R211 Discussion Thread

[Eric B]

9 hours ago, trainfan22 said:

 

Wheelchair riders are the first non MTA or Kawasaki personnel to board the R211s

 

 

Just saw the news story when my wife told me about it. but this morning; I got to see it for myself (including the ramp they had for the story), during my medical visit in the yard. Totally cool! Been waiting a long time (about 30 years!) for the RGB LED's.

Only thing is that with the flush front design, there is little space to stand on when the door is closed. (Seems worse than even the 44/46, even with the indentation they put on the bottom of the door).

[Vulturious]

So we finally know what the door motor and actually hear what the AAS sounds like:

It's the same door motor as the R160B which makes sense since Kawasaki also built them and they're using the same program from the R179's. I'm disappointed they're using that since it's still defaulted to Kathleen's voice, but on the plus side, there is no long a** pause anymore.

Here's a few more:

 

[R68ACTrain]

I’m upset the actual TS announcer isn’t used by only Kathleen..

[Lawrence St]

12 minutes ago, Vulturious said:

So we finally know what the door motor and actually hear what the AAS sounds like:

It's the same door motor as the R160B which makes sense since Kawasaki also built them and they're using the same program from the R179's. I'm disappointed they're using that since it's still defaulted to Kathleen's voice, but on the plus side, there is no long a** pause anymore.

Here's a few more:

 

I know dam well they did not leave that next stop glitch in with the R211 program...

[Vulturious]

19 minutes ago, Lawrence St said:

I know dam well they did not leave that next stop glitch in with the R211 program...

I had the same exact reaction when first seeing this. I'm hoping they go and fix this because it really just doesn't fit well even with the long pause gone. 

[Lawrence St]

1 hour ago, Vulturious said:

I had the same exact reaction when first seeing this. I'm hoping they go and fix this because it really just doesn't fit well even with the long pause gone. 

I also took a look at the video, the programming is horrible. Who let this train get approved??
 

 TO FOREST

 HILLS-71

 THE NEXT STOP IS

 W 8 ST

 AQURAIUM

 8:07 PM

 

Wtf???

And I see that  to 96th St program is still broken. I know for a fact they just took the R179 program and threw it in the R211.

Edited July 28, 2021 by Lawrence St

[Vulturious]

22 minutes ago, Lawrence St said:

I also took a look at the video, the programming is horrible. Who let this train get approved??
 

 TO FOREST

 HILLS-71

 THE NEXT STOP IS

 W 8 ST

 AQURAIUM

 8:07 PM

 

Wtf???

And I see that  to 96th St program is still broken. I know for a fact they just took the R179 program and threw it in the R211.

Oh lol, I never really watched it since I wasn't really interested in seeing the  program. WAIT A MINUTE, WHAT THE HELL!?! There's a dead pixel, this train is new and there's already a dead pixel? 

Also yeah, I pointed out the R179 program part when I was posting this.

[Railfanner Mario]

A new train and already a dead pixel 🤣🤣🤣 Gotta love the 

[BenTheMiner]

6 hours ago, Lawrence St said:

I also took a look at the video, the programming is horrible. Who let this train get approved??
 

 TO FOREST

 HILLS-71

 THE NEXT STOP IS

 W 8 ST

 AQURAIUM

 8:07 PM

 

Wtf???

And I see that  to 96th St program is still broken. I know for a fact they just took the R179 program and threw it in the R211.

I'm pretty sure all the displays are missing their hyphens. The overhead says HILLS 71 without the hyphen. This was likely removed when transitioning from the R179 database to the R211 database. Not sure why though, as keeping the hyphens made more sense, for the overhead at least. If the name is split into two stages, then having hyphens to indicate that makes sense. Perhaps they were just lazy and simply automatically removed any hyphens by using something like Find and Replace.

But the fact that the station names have to be split into two stages shows how they made the overhead display too small. They would be able to fit the entire station name if the display was as long as the current overheads.

But how is the  to 96 St program broken?

