[disc]

How the circuit breakers can be close on an average locomotive? As i know on hungarian ones you can't close the circuit breaker if the pantograph is not raised.

BTW trigger 23 and 24 are for full powersupply, so probably a new sound trigger is needed for the circuit breaker only.

[alexmorph3us]

disc, on 03 June 2016 - 01:15 AM, said:

How the circuit breakers can be close on an average locomotive? As i know on hungarian ones you can't close the circuit breaker if the pantograph is not raised.

BTW trigger 23 and 24 are for full powersupply, so probably a new sound trigger is needed for the circuit breaker only.

I would prefer to leave triggers 23 and 24 for the circuit breaker or power on/off(electric and diesel engines) as they are, but associated with Y/Shift+Y keys and maybe try to implement a new trigger for the animation of the pantograph alone associated with P/Shift+P keys in the case of electrics only.

[disc]

I've implemented the manual circuit breaker control for the electrics. But what now? If i just commit it, then probably a lot of players will report "i can't start the electric locomotives", because they don't know about manual circuit braker is implemented.

[Railcat]

I think those friends will come back to this forum and find the solution in this topic. :lol2:

[Csantucci]

Hi disc,
here my opinion.
1) I agree to leave triggers 23 and 24 for "loco powered/unpowered" and add a new couple of triggers for circuit breaker open/close
2) When the autopilot checkbox is checked locos of player train start with panto up, and I'd say that locos start also with circuit breaker closed (that is connecting)
3) obviously also AI train start with circuit breaker closed
4) when autopilot checkbox is not checked (panto down) also circuit breaker should be open; your concern makes sense; there are two solutions:
- either re-inserting the circuit breaker state in the main F5 HUD (only for electric locos)
- or provisionally add a confirmation message when pantos are raised, saying something as "circuit breaker must be closed to power the loco"; after some months this message could be removed.

Looking at this forum is not a solution for everyone, due to the enduring access restrictions.

[Mike B]

On lighter electrics (experience as passenger on light rail cars that occasionally stop working correctly), there doesn't seem to be a separate circuit breaker step for initially powering things after raising the pan or pole. When the pan goes up, the power comes on and the various systems start up automatically (takes a minute or 2). Yes, there are various clicks and buzzes from the relay panels and underfloor equipment, especially on older cars, but the driver doesn't seem to need to do anything special.

That said, there does seem to be a "warm" as well as a "cold" restart for the light rail cars when having problems on the road. Drivers will often try a "warm" start (not dropping the pan) which would be analogous to pulling a breaker to restart the computer but without de-powering the auxiliaries (lights, a/c, etc.). If that doesn't work, they'll pull the plug (drop the pan) for a "cold" restart. So having the ability to pull the breaker would be a realistic addition. Just make it possible for the .eng file to specify whether resetting the breaker is necessary after raising the pan - many light electrics don't require that.

Yes, there will be a bunch of users caught out by having to do another step after raising the pan before the locomotive can be used. I've run into that myself on multiple-unit diesel consists, where only the first unit is running when I start a route in Explore mode - I didn't understand until I discovered it somehow that the "helpers" have to be separately started. Oh well, RTFM I know ...

[alexmorph3us]

So what new sound trigger will it be? If I'm thinking this right when passing neutral zones not only the main circuit breaker is turned off besides the ventilation, but the compressor as well.Is it possible to map a specific button on the keyboard for turning the compressor on/off(triggers 12 & 13) as well?

[disc]

alexmorph3us, on 03 June 2016 - 09:04 AM, said:

So what new sound trigger will it be? If I'm thinking this right when passing neutral zones not only the main circuit breaker is turned off besides the ventilation, but the compressor as well.Is it possible to map a specific button on the keyboard for turning the compressor on/off(triggers 12 & 13) as well?

Compressor is already switched off if there is no power.

Mike B, on 03 June 2016 - 06:00 AM, said:

On lighter electrics (experience as passenger on light rail cars that occasionally stop working correctly), there doesn't seem to be a separate circuit breaker step for initially powering things after raising the pan or pole. When the pan goes up, the power comes on and the various systems start up automatically (takes a minute or 2). Yes, there are various clicks and buzzes from the relay panels and underfloor equipment, especially on older cars, but the driver doesn't seem to need to do anything special.

In current release there is an automatic circuit breaker, the switch on/off can be delayed by .eng parameters.
I've just made the manual circuit breaker.
A new param can be used to select which one you want to use, but what should be the default?

[James Ross]

Csantucci, on 03 June 2016 - 05:11 AM, said:

2) When the autopilot checkbox is checked locos of player train start with panto up, and I'd say that locos start also with circuit breaker closed (that is connecting)

Could we rename and re-use the steam "hot start" option? This sounds like a similar kind of thing, i.e. how much realism do you want starting the locomotive. (Though maybe steam is different enough we'd want to keep two options.)

[Mike B]

disc, on 04 June 2016 - 12:14 AM, said:

... A new param can be used to select which one you want to use, but what should be the default?

Default depends ... are we trying to run in MSTS-compatible or a more realistic ORTS mode?

MSTS-mode would need pretty much automatic startup, so the train is ready for driving immediately. That would include, for electrics, pan up and breaker in; for diesels, all engines started; and for steam, a "hot start" with an initial head of steam ready and automatic fireman running.

ORTS mode could be more detailed, with all or most systems off when starting. For steam, that could be interesting (how do you build up a head of steam?) or a pain (takes an hour to build up enough steam to move off!), with of course the equivalent of an "initialize brakes" for when you get tired of waiting. Ditto for diesel and electrics: start with engines off, or pan/pole down, and start up from there including (depending on the type of locomotive) resetting the main breaker.

At the moment I don't see any clear differentiation between a "MSTS mode" startup and a more detailed "ORTS mode" in ORTS. It's not always clear whether pans are up or down, breaker (if equipped, per this discussion) in, all engines are on, or otherwise whether the train is ready to run or not.

As far as the breaker is concerned, it would seem, for electrics, to be similar to getting both the player diesel and any helper diesels running. To go, you need pan up AND breaker in as separate operations, perhaps mapping the breaker to the same keys as for player and helper diesels. Mapping them that way would maintain keystroke memory of how to get started, and if a consist has both electrics and diesel they would both respond to the same commands when starting up.