The Transcontinental PRR

[Cajonpassfan]

Eric, what a monster helix, capable of swallowing multiple trains.....how long does it take to travel up it at proto speed?
Otto K.

[eric220]

Well, it's 150" per turn on the outside track and 6 turns, for a total of 900". That's around 2.25 scale miles. So 2:15 at 60smph or 4:30 at 30smph. Good example of why I went with an exposed design.

[eric220]

For some reason a phantom instance of JMRI has been launching on thi Pi at login. The only thing I can think of is that it's leftovers from when I was fighting with getting JMRI auto-launching. Unfortunately, the phantom and the GUI instances interfere with each others' ability to use the port that connects to the layout, making the interface extremely unreliable.

I'm pretty sure that I successfully backed up my JMRI user files, and the reformat of the Pi is underway.

Wish me luck...

[eric220]

And crap in a hat. "Temporary failure resolving 'mirrordirector.raspbian.org'" so no apt-get for me.

[eric220]

Still down. FFS, who designs a single point of failure like this into their entire product line?

[wm3798]

Some days I miss the simplicity of a couple of wires and a power pack...

Lee

[eric220]

Some days I miss the simplicity of a couple of wires and a power pack...

There is definitely something to be said for that. Given what I want to do with the layout, it's not feasible, but there is still something alluring about a simple setup.

[eric220]

And crap in a hat. "Temporary failure resolving 'mirrordirector.raspbian.org'" so no apt-get for me.

So.... yeah.... Turns out it helps if the Ethernet cable is plugged into something at the other end....

[John]

So.... yeah.... Turns out it helps if the Ethernet cable is plugged into something at the other end....

Happens to all of us at times

[eric220]

OK, it's showing up in the Finder. Time to install Tight VNC Server without breaking anything.

[eric220]

And we're back up and running headless! Now time to reinstall JMRI and hope and pray that I successfully backed up everything so I don't have to re-build the whole [expletive] panel...

[eric220]

Good news and bad news.  Everything is back up and running, including the panel and roster that I saved.  Unfortunately, the connection is still not working.  Now I get a "Connection not found" message instead of a "Port in use" message.

[seusscaboose]

EW....  too much typing.... JFRT man!





just kidding... good to hear you're back up...

Josh came over tonight and ran trains....   kinda....    and was nice enough to send me this crappy photo of him crossing Salty Creek      I intentionally used it b/c it shows the whole train....  he has better pics of his masterpieces...

[eric220]

@seusscaboose yeah, I'd love to JFRT. Unfortunately, I took a computer-centric approach with my layout, and the computer is down, so the layout is basically down.

@chicken45 has a sexy looking train there!

[eric220]

I'm really beginning to think that beating this piece of $#!T RaspberryPi into dust is worth what I paid for it.  I can't get it to reliably recognize the USB ports.  Most of the time JMRI can't find the USB port at all, and occasionally (even after a clean reinstall) a phantom instance of JMRI launches, blocking the USB port.  That old Mac Mini in the closet is starting to look better and better as a replacement.