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

Great the gold usb stick has arrived and i have had a great time (he lied) profiling loco's. Lessons learnt cheap decoders from Bachmann and Hornby are exactly that…cheap!

When profiled correctly (average 30 minutes per loco) the control of stopping, braking and running is superb and can be fine tuned with the brake compensation setting as well.

Its nice to see engines obeying the stop and brake markers.

I am currently struggling with my ECOS, there is intermittent identification of the LDT S88 occupancy decoders! very frustrating when the engines disappear in TC. Not much on the forums however ESU say a fix for "problems" with LDT S88's will in the next firmware release. i hope so.

Regards to all

Pete

Congratulations Pete :cheers

Speed profiling is a boring but essential job…………I have found a small malt and some smooth jazz makes it slightly more palatable……….30 minutes per loco is about par

The precision stopping is quite astonishing isnt it? One of the innovations on the most recent upgrade is the brake test……….I have a portion of the test track marked at with a start line and a stop line 12" away and at the end of every profiling I run the loco forward and in reverse at 15mph adjusting the brake compensation until it stops with .25" of the finish mark.

I agree with your comments re decoders………..I have standardised on Lenz Silver and have found them to be excellent…..always assuming the loco is a good runner on DC of course.

Have fun

 

Cheers for your comments John, i don't want to pan the decoders too much but imo you just can't get a good speed curve. Yes you can get some nice slow running but notch up a few steps and you are suddenly doing 30mph!

i am going to give a TCS a go they seem to get rave reviews. Currently i am using Lokpilots but they are expensive and good.

Love the Lenz silver however they are bit bulky for my tanks. If the tcs doesn't work out, Lenz it will be.

I have used TCS particularly the M1 (?) for my tanks (57xx) but found it more difficult to get slow running and smooth acceleration than Lenz……..so I went back to Lenz and used Silver Minis where space was a problem and they are just great. I have just chipped two split chassis tanks with them

a big advance in the world of train controller:mrgreen:

i have set my PC up n the shed and yesterday managed to switch some points. i was happy with this but i had problems with my s88 as it would not show occupied:roll: went back out today and switched it all on and the darn thing lit up red, used the TC throttle and moved the loco into the next block and it lit up. so i very happy. i only have the one s88 and still in demo so i can't do a lot. the PC is a rebuild so still messing about setting up drivers etc so it runs how it should. i have two monitors set up so i will get some happy snaps on Sunday. what i don't want is to get it working and spend all my time playing with it and not building the layout. it is good when it works:cool:

[user=13]Matt[/user] wrote:

a big advance in the world of train controller:mrgreen:

 what i don't want is to get it working and spend all my time playing with it and not building the layout. it is good when it works:cool:

I know the feeling Matt……………..right now I have spent almost a week working on an automatic pick up goods and havent done any building since I finished the brewery a month ago  With summer approaching Gardening and Sailing are also getting in the way!

The problem I find is that if I dont work with TC on a regular basis I have to start the learning curve all over again and despite lots of comments on blocks and stop markers lose track (sorry about the pun) of some of the schedules.

I am trying to compromise by having one day a week for running and the rest for layout building……………I havent been too succesful implementing this regime……………..you run into a problems and dont want to quit until they are resolved…….hence my slow layout progress   

It must be a great feeling to see it all happening in however small an area……..congratulations  


 

 

Well done Matt i can imagine your satisfaction at seeing block occupancy especially if its the right block!Thats the first of how many S88's?

I'm really gutted at the moment i am having serious trouble with the ECOS, S88's and TC Ecos is not playing with the S88's consequently TC is not recognising any occupancy so it is all totally unusable automatically

ESU say its a bug and should be fixed in the next update due shortly.

Really gutted about this during my research i chose ESU because of their compatability with LTD but it appears they have had floors from day one!

Beginning to wish i had gone with Lenz or Digitrax, when it works its a cracker!

Pete
Is it all s88 units that have the problem with Ecos or purely the LDT ones ?

Brian

Hi Brian, I only have 2 x LDT S88 RM 8's, both recently bought and still not railcom compatible! the problem is that module 1 changes itself to a 16 from an 8 intermittently more often not not. It appears to happen when i connect TC? It either works or not at all, usually the latter

I have posted the problem on the ESU forum and they have responded saying that there is a problem (bug) with the S88 bus in the ECOS, which the next update should solve fingers crossed.

That said i have just been using it for the last hour but block detection is a second or two behind in TC which cocks up the stopping.

VERY ANNOYING!

Regards

Pete

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

That said i have just been using it for the last hour but block detection is a second or two behind in TC which cocks up the stopping.

Hi Pete

You mean that TC recognises the train has entered the block a second or two after it physically enters? Is the time lag the same or does it vary with the loco speed?

If the time lag is consistent could you not adjust the stop distances?

What happened when you profiled?……..did TC recognise the loco had entered and left the measuring block late?

For what its worth I am having an equally frustrating  time re profiling a loco and while doing so managed to get TC to freeze the record which has never happened before (it could have been user error) and I had to nuke the loco record and start all over again……….grrr

 

Hi John it appears to be just a Hornby Jinty on reflection, i am getting great consistant results with my Bachmann Fairburns. I am in the process of redoing the profile on the Jinty.

