209 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
209 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
<!DOCTYPE html>
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<html lang="en">
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<head>
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<meta name="generator" content="HTML Tidy for HTML5 for Apple macOS version 5.8.0">
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<title>Basic Programming</title><!--#include virtual="/help/en/parts/Style.shtml" -->
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<div id="mBody">
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<!--#include virtual="Sidebar.shtml" -->
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<div id="mainContent">
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<h1 id="Top">The Basic Programmer</h1>
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<h2>Basic Pane</h2>
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<div class="dp-right">
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<p><a href="Basic_Start.shtml">Previous |</a> <a href=
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"Comp_Setup_Roster.shtml">Next</a></p>
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<p><a href="index.shtml#Basic%20Programmer">Back to Index</a>
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</p>
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</div>
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<hr>
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<p>You may have noticed that at the top of the window are Two tabs: <strong>Roster
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Entry</strong> and <strong>Basic</strong>. We have completed the <strong>Roster
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Entry</strong> pane of the Program window, now, click on the <strong>Basic</strong> tab to
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change panes to continue with programming your decoder. The Basic pane will be displayed and
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look similar to the following illustration: Many panes in the programmer contain decoder
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dependent features, as a result what you see may not exactly agree with what you see here.
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Only those variables that your decoder can implement will be shown.</p>
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<div class="dp-ctr"><img style="width: 636px; height: 556px;" src="images/Basic_Program.png"
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alt="Basic pane">
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</div>
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<p>You will see three options you can change, highlighted in yellow:</p>
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<ol>
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<li>The decoder address (should be unique among your locomotives, unless you are operating
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as a set) often the locomotive number is used.</li>
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<li>Two radio buttons that let you toggle between 2 digit (one byte, normal) or 4 digit<br>
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(two byte, extended) addressing</li>
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<li>Analog operation (enables the decoder running under regular DC voltage/analog<br>
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control)</li>
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</ol>
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<p>The yellow highlighting indicates these options are "probable" settings and have not been
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confirmed from the decoder. Settings that have been changed by the user and have not been
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written back to the decoder appear in a orange color.</p>
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<p>Color Codes used in the programming panes.</p>
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<dl>
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<dt style=
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"background: rgb(221, 221, 221) none repeat scroll 0%; color: orange; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;">
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Edited</dt>
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<dd>You've changed this value, or it contains default values from the decoder file. This is
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shown as orange, since the value differs from what's in the decoder.</dd>
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<dt style=
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"background: rgb(221, 221, 221) none repeat scroll 0%; color: yellow; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;">
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From File</dt>
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<dd>The field contains values read from a locomotive file. This is shown as yellow, since
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we're not certain that the file agrees with the decoder contents.</dd>
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<dt style=
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"background: rgb(221, 221, 221) none repeat scroll 0%; color: white; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;">
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Read</dt>
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<dd>The value shown has been read from the decoder. This is shown as white to indicate that
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the value is trustworthy.</dd>
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<dt style=
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"background: rgb(221, 221, 221) none repeat scroll 0%; color: white; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;">
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Stored</dt>
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<dd>The value show has been written to the decoder. This is also shown as white.</dd>
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<dt style=
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"background: rgb(221, 221, 221) none repeat scroll 0%; color: red; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;">
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Unknown</dt>
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<dd>If something goes wrong with the read or write process, we might have a completely
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untrustworthy result. This results in the variable's state being marked as UNKNOWN and
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shown as red.</dd>
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</dl>
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<p>You will see examples of this throughout the manual.</p>
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<a id="ReadData"></a> To read the actual settings for these options (and IF your system and
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installed decoder will allow readback of decoder values), click on the <strong><span
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class="textbutton">Read full sheet</span></strong> button. The individual
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settings will turn red while they are in the process of being read (clever, eh?), and will
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turn white once the values have been read successfully from the decoder. Once again,
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DecoderPro must play "Twenty Questions" to get this information, and sometimes even has to
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ask a couple of times.
