To All,
Any help will be greatly appreciated. Have installed RR-Cirkits Motorman to my layout with the intent of driving turnouts. Upon connecting the Motorman to the Loconet/SSB network, I get 3 JMRI error messages that suggest a firmware update is necessary. I downloaded the update and a set of instructions to perform the update from the RR-Cirkits page.
I have followed the instructions repeatedly, very carefully and the board does not update. The yellow led indicator is supposed to 'flicker' during the update process, 'extinguish' and then automatically restart the board. Mine does not.
I have emailed tech support (as I have for two other issues regarding watchman and block occupancy) and get no reply from Dick Bronson. Everyone on this forum has very high regard for him and for the support of the product. I'm not having as much luck, having spent $300 plus on his products and have have gone 0 for 3 (no response at all) in emails to his tech support. Sorry that sounds a little whiny. Not my intention, just would like to get some pretty expensive hardware to work.
Any suggestions will be much appreciated.
Steve
What is your interface to the computer? Locobuffer-USB or something else? Are you using a recent version of JMRI? What connection betwene Loconet and the SSB are you using? Is your power supply on the SSB gateway device good? (I don't mean just new in the package - check the output voltage to see if it is in spec, or substitute of known to be good power supply of the same specifications - wall warts are notoriously cheap no matter who you get them from, plus many have a one shot fusible link so if it even momentarily got shorted, it's probbaly not producing any output). If you get no response from any of the boards, it suggests a wiring error in the SSB line. If there is communications with the board but the firmware update doesn't run, that suggest a missed step in the process, mainly that the board is not in the state to receive a firmware update, which is indicated by the yellow light - are you getting the yellow light on solid before starting the firmware upload? Note that in the instructions it specifically says to power off the MotorMan, put the jumper on JP1 3-4, power it on, then take off the jumper before starting the firmware transfer.
For each of the products, there is a section in the manual for sanity checks, which will verify that the device is operating (always possible the board is DOA) and there is at least some communications. If those things check out you should be fine. If they don't - board may need to be replaced.
Everyone love to use email - they also have a phone number, you might try that. Email, contrary to popular opinion, does NOT have any sort of guaranteed delivery. That's right, despite people treating it as such, email protocols only guarantee best effort, not successful delivery. And even if all the pieces are talking, as they usually do, depending on where your mail is coming from, it could be flagged as spam. That's highly likely if using AOL or Yahoo addresses. Or some random ISP - you could be on some blacklist or something. Or the wording of your subject line could look suspicious to a spam filter. I'd stick to short sentences that mention the product name, like: Firmware update problem with MotorMan as the subject of your message.
-- Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
pustaysI have emailed tech support (as I have for two other issues regarding watchman and block occupancy) and get no reply from Dick Bronson.
Why don't you call him? There is a number listed on his website.
Looks like you got a lot of replies on the JMRI board, including from Dick himself.
--Randy