I've recently bought a raildriver so I could use it for TSW 2, but I must say that I'm glad I bought a second hand one at a good price rather than getting a new one. Going forward I should state that I've tested on both TSW 2 and classic TS and the problems I'm experiencing are exclusive to TSW 2. Firstly, the calibration system is pretty poor. When using a train with a combined throttle/brake the brake sticks on at its minimum setting between the true throttle idle and brake idle positions. I have calibrated multiple times and this continues to be an issue unless I purposefully leave the brake lever a considerable distance of its travel and then set it as the brake idle. TS calibration doesn't have this issue and when the brake lever is at idle the brake in the game reflects that. UPDATE: I think the calibration error is loco based, as I've tried some more trains with it and it seems that the talent 2 is by far the worst. Putting the lever into throttle idle initiates minimum braking, not minimum throttle. Secondly, since I have reassigned many keys to make the game more comfortable and familiar, the bindings on the raildriver conflict, meaning that the horn button now also triggers the alert button while the alert button does nothing. Although this could simply be fixed by resetting these bindings, there might be times in the future where I will not want to play with the raildriver and simply just use keyboard and mouse. There are also other issues with the bindings, which wouldn't be an issue if we were able to change them. the biggest one for me is the way the PZB has been bound, which is in reverse. The far right of the three is override, when in the real trains this is reserved for the acknowledge button. As a result I'm hesitant to turn on PZB while driving with the raildriver, which sucks because I really like playing with PZB but I know it would just cause way too many emergency brake applications or train my brain to use the buttons in the wrong order. The lack of customisation is also really annoying since there are control layouts that vary between different locos, so you can't have a universal layout like you can with a keyboard Thirdly, the speedo display's leftmost digit flickers in game. This isn't something that could be attributable to my device as it doesn't happen in TS classic and doesn't even happen in TSW 2's menu screens, only when in the train. As a suggestion it would also be cool if we could change the use of this screen, possibly to AFB speed, or LZB upcoming speed, like you can do in Zusi 3. UPDATE: Doing more driving I have noticed the flickering only occurs when the digit on the screen changes, and occurs both in TS classic and TSW2 so it might be an issue with my device. Fourthly, this is more of a suggestion, but it would be great to see the ability to invert the axis. In German trains the combined throttle brake handles move forwards for acceleration. I get this is pedantic but it does add a level of immersion. It would also be great to see DTG add an option to add custom controllers as something I want to do, but I feel that the effort would be wasted if there was no use for it. Overall, at this point in time I don't think a raildriver is worth it just for TSW 2, unless you can get one at a bargain like I did. In my opinion the implementation of raildriver in TS classic is better. I would love to hear what you guys have to think and whether or not these issues are ones only I'm having. It is entirely possible that it being second hand my device has some problems, but given the owner obviously cared for it and that it works fine in TS classic this doesn't seem to be the case.
I’m happy with my Raildriver. The only problem I have is that it’s been in beta status for so long & the lack of consistency in the buttons (and that they can’t be redefined). I also have to use the Q key still as the alerter button takes ages to register. This has been broken for months. I don’t have the issue of the flickering left digits that you are having though. Generally though it really enhances my enjoyment of the game and I’m glad to have it, even in its unfinished form. Every new loco has support now and they are slowly getting through the oreserved collection so it’s clearly something they will continue to support.
I'm glad to hear you are enjoying it. I think overall my expectations were too high. For one I was expecting the product itself to be much larger. Maybe you got lucky when you were calibrating your throttle, or maybe my sensors have some dust in them, like how Logitech pedals get dust caught in their potentiometers. As for the flickering digit, I probably didn't explain it very well. It not a flickering number its just a faint flickering of light that will disappear once the space is filled with a number, or usually is unnoticeable with lights on. I must admit when i played classic train sim it really did another level to the experience.
Also can I ask what routes and trains you play with? this might explain why you don't have the same issues as me. The most noticeable problems I have are with the talent 2 with the minimum throttle/brake positions. I've tried calibrating it in different ways and I've got it to there point where I'm happy enough using it.
