CIS on 317340 (FCC) totally messed up

[jon0844]

How are the screens linked up on the 317/1s (using the screens fitted by Wagn in 2005/6) because they're doing some very odd things - besides the reading announcements backwards when not set up/reset properly (the common problem).

Tonight, the 1606 KGX to Cambridge service, 317340, had different information on different screens! This made me wonder if they're sent data wirelessly, and some were missing out. The clocks were about 8 minutes slow, and yet they're set by GPS! What a strange way to manage things if the clock data is stored on each individual screen unit.

As the train moved, having done the initial welcome/safety briefing properly, the clocks updated - but one was one minute behind. The system then tried to do the welcome bit again, but was stuttering the speech (screen text fine) and finished with a very high-pitched noise that lasted about half a second.

At Finsbury Park, the time on the platform was 1611, but the train screens near me said 1609 and 1610! One then froze until Potters Bar, where it must have been sent another announcement to display to say it was approaching the station.

The clocks were then jumping all over the place, and by the time it should have been speaking 'This train is now approaching Hatfield' to go with the text, it simply did the high-pitched squeal for the duration.. causing people on the train to cover their ears in agony.

Thank God I alighted before Cambridge, as I think there will be some people that will be hearing ringing in their ears for hours after!

I can only imagine the high-pitched noise must be corrupted audio data, but this needs to be fixed pronto!

 

[O L Leigh]

It's the same system we have, but ours is not set to display the time.

The announcements are triggered by the GPS and not by the time. However, I don't believe that the time signal is necessarily taken from the GPS because it's frequently wrong on the cab displays even though the PIS works perfectly otherwise. I'm also pretty certain that the system is not wireless.

It's not a brilliant system and is often faulty. It doesn't much help that it never seems to be set-up correctly and that every update fixes one problem but creates a whole load of new ones. Some days I wish we still had the old windy-blinds.

O L Leigh

 

[jon0844]

The time always seems to be very accurate, so I figured that if it has GPS, it can get the time from it. But that doesn't explain how the screens within the same carriage could be showing different information and times!

That said, perhaps the system is designed to work on trains where you might have different messages for different coaches (even if these were both in the same one) - but FCC won't be using that feature and I suspect it was just completely corrupted.

What the screens say is one thing, but that high-pitched sound was incredibly ear piercing. If it continues to do it before being fixed, or turned off, then I'd fully expect there to be serious complaints made! Previously the worst, from a customer comfort point of view, was when the volume was far too loud and it was totally distorted.

I guess that's what you get for an after-market item!