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WELCOME TO THE 24th YORK DCS USER GROUP MEETING!

*** WE HAVE MOVED ***

We are, once again, back at the York Fairgrounds, at the Veranda Room restaurant (formerly the White Rose Restaurant).

The Veranda Room is located on the York Fairgrounds close to the entrance on Carlisle Avenue. If you’re unfamiliar with the location of the Veranda Room, refer to the map of the York Fairgrounds, below.

Make your plans now to attend the 24th Semi-Annual York DCS User Group Meeting!

!!! WE WILL BE DOING COMPLIMENTARY UPGRADES TO THE LATEST DCS RELEASE RIGHT AT THE MEETING !!!

!!! WE WILL ALSO BE DOING COMPLIMENTARY DCS WIFI (WIU) FIRMWARE UPGRADES RIGHT AT THE MEETING!!!

*** News Flash ***

We expect that there will be an upgrade to the DCS App available prior to the meeting!

We also expect that there will be new TIU code to support the new version of the app and we will be doing TIU upgrades to the new DCS version!

MTH will provide a demo of the new DCS Explorer at the meeting! 

The meeting will be on Wednesday evening, October 18, 2017. This location allows over 150 attendees to be comfortable during dinner and presentations.

I’ll be your host for the meeting along with Marty FitzhenryDon Klose has, once again, graciously agreed to be our scribe for the evening.

Sensenig Catering will cater our meeting with cafeteria-style service. You will be able to purchase your dinner via a cafeteria line as you enter the meeting room.

Entrees will include meat loaf, pulled pork and turkey, along with side items, a vegetarian entree, sandwiches, desserts, and soft drinks. All sales will be cash, no credit cards.

Whether you're contemplating installing MTH's DCS on your layout using the DCS Remote or any version of the DCS Application, or you are already a DCS operator, this is your opportunity to meet with other DCS enthusiasts over dinner to swap ideas and discuss the absolute best way to run trains!

This meeting is an opportunity to get all of your DCS components, including DCS Remote, TIU and WIU, updated to the latest releases at no charge.

As in the past, MTH executive management will be in attendance to discuss the company’s plans for DCS, and to answer all your questions about DCS, PS2/PS3 engines or anything else MTH. Also, MTH will be providing copies of their new 2017 Volume I O Gauge Catalog at the meeting. Be among the first to get your copy!

If you're already operating DCS and desire more information, or you're just interested in learning more about DCS from some of the OGR Forum's resident experts (mostly self-proclaimed!), this is the place to be.

We’l also be discussing how to improve future meetings and input from meeting attendees would be most appreciated!

If any of you were kind enough to donate to my retirement fund by purchasing a copy of The DCS Companion or The DCS WiFi Companion books, I’ll be available to autograph your printed copy of the book or any optical media that contains an eBook edition.

The Veranda Room is located on the York Fairgrounds close to the entrance on Carlisle Avenue.

Directions:

From Interstate 83, take US 30 West (Lincoln Highway) to PA 74 (Carlisle Avenue). Go left on Carlisle past North Highland Avenue on the right. Continue a short distance to an entrance to the Fairgrounds on the right. Turn right into the entrance and follow the winding road to the Veranda Room on your left (red circle and arrow on the map).  Please refer to the map below if you’re not familiar with the area.

Veranda Room   

If you're planning to attend, please be certain to post your intention on this thread so that we can provide the caterer with an accurate head count. Alternatively, you can instead E-mail me directly using the address in my forum profile.

Please note the following schedule of events:

• 5:30 – 7:00 Upgrading DCS sets and WIU firmware, and cloning of remotes

DCS upgrades will be done by Marty FitzhenryGeorge Galyo and Jim Osborne. Marty will also be updating WIUs to the latest Firmware. There will be no charge for this service!

IMPORTANT: If you would like us to update your WIU, please be sure to bring the power adapter with you!

So, if you're a bit skittish about upgrading your own DCS software, cloning your remotes, or updating your WIU firmware, this is a great opportunity to both get it done for you and to learn how easy it is to do it yourself in the future. Make sure that you have fresh batteries in your remotes!

• 5:45 – 7:15 Dinner will be available.

• 7:00 – 8:00 DCS Q & A

We’ll have several DCS beta testers and other DCS experts on hand who will endeavor to answer all of your DCS operational questions in a “town meeting” format. We can discuss anything relating to DCS, PS2, PS3, the DCS App, or any other topic regarding MTH’s product lines. Questions can include how a particular DCS feature or function works, how to do something in DCS, problem resolution, or anything else. The feedback we’ve gotten from past meetings was that this informal Q&A session is extremely well-received and is something that you won’t want to miss, so plan to be there and bring your questions!

