Beiträge von John Ferguson

My experience is that my small disc high strength magnets glued to the underside of the n gauge locos are completely reliable in regard to operating the reed switches.

The feedback to the Commander is via the S88 system using Ltd's boards.

John

I have found the 3 preset speeds for each loco very effective for slowing at signals and station platforms.

However to achieve a very accurate stop at a station platform I provide a reed switch operated by a magnet under the loco. This reed switch is set as the destination in the route editor so that the Commander issues a stop command on reaching the reed switch.

Adjustment of the CV for breaking then enables you to achieve a very accurate stop position.

John

The links to the USB driver on the German and English speaking parts of the web site no longer work. I have reported this direct to Mr. Jurgen Mier.

John

I have found a solution to the need for a display that shows the whole of the track plan on a Commander.

I installed RocRail model railway open source software on my PC and drew the whole track plan.

This software connects to the Commander and can operate the points/turnouts if required.

The connection to the Commander is made by the purchase of a Lenz USB PC Xpressnet interface which is connected to the LSB port on the Commander. There is also available a Lenz Ethernet version as well.

To avoid the FDTI driver for this interface clashing with the FDTI driver for the Commander’s backup system a two port USB hub was connected to one USB port on the PC.

The USB lead for the Commander was connected to the hub and the USB lead for the Lenz device was connected also. This ensured that when the driver for the Lenz device was installed it allocated itself to a different com port to the driver for the Commander backup system.

The Lenz server is not switched on as the RocRail software is set to connect to this device.

Once the addresses are set for each point/turnout they can be operated via the PC.

Another use for this scheme is that a Smartphone and Ipad can be used to drive trains. That is another storey.
John

Included in the user manual is the facility to set points/turnouts when the Commander is turned on.

This operation on my Commander does not occur. The symbol on the track plan changes but the point/turnout does not move.

Please could members let me know whether their Commander has the same fault or not.

This information would very useful is seeking a solution.

Regards

John

Hi Vadim

This is way above my knowledge.

I am just a user.

Best wishes

John

Hi Vadim

I can see that you have made a study of this.

Your suggestions make sense to me.

Regards

John

The problem of short circuits from turnouts set in the wrong position might be solved by feeding the turnouts solely from the Commander with the track fed from a booster.

It should work providing the booster shuts down when a short occurs without shutting down the Commander.

This would allow the Commander to correct the turnout and remove the cause of the short.

This is a theory which I have not tried.

John

Hallo

I have experienced the display being inaccurate to the left after switching on the Commander.

I have found that if you leave the Commander unused for about 25 minutes after it is switched on the display improves.

In regard to the calibration of the display if you repeat the calibration enough times it will eventually be correct but you should not do this until 25 minutes after the Commander is switched on.

I hope this is useful.

John

Hi Jose

It can be downloaded by switching to the German language part of the web site.

Regards

John

I have taken the advice and loaded versions 1.3 and 1.35.

The result is that the dispay calibration is now acceptable at the time the Commander is switched on.

No calibration was necessary.

Best wishes and Happy New Year to all Users.

John

I would like to know whether anyone as experienced the Commander crashing when trying to delete route no. 32.

The Company reports that they can not repeat this on their system.

What happens is that the screen switches off so that you have to switch off and restart the Commander.

I find it hard to accept that my Commander is the only machine which has this problem.

My machine is about 6 months old.

Hoping for a reply.

John

I am also finding the display a problem.

However the longer amount of time the Commander is switched on brings the calibration back to normal operation.

My Commander is in a loft which is cooler that the average temparature in the house.

Today when I switched on the dispay tended to scroll erratically and accuracy was poor.

This seems to point more to a problem with the hardware taking time to warm up to the operating temperature.

John

A wonderful Christmas present for all Commander users.

So many brilliant new facilities. We are fortunate in having a Company that demonstrates its support every year without fail. Long may it continue.

Congratulations to the whole development team.

I am going to have a drink to celebrate.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

John

A solution is available to use smart phones and IPads with the Commander.

I am using a smart phone to drive trains via the Commander by connecting a Lenz LI-USB XpressNet PC interface to the LSB port.

This communicates with open source RocRail PC software via a wireless router.

A separate PC has to be used to the one used for backups to avoid conflict with the FTDI drivers. It does seem to me that with some adjustment to the usb driver software the Company would be able to offer this or similar solution without any major changes to the Commander.

John

I only have the Lenz Li-USB Xpressnet interface. I do not think it has any feedback capability.

I regret I can not help you.

Hi Vadim

My research indicates that Xpressnet is not used for feedback as lenz has separate two wire bus for this.

Hence I do think the Xpressnet port on the Commander will provide any feedback information.

John

Hi Vadim

I will look into it and get back to you.

John

Hi Vadim

I do not know the answer to S88 feedback both on the Commander and on the PC at the same time.

Suggest you discuss this with the maker of the HSI-88 S88 interface. Littfinski DatenTechnik

Regards

John

The answer is that they do not having looked at the Lenz documentation.

The only way I am familiar with is Littfinski DatenTechnik's (LDT) HSI -88 device. This is a USB to S88 product that is claimed to function with RailRoad & Co's Traincontroller software.

Why you would wish to do this however when the Commander is able to provide a high level of automation without a PC.

John