RailPro Assistant 3.20 / HC Simulator 2.00

[G8B4Life]

Really surprised Bill hasn't posted this yet. I don't want to steal your thunder Bill as you were the one to discover it but the info is almost a day old as I write this and I need to write the last bit of this post.

RailPro Assistant 3.20 and HC Simulator 2.00 are up on Ring Engineering's website. They are not on the What's New page yet but going to the RailPro Software page they are up for download.

http://ringengineering.com/RailProAssistantSoftware.htm

http://ringengineering.com/RailProHcSimulatorSoftware.htm

System requirements Vista or later as usual.

At this stage there will be no WinXP patch for RPA 3.20 or HC Sim 2.00; it's not a trivial a patch as the previous versions (it uses file handling calls that simply don't exists in WinXP) and will take a lot of work to try and make a work around.

If I am successful in making a patch I'll post it here as usual.

Edit: Ok, I seem to have come up with a working patch for XP for both RPA and HC Sim already. Once fully tested and I'm satisfied all is ok I'll post it.

- Tim

[William Brillinger]

You're not stealing my thunder at all. I was waiting to see RPA 3.20 and I didn't see it yesterday! Only the HC Sim update was online the last time I looked.

[hirailer]

I just downloaded RailPro assistant 3.20 plus RailPro HC Simulator 2.0. The download went very quickly without any problems on My laptop running Win7 hard wired to the modem. The best and quickest download from Ring I have had yet, great improvement. The installer for the simulator did say version 3.0, not 2.0

Mel

[William Brillinger]

The installer for the simulator did say version 3.0, not 2.0

That is the installer version, not the software version. Confusing I know.

[gcarter1945]

When I open up RailPro Assistant 3.20, the Download List to Handheld Controller USB Connection icon shows a HC to PC as Connected, whether I have them connected or not.  Trying to get the HC to actually download isn't successful most of the time.

[KPack]

Do you have the HC-Sim running at the same time?  If that is on, it will show that an HC is connected.  And you can't have the HC-Sim program on, and have a HC-2 plugged in at the same time. 

If you don't have the HC-Sim connected, try plugging in the HC-2 with the screen turned off.  Once plugged in, turn it on and it should download properly to the HC-2.

If none of that works/applies then it may be necessary to delete and reinstall the RPA program.  There is a guide to doing that somewhere on here.....

-Kevin

[gcarter1945]

Thanks for the quick reply Kevin.

I didn't have HC-Sim running, nor the HC-2 plugged in, nor the CI-1 plugged in.

I uninstalled RPA and reloaded it.  Again, with nothing else plugged in or running, when RPA came up it again showed the USB Connected.  And if I try downloading from the HC2, it eventually tells me that it can't connect to the internet.  I know I'm connected to the internet, as I am on the same computer looking at and replying to this user group.

Tis a puzzlement.

Geoff

[gcarter1945]

OK, so I uplugged my RR-CirKits LocoBuffer-USB (connecting Decoder Pro to my Digitrax layout) and now I no longer have the problem of "USB Connected" in the Download List to Handheld Controller area.

One problem solved.  Now another one crops up... No matter what sequence I follow, I can't get the "USB Connected' message when I actually connect the HC to the PC.

Any Ideas?

Geoff

[nodcc4me]

Geoff, sometimes you might have to unplug the HC from the USB port and plug it back in a few times before it will connect. It has been that way from day one.

[G8B4Life]

OK, so I uplugged my RR-CirKits LocoBuffer-USB (connecting Decoder Pro to my Digitrax layout) and now I no longer have the problem of "USB Connected" in the Download List to Handheld Controller area.

I'd love to investigate this further but I don't have a LocoBuffer-USB and I won't be getting (read buying) one for testing at the price they are. It appears from first research the conflict could be with the drivers for the HC and the LocoBuffer-USB. Both use virtual COM ports for PC to device communication so that is my first suspicion. In theory RailPro Assistant shouldn't be able to see the LocoBuffer-USB as it should have a different device id to the HC.

Geoff, did you have any luck in getting the HC to connect to RailPro Assistant?  Without the LocoBuffer-USB plugged in does RailPro Assistant show USB Connected when HC Simulator is run?

I'll probably list this as a bug until we know any different. If there is a bug (either on Ring's end or on RR-Cirkits end) then we may see this popping up more.

- Tim