Infact i have yet to find any good running Hornby locos! The Stanier 2-6-4t runs along the points sparking like a tube train so that is consigned to the display cabinet, my 4p fowler has intermittent contacts and is very poor slow running over the pointwork, stalling and shorting all the way.

I now have 3 Bachmann Fairburns on the layout (currently a bargain from a well known retailer) and they run like a dream and super slow, remember my video John? and their braking and stopping profile is superb, which i put down to their excellent slow running during profiling. Decoders are Lokpilot and the TCS direct fitting i was going to try.

Pete

Thats one of the error traps I fall into…………..one loco that is a poor runner/badly profiled and I scurry around changing stop marker distances that are proven with more reliable locos

I am tending to be much more stringent with "Does it stay on the layout?"……………….yes if it runs ok (no hand from the sky) and stops 10 times out of 10 over a proven uncoupler.

The other thing I am doing is reducing my maximum speed (and of course CV 5 and 6) to 30 mph……………..with amount of point work and relatively short distances currently my locos rarely run above 20 mph on schedules

Anyway glad the problem was solved…………back to profiling

 

No such luck the ECOS has failed again didn't even get through one profiling pass with the Jinty. So it has all been switched off for the night before it went out the window.

I will try again in the morning when it is quiet.

Pete

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

Hi John it appears to be just a Hornby Jinty on reflection, i am getting great consistant results with my Bachmann Fairburns. I am in the process of redoing the profile on the Jinty.

Infact i have yet to find any good running Hornby locos! The Stanier 2-6-4t runs along the points sparking like a tube train so that is consigned to the display cabinet, my 4p fowler has intermittent contacts and is very poor slow running over the pointwork, stalling and shorting all the way.

I now have 3 Bachmann Fairburns on the layout (currently a bargain from a well known retailer) and they run like a dream and super slow, remember my video John? and their braking and stopping profile is superb, which i put down to their excellent slow running during profiling. Decoders are Lokpilot and the TCS direct fitting i was going to try.

Pete

I'm glad it's not just me.  I'm making a sound project for a Hornby King George 1 at the moment and it's a real nightmare trying to get the thing to pick up.  I've put extra pickups in the tender, but if I put enough pressure on for them to work, it won't pull without significant wheel slip.  If I reduce the pressure it stops going from one power district to the next.

It will run fine on the rollers (on the Lokprogrammer jig), but I can't give it back while it runs like a pig - and besides, I want to make a video of it for my files.  Interestingly, it was DCC (non-sound) equipped when it was delivered and it ran badly then as well.

I'm not sure it's the fact that it's Hornby, Pete.  I have done a couple of retro-fit Bachmann steam locos recently, and they suffer from the same pickup problems.  Putting in extra pickups helps, but it's a lot of work to get it right.  I'm glad your Bachmanns work well.  It might be because they are new generation.  Anyway, you're not alone.  ;-)

Max

Yes Max it gets very frustrating especially with sound projects, because with my limited experience they lose power for a millisecond the sound restarts how unreal is that!

I am beginning to think that with extra detail the engines have, is the compromise in the running gear? How hard can it be to put decent pick ups and motors on. Some of us want to run them.

Hey ho less ranting its me age. I will never get sorted until my occupancy problems are sorted so i'd better just chill.

Have you got your TC Gold yet Max?

Regards

Pete

Absolutely, Pete.  That's why I stick to diesels for my own layout.  Having said that, I have a Proto 2000 Berkshire 2 8 4 with a six axle tender, which never misses a beat.  I wonder why!

I bought my TC Gold on the 20th, so it should be along soon.  I'm laying in extra Valium in readiness. 

Valium isn't there anything stronger? now i know why John keeps hitting the bottle and the Jazz!

ESU get a move on, imagine if i phoned the Samaritans for help with TC and ECOS they would hang up as i would classified as a lost cause.

Regards

Pete

I went with Lenz right through and that wasn't beer and skittles, mainly trying to understand it.  It all worked once I got my head around it.  I'll tell you something for nothing; there is a fantastic amount of help here, Pete.

"Max of the Thousand Questions."

[user=434]John Dew[/user] wrote:

The other thing I am doing is reducing my maximum speed (and of course CV 5 and 6) to 30 mph……………..with amount of point work and relatively short distances currently my locos rarely run above 20 mph on schedules

Anyway glad the problem was solved…………back to profiling

 

That will help John due to the size of my layout i couldn't go over 30mph and i think it certainly helps to run nicely (when it works).

Pete

[user=269]MaxSouthOz[/user] wrote:

  I'll tell you something for nothing; there is a fantastic amount of help here, Pete.

"Max of the Thousand Questions."

I dunno mate its thanks to all the buggers on here i am where i am!

If this site wasn't so helpful i might not be into TC etc.
and be happy tonight.

Oh dear, TC either fills you with immense satisfaction or total doom, at least there is tons of support here and honesty among the members who all share their troubles and woes instead of demeaning other peoples efforts.

So big thanks to all so far, one day i will start some serious scenery and maybe start my layout post.