[BillC]

Ed Greenberg, on 15 January 2014 - 10:02 AM, said:

I calibrate my Rail Driver regularly before starting an OR session.

I've noticed that I can't get past 90% throttle without disengaging RD and pressing the D key. Re-engaging RD reduces throttle to 90%. Brakes seem to work fine.

Not sure what else I can do. Any suggestions on where to start?

Thank you.

Ed,
I ran my RD on Marias Pass Dawn Tank train and was able to have 100 % throttle.

A couple of things to look into. Review the installation guide at: The complete Installation Guide is available at http://www.openrails.org/release.html under documentation tag as http://www.openrails.org/files/insta...n_guide_en.pdf. Pages 16-18 for RailDriver

If the RailDriver calibration file is not found for the user system. OR substitutes a default one which has values not matching your calibration file. There is also the possibility the problem may be route specific. Listing the route you are having with may give a clue of what is happening.

Bill

[R H Steele]

BillC, on 15 January 2014 - 12:24 PM, said:

If the RailDriver calibration file is not found for the user system. OR substitutes a default one which has values not matching your calibration file. There is also the possibility the problem may be route specific. Listing the route you are having with may give a clue of what is happening.

Bill

Bill, this interests me. I have not calibrated my raildriver in quite a while, assumed since OR had native support this would not be necessary. The train brake (auto brake on RD) has to be moved almost 1/4 of the way before engaging, it's very difficult to get any fine degree of braking. Jumps of 5% are not uncommon. I had thought this was a mechanical flaw in the RD controls, too coarse. I will try calibrating again. Is it necessary to calibrate for each route with OR. What information is to be gleaned from a route concerning the operation of RD.

[BillC]

R H Steele, on 15 January 2014 - 12:56 PM, said:

Bill, this interests me. I have not calibrated my raildriver in quite a while, assumed since OR had native support this would not be necessary. The train brake (auto brake on RD) has to be moved almost 1/4 of the way before engaging, it's very difficult to get any fine degree of braking. Jumps of 5% are not uncommon. I had thought this was a mechanical flaw in the RD controls, too coarse. I will try calibrating again. Is it necessary to calibrate for each route with OR. What information is to be gleaned from a route concerning the operation of RD.

In general ModernCalibration.rdm is global. I want back and renamed the ModernCalibration.rdm.Mine. When running Marias Pass Dawn Tank train again, was only able to have 88% throttle. However in the debug file the following was printed :" Warning: Cannot find RailDriver calibration file D:\1MSTS\ModernCalibration.rdm" . This when the default calibration come's in to play. Which I mentioned in the previous post.

The RD is an analogue device so when calibrated with PIE engineering calibration setup values are stored in a table for min/max values and the center value of the throttle. All controls have values stored in a table, TrainBrake, EngiineBrake,HeadLights,etc. Thus the values used by the .ENG file could I suspect have some bearing on the operation. But if the controls work when using the keyboard the range should be OK. Bottom line if you have calibrated the RD recently, and have the file in the correct place, then it should be OK.

When using my RD brakes for trains on the default routes are smooth. Being an analogue device, using potentiometers (variable resistors) , temperature, aging, where and tear. Can affect the operation. Mine unit is lightly used, relativity new within the last two years.

It is difficult to use a direct comparison against MSTS, they grab data from the screen. That is why MSTS does not work for OS's latter then XP. One possible check could be to check the controls on another sim, that works with RD.

Bill

[R H Steele]

Much thanks Bill, provided just the clarification I needed.

[BillC]

Ed Greenberg, on 16 January 2014 - 04:47 AM, said:

Well, I checked that I had a calibration file in my msts folder (and I did) and I went back and tried another locomotive. With the Dash-8, I was unable to get into Run8. I'm going to manually WIDEN the range for full throttle and see what I get.

Ed

Ed, some additional things that you may try. I ran the test on the Marias Pass Dawn tank train with the default settings supplied by MSTS for the Dash 9,. Using X1929 version. What locomotive are you using ? Please try the Dawn Tank train activity ans see what results you see. To narrow down the problem to the RD or a locomotive problem try several, default MSTS activitues using different Locos. Attaching an OpenRailsLog file may also help.

Bill

[cjakeman]

Hi Ed,

Ed Greenberg, on 17 January 2014 - 11:18 AM, said:

I wish I could help, but I'm a Linux dude, not a Windows programmer.

We could do with help on our website, which is rather neglected :-)

If you can face yet more web stuff, send me a PM.

Thanks,