I play most routes a bit, but mainly German ones. The only one I find bad using Raildriver is Arosa. I find with the calibration, it helps if you leave the levers just short of the full range. I’m using mine right now, there is definitely no flickering of any sort from the LED.
i'm generally happy with my Raildriver although the delay with the alerter button can be a problem. One thing I would like is more audible feedback when the throttle is stepped up and down. With the HUD turned off it's often hard to know when the combined lever has started operating the brakes or throttle either side of the centre position.
The calibration is loco dependant. Some of the locos I drive with it will go straight to full power, others won't Not sure on the flickering digit as I've not encountered that issue, but could be loco specific or an issue with your unit? The remainder of your post seems to be because you've modified from standard, and DTG's implementation of the RD software isn't modifiable at present (and may well never be) I like the RD, especially because it stays active even when TSW2 isn't the active window, unlike keyboard commands. Now if they can just get around to getting all the UK locos compatible with it I'd be very happy!
I had made, like you, a used purchase and since I have the RD, the immersion is nicer; hard to go back to the simple keyboard. I can confirm that the Talent 2 calibration is "special" for finding the position "0". On German trains, the Sifa and PZB confirmation are on the same button, not convenient. The power/braking percentage is not very accurate; but it's the same with other trains. I don't encounter any flicker for my part. Sometimes, during a service, I have a reset of the RD (as if I had touched several levers) and I lose, randomly, the light signals. What I regret is that there is no harmonization between trains, I have difficulty understanding this point. Personally, I have to have Excel masks that I position on my RD, for each train.
I think we're all getting a little impatient with the seemingly permanent beta software. All we can do is continue to talk it up, whine and cajole DTG into moving forward. Meanwhile, I'm happy with my RD. Not having the flickering issue and I've gotten to trust the alerter button, because it always registers in time despite the hesitation. By the way, does the rocker switch currently have a function mapped to it?
I have a RD I used to use when I was still playing MSTS and RW on PC some years ago. IMO RD is not all that great, it might be a problem of my unit (or the fact it's pretty old) but the combined power/brake handle is too inaccurate, very often little movements are not registered or the same movements give slighty different results. For this very reason, more recently I've started using the indipendent brake lever to control the throttle on a lot of german trains, and that worked a lot better for me, while using my HOTAS for trains with combined power/brake handle. (This is on TS using a 3rd party plug-in for more customization), also using the american-style handle feels too wrong to control an european train IMO, and I would have preferred if it was notched (given it was based on a US model). I wonder how the G6 works with RD?
I agree. I got it specficially for TSW2, and I've been disappointed. Ghost key presses, keybinds that don't work or are double-bound / incorrectly bound. Some locos have throttle notches, and that's fine, but others have gradients - and the gradients are treated like notches - I can't get smooth acceleration or braking out of it. I'd love for the axis controls on the RD to be treated like axes. Honestly, I hope they put more work into this, because I'd love to use RD to its full potential, but at this point, I'd rather use the keyboard.
I believe that's a software (TSW) issue, and it kinda makes sense. To play on a keyboard if you had gradients rather than "notches" as such every key press (or repeat) would only increment 1% up or down (or whatever the increment was decided to be). This would make play on a keyboard onerous so unless they rewrote the input entirely just to accommodate the RD it wouldn't work properly As with most "niche items" the RD has it's quirks but I can see where people get annoyed / frustrated
I opened up my rail driver when I first got it to investigate how to approach making a custom controller and there are definitely quirks. All the sensors for the throttle, reverser and brakes are on two PCB’s on one side of the device. The levers use rods to connect to these boards. The throttle lever uses a large 2 coil spring, I believe to either add some resistance to the movement or the return the throttle handle to its normal position after moving it from the throttle to dynamic brake sections. I’m pretty sure however that this also introduces a weird return force that causes the lever to not be able to physically sit in full throttle, full brake, throttle idle, or brake idle. This means that he usable range for the lever is much smaller and therefore much lower fidelity. I am happy to concede that this may be a problem with my device due to age and dust accumulation but it is a design choice I wouldn’t have made. Overall I don’t think I will be following any design decisions made in the rail driver to apply it to my own controller. On a different note I would advise the crew to see how Zusi 3 approaches the issue. It allows for custom throttle/brake curves. So you specify points where you want the power to be at a certain percent (so you could set 100% of the throttle range as 100% throttle, then between 5% throttle and 5% brake is 0 etc) and it will fill in the gaps using a linear function. It also allows you to save multiple files so you can customise it for multiple trains.
