Bug in Dual Double Strobe Light Effect

[Jimk33]

I think there is a bug in the lighting effect Dual Double Strobe.  First, it has only one option as to which color wire to control, but if it is dual shouldn't it have two?  Second, it doesn't work even on that one wire.

I don't believe the problem is with the wiring in my locomotive.  I recently replaced the incandescent lights on my SD70MAC with LEDs, and wired the ditch lights and dual headlights independently so I would have flexibility in lighting effects.  I have been trying all of the different light effects available to see which I prefer and all of the lights work and are controlled fine by other light effects, but not with Dual Double Strobe.

This is obviously a first world problem, and trivial in the overall scheme of things, but I just wanted to give someone a heads up about what I discovered.

Regards,
JIm

[Josephbw]

Hi Jim, double check your polarity going to your LED. I've wired them up backwards a few times, easy to do. 

Joe

[G8B4Life]

There's no bug that I can see, the effect is set to use 2 wires so why your only seeing one is a bit of a mystery; normally you should only see one wire if the effect is set to on/off.

I'd try these steps again. I'm sure you would have checked when you did it but we'll do it again. I'm assuming that your wiring is all ok as you stated other effects all worked ok.
. . .

Try again making sure the button type is set to Light and you set the Name to the dual double strobe effect.

Make sure you've got the correct wires selected, it's easy to set the wires to the colours of the other plug, eg, you want the green wire on the 9 pin plug but you accidentally set it to the green wire of the 6 pin plug. This is assuming you have nothing connected to the wires on the other plug.

If it still makes no difference, try setting it up with the other controller, eg, if this issue is happening when your trying to set it up with the HC-2b try setting it up with HC Sim.

Re-download the effect and try again; it's highly unlikely that the effect is corrupted but you never know.

- Tim

[Jimk33]

Joe,
The LED's work using other light effects, so I'm sure the problem is not wiring.  Each of the lights works with an on/off function so I know I have the correct wire colors.

Tim,
I now have a different problem, and I'm questioning whether I saw that I thought I saw.  I can't select Dual double strobe as a light effect because it is not on the on the button set up screen.  I have downloaded it from the server, and copied it to this LM-3S as well as another LM-3S and an LM-3, but it doesn't show up as a choice on this particular module.  It works on others.  I have copied it to this module several times and the loading bar appears to work with no error messages, but it doesn't show up as a selection choice.  The instructions say the distance to the product must be less than 2 feet, which I can't do with my C-1, but I tried it with the HC-2b 2 inches away and it didn't work.  The C-1  I have loaded it on another LM-3S and an LM-3

Could this module have become corrupted so that it won't load new effect?

Jim

[William Brillinger]

I now have a different problem, and I'm questioning whether I saw that I thought I saw.  I can't select Dual double strobe as a light effect because it is not on the on the button set up screen.  I have downloaded it from the server, and copied it to this LM-3S as well as another LM-3S and an LM-3, but it doesn't show up as a choice on this particular module.  It works on others. 

Jim, is the module's software up to date?

[nodcc4me]

Are you using the HC Sim to program the module? I have had files disappear off of the HC Sim and the module I programmed with it on more than one occasion.

[Jimk33]

Bill,
The software version is Rev 1.06.  I don't see any updates for the LM-3S on the server, so I assume it is up to date.

NoDCC4me,
I have tried copying the file to the LM-3S using both the C-1 and the HC-2b with the same results.  Regarding files disappearing from the C-1 I was going to ask about that.  It seems to forget a lot.  But the file Dual Double Strobe was present on both the HC and C-1 and appeared to copy with no errors.  It just wasn't available when I tried to apply it.  I have another LM-3S and an LM-3 that copied the file with no problems and I was able to apply it on those.  I tried copying another file and it too wasn't available, so I'm guessing the problem has to do with recording the file on the LM rather than with the program itself.  Perhaps the file was corrupted because of this issue when I originally tried to use it, or the module is wonky.

This really isn't that big a deal, but now it's a challenge.  It's not worth a lot of time to investigate, unless it's a sign of a more substantial problem, but I would like to know why it does what it does.

Thanks for your time.
JIm

[William Brillinger]

If you have any files on the LM that you don't need, try deleting them, and try copying the program again.

[G8B4Life]

If you have any files on the LM that you don't need, try deleting them, and try copying the program again.

Ugh, I had forgotten about this There is a bug in either the LM or  HC/HC Sim (I don't rightly know which but I'm leaning towards the HC/HC Sim) software that it only shows 2 pages of effects, even if you have more than 2 pages worth loaded into the LM. I can't quite remember if I discovered that with sounds or lighting effects but if you have 2 full pages of effects loaded into the LM indeed delete some effects and the other ones you loaded should show up.

I thought I had reported this to RE as well I but I can't find it in my outbox.

- Tim

[KPack]

Regarding the HC-Sim "forgetting" files....I brought this up to Tim while beta-testing and he mentioned that the program is designed to save upon exit.  There was a reason for this, but I don't remember it.  So after downloading things from RE to the HC-Sim, exit the program to save it to memory, then open it back up.  Should all be there after that.

-Kevin

[nodcc4me]

Sounds more like a programming glitch Kevin, but I'll give it a try. Thanks.

[Jimk33]

Tim,
Deleting one of the other light effects allowed me to see the dual double strobe effect.  However, from what I saw the limit is not two full pages but more like 8 effects.  I saw 6 effects on the first page, and only 2 on the 2nd page.  When I deleted one of the listed effects the dual double strobe appeared as the 2nd item on the 2nd page.

As for where the bug regarding effect list might be, I'm leaning towards the LM, because the HC and C-1 both list more than 8 effects when copying a file to the LM, but only 8 effects are listed when you try to apply them to a button.  I'm assuming based on no evidence at all that the application of an effect to a button happens in the LM rather than the HC.

As for the "bug" that started all of this, I must have confused this function with another, because it works fine.  Apologies for the mistaken alert, but some of the greatest discoveries in history were by accident.

Thanks again for your help.
Jim

[G8B4Life]

You can thank Bill for this one Jim, his post to try deleting files reminded me of the "pages" bug which I had forgotten about, which I'm kinda surprised at myself for forgetting since it was only a few weeks ago I came across it. I thought I remembered 2 full pages being 4 to a page but as you discovered, 6 and 2, not 4 and 4.

I still have to let RE know as well...

- Tim

[Jimk33]

Another question about the dual double strobe function, when I navigate away from the button screen on the HC the function on the module stops.  This happens whether I switch to another loco, the information screen, or turn off the HC to let the train just run on its own.  Is it supposed to do that?

Thanks,
JIm

[nodcc4me]

Once a function is enabled, it should stay enabled, at least until the power is cut. Usually, when the power returns, that function will return as well, unless it is turned off before cutting the power.