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Decoder Pro connection

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  • Member since
    January 2005
  • From: Winnipeg Canada
  • 1,637 posts
Decoder Pro connection
Posted by Blind Bruce on Sunday, February 20, 2011 4:38 PM

My USB adapter is a Tripp-lite modelUSA-19HS. I have connected it to my NCE power Pro for the first time.  The LED is blinking about one second on and one second off. No messages or action from the PC. I confess that I know next to nothing about this. I just want to take it one step at a time.

What does the blinking LED mean?

73

Bruce in the Peg

  • Member since
    February 2002
  • From: Reading, PA
  • 30,002 posts
Posted by rrinker on Sunday, February 20, 2011 7:27 PM

 The manual says a slow blink is normal idle mode, ie, it's sitting there waiting.

           --Randy

 


Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's

 

Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.

  • Member since
    January 2001
  • From: SE Minnesota
  • 6,845 posts
Posted by jrbernier on Monday, February 21, 2011 10:02 AM

Bruce,

  The 'serial' connection can be trying.  Make sure you have a true serial calbe(not a modem cable).  Have you read the connection notes for JMRI?  Here they are for NCE:

http://jmri.sourceforge.net/help/en/html/hardware/nce/NCE.shtml#phpro

http://jmri.sourceforge.net/help/en/html/hardware/nce/NCE.shtml#vianetwork

Jim

Modeling BNSF  and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin

  • Member since
    January 2005
  • From: Winnipeg Canada
  • 1,637 posts
Posted by Blind Bruce on Monday, February 21, 2011 10:38 AM

Thanks Randy and Jim. Most manuals these days are in PDF format. With this format, I can only read a single letter at a time and learning is very time consuming and sometimes impossible.

The instructions that Jim provided were picked up on my Email and thus could be read by my PC  audio reader.

I will look them over today and may have some more questions.

Thanks again,

73

Bruce in the Peg

  • Member since
    November 2007
  • From: Bristol, RI
  • 24 posts
Posted by WinRI on Tuesday, February 22, 2011 3:15 PM

Bruce,

Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF) is the standard for document exchange.  You can read it using the Free software "Adobe Reader" available at:

http://get.adobe.com/reader/

This is one of those essential tools for your PC (or MAC). It will make on-line research and learning more palatable!

w/re

Walter

  • Member since
    September 2007
  • From: Charlotte, NC
  • 6,099 posts
Posted by Phoebe Vet on Tuesday, February 22, 2011 3:34 PM

Even my wife's Nook Color Reader can read a PDF.  It really is the industry standard.

Dave

Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow

  • Member since
    January 2005
  • From: Winnipeg Canada
  • 1,637 posts
Posted by Blind Bruce on Tuesday, February 22, 2011 4:40 PM

I think you missed my point about PDF. Of course I have a few iterations of Adobe for various programs that won't work on later versions. My EYES can only pick out one or two letters at a time. I use an audio reader so I can LISTEN to the document. When someone sends me a reply to my post that has a link to a PDF document, I cannot hear it with my software program. However, when I check the Emailed reply, my program reads it to me. Go figure. A $1100.00 magnifyer/reader that doesn't work. I have been on to the software developer but they say only that they are working on a fix.

73

Bruce in the Peg

  • Member since
    November 2007
  • From: Bristol, RI
  • 24 posts
Posted by WinRI on Tuesday, February 22, 2011 4:57 PM

Hi Bruce..

Well that makes sense actually... Considering that the PDF is more of an image of the document rather than a character by character representation of the document in a file.

I did a quick check at the American Foundation for the Blind.

http://www.afb.org/Section.asp?SectionID=45&TopicID=281&DocumentID=2414

They provide an accessibility review of Acrobat 6.0. (The latest version is past 9.0.)

Best of Luck!

Walter

  • Member since
    February 2002
  • From: Reading, PA
  • 30,002 posts
Posted by rrinker on Tuesday, February 22, 2011 6:50 PM

 Yeah sometimes it seems Adobe updates Acrobat twice a week. It's ridiculous. And it always breaks some third party piece. All in the aim of making it into MORE than just a portable document format - now it plays movies and music and a million other things not at ALL related to the original function.

 Luckily most user manual types of things still open with the old versions, so you can still use it. Or see if your reader program works with a different PDF program, like Foxit, which is free. Older versions of Acrobat and Foxit just won't open the newer files with all the multimedia content, like the Model Railroad Hobbyist e-zine.

 

                 --Randy

 


Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's

 

Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.

  • Member since
    December 2001
  • 1,932 posts
Posted by Stevert on Tuesday, February 22, 2011 8:20 PM

Blind Bruce

I think you missed my point about PDF. Of course I have a few iterations of Adobe for various programs that won't work on later versions. My EYES can only pick out one or two letters at a time. I use an audio reader so I can LISTEN to the document. When someone sends me a reply to my post that has a link to a PDF document, I cannot hear it with my software program. However, when I check the Emailed reply, my program reads it to me. Go figure. A $1100.00 magnifyer/reader that doesn't work. I have been on to the software developer but they say only that they are working on a fix.

Bruce,

I'm assuming you're using some flavor of Windows.  If so, it's likely that you can get the PDF document into a format your audio reader can work with.  I just tried it with Win7's Narrator and it worked fine.  Try this:

1) Open the PDF with Adobe Reader.  (I used Adobe Reader X (10) for my test).

2) Select all the contents (CTRL + A)

3) Copy the selected contents to the clipboard (CTRL + C)

4) Paste the clipboard into a text document.  (CTRL + V)   (I simply used NotePad which is included with Windows.)

5) Use your audio reader to read the text document.

  The formatting may be a little funky, since the PDF's format doesn't always translate directly into a "normal" text format, but hopefully it's a workaround that you find helpful.

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