• 8:00 – ??? MTH Q & A

MTH will provide us with a look into their product roadmap and answer questions from the OGR Forum about DCS, PS2, PS3, and the company’s other products.

If you have any questions for MTH please submit them in advance to make sure that they get asked and answered, and to allow time for MTH to conduct any necessary research. You may either post questions on this thread or E-mail them to the address in my forum profile.

The cut-off date for questions is the end of the day Sunday, October 8th so that MTH has enough time to prepare answers.

Again, if you're planning to attend, please be certain to post your intention on this thread so that we can provide the caterer with an accurate head count. Alternatively, you can instead E-mail me directly using the address in my forum profile.

Note that it would be a good idea if everyone who attends wears their York ID "badge" to introduce themselves.

I look forward to meeting with as many of you as can be there for an evening of camaraderie, great food, great conversation, great information, and lots of fun!

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  • Veranda Room
Last edited by Barry Broskowitz
Original Post

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Looking forward to joining you there Barry. It is always informative and fun.

And I do have a question. I loaded all of my information from my MTH handheld (including accessories and switches) to my android tablet to use with the wifi. The accessories and switches came in "greyed out" and I could not edit them. I ended up manually adding them to the android device and when added, they work just fine. But I still have the old "greyed out" ones. I did purchase your wifi book, but did not see anything about this in the book and know you are not an android user. I'm hoping someone else has had this issue and can tell me how to delete the old ones from the device.

I appreciate your book and have found it very useful as a reference and in dealing with the wifi issues. 

Gerry

Last edited by gmorlitz

Gerry,

I did purchase your wifi book, but did not see anything about this in the book and know you are not an android user.

Actually, I do have an Android tablet that I recently purchased specifically for beta testing future versions of the app. As I played with it, I did an import of my remote clone backup files and found at least two major issues, both of which I've reported to MTH R&D.

One of the issues I found when importing a remote clone file into the Android version of the app involved a remote file with 3 TIUs in Super TIU mode, each of which had multiple AIUs attached. Further, 4 of the 5 AIUs on TIU #1 each had 10 accessories connected to them. The  5th had fewer than 10 accessories attached.

Regardless, none of the accessories could be used because they were incorrectly internally assigned, during the import process, to the wrong TIU/AIU combinations. I don't recall if they were grayed-out, however, I can assure you that they were non-functional.

See you at the meeting!

Eddie,

Barry, How come you are not at the hotel any more?

The Wyndham has been continually ratcheting up the cost for the meeting room and the guarantee for the dollar value of food purchased. The Veranda Room, which has a new caterer, as opposed to the Wyndham, who was willing to cut us a much better deal. Will you be attending the meeting?

Last edited by Barry Broskowitz

Gerry and Barry:

What are you referring to with the term "grayed out imported material'? I help a lot of folks with DCS and updating; I have never heard that term or seen anything "grayed" out.  Is this an Android thing? 

I use Apple products, but most of my friends are using the Android platforms to run their trains.

Billy C

Last edited by Trainchief

Billy, when you import your data from the MTH handheld, the android device does not correctly import switch and accessory data. You then have to create it manually on the android device in order to control the switches and accessories. The incorrectly imported data still appears on the screen of the device but is "grayed out" (it is a grey color) and doesn't do anything. It also does no harm, but is simply annoying.

Gerry

Count me in. However, I have a suggestion. The Merry Band of Scalawags have done a great job with the updates and I have had my remote and TIU updated several times.  Sometimes I have seen other guys who have waited in line for quite a while. When the got to point of getting the updates they found out they didn't need an update. I was wondering if you could post on the forum what version of updates will be done?

Thanks.

Ed

 

Question for MTH:

I've been very vocal about the well-known issue of newer PS3 steam engines and PS3 diesels not "coasting" to a stop, rather violently "locking up" when throttling down or using the direction button, in conventional operation. This is an issue with all steam in conventional and only diesels with the smoke on (but not off). I've been told, by an MTH VP that the company is well aware of the problem but is not willing to invest the time and $$$ to resolve due to "everyone using DCS" where it isn't an issue. Of note - this was not an issue with early PS3 products, only appearing in engines made in the past few years.

Having been an MTH customer since the PS1 days, and a lover of steam, I refuse to purchase an MTH PS3 steamer and know a few others in the same boat. I find it unacceptable for a company to brush off a customer issue just by touting their control system as the only way to fix it (more $$$ in their pockets).

Has MTH put any other consideration into fixing this well known issue that, is turning off customers and, in the end, shrinking the profits?

clem k posted:

SJC..... I also would like this issue fixed and I run completely DCS. Its unbelievable how fast a PS3 can stop. when power is interrupted even for a split second. What happened to flywheel coasting stop.  

Glad I'm not the only one. Make sure you make it very clear to MTH - I'll be making sure Mike knows, once again, at York. 

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