers

 

Neil


Neil this is a top tip, i have bought my S88's within the last few weeks and i have still had to disable railcom!

This is actually a belated thanks as i was messing around trying to get them working and i remembered your comments before i kicked my layout to death so thanks.

Regards

Pete

I assume the dongle is their attempt to stop that R&R software appearing on Wares sites which it has since day 1

It will work for a while but usually because they have introduced the dongle people involved in wares become more interested as its a bit more of a challenge. If the dongle isnt robust and gets faulty i sure there will be a lot of users who will get peeved with it.

Brian

Pete

i do remember the spectrum:oops: and the ATARI tennis game ( i thought it was well cool) i then moved on to the AMIGA 2000 and remember playing a game that had 16 floppy disks, it took longer to load the game than it did to complete it. i will take your comment  as a compliment and put it down to youth full looks:thumbs

i had a play with signals for about 5 nights. the red and green are easy it is just the amber that becomes a minefield. it is not so much setting up a single amber light it is when you have multiple lights with multiple routes and getting your head around the AND and the OR command. i decided to wait and set up each light as it goes onto the layout. i also decided that in blocks that are route blocks such as the mainline i will have 3 aspect signals and blocks that are stop blocs like a station terminus block i will use 2 aspect signals.

I have a dedicated laptop just for Rr&Co, John.  I was thinking I would download it on to my 1 Terabyte external hard drive to keep it safe in case I need to move it to another laptop, but my computer repairman said it would be better to download it on to the laptop hard drive and then copy it into the 1Tb.  I have made several copies of Zug for my computers that way.

Max does that mean you can copy the info off the dongle for backup purposes? Like john i don't like the idea of unplugging between pc's and i dread to think if i lost my dongle!

Matt i won't be using 3 aspect on my simple layout, been no expert does a yellow mean caution next signal could be/is on red? If so the signal before the red is on yellow wouldn't that mean the equal command? If next signal red = this signal yellow?

[user=450]wogga[/user] wrote:

Max does that mean you can copy the info off the dongle for backup purposes? Like john i don't like the idea of unplugging between pc's and i dread to think if i lost my dongle!

The dongle is just a security key that allows you to access the system ie database

RR&Co automatically backs up and you can copy those files to another computor……..but you would need the dongle to access them (operationally) for more than 15 minutes

 

I don't know how a dongle works, guys.  My laptops are all on a wireless network in the train room.  I am expecting to download the Rr&Co when I pay for it and it will sit on my laptop.  I had planned to locate the software on the external hard drive, rather than on the laptop hard drive.

My computer repairman said that it would be better to download it on to the laptop drive and then make a copy of it on the external drive.  The free trial copy is sitting in the external drive at the moment, so when I pay I can paste the key into it, but now I'm not so sure what to do.

An external drive is the safest place (if there is such a thing),  to keep valuable data - so I'm told.  Apparently CDs deteriorate over time like paper files do.  In any case, in the event of the laptop dieing, I can move the external drive to another laptop.

That's my thinking at the moment.  In any case I can't do it tonight as I have band practice.  :Red Card

[user=450]wogga[/user] wrote:

Max does that mean you can copy the info off the dongle for backup purposes? Like john i don't like the idea of unplugging between pc's and i dread to think if i lost my dongle!

I just Googled dongle.  Wikipedia describes it as a piece of hardware which plugs into the computer, like a USB 4Gb drive.  Some people here use the word to describe the attachment which provides wireless attachment to the internet.  There is also some reference to it being a code.

In this case, is it a code which you get via email, and which you paste in to activate Rr&Co once you have bought it - and not a piece of hardware?  If so, you can save it in a folder and use it to activate other copies of Rr&Co on other computers you may have.  That's how Zug works.

What I'm suggesting is that Rr&Co software sits in the external drive and you operate it from there.  My computer man suggested that it may run a bit slow doing it that way, but as that's the only thing which will be loaded (apart from Zug and the L1 USB software), I can't see it having much effect.

However, I could be wrong.  Last time it happened was in 1987 . . . . .

Its a small piece of hardware that provides the code that enables you to operate Train Controller beyond the demo period. There is a long thread on the RR&Co Forum about this.

