Software download

[Josephbw]

I wish I could find a way to do this at home. It's going to take all day to download all the files and upgrades for the 25-30 engines I have. I have also seen the issues with downloading CI-1 files which makes me cringe.

When Tim and I were corresponding, I asked him if there was any way I could get a CD and use that to upgrade my stuff. He basically told me he didn't have time to fool with it.

I went to a train show yesterday and picked up a newish Atlas RS-3 w/DCC decoder and sound for $25. The guy that had it paid someone to install the decoder and speaker in it and the sound was terrible and the engine ran like crap. After asking him some questions I ascertained that a new decoder and speaker would cure the ills of it. I opened it up tonight and found the the speaker cone was dented and the housing was broken, which explained the sound. Then I found the front truck front shaft bearing was spinning and frozen to the shaft. It didn't take much to fix that.

At the last show I went to I found a guy that was 3D printing enclosures for sugar cube speakers. I bought 4 speakers and large enclosures, a few minutes later he ran me down and gave me a smaller enclosure to try for free. I'm going to put it in the roof of the cab. This engine has very little space inside, but it looks like I can make the LM-2s and speaker fit.

Was there someone on this forum that wanted to know if there was room for a decoder in an RS-3? It may have been in another forum if not here.

[G8B4Life]

Joe,

Once you've updated the HC and downloaded the new LM programs etc to it you can do all the locomotive updating at home.

Let me get up to speed with this.

You have managed to download and install the latest version of RailPro Assistant (v3.20) ? You will need this new version.

You only have a HC-2 (not a HC-2b) ? If you only have a HC-2 you may need to install the drivers for it as RailPro Assistant no longer includes them in the download.

Do you have a CI-1? if you do I can provide all the LM updates and sounds etc that you want that you could copy directly to the HC Simulator software. I can't do this for the physical HC though, it's not possible.

You should be able to do all this at home, but you may need to be plugged in to your modem/router and not rely on wireless.

- Tim

[Josephbw]

Hi Tim,

I thought I had the latest greatest version, but I just went downstairs and looked at my notebook, and it's ver. 3.10. When did the newest version come out? I downloaded 3.10 a little over a month ago.

I have 2 HC-2's.

I do have a CI-1, but as with everything else I haven't been able to do anything with it.

I have hughes net satellite internet, which is apparently totally incompatible with Rings software. I've tried before to hook up directly to the modem, but that didn't change a thing. Also when I went to my friends house I didn't have to do anything with Norton or windows security, it just went straight to Rings and started working.

I had another issue crop up when I started my notebook. Is netsh.exe a Ring file? I got an error message that "The instruction at 0x77b05a9f referenced memory at 0x00000000. The memory could not be written". I still had RPA open on the screen.

Thank you,
Joe

[G8B4Life]

v3.20 of RPA came out late Sept / early Oct when the new features were released. We can very easily upgrade your 3.10 to 3.20 without having to connect to Rings server. It is simple to copy the required files manually by downloading them here from the files section (when I actually upload them, I don't think I have yet).

netsh.exe is not a Ring file, it is a Windows command line executable. Why you had an error with it concerns me, it should not run unless you personally ran it which I doubt very much that you did or another program ran it (which could not have been Rings). I think you need to check your computer for malware or viruses; I would not put any faith in Norton.

Is there any reason you can't use the CI-1 other than you can't download HC Simulator? As said I can easily provide HC Simulator already loaded with whatever LM upgrades and sounds etc you'd like. All you'd need to do is tell me what you want loaded to it and then download and install the files manually (not using Rings Server). You could then update your LM's to the latest software etc though some of the new features wouldn't be able to be used by the physical HC's until they were updated as well.

Unfortunately we can't update the physical HC's this way, they definitely need to be updated through RPA. I could probably build a server to serve the files to RPA that you could run right from your PC but that'd take a lot of development time which I don't have.

- Tim

[Josephbw]

Hi Tim,

Thank you very much for the offer.


The sound files I need are: Alco 244.   EMD 567C & B, 645, 567D3A, 16-645E3, 20-645E3, 645E.  GE FDL, FDL-16.

I don't know how many of these files RP has, as I wasn't able to get to the next sound page before the download ground to a halt.

I wasn't able to connect the CI-1 to Rings computer.

It may be a while before I can get to my friends cable network, but when I do I'll download the HC updates to both HC's.

Thanks again,
Joe

[William Brillinger]

Here is the current sound listing:

https://rpug.pdc.ca/index.php/topic,18.0.html

[G8B4Life]

Joe,

With the list of sounds available that Bill posted, note all the "ULT" sounds (Sept 2017) are new recordings that require LM-2S's and LM-3S's be updated to version 2.02. Let me know which sounds from the list you want.

The CI-1 does not connect to Ring Engineering. The CI-1 is used by the HC Simulator software. HC Simulator and the CI-1 combine to give you a virtual HC-2 on your computer.  Once you've finished reading through my illustrated guide it should all be clearer.

- Tim

[Josephbw]

Thanks Tim. Sorry it's been so long in getting back to you. Being retired doesn't necessarily mean you have a lot of spare time, and it's been nuts as usual around here lately. As soon as I can get to my friends house and update my HC,s, I'll be ready to download the files.  I'll have to update my LM's also.

Joe