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<p>Be patient, especially with older computers. At the very bottom of the pane (where it says
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"idle") you will see a running account of exactly what DecoderPro is doing, for example, the
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specific CV being read.</p>
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<p>Again, the <span class="textbutton">Read full sheet</span> and
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<span class="textbutton">Read all sheets</span>
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functions are dependent on your Command Station. If your system does not have the capability
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to read CVs, then these buttons will not be available.</p>
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<p id="EnterEditData">If you wish to change the address of the locomotive, type in the new
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address. To turn on or off 4 digit addressing, select the desired radio button. . Be sure
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that the address type agrees with the number of characters in the address.</p>
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<p>To enable Analog (old style DC, some vendors refer to this as dual mode) Operation select
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the appropriate entry from the drop-down list.</p>
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<p>When you are finished, click on the <span class="textbutton">Write full sheet</span> button
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to write the new values in the decoder.</p>
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<p id="WriteData">Writing usually takes much less time than reading, because the value can be
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sent directly. As the write operation proceeds, the data will change from yellow to white. If
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there is difficulty writing to the decoder, the data will change to red. The software will
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automatically keep trying until the write operation is successful. In some instances the
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system will "time-out" after a certain number of tries without an acknowledgement from the
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decoder. This does not necessarily mean that the values have not been written, just that the
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program has not received an acknowledgement. This can be due to the locomotive moving and
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getting on dirty track so that it can't pulse back, or possibly because the command station
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or decoder cannot read back. Try moving the loco and try again. If it is a command station or
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decoder read-back issue, try the loco on the mainline and see if the programming was
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successful.</p>
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<p id="SaveData">To finish this "basic" programming of a decoder, click once more on the
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<strong>Roster Entry</strong> tab, You will see that the address field has now been filled
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in, so you can now click on the <span class="textbutton">Save to roster</span>
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button. Your new decoder settings have now been written
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not only to the decoder, but also saved to a computer file where they may be recalled in the
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future. .</p>
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<a id="DoMore"></a> But you say..."I want to change more than what's shown on the Basic
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decoder pane." Well… there are other programmers that are available. But… first we need to
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look at the various options. In fact there are so many options the programmers had to use a
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slider to get them all to show. Here are the option windows. Don't panic….Most are of no use
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to the average user.
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<p class="dp-ctr"><img src="images/Basic_programmers.png" alt="Basic Programmers" height=
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"341" width="568"><br>
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</p>
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<p><strong>Comprehensive</strong> and Advanced are the only other programmers
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"<strong><em>Normal Users</em>"</strong> will ever need, because it is,
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well…<strong>Comprehensive</strong> and the <strong>Advanced</strong> adds features that are
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optional.. So why all the others?</p>
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<p>First of all eliminate the Manufacturer specific programmers (unless of course you have a
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<strong>Zimo</strong> or <strong>ESU</strong> system).</p>
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<p>We can also eliminate the <strong>Tutorial</strong> and <strong>Custom</strong>
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programmers. They were put in to show folks that want to <strong>write their own</strong>
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programmer (not you right?) all the possible ways to gather input and to have a common
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starting point in the roster pane. Now if you wish to pursue writing a custom programmer go
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to the JMRI® website.</p>
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<p>If you have need for a special situation programmer you might want to look at
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<strong>Sample Club</strong> or <strong>TrainShowBasic</strong> to see what panes can be
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taken out of Comprehensive to make an intermediate complexity, special purpose programmer.
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Again, how to do this is a subject for another manual.</p>
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<p>And that leaves us with the <strong>Advanced</strong> and <strong>Registers</strong>
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programmers. The <strong>Advanced</strong> programmer has a couple of sophisticated features
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added on top of the <strong>Comprehensive</strong> programmer and a name was needed. Well,
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why not call it <strong>Advanced</strong>? We'll cover the additional features once we get
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through with <strong>Comprehensive</strong>.<br>
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So what about the <strong>Registers</strong> programmer? If you have an old or bargain
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basement decoder that only programs using registers, then of course you'll be interested in
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<strong>Registers.</strong><br>
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So now we've narrowed our "real" choices down to <strong>Advanced</strong>,
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<strong>Basic</strong> and <strong>Comprehensive</strong>. Since we've already covered
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<strong>Basic</strong>, let's explore the <a href="Comp_Setup_Roster.shtml">Comprehensive
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Programmer</a>!</p>
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<div class="dp-right">
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<p><a href="Basic_Start.shtml">Previous |</a> <a href=
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"Comp_Setup_Roster.shtml">Next</a><a href="Comp_Setup_Roster.shtml"></a></p>
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<p><a href="index.shtml#Basic%20Programmer">Back to Index</a>
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</p>
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</div>
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