Log and diagnostics

When something doesn't work the way you expected, open the log first: it shows what is going on right now and what happened before – right down to the sentence that says why a train isn't moving on. For deeper questions there are the diagnostics with the technical log. Together, both help us when you report a problem.

Opening the log

On the right of the header bar you'll find the “Log ⧉” pill – always, even with an empty layout.

• Click opens the log in a separate window.
• Drag it to a window edge to dock it.
• If it is already docked, a click shows it there – it isn't opened twice.

How to dock and undock windows is explained in The interface.

What you see

The log is a list with the newest line at the top. On the far left there are two symbols: first how important the line is, then what it's about. Next to them are the time, who is affected (loco or train) and the sentence itself.

If the same message keeps coming, it is shown only once – with ×n and the last time it happened; hover over ×n to see when it first appeared. Pins and faults are never merged: two pins are two tasks.

Shape and colour say the same thing – which helps in a narrow dock and with colour vision deficiency.

Filtering

At the top you filter with three questions:

• From which level? “info and up”, “warnings and up” or “errors only”.
• Which loco, which train? “all vehicles” or a single one.
• What is it about? The topics are toggles, and you can switch on several at once. With no toggle on, you see all topics.

Only topics and vehicles that actually have lines are offered.

An empty list can have two reasons, and the log tells them apart: “— nothing recorded yet (fills up during operation) —” or “— nothing matches this filter —”.

Three kinds of lines

History

What has happened: devices report here (connected, disconnected, failed, too slow), a train that couldn't move on, a calibration run, a loco due for maintenance, a train that was parked in the staging yard. The history is recorded as it goes and survives reloading the window.

The history also records a command station failure and what the RC watchdog finds – without a separate pop-up. If a STOP doesn't reach a command station, LoDi-Aura tries once more; if that fails too, the history names the loco and the command station.

Faults

Why a train can't move on right now – as a full sentence with the next obstacle and its name, for example “Gleis 2 is occupied — Güterzug is passing through” or “Gleis 3 belongs to the route of Personenzug”. If the other train is itself waiting, that is added (“…; Güterzug is waiting itself: …”). If two trains are holding each other up, it says “mutual blockage: Personenzug → Güterzug → Personenzug”.

A fault isn't an old entry but the current reason. It sits on a light background, carries the title “currently pending” and disappears as soon as the train can move again. If there are several reasons, the most important one is shown in the line; a button such as “(+2) ▸” expands the others. The same appears under the train in the “Trains” window.

Pins

Your notes from the track plan – placed during operation via “🧰 Tools” › “📌 Pushpin”. Open pins appear as a warning (“open maintenance pin”), completed ones stay in the history as info (“completed maintenance pin”). 🎯 jumps to the spot in the plan; a click on the line opens the note. For this, the LoDi-Aura main window has to be open – that is where the track plan lives.

Waiting lines in the history

For every new reason why a train is waiting, LoDi-Aura also writes a “waiting: …” line into the history:

“No progress” – the watchdog

If an automated train isn't making progress, LoDi-Aura stops it and tells you what it knows. The ✕ line appears once per location; the reason stays with the train until it is in another block, arrives, or is taken out of automation.

Clearing events

The “Clear events” button at the top of the log only deletes the history. Pins and faults stay. LoDi-Aura asks first. Don't clear the log before you have reported a problem – the lines are the most important clue.

In dry run

In dry run the log works as usual – you see the same reasons as on the real layout. The log of the real layout stays untouched: the dry run entries are gone again when you leave it.

Diagnostics & Live Values

Under “System” › “Diagnostics” you check the program status, connections and the technical log in one place. The log tells you what the layout is doing during operation; the technical log here shows what the program reports technically. If there is a problem, both belong in your report.

Saving a diagnostic package

“Save diagnostic package” puts everything we need for a problem into one file: the technical log, the log, connection records and device counters, plus the technical log of the previous program run – after a crash including the line with the cause. The file is called “LoDi-Aura-Diagnosepaket-” followed by date and time, with the extension .json; LoDi-Aura shows the name after saving. Send us this file with your report.

Reporting a problem

1. Open the logFilter on the affected train and copy down the lines about the incident or take a screenshot. Don't clear the events beforehand.
2. Save the diagnostic packageUnder “System” › “Diagnostics”, click “Save diagnostic package”. The file often tells us in a minute what we otherwise couldn't find in an hour.
3. Send the reportWrite to info@lokstoredigital.de and attach the diagnostic package.

A report we can work with well contains:

• the version from the header bar (e.g. “v0.9.19”) and your operating system,
• whether you were running on the layout or in dry run – that changes the search completely,
• the devices involved with their firmware version (shown on the device card), and for driving problems also the loco, decoder protocol and address,
• the steps, ideally so that we can reproduce them: “dragged train 3 from b4 to b7” helps, “didn't work” unfortunately doesn't,
• what you expected and what actually happened – written down separately,
• the log lines about the incident, the diagnostic package and, if possible, a screenshot or a short video.