Trouble with JMRI and Loco BufferUSB on digitrax

[soo]

Howdy all,

I was recently given a loco bufferUSB set up to try out to see if I liked it.  Well right now,,I HATE IT!!! biggest waste of my time.

After installing the correct drivers,, a couple of times

I thought I had it figured out,, I WAS WRONG!!!

I keep getting error code 306,, which states communication with command station has timed out. I already checked my loconet cable,, remade that two times. Checked to make sure my connections were solid, made sure that I was holding my tounge right.

The two green LED's on the loco buffer light up,,, which means it is recieving power from the USB post and that it is hooked up to the DCS100.

Allen Heimsoth and I thought there might be a programming track issue,, I was able to use my DT402D to program just fine.

If you go into My Computer,, it shows the regular drives,,C and D, also shows the DVD burner,, but Alas,, DOES NOT SHOW THE LOCO BUFFER!!!!!!,, what the F............

I had such high hopes for this tech stuff to work. And with my hobby motivation hard to come by,, why waste it on this junk.

I will be posting this on various forums through the vast internet. ANY IDEAS????

Adios, W

[railnerd]

ask over on this list:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jmriusers/

[GaryHinshaw]

Are you using Windows 8?  @mark dance was telling me he could not get jmri to communicate at all under W8.  He eventually scrounged an old laptop with an older OS just for this purpose.  FWIW, I use a Mac laptop with a PR3 Loconet interface and it is fantastic, so it's worth the trouble.

The yahoo group is supposed to be quite helpful.

[soo]

Gary,, I am using windoze 7. I am waiting to get the nod at the JMRI list,, I also email tech support at RRcirkits also.

Adios W

[mark dance]

Are you using Windows 8?  @mark dance was telling me he could not get jmri to communicate at all under W8.  He eventually scrounged an old laptop with an older OS just for this purpose.  FWIW, I use a Mac laptop with a PR3 Loconet interface and it is fantastic, so it's worth the trouble.

The yahoo group is supposed to be quite helpful.

I could not get Win 8 to communicate "reliably" with JMRI to the poitn where it wasn't usable in production and when I was able to load it, my custom Panelpro panels got errors all over the place.  I ended up running XP in a virtual machine on it!  Finally, the delays and overhead of this approach got to me so I just found an 10 yr old XP laptop that a company was disposing of and I have since had no issues.

And yes, the Yahoo JMRI forum is first rate at helping trouble shoot your problems...they have helped me several times.  Last week they walked me by the hand and got me 75% of the way to the WiThrottle/WiServer install...the final 25% was solved in 15 minutes with the help of someone local.

md

[John]

delete all the jmri related drivers from your system .. on the rrcirkits page there are the appropriate drivers ..

make sure you get the right drivers .. http://www.rr-cirkits.com/locobuffer-usb/drivers.zip

[fcwilt]

A LocoBuffer USB device does not show up as a drive, but rather as a COM port in Device Manager.

The issue with the drivers under Windows 8.x was unsigned drivers were not allowed to be installed, by default.

Under Windows 7 you were warned about the driver but still allow to install it.

You can either get a signed driver OR change a setting in Windows 8 to allow unsigned drivers.

I have several LocoBuffer USB devices connected to two computers running Windows 8.0 and they work just fine.

[soo]

Thank you to all, for the help.

I was able to contact Dick at RRcirKits. So I got what I needed straight from the horses mouth. He said that I should remove all driver associated with buffer and start from scratch. ( like John suggested)

Well that did it,, it works. I just wish I could read cv's on the main.

Adios,W

[John]

Thank you to all, for the help.

I was able to contact Dick at RRcirKits. So I got what I needed straight from the horses mouth. He said that I should remove all driver associated with buffer and start from scratch. ( like John suggested)

Well that did it,, it works. I just wish I could read cv's on the main.

Adios,W

Dick is a really great guy .. rrcirkits is one of the most responsive manufacturers of DCC equipment out there ..

with a DCS100 and JMRI, there is no reason you can't read CVs on the main ..  open JMRI, and use ops mode programmer ..  put in the decoder id and select read all pages ..  I don't like to do that, because after you manage to reprogram all your locos on the layout in one swoop to the same settings, you will understand why .

[jagged ben]

FWIW, we run JMRI on Windows 8 at the club and I don't believe we had any major issues getting it to work.

[reinhardtjh]

Dick is a really great guy .. rrcirkits is one of the most responsive manufacturers of DCC equipment out there ..

with a DCS100 and JMRI, there is no reason you can't read CVs on the main ..  open JMRI, and use ops mode programmer ..  put in the decoder id and select read all pages ..  I don't like to do that, because after you manage to reprogram all your locos on the layout in one swoop to the same settings, you will understand why .

Actually, you can't read on the main.  You can program on the main.  On a programming track you can read/write, but by design/definition reading on the main is not supported.  At least not until "Railcom" or whatever the NMRA approves is implemented.

John, I think that you are thinking of the difference between the DB150 which can't read, even on the programming track and the DCS100 which can read.

[John]

I stand corrected .. from the JMRI docs .. when in doubt  RTFM


Operations Mode (Main Track) Programmer - or Programming on the main(POM).  Opens the Operations Mode (Main Track) windowThis lets you program a specific decoder on the layout, even while it is operating. However, because it addresses a specific decoder address, some decoders will not allow you to change the decoder's address using this method!

Ops Mode setup window

Some command stations will only "broadcast" programming commands, which can mean every locomotive on the layout gets the same programming! The same is true if you try to program a loco with address zero (or forget to enter an address when you start).  If in doubt, check your documentation.

    Reading from your Decoder on the main:

    With a few exceptions it is not possible to read from a CV on the Main. If reading fails it usually reports as a 306 error (Timeout Talking to Command Station.)

    Writing to your decoder on the main:

    Program on the Main writes are often called a "blind write" because there is no response from the decoder that the write was successful.  POM is very useful for tuning loco performance while it is operating and the ack is the change in performance.
    The decoder is first addressed by the Command Station, then the CV is addressed and then the data that is to be written into that CV of that decoder is sent. An exception is if address zero is used,(or you forget to enter an address when you start).  Then ALL decoders on the main will write that data into the appropriate CV which usually is an “unintended consequence”.

Some command stations will only "broadcast" programming commands, which can mean every locomotive on the layout gets the same programming! If in doubt, check your documentation.

In this window you select the locomotive in which you wish to change CV values, and what programmer you want to use.  Once they are selected you click Open Programmer button just as you would do in the Service Mode programmer.