[darkstar8983]

31 minutes ago, BenTheMiner said:

I'm pretty sure all the displays are missing their hyphens. The overhead says HILLS 71 without the hyphen. This was likely removed when transitioning from the R179 database to the R211 database. Not sure why though, as keeping the hyphens made more sense, for the overhead at least. If the name is split into two stages, then having hyphens to indicate that makes sense. Perhaps they were just lazy and simply automatically removed any hyphens by using something like Find and Replace.

But the fact that the station names have to be split into two stages shows how they made the overhead display too small. They would be able to fit the entire station name if the display was as long as the current overheads.

But how is the  to 96 St program broken?

They need to make the text slightly smaller and not waste too much space with the route bullet circle. Just the route letter is sufficient (like on the R160s and R179s). Imagine displaying long station names on this sign.

 

the  to 96 St program is glitched because it announces the Astoria-bound announcements up until 57 St-7 Av, then announces itself as a 96 St-bound  train from there to 96 St-2 Av. Most likely this is just an oversight and the announcements will be re-done. Remember that a lot of the announcements that were on the R160s were re-done a year or two after they were already rolling in service. Aside from station renaming and new transfers, several lines had their entire line announcements re-done.

Mind you, that I think that at the time, the R160s had to be manually re-programmed to have the new announcements and updates. Now picture doing that in 2008 when the  was already ALL R160s. The trains had to be pulled one at a time, updated, and placed back into service. For the 2010 cuts and the 2017 SAS opening, it was easier to do and I think it was done remotely, because EVERY line needed to have its transfers re-done, and the 160s were already on the  and .

 

- the  announcements headed downtown (entire route), and uptown in Brooklyn and Queens.

- the  announcements outside Manhattan

- the  announcements after 2010 (in Brooklyn)

- the  Court Square announcements

Edited July 28, 2021 by darkstar8983

[trainfan22]

The dead pixel is probably a teething issue, I wouldn't sweat it. When the R160s were new the FIND used to get stuck all the time and that rarely happens now.

 

 

[darkstar8983]

3 minutes ago, trainfan22 said:

The dead pixel is probably a teething issue, I wouldn't sweat it. When the R160s were new the FIND used to get stuck all the time and that rarely happens now.

 

 

very true. 

[BenTheMiner]

2 hours ago, darkstar8983 said:

They need to make the text slightly smaller and not waste too much space with the route bullet circle. Just the route letter is sufficient (like on the R160s and R179s). Imagine displaying long station names on this sign.

 

the  to 96 St program is glitched because it announces the Astoria-bound announcements up until 57 St-7 Av, then announces itself as a 96 St-bound  train from there to 96 St-2 Av. Most likely this is just an oversight and the announcements will be re-done. Remember that a lot of the announcements that were on the R160s were re-done a year or two after they were already rolling in service. Aside from station renaming and new transfers, several lines had their entire line announcements re-done.

Mind you, that I think that at the time, the R160s had to be manually re-programmed to have the new announcements and updates. Now picture doing that in 2008 when the  was already ALL R160s. The trains had to be pulled one at a time, updated, and placed back into service. For the 2010 cuts and the 2017 SAS opening, it was easier to do and I think it was done remotely, because EVERY line needed to have its transfers re-done, and the 160s were already on the  and .

 

- the  announcements headed downtown (entire route), and uptown in Brooklyn and Queens.

- the  announcements outside Manhattan

- the  announcements after 2010 (in Brooklyn)

- the  Court Square announcements

The text size isn't the problem, it's the size of the sign itself. If you decrease the height of the text, it becomes around the same size as the current overhead text. The sign size may have to do with them needing the sign to be RGB, though. In my opinion, the R211 font resembles the Axion bus sign font, so it's possible that it's an Axion sign (the resolution of the sign is equal to one of those used on bus signs).

There are indeed glitched programs, but it's unknown if the R160 and R179 share the same glitches. It seems the R211 is based on the R179 database, not the R160's.