The exe files that operate TC are easily down loadable and therefore replaceable………the ones you need to look after carefully  are the the three database files with the suffixes .yrr,.yrs,yrw and the automatically created back up file (.bak)

These 4 files get created for every application you save……thus I have a set for Granby and another one for the Tutorial and I think I have Matt's layout somewhere.  All are opened by the same exe files and recognised by the dongle

Hope that helps

 

the code comes in the form of a dongle, if the dongle fails it says on the forum that the software will repair the dongle. i have had a few dongles that have failed so i am not confident with them (not rr&co). if they do fail you can send them back to be replaced.

i would install any software to the hard drive of the pc\laptop and then save files to your external. any information will have to be dragged through the cable in order to operate the software. this can cause delays.

pete

i will try to explain the Amber signal (my limited knowledge)

if you have 4 blocks 1 2 3 4

block 4 will be occupied

block 3 will show red so  a train can enter and stop at the red light

block 2 will show amber telling the driver he must stop at the next signal

block 1 will show green

you can set speed restrictions on amber slowing the train preparing it to stop at the red signal.

hope that helps.

 

Matt that is very clear, but  it ain't so when it comes to do it i guess. I am quite happy with my greens and reds, there ain't enough blocks to need a yellow. Once you get the logic its fairly easy even to the extent of ensuring points are offset to protect a stationary train against a incompetant driver running a red.

Quite a complex program TC but very very good! can i have a discount now Herr Freiwald!

John understand the thoughts behind the dongle situation definately onlys allows single use at one time but still could be shared locally i suppose.

I am away from home now and just wondering if me dongle has arrived and has been consumed by my springer!

Pete

[user=450]wogga[/user] wrote:

John understand the thoughts behind the dongle situation definately onlys allows single use at one time but still could be shared locally i suppose.

I am away from home now and just wondering if me dongle has arrived and has been consumed by my springer!

Pete

Exactly………..you could share it in the sense that say a club layout could be operated by it and your own and or a friends but not at the same time………..the USB stick (which is more accurate perhaps than my use of "Dongle") has to be physically in the operating computor

Good luck with the dog!

Ahah!  I just read Wogga's thread again.  It looks like they post out the hardware (dongle).  That will make it much easier if it's like a USB stick, you could plug it into any USB port on any computer.  Then it looks like you make your own layout files which are saved to the internal or external drive, once the dongle launches.

I'll have to look at the Rr&Co forum.  Sorry for being so thick.  :oops:

Hi Max, yes its a strange one, i wasn't too sure what i was buying! i too was expecting a license key via email however a trawl of the RR&co forum and a question i got the info that in fact i will receive a usb stick.

Why the license key window? no we won't go there.

Pete

Whew!  Thanks, Pete.  I thought I was the only one . . . :pedal

I just bought my TC Gold.  The PayPal page came up in German.  That really tested my high school Deutsche!  :shock:

like i said i don't like usb sticks, i have a 3 year old who thinks he is a IT genius. if something is in a hole he will pull it out if he finds a hole he will shove something into it (he hasn't figured out yet that a square peg fits into a square hole).everything that isn't broke needs fixing and he can now work the drill:shock:

 

make sure you read through this thread

http://www.freiwald.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9866
 

Thanks, Matt.  It all makes sense now I know it's a stick.  I'd better get King George 1 finished ASAP as I can see I'm not going to get much else done once it arrives.   :pedal

Max

Have you bought the Railroad and co purely for the Tramway or do you intend to use it on the nickel plate railroad aswell?

Brian

I have bought it just for the tramway at this stage, Brian.  The main layout isn't wired to cope with it.  Besides, I use the main layout as a test track for sound projects, so I want to drive the locos manually.  I'm a bit of a 'pigeon holer' in that I'm not bright enough to do things mixed together (as you can see from my dumb questions).

I've taken a while to build the new layout, going step by step - making sure each peice works before I go on.  It's paid off.  A few of them haven't worked right off the bat - like the LS150 and the L1 USB.  I keep going back to it and running locos using Zug, just to satisfy myself that it is still OK.