It would be really nice to have a throttle/brake lever with mechanical notches so you could actually feel when the power had been increased or reduced. Raildriver is great but if I was building my own version that’s the first thing I’d be looking for.
Mt throttle jumps up and down on every Route, it also jumps even in the Calibration screen. Brake side on a combined lever is not as bad, but it's still present. If I need a lot of precision such as the 395 or on Arosa, I use the keyboard.
I bought a new one a few months ago and must admit using it with a Class 101 is pretty good. Haven't used it or TSW2 for a few months as I'm waiting for the pres updates. I can understand what the OP is saying though and the RD while it does add immersion it isn't perfect. Calibration is one area which could be improved mappable buttons is another. I did see another site, Alan Thomson, he does TS1 and he developed some hardware that looked brilliant, mainly for the UK type trains I think. This was a while ago and they weren't cheap but well built. Sadly though they were mainly for TS1, they had at the time limited functionality. I would have got one if there was more compatibility, perhaps there is now I am not sure. But saying that the RD is still good imo. It is the software side that lets it down.
The actual raildriver unit is pretty good. I love using it for Zusi 3 which I recommend to anyone who likes realistic German stuff. The biggest problem I have with the raildriver is the size, the flimsy horn, and the lights and wiper knobs. If the functionality was better (i.e. programmable buttons) I would use it in TSW 2 but until then, and given its not great for all rollingstock, I will just use keyboard and mouse. I don't blame dovetail for some locomotives not being good, that's just he nature of how unique every piece of rollingstock is, and honestly I'd rather have a game where the raildirver is only good for half the trains because they are all so unique. With all that being said, if TSW ever had an option for custom devices I would make one myself.
I’m another one disappointed by raildriver. Perhaps I’ve been spoiled by Thrustmaster kit, but I hate it’s imprecision. Most of the time I just prefer keyboard and mouse. Incremental taps just work.
Build your own ;-) It's cheaper (and a lot better quality) than the rail driver. But perhaps, more importantly, it works with every train and in the same way (you don't end up with different buttons doing different things on different trains), or you can set up different profiles for different trains in a matter of minutes). Also, you can change whether the power leaver increases by pulling down, or pushing up (very useful when driving German Locs). Has completely changed my experience driving trains (both in TSW2 and Zusi). I can heartily recommend it!
I just copied the brilliant Whitsim’s design on the Ts2020 forum. I have no experience with electronics either. Thankfully there was no soldering involved, just a bit of wire stripping. The most complicated bit was drilling the holes for the switches to go in (luckily I had a bench drill). Although initially daunting, it was fairly simple and took half a day from start to finish!
When you calibrate the throttle make sure you do it in the order specified on screen. The throttle order for calibration is minimum throttle, maximum throttle, maximum brake then minimum brake. Paul
And it all works fine with TSW2? Do you mean the TS2022 forum here? Otherwise do you have a link? Cheers.