[T to Dyre Avenue]

15 hours ago, Vulturious said:

So we finally know what the door motor and actually hear what the AAS sounds like:
 

(video)

It's the same door motor as the R160B which makes sense since Kawasaki also built them and they're using the same program from the R179's. I'm disappointed they're using that since it's still defaulted to Kathleen's voice, but on the plus side, there is no long a** pause anymore.

There’s no “stand clear” announcement or a warning tone while the doors close? Just the doorway LEDs turning from green to red? I hope they can correct that. 

[raymondsiri]

Don't worry, this train will get to use all of this stuff. Pretty sucks now...

[Vulturious]

56 minutes ago, T to Dyre Avenue said:

There’s no “stand clear” announcement or a warning tone while the doors close? Just the doorway LEDs turning from green to red? I hope they can correct that. 

The guy who recorded it commented on the video saying they were only testing out the AAS and keyed the door which opens both instead of just one now. I'm hoping it ain't the door chime from the mockup at Hudson Yards, that's just a downgrade.

[BenTheMiner]

1 hour ago, T to Dyre Avenue said:

There’s no “stand clear” announcement or a warning tone while the doors close? Just the doorway LEDs turning from green to red? I hope they can correct that. 

The door warning is played manually from the cab. Of course it's there. The door chime didn't play since they were testing (it seems this was also the case for the R179). Apparently, they're the same as the current ones, so there goes the hype.

[Lawrence St]

7 hours ago, trainfan22 said:

The dead pixel is probably a teething issue, I wouldn't sweat it. When the R160s were new the FIND used to get stuck all the time and that rarely happens now.

 

 

What you mean, it still happens!

[Lawrence St]

5 hours ago, BenTheMiner said:

The text size isn't the problem, it's the size of the sign itself. If you decrease the height of the text, it becomes around the same size as the current overhead text. The sign size may have to do with them needing the sign to be RGB, though. In my opinion, the R211 font resembles the Axion bus sign font, so it's possible that it's an Axion sign (the resolution of the sign is equal to one of those used on bus signs).

There are indeed glitched programs, but it's unknown if the R160 and R179 share the same glitches. It seems the R211 is based on the R179 database, not the R160's.

The R179 database is a rushed version of the R160's, hence why you have all those weird glitches with the FIND display. The R211 is also a rushed version of the R179 database, which is why it shares the same glitches as the R179.

That to 96th St program is fixed on the R160's, but not on the R179's.

[BenTheMiner]

50 minutes ago, Lawrence St said:

The R179 database is a rushed version of the R160's, hence why you have all those weird glitches with the FIND display. The R211 is also a rushed version of the R179 database, which is why it shares the same glitches as the R179.

That to 96th St program is fixed on the R160's, but not on the R179's.

Ah, that explains what you meant. What FIND display glitch are you talking about? If you're talking about the stretched text on the LCD, that applies for the third and fourth lines no matter the program. The R211 database does indeed seem rushed.

[raymondsiri]

Guys, we don't know if this train have some new announcements rather than the ones you heard on the R179s, R188s, R143s and the rest of NTT trains. We'll have to wait and see what happens when it gets it first revenue running test.

[R68ACTrain]

I wonder which door chime they would use, either the R142/A/179 version, or the R143/160/188 version

[Lawrence St]

6 hours ago, raymondsiri said:

Guys, we don't know if this train have some new announcements rather than the ones you heard on the R179s, R188s, R143s and the rest of NTT trains. We'll have to wait and see what happens when it gets it first revenue running test.

We literally just saw 3 videos saying otherwise...

[Metro CSW]

16 minutes ago, Lawrence St said:

We literally just saw 3 videos saying otherwise...

He's referring to possibility of software updates before service testing if needed.... I mean, they do have a lot of time....

[Lawrence St]

1 hour ago, Metro CSW said:

He's referring to possibility of software updates before service testing if needed.... I mean, they do have a lot of time....

At most, the elevator and additional announcements will be done by someone else, but the core announcements will be the same from the rest of the B divison NTT's.