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Feedback Contacts
Feedback contacts tell RailKernel which parts of the railway are occupied. Their addresses connect physical detection hardware to elements on the canvas, blocks, action rules and automatic driving.
Create and place a feedback
Open New Feedback, enter or select the detector address and press OK. RailKernel then waits for you to select the detected rail section on the canvas. A feedback may cover one or more connected track elements; the exact left-click, modifier-key and completion gestures are described in Mouse and Canvas Controls. Use the Mouse clicks and feedback placement link in the dialog to open that section directly.
Fields in the New Feedback dialog
The address must describe the same physical contact as the command station:
- Existing feedback
- Select a feedback discovered in the command station to copy its known name and address, or choose Manual entry when you want to enter the values yourself.
- Name
- A unique operational name used on the canvas, in blocks, monitors, action rules and logs. Choose a name that identifies the physical detection section.
- Command station
- The command station from which RailKernel receives this feedback state.
- Bus
- The feedback bus number. For a CS3 S88 Link this selects bus 0, 1, 2 or 3; the meaning for other command stations follows their driver and protocol.
- S88 Feedback
- Select this for a contact connected through an S88 Link bus. Leave it clear for feedback modules on the command station’s direct feedback connection.
- Module
- The module number on the selected direct connection or S88 bus.
- Contact
- The input number on that module, from 1 through 16. The combination of command station, connection type, bus, module and contact must be unique.
- State and Toggle
- When editing an existing feedback, this shows its current FREE or OCCUPIED state. Toggle is useful for controlled testing; a new definition has no state to toggle yet.
- Exclude from emergency stop
- Prevents changes from this contact from participating in the general emergency-stop handling. Use this only for a detector whose purpose and safety consequences are understood.
- Mark as unreliable
- Records that the detector is known to be unstable or less trustworthy, so the condition remains visible during operation and troubleshooting.
- Find feedback
- When editing, closes the definition workflow and highlights the feedback on the canvas. RailKernel also warns when it is referenced by an action rule.
The Feedback Monitor
The Feedback Monitor presents the complete configured address space per command station. Each row is a direct or S88 module and each column is contact 1 through 16. Live keeps the view following incoming events; Refresh rebuilds it from the current project and command-station information. Double-click a defined feedback to edit it. Tooltips include the feedback name, associated block and action rules where applicable.
Monitor colours
Green means that a defined feedback is free and red means occupied. Grey cells have no project feedback assigned to that physical address. A thick blue border marks a feedback used by an enabled action rule; while such an action feedback is free, RailKernel uses a blue fill to distinguish it clearly. Free and occupied colours can be changed in Settings, allowing the monitor and canvas to match your preferred contrast and colour perception.
CS3 feedback-bus lengths
The lower-left Feedback bus data panel in the CS3 command-station overview defines how many direct modules and how many modules on each S88 Link bus RailKernel must read and display. You can edit these values and press Save feedback bus data. RailKernel also examines a loaded project: when a canvas feedback uses a higher module number than currently configured, it raises the corresponding length automatically and never reduces a larger value. This automatic correction becomes fully effective after two restarts. On the first start the project is loaded and the higher requirement is saved; on the next start the command-station connection is created with that enlarged range and the initial states for those additional modules can be requested. Entering and saving the correct lengths manually before connecting avoids that extra cycle.