It works by pressing keys, so yes it works with TSW2. The game thinks its a keyboard. In addition to my Raildriver I also have made "box" which means I have consistent buttons for doors, alerter and PZB buttons. I only use Raildriver for the lever controls and switches. I never touch the buttons anymore in TSW2. Too much variability for me. You can read about it at https://forums.dovetailgames.com/threads/i-made-a-control-box-for-tsw2.51585/#post-448749 - you could adapt the same hardware and use up/down buttons for throttle and brake. Not as immersive as the excellent controller mentioned by LCYCowboy but very easy to build from commercially available parts with zero programming and near zero electronics knowledge needed - you only need to know enough to find the right terminals to connect to. Paul
If anyone would like some help building their own controller I am more than willing. There is a thread started by Whitsim who's controller was my inspiration. https://forums.dovetailgames.com/threads/arduino-controller-build.45279/#post-447330 The controller is based on an arduino board which just plugs into your computer USB port. It can mimic a keyboard, but as Whitsim detailed, it is better to run it as a joystick and then use a tool called Joytokey to convert each button/switch into a keypress. Using Joytokey you can set up endless configurations so that each button does different things for different trains, or just keep it the same. The build itself was very simple, you just run a wire from the Adruino breakout board to the switch (you literally cut a piece of wire, strip each end and screw one end into the board and the other end into the switch. No electronic skills needed. You can customise it to use any switch you want and have any layout. I have attached an image of the internals below. It looks complicated, but it really isn't! I can't stress how much this has transformed train driving on the PC. There are a couple of great videos by Whitsim on the other thread showing the controller in action for you to get an idea. Anyone wanting to give it a go, just let me know, I am more than willing to help!
It looks awesome, all of them do. I think I could build it and wire it but know nowt about coding, looks fun to do though.
Last bit of coding I did was on my ZX Spectrum in the 80s. For the Ardiono I just borrowed someone else’s code (freely available on the web) It worked a charm
If you want to do something similar and cannot do the coding or don't want to get into Arduino look at the IPAC board I used instead of Arduino. It basically does the same thing but you just tell it what key each switch/joystick corresponds to and it pretends to be a keyboard to the PC. I used the Ultimarc I-PAC2 https://www.ultimarc.com/control-interfaces/i-pacs/i-pac2/ There is no need to write any code, you download a utility that tells the board what switch is what key. Arduino (and other single board experiementers options) have one big advantage for the future - the i-pac can only be what it is, the Arduino can be used for other things in the future and could interface to an API when/if we ever get one for TSW2 instead of pretending to be a keyboard meaning in the future not only could it control the train, but it could drive things like speed indicator, brake indicators, warning devices, etc. It could become the basis for a future partner annoying train cab built into a desk. Paul
Hello, I've also been having issues, it wont work in reverse. In reverse it's neutral, in neutral it's forward. and calibration skips the neutral position, unless it's labled wrong.
It is really a shame that DTG cannot put the effort in and fix the RD driver after they said it was an easy fix it is even more baffling, I can't remember how long we have been waiting. 1 or 2 years? Feels like 10! DTG just don't give a shite.
Cailbrated mine this afternoon and just checked again and it definitely checks the neutral position on the reverser, so unless it's different on different trains (which is entirely possible) If that's the case try doing the calibration on a class 66 which I just checked it on and neutral is in there
That's odd... I would report that as an issue (with video showing a calibration sequence if you can) and get them to look into it. Definitely does neutral on TSW3 calib for me
Just searched for 'Azeron Keypad' and went to their site, they look pretty good. Could you tell me which one you went for and how you programmed it? Might get me back playing TSW2, lol. Cheers.
Hello! I went with a "Compact" but that seems to have been replaced with "Cyborg Compact", It's seems to be mostly the same though but it's expensive... I only paid 100 Euros or so for mine. The software they have is pretty similar to Ghub or any other software gaming keyboards have, nothing complicated there. You can also do macros if you'd like and all that stuff. One advantage to the Azeron over a button box or whatever is that it's significanlty easier to set up, and I can have pretty much every button in the game mapped to it, for the basics, My index finger controls the throttle, middle finger main brake, ring finger electric brake and pinky direct brake. The thumb button next to the joystick is mapped to "shift", so I can hold that, and that unlocks more options for the other buttons, for an example, Thumb+index finger is AFB on my setup. There's also a button on the side to switch to another profile so you could have a "german profile" and "brittish profile" stored on board. Obviously, there is a learning curve, but I've seen worse to be honest. I hope it makes sense and isn't to overwhelming
Thank you for explaining further, I'm definitely interested and will look into getting one very soon. Cheers. EDIT: Did look at it on their site and yes it was expensive but was tempted but the hidden import duties put me off. Tried on Amazon but they don't have the 'Cyborg Compact'. They have the Cyborg I think but no customisation and only for medium hands.
