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

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

Well.  Well.  Well.  Well.  Rummaging around in my new version of TC, I found my old track plan.  I recognised it from the name I had cunningly given it (Track Plan 1).  When I tried to open it, I got a dialog box which told me that it has been created with an old version of TC and my new one can't open it.  :shock:

Now that warrants an e-mail to Germany cozs normally, in most cases, new versions open old version files OK  BUT of course always an exception to the rules. And I would be most unhappy if that was the case with RR&Co.

Last time I upgraded, the TC software wouldn't recognise the Track Plan from the previous version.  I'm not too worried.  Now I have been through it a couple of times I reckon it will only take about an hour to re-do it.  I've still got the screen shots, so that will save a lot of square counting.

If I have to do it again after this, I'll be a bit dark.

Hi Max

Go to [Rairoad] on the main menu then [Open] then browse until you find the directory where you saved your track plans…….they should have a *.YRR suffix. Typically they are not stored in the same directory as the TC .EXE file

I meant to post about the update it was issued in June…..I think it is 7.02E

In case you are wondering I had a less than pleasant 7 hour motor sail into a 25 knot head wind but now I am safe and sound in Cortes Bay….glass of wine in hand…..picking up my emails 

 

I'm glad you're safe after that drama on the high seas, John.  I hope you are drinking South Australian wine. 

Your instructions are exactly what I did.  The files are *yrr suffixed, but TC can't open the previous Track Plan as it says it's from an earlier version.

I've got the screen shots of what I did, so it won't be a major exercise to rebuild it.

I am wondering if anyone else has had their TC crash like that, though?  There's no real benefit in saving Track Plans if new versions a few weeks apart won't open them.

Max
That looks like and Max email to Jurgen to me

If had had sat there and spent endless hours creating a track plan then for some reason had to reload the programme then be told you couldnt load it becuse it was an earlier version i would have the hump.
There is a thing called backward compatabilty that all software developers build in whenever any updates occur.

In fact you should be able to send your track plan to any railroad & co owner and they should be able to load it.

Mind you i still have to seriously look at this Itrain software yet i am supposed to be evaluating that may be just as troublesome:lol:

Brian

max

zip your old file and upload to this thread, that way we can see if it is your software or TC in general. it may be a problem with your software, you had a problem with the dongle and now the back compatibility. maybe when you first downloaded and installed the software some files were corrupted and these still remain corrupted even with the updates. maybe you could save the track plan to a dongle or disk and then completely remove TC from your system and then download a fresh copy and install.

one thing i do is after changes have been made to TC i save then close the program. this way TC re calculates the changes you have made and any gremlins left in TC will be disposed of. it is the same when you add or delete some software and makes changes to windows. it will ask you to re boot in order for the changes to take effect. don't re boot the system just TC.

also after each session i save the data under a new save file

TC_track plan_v1.1

TC_track plan_v1.2

TC_track plan_v1.3

that way if a saved file does become corrupt you have only lost the previous sessions data. also i have made changes in the past and not realised i have ticked the wrong box, this has cost me a lot of hours. all i had to do is go back to a previous version.

sorry if this is teaching you to suck eggs

matt

Thanks, Matt.  There are a few points there.  If I can't open the file, then I probably can't zip it.

I always save changes every few minutes and of course the software saves automatically when I close it.

Now, I just re-read the error message.  It says that the file was created using the NEW version and cannot be opened using THIS version.  I'm starting to get a sneaking suspicion that when I re-downloaded TC, it just overwrote the original OLD version I had been using.

I don't think the file is corrupted at all.  I think I may still be using the OLD download which has been reactivated by the code.

What I'm tempted to do is to completely uninstall TC and install a new download and see if I can then open my Track Plan with the NEW download.  What is the worst that can happen?

1.    I lose my old Track Plan; and/or

2.    I can't open the NEW download with the old code.

If I can somehow move the Track Plan file to another folder, other possibilities may also arrise.

