Raildriver Configuration

[David T]

Hi Everyone,

I purchased the Aerosoft edition from Steam about 2 weeks ago, which I am thoroughly enjoying, except for Raildriver Calibration & Configuration. This is very frustrating, particularly after spending hours searching the forum, using Google Translate and the threads found with the Search facility. I have also read the English manual on Input Devices.

My Raildriver should not be the problem, as it calibrated correctly and easily with the American Run8 software. Zusi3 works perfectly with the keyboard and mouse. I can use the Raildriver with Zusi and no problem in calibrating buttons, reverser, lights and wiper. I can calibrate the Power Controller without Dynamic Brakes and the Drivers' Train Brake in a fashion, but it detracts somewhat from the immersion in the game.

Specifically, my issues are;

• 1. Combined Power Controller/ Dynamic brakes Lever
  Inserted Throttle/Dyn Brake in first 2 columns of the first 2 rows of the Calibration Sheet after which I calibrated in the Properties, clicking on the 3 buttons. Result is the lever displays in blue from 1000 at the top button setting to -1000 at the bottom, dependent upon the lever position. The black figures to the right of the 3 buttons show static, 68 top, 150 middle and 203 bottom??
  
  Operationally, the throttle wheel and Dynamic Brake are operating together and only in the top range of the lever (Dyn Brake area on RD). If I delete the entries in the Dynamic Brake row, the Throttle wheel works fine, but only from the top half of the lever range!
  
  2 FBV (Train Brake Valve)
  My calibration is controlling both the lever and effecting the pressure gauge in the cab of a Type 110, albeit for the full range of the dial, zero bar to 10. Unfortunately, I cannot control the range between 3.5 bar (braked) and 5 bar (released) and therefore operate successfully partial braking to slow down. Once the brakes are applied, it takes time for them to release and the train comes to a hard stop, despite power! How do you restrict the lever range to display 3.5 to say 5.5 on the gauge? How can you create detentes(??) to coincide with the train brake lever positions in the cab? Do you use a Kennlinie? If so, how do you calculate the figures and what is the methodology?
  
  If it helps, my calibration numbers are ranging from top to bottom 1000 to -1000 in blue and buttons fixed at 99, 128 & 184 respectively.
  
  3. Once the Raildriver is properly calibrated, will it work for all trains or do you have to create a separate one for each type of engine? Currently, I have only tried the 110, 216, 220 locomotives.
  
  4. Finally, whilst it is a cheeky ask, being a newcomer, would anyone be prepared to supply a successful Raildriver Calibration file to try? It would save me pulling out all my hair and I haven't got much left!!

Hope someone can help.

Best wishes to all,
DavidT

[jonathanp]

Hi David,

I do not have a RailDriver, but I can try to help based on my knowledge of calibrating Joysticks.

1. Can you describe the procedure you used to do the calibration?

The top figure is supposed to be the value provided the by the RailDriver at one end of the lever travel applicable to that function, and the bottom one at the other end. The middle value should be the same as the bottom value, except for the "Fahrbremsschalter"/"Combined power-brake controller", where it indicates the middle position between power and brake.

If your RailDriver is producing output values between -1000 and 1000, I do not understand how you ended up with the values 68, 150 and 203 for these.

Your situation is a little bit complicated because you are combining two functions on one lever, but if you RailDriver is providing "perfect" output I would expect something like 1000,0,0 for Throttle and -1000,0,0 for Dynamic Brake, or vice versa.

2. The 'Kennlinie' function is mainly intended for connecting real or custom built hardware with physical detents, in order to translate the fixed values for each detent into the correct correposnding detent in the simulator. You could use it if you wanted to, in to customise how the simulator responds to the input, so in your case increasing the distance between the normal braking detents and making the overcharge/emergency detents smaller.

As for the "methodology", if you don't have any hardware detents to worry about it, you simply configure the number of positions you want(12 on a standard brake controller), and then enter the value you want for each detent.

3. It's not necessary to do it for every locomotiv, Zusi will try to cope with the input you give it, but since different types are controlled in different ways you might find it nicer to sometimes uses different profiles. For example, some shunting locomotives only have a 4 position brake controller - release, running, apply, emergency, so if you have used the "Kennlinie" setting for your brake handle you might want a different setup for that. Most multiple units have a "Fahrbremsschalter" where the driver has just a single slow down/speed up controller and doesn't control the brakes directly. In this case you would probably want to configure your Throttle/Dynamic brake controller to act as a "Fahrbremsschalter" too.

Personally I have 2 - one for seperate Throttle and Brake and the other for the combined Fahrbremsschalter.

Jonathan

[David T]

Hi Jonathan,

Thanks very much for your quick response. Very helpful and greatly appreciated.

Unfortunately, I was away from my computer yesterday, so unable to answer until now;

• 1. Truthfully, I cannot be sure exactly what steps used for calibrating the Combined Power Controller/ Dynamic brakes Lever, as I made so many alterations, before reaching the last result.
  
  Your remarks regarding the 1000,0.0 etc. make sense to me, but I do not know what sequence necessary to arrive there. Incidentally, there are two sets of figures, the larger range in blue as the power control lever is moved and the static black numbers against the 3 buttons (top, middle and bottom). The latter seem to be in the range 0 to 255??. Nevertheless, I cannot even create a 255,0,0 sequence!
  
