Railpro Assistant

[atsfguy]

 Is it mandatory that RPA be downloaded by running as Administrator? I failed to notice this in Ring’s instructions, downloaded without Administrator privileges and now when I attempt to open the program I get the error message “Cannot Connect”. I am also using wireless connection on a laptop running Win 7. My carrier is Spectrum.
 If it becomes necessary to uninstall RPA, is there a specific method to do this?
 Thank you.
Cecil

[Alan]

Administrator privilege applies only to running the program, not downloading it. Try right clicking on RPA and select run as administrator.

[William Brillinger]

Cecil,

What anti-virus program are you running?

Also see this article: Troubleshooting RailPro Internet Connection problems
https://rpug.pdc.ca/index.php/topic,656.0.html

- Bill

[atsfguy]

Great! Thank you to both you gentlemen.
Bill, I am running AVG antivirus and I forgot to turn it off. I will attempt to connect this morning and I will keep you informed.
Thanks to both.
Cecil

[atsfguy]

I just spent almost two hours setting up an administrator account and plugging/unplugging the usb cable, all to no avail. AVG  firewall was turned off but was not blocking RPA anyway. I had already set it to allow RPA and HC Sim to pass both ways.
An error message said the usb cable is faulty. Is that due to the coil inline? Is this fairly normal or is it more symptomatic of wireless laptops such as mine?
Alan, you referred to an Etherenet cable. I have been away so long from computer technology other than simply operating one that I, frankly, don’t remember an etherenet cable. There is a port on one side of my Toshiba laptop for what appears to be a telephone plug. Is this it? I have a spare cable router and can scare up a length of cable with telephone connections to hardwire this rig, if it is the cable you referred to.
I appreciate any help you can give me. This has raised my fighting spirit, so it may as well as surrender and connect!
Thank you for your help.
Cheers, Cecil

[Alan]

An Ethernet cable is what you would use to hard wire your laptop to a modem or router. Much more stable connection than wi-fi. Yes, Ethernet looks like telephone RJ series connectors but is not the same. You need a genuine Ethernet cable, not a phone cable.

A direct wire configuration may allow you to connect if RP over wi-fi is your problem.

[William Brillinger]

Cecil, I suggest you call ring engineering and get them to help you troubleshoot the problem.

[G8B4Life]

Cecil, are you saying that RPA does not recognise the HC being attached via the USB cable or that RPA does recognise the HC is attached via the USB cable but RPA fails to download anything?

If it's RPA does not recognise the HC is attached you might need to try a different USB cable (cables can go bad, and that EMI suppression device that you called a coil is actually beneficial, not harmful) - or - check to see which HC you actually have. If you have the older HC-2 (identified by having a USB port and a round charging port) you will need to install the FTDI drivers from Ring's site: https://www.ringengineering.com/Software/HC-1UsbDriverInstaller.EXE.  If you have the later HC-2b (identified by only having a USB port) then you don't need to load the FTDI drivers.

If it's that RPA does recognise the HC is attached but RPA fails to download anything then I do suggest trying with an Ethernet cable instead of Wi-Fi just to eliminate that possibility however if you downloaded RPA over Wi-Fi in the first place then I suspect Wi-Fi is not your problem.

As Alan said, an Ethernet cable looks similar to a phone cable but the plugs on an Ethernet cable are larger and have 8 pins. Most people would simply call it a network cable.

Also, I'm presuming by your description that RPA downloaded and installed fine and when you run it it indicates it has a connection to Ring Engineering?

- Tim

[atsfguy]

Tim, RPA does not recognize my HC-2b, simply saying “Cannot Connect”. I am attempting this on a wireless laptop. RPA downloaded satisfactorily, as far as I can determine at this point.
I am using the supplied USB cable that came with my RPK-1 kit. I have no other.
I have no problem connecting with Ring’s site other than while trying to use RPA.
My next move will be to acquire an Ethernet cable, if I can find one in this backwoods Ohio town.
Thanks for the help to this point. We will conquer this!
Cecil

[William Brillinger]

Cecil,

It sounds like your USB cable may be bad.
Contact Ring to troubleshoot it, if the cable is bad he will probably send you a new one.

- Bill

[atsfguy]

Thanks, Bill, I will call him tomorrow, kind of tied up at present.
Cheers,
Cecil

[G8B4Life]

Cecil,

Not trying to stop you calling Ring and you may have done so already before reading this (if so please do let us know what the outcome was) but there's a couple of things that aren't adding up that make me wonder if it is the USB cable or not (I was too tired when replying the other night and didn't register a bit of what you said).

"Cannot Connect" is an error message shown by the handheld controller not RPA so which of these scenarios most accurately describes what you are seeing.

With RPA running and the HC plugged in:

1.

• RPA shows it has an internet connection.
• RPA shows "USB Connected" under the "Download List to Handheld Controller" heading.
• When you try to download a file after touching the "Press to begin downloading" button on the HC RPA indicates it's downloading files.
• You then get the Cannot Connect error.

2.

• RPA shows it has an internet connection.
• RPA shows "USB Not Connected" under the "Download List to Handheld Controller" heading.
• When you try to download a file after touching the "Press to begin downloading" button on the HC RPA doesn't change.
• You then get the Cannot Connect error.

If your experiencing a different set of circumstances than either of the above please try to write out what you see and what you do here.

In regards to the USB cable, while they can go faulty the odds of just the data pair in the cable going faulty but not the power pair is probably very minute and I'm presuming you can still charge the HC with that USB cable without a problem. If you could confirm / deny / expand on what your seeing as per the above scenarios that would be helpful.

- Tim

[atsfguy]

 Bill, I called Tim Ring this morning, described how I set up my HC-2b and, with RPA running , plugged in the provided USB cable, pressed the download button and got the error message “Cannot Connect”. He asked if I had charged the HC successfully and I replied the charge indicator showed charging then a couple of hours later, Done. He asked me to try to connect with a different usb cable and, after searching, I finally found one. It made no difference at all.
 He said it sounds like the charge wires are in good condition but one or more data wires is (are) broken but I tried the other cable.
 I emailed him the results and he will send me a new USB cable.
Tim from Oz, scenario number two more closely fits. It does not say Not Connected but on the dashboard the USB cable to the handheld has an X across it. I did charge the HC successfully as far as I can determine. I left it on charge until it showed Done.

[William Brillinger]

Cecil,

You should also try it in each of the USB ports on your PC.
And in case you haven't please reboot your PC first. (not sleep, full restart)

- Bill

[atsfguy]

 Just received an email from Tim in Illinois asking if RPA connected to the Internet. I had previously assumed it was as I found no indication otherwise.  Tim explained where to look on the handheld and I was startled to see no connection. I think this is the proximate cause, if not the root cause, of my problem. I plan to get an Ethernet cable this afternoon and connect it to my router and laptop. I then expect troubles will vanish.
 Bill, I had tried shutting down all the way and launching the program from a fresh start but I think the Ethernet cable will solve my problem. Alan told me to get one two days ago but I couldn’t find a computer repair store in this town. They don’t believe in signs and street numbers to ease locating them.
 Once I set up with the Ethernet cable and try to connect, I will post the results.
 Thanks to all who volunteered help.
Cheers
Cecil