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Question about functions on the HC-2

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Archive:
Originally posted by Shawn Hogan on the RailPro Users Yahoo! Group on Sep 28, 2015

Alright Tim! 'splain yourself :)
What's "vigilance control"? You have my curiosity up!! And you're right- the braking is best for operations but not necessary for the "roundy-roundy" of train shows. Probably overkill for the train show type exhibition. It kinda gives you a sense actually running the engine because you need to gauge distance and speed. Easy to learn but takes a bit of practice to get used to plus each loco handles just a bit differently. My 13 year old son is a better operator than I(and I pride myself on being a good operator in real life!).
Shawn

Archive:
Originally posted by TS on the RailPro Users Yahoo! Group on Sep 29, 2015

Ok here you go Shawn,

Vigilance control performs a similar function to the dead man's handle.
Where as the dead man's handle required constantly applying some sort
of weight to a lever of some sort (hand of foot) vigilance control,
which is used here, makes sure your awake and in control of the train
by using a counter. Simplified, it work's like this:

Counter counts for X number of seconds.

At X number of seconds an alarm sounds.

At X + say 20 seconds if the cancel button has not been pressed shut
down and apply emergency brake.

At any time during the counting moving the brake or throttle (2
notches) resets the counter.

The above was for the driver, fireman had a flashing light before the
alarm.

I think the above has been lacking somewhat in the model world, I
wouldn't like to think of the number of damaged models out there
attributed to a person not paying attention to their train, either by
yakking to someone else or by falling asleep.

Cheers,

Tim
Land of OZ

Archive:
Originally posted by Shawn Hogan on the RailPro Users Yahoo! Group on Sep 29, 2015

Good Morning Tim!
I love it! And it would be something to add to our control systems. Definitely adds an extra level of realism.

It would come into play, I think, more in the "roundy-roundy" of a train show or home layout that is built for continuous  running.
Shawn

Archive:
Originally posted by TS on the RailPro Users Yahoo! Group on Sep 29, 2015

Good Night Shawn :-)

I'm glad you like the concept. It was introduced here after a very bad
head on collision back in 1969 and it's worked very well.

You are right, it's probably wouldn't find much use during ops but
roundy roundy train shows, relaxing in a easy chair at home watching
your trains go round at the end of the day or (and this is a good one)
at the clubrooms. How many times I've seen people leave their train
running unattended while they're chatting with someone or go into the
next room etc. Of course we can't get the HC-2 to sound an alarm as it
has no speaker but with software I don't think it's be a hard one to
program.

Tim
Land of OZ

Archive:
Originally posted by kpack05 on the RailPro Users Yahoo! Group on Sep 29, 2015

Tim, I can fully understand the reasoning behind the vigilance control or dead man's switch.  But I'll be honest, I don't think I would enjoy using it...at all.  Like not even a little bit.  I'd imagine most people would feel the same.  Except perhaps for those whole are running a lot on show layouts as you mentioned.  That's really the only scenario where I could see this being tolerated.  During ops or just running at home you are pretty much always in close control of the train, so it just isn't necessary.

I'm not sure how many Railpro users would relish this idea, but perhaps it may become an option in the future?

-Kevin

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