I do like your idea about saving improved Track Plans as new files.  Tick  VG  :thumbs

OK.  I found the Track Plan file in a folder marked Railroad and Co in My Documents.  This is why I missed it ;-

Here's the interesting thing.  There are 15 files in the RR&Co folder and there are 15 identical files to them in My Documents.  The Files in My Documents are version 7.0.5.1  The files in the RR&Co folder are version 7.0.5.2

As the RR&C0 folder is IN my Documents, perhaps the earlier version is being called up first by preference.  It seems to me that if I delete all the RR&Co version 7.0.5.1 in My Documents, then the version 5.2 files should be able to open.

I have copied the Track Plan into the folder and I'll make another copy in another folder just to be safe.  I'll copy the early version files into a folder and then put the folder in the Recycle Bin.  Then the later version should open. 

Wish me luck.  :chicken

Well, I've done all that.  Now TC doesn't work at all.  Looks like it's Uninstall time.   :thud

Max my default folder (well RR&co's default that is) appears to be:

My documents/Railroad&co/Traincontroller

However i have noticed that if you save a copy to, for example to a backup hard disc, that folder appears to become the default save folder. So you have to be regimented to saving to the default folder above again once you have put a backup somewhere else. So it keeps your working copy safe and you know where you are…ish.

I have backups on 3 different hards disc, my dongle, my laptop my pendrive and anyehere else i can put the b****r.

I can't say i haven't been unable to open any older versions but then again i put my dongle in the control PC and it has never been unplugged.

Regards

Pete

That's where mine is as well, Pete.  I just missed it because of there being two versions, in two places.   I suspect that I may have damaged my download of TC during all of my furtive attempts to get it going in the first place.

I'm going to purge my computer of any vestiges of TC and then make a completely fresh start.  That's all that is left to do.  I can't see much point in making another Track Plan the way things are.

Just when I thought I was getting somewhere.

It's all good practice Max, you get more experience each time you restart it's all good fun, i hate to think how many hours i have put into Traincontroller in the last six months!

Mind you i have done most of it on my laptop either in front of the tele keeping the guv'nor company or in a hotel room where it has kept me sane.

Keep going! if you taught yourself Loksound i take my hat off to you for your perseverance and patience, you are really quite smart and all this :oops::oops::oops: is a bluff.:lol:

any software like word or xl will default to a save location in mydocuments. TC will be set up the same way, once you choose as save folder in another location it will save all future saves into that folder. the safest way is click save as and choose  the default folder of your choice, then save as and choose a separate location (usb stick) and do the same again to an external.

you can buy now external  hard drives quite cheap so when you close your PC it will automatically save any changes you have made. so you basically have a mirror of all your data on the external drive. i should practice what i preach:roll:

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

any software like word or xl will default to a save location in mydocuments. TC will be set up the same way, once you choose as save folder in another location it will save all future saves into that folder. the safest way is click save as and choose  the default folder of your choice, then save as and choose a separate location (usb stick) and do the same again to an external.

you can buy now external  hard drives quite cheap so when you close your PC it will automatically save any changes you have made. so you basically have a mirror of all your data on the external drive. i should practice what i preach:roll:

Good advice, Matt.  I have 1 Terrabyte external drives on all my computers.  When my desktop blew up recently, all my movies were safe - as well as all my tax records from past years!  The laptop I use for Loksound has hundreds of sound projects stored away on the external drive, otherwise it runs too slowly.

The RR&Co laptop external drive has a copy of the Track Plan, but TC is saying that it's too new as well, for my old download.  I'll reload it all tonight and report back.

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

It's all good practice Max, you get more experience each time you restart it's all good fun, i hate to think how many hours i have put into Traincontroller in the last six months!

Mind you i have done most of it on my laptop either in front of the tele keeping the guv'nor company or in a hotel room where it has kept me sane.

Keep going! if you taught yourself Loksound i take my hat off to you for your perseverance and patience, you are really quite smart and all this :oops::oops::oops: is a bluff.:lol:

Thanks for the kind words, Pete.  I was talking to a member at my club meeting yesterday, who has RR&Co.  He bought it years ago when it was about half the price it is today.  He has given up trying to make it work.  It makes one wonder how many other people there are who are like him.

I'm finding out as I talk about RR&Co to other modelers here that there are others.  One member of the NMRA group here is showing unnatural interest in my progress - or lack of it at the moment!  :lol:

I still believe I can make a go of it.  I remember I thought Loksound was written in Swahili Script when I started.  :exclam

OK  Lack of Progress Report:-

I eventually had to purge every trace of the old software and Track Plans - even off the external drive.  Otherwise it kept trying to open my old track plan and then trying to get me to change the new downloded TC.

