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Ken Z:
Jeff brought over his Hand Held tonight so we could load sound files.  When I start up my RaiPro Assistant, it shows the USB connected to the Hand Held even though we have not connected it.  It will not download, when we try it says cannot connect.  I have tried restarting the computer, restarting RailPro Assistant, shutting off and on the hand held.  My Hand held is not turned on.  My Assistant is on the 3.20 revision and both handhelds are at the current software revision.  This is slowing us up, we have trains to run!  any ideas?

Ken Zieska

G8B4Life:
Ken, when you say the handheld was not connected you mean it wasn't physically connected to the PC by the USB cable but RPA said it connected was correct?

Is this the first time you've run RailPro Assistant or has RailPro Assistant worked before without this problem? (this is important)

From your description it sounds like there is a conflict that is fooling RPA into thinking that the handheld is connected. This is an issue I am investigating as it has happened to others here as well. I will say that this is not likely an RE fault, there is a lot of badly written device drivers out there that cause all sorts of problems; this type of thing happens to other device manufacturers as well

If this is the case what we have to find is what device driver is causing the problem. This unfortunately is not a simple 5 minute process.

- Tim

Ken Z:
Tim,
I had this issue prior so I printed out the pages of the manual so I could follow them carefully.  I hope I don't lose my "guy card" for reading the instructions like that.  When I bought the RailPro system, I used a CI-1 to load sounds because that was the first thing I had.  When I received my HC-2, I ran into this problem but the engines worked fine and did not investigate.  When Jeff first got his LM-3s units, we had a similar problem and used the CI-1 to load sounds.  Last weekend I went down with the instructions I printed out and was able to download from the computer to the handheld.  Jeff brought his Hand Held and engines tonight and we ran into the connection problem trying to get the sounds on the handheld.  The engine already had the sound because I had loaded it last week with the CI-1.  Because I have been doing this on a Digitrax layout that has JMRI on it, tomorrow I am going to set up a small test track and power it with an MRC power pack to get just DC and try again.  This way, I will not have the JMRI interface started on the computer at all, perhaps they cause the driver issue.  Tonight I did a computer restart but did not do a full off and restart.  Perhaps that left some residual glitch in place. 
Beyond this issue, the RailPro engine worked well, did all of the switching chores required, I had good reception and was able to operated the locomotive while moving around.  There were both RailPro and DCC engines operating across the layout all evening.   
Additional notes:  We both noticed on different units that the battery charge indication does not update after charging unless you reset the HC-2.  Then it show a full charge.  This is not an issue for us, just a note.
I had an issue loading sounds from the HC-2 to the engine.  I moved another engine that was right next to the unit being updated and the problem went away.  There may have been other factors however it seems having an isolated download track cannot be wrong.  I have two units with RailPro installed and another on the workbench, Jeff has three also so the system will be pushed a bit.  Are you aware of any limitation to the number of RailPro engines that can be operated at the same time? 
Thanks for your input, I will update tomorrow after I do the test track. 
Ken Zieska

G8B4Life:
Now this gets very interesting! more details so more questions.

You say that you used the CI-1 (with HC Simulator) and that previously worked correct? Does it still work?

Do you have a HC-2 or HC-2b? (the HC-2b does not have a separate DC charging port)

When you ran RailPro Assistant did you have HC Simulator running at the same time? You cannot have HC Simulator running and have a handheld plugged in at the same time when trying to use RailPro Assistant.

You say you have successfully downloaded to the handheld before correct?

You mentioned DigiTrax and JMRI, do you have a RR Cirkits LocoBuffer hooked up at all? If you do and you have the older HC-2 then this is possibly the cause of the problem.

The battery charge indicator not updating I believe has been discussed here before. Perhaps someone who can remember when can chime in on that one.

You won't be stressing RailPro at all with 6 locomotives running, the limit of locomotives in motion per handheld is 24.

- Tim

William Brillinger:
Regarding the Battery indicator, your fully charged indication after a reset is probably an illusion.

Here is a thread on the subject: https://rpug.pdc.ca/index.php/topic,25

Since I use the CI-1 for loading files, I don't generally worry about charging my HC's until the power indicator is in the red.

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