  I have started a new calibration from scratch for a type 110 (Lz14819) Paderborn/Altenbeken concentrating solely on the Power Controller & Dynamic Brake fields therein. These are my steps;
  
  • a) The properties screen shows static numbers of 0,128,255 to the right of the buttons Oben, Mitte, Unten respectively, when stick/ lever in approx middle position on RD with no intervention by me
    b) Inserted Power/Dyn in first RD calibration screen (Power Controller/Throttle column 1 - Increase:) and clicked Properties
    c) Stick at bottom, clicked on Unten button, moved stick to top, clicked Oben, then stick to middle of range and clicked Mitte. The static black figures now show from Oben 69,153,202 and the blue figures for the stick ranging from 1000 to -1000. Saved adjustment and checked operational result with train. Cab throttle wheel responds, but only from top half of my RD stick
    d) Added Power/Dyn to 2nd column (Power Controller/Throttle column 2 - Decrease:) with exactly the same results as (c)
    e) Added Power/Dyn to Dynamic Brakes Col. 1 Release. The only difference was the power controller and dynamic brake were conflicting with each other. Throttle increasing and simultaneously the brake was applying and vice versa!
    f) Separately added Power/Dyn (i) to col.2 of Dynamic Brakes, (ii) deleted from Co.2 of PowerController, then one of the entries from Dynamic Brakes, all with the same results as (e)
  Should the static numbers read 255,0,-255 for combined controller. if so, how do I create that?
  
  2. I suggest, we leave the Train Brake Valve for the time being and concentrate on the Power Controller/ Dynamic Brakes, if it is possible to put them on the RD combined lever.
  
  3. Thanks for the information, which is both informative and re-assuring.

Actually, your previous reply helped to point me in the right direction for the train brake and after reading the English manual about 3 times, including the joystick section, it started to dawn on me, how to relate the lever movements in the 110 cab to the measurements in the Kennlinie and I now have more controllable, workable brakes for slowing the train down partially and continuing my journey. OK, I know, the Dynamic Brakes are normally used, but this should help with trains without them. I have also set up 2 buttons on the RD representing the appropriate keyboard numbers, so the Dynamic Brakes can be incrementally applied or decreased in the same way as the keyboard. Finally, I also determined a way to set up the combined throttle/ dyn brake on the RD to solely apply or reduce throttle over the whole range of the axis until I can possibly find a way to combine the functions on
this one lever!

I've only had the software about 2 weeks, but already used the Zusi Databank on numerous occasions. So you are the author of this wonderful resource. If I'm correct, I hope, you are not going to charge me royalties, otherwise, I'll become a pauper!! Seriously, there's a lot of work involved in it and I commend you for it.

Very best regards,
DavidT

[jonathanp]

Hi David,

Thanks for your kind comments about the ZusiDatenbank.

Edit: Sorry, I wrote some suggestions about the calibration here, but later realised they were all wrong. I will have to check with my setup at home in order to come up with something sensible.

[David T]

Hi Jonathan,

Thanks. I appreciate that.

David T

[sventernov1]

Hi David T

How did you get the lights on the loco to work? Haven't succeeded to get the RD button to work for the light, neither the keyboard L button will do the trick. So I have to choose timetables running in daytime.

Greetings

Sven Ternov

[sventernov1]

Haven't been able to figure out how to get the driving lights on the locos to work. Tried to calibrate RailDriver switch button for that , doesn't work. Then I tried the keyboard button L. Still no light. So for the time being I have to avoid time tables operating during the dark hours. What did I do wrong?
Greetings

Sven Ternov

[jonathanp]

Unfortunately you aren't doing anything wrong. The Zusi graphics engine was written using a outdated, primitive graphics API which only supports global lighting. So there are no working headlights or platform lights in the Zusi world. This does indeed make driving in full darkness challenging.

[janamdo]

Unfortunately you aren't doing anything wrong. The Zusi graphics engine was written using a outdated, primitive graphics API which only supports global lighting. So there are no working headlights or platform lights in the Zusi world. This does indeed make driving in full darkness challenging.

Yes. i was driving a train in Zusi 3 and try to get some lights in front of me..like it is in reality, what i experienced on a real train with fog.
That's strange to have no lights from a train..or do i miss something?

[F. Schn.]

That's strange to have no lights from a train

https://youtu.be/O8mV48lmvXc?t=2421" target="_blank

[janamdo]

Thanks
Spectacular this scenery and train driving, but there was no lights using in tunnels
As i heard from a traindriver , the train has under normal condition no lights on
Even in tunnels the lights are not used

[F. Schn.]

are not used

used? installed!

[janamdo]

are not used

used? installed!

Ok, then the headlights on loc are mandatory when driving in a tunnel ?

[F. Schn.]

The "normal 3 lights" on a loc and the 2 red lights on the last car are (more or less) position indicators only, and they are mandatory day and night; in or outside tunnels. But they are not like lights of a road car to enlight the environment. They are position indicators. (Anyway; Signs that are reflective will of cause light up.)