Interestingly, now I have the code loaded into the USB stick, it opens automatically each time I do a fresh download; so I have made some progress. 

HOWEVER, I now need some help.  TC can't connect to the Lenz system.

I know the L1 interface is working as I can launch Zug and drive locos from the screen.  I can see the yellow LED flickering as the data flows through.  The Device Manager tells me that the L1 is in COM 4, but when I go into Setup Digital Systems and add the L1 in COM 4, TC says it can't connect.

I have run out of ideas, lads.  :chicken

I'm making a new Track Plan while I'm wating to be rescued.  :oops:

A bit weak at this, is there any other software running or running in the background Max that is also using Com 4 or just try putting your L1 onto another vacant com port and try again?

Pete

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

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

It's all good practice Max, you get more experience each time you restart it's all good fun, i hate to think how many hours i have put into Traincontroller in the last six months!

Mind you i have done most of it on my laptop either in front of the tele keeping the guv'nor company or in a hotel room where it has kept me sane.

Keep going! if you taught yourself Loksound i take my hat off to you for your perseverance and patience, you are really quite smart and all this :oops::oops::oops: is a bluff.:lol:

Thanks for the kind words, Pete.  I was talking to a member at my club meeting yesterday, who has RR&Co.  He bought it years ago when it was about half the price it is today.  He has given up trying to make it work.  It makes one wonder how many other people there are who are like him.

Max you are going great guns mate at least you have them running! you will eventually get where you want to be, but there is so much to TC you will end up fine tuning and trying to solve all the error messages that Dr Railroad throws up but thats for later.

At the moment i am struggling with an overactive SEEP point motor thats fires so well it bounces back to its last position doesn't half cock up my automatic running timetable:twisted::twisted::twisted::twisted::twisted:. i have an elastic band as a damper!

The member who gave up, couldn't you of offered a few bob for his TC?

Hi Pete.

I've been re-running all this in my mind overnight.  (Beats sleeping).  The problem seems to have started during a running session.  I heard the double ding sound of hardware switching off and the computer froze and from then on there were problems.  At the time I checked the devices attached to the computer and I could, and still can, see the RR&Co drive in My Computer.  With the power off to the external drive, it's not visible.

I have made several fresh downloads of the TC software.  The first one froze the computer when I started to make a Track Plan, but subsequent ones have let me in OK.  I've re-drawn the Track Plan, but I can only go so far.  When I try to activate the turnouts or blocks, I get the error message telling me that there is no connection to the Lenz.

I've posted the question on the RR&Co Forum, but so far no one has responded.  That's normal, as they took some time last time to start posting..

The RR&Co stick is plugged into an external powered hub, so I'm not sure how that relates to the COM options.  Juergen recommends us to do that so the contacts on the drive don't wear.  I thought the idea was a bit fatuous, but I went along with it.  I guess the only way to find out if that's the problem is to start moving it about.

I didn't offer any money for the other TC stick.  I already have one with problems.  :lol:  I remembered last night that a few weeks ago I was visited by a bloke who had run TC on his old layout and was building a new layout.  When I asked him if he would be available for questions, he changed the subject.

I haven't emailed Juergen at this stage.  He tends to give stock answers, so I'll try everything I can think of first.

Thanks for your support.  I hope you get your motor sorted.

Cheers     Max

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

  I remembered last night that a few weeks ago I was visited by a bloke who had run TC on his old layout and was building a new layout.  When I asked him if he would be available for questions, he changed the subject.

Cheers     Max

Thats charming Max, nothing like a bit of support, a few hours spent with him would save you days, sure he ain't telling you a whopper and he uses TC in his dreams?

I don't think the RR&co stick will effect your connection, i don't think its that clever. The bing bing is the sound of a usb device disconnecting. Is your lenz interface connected into the power hub or directly into the PC? I would be tempted to connect it directly to isolate any problems your power hub my cause a process of elimination. i have got an ECOS which connects via the network, which has its own little quirks occasionally. So i am limited. Did you try changing com port number?

Try giving Matt a pm he uses Lenz.