New to RM & DCC, cannot make loco move & no sounds

[Chrissaf]

Firstly Percy - there is no illusion I assure you. Many of us run DCC locos without issue. How are you attempting to operate the new loco? All new chip fitted locos (which your is) arrive with the chip ID set to "3". Have you set up the loco in your RM roster with this number or have you changed it to something else (which is good practice)?

 

Are you sure you have power to the rails?

 

Forget about calibration for the moment - as you say it is not needed to start with.

 

R-

[2e0dtoeric]

Hi, Percy. Sorry to see you are having problems.

So go back to the beginning, and eliminate faults one at a time!

Start by completely disconnecting your analogue controller from the track - you cannot have two controllers of any kind connected at the same time.

Then, do you have, or have access to a manual digital controller, a Select, Elite or other brand. Connect that directly to the track, and see if the loco will respond, without the e-link, the computers, and the other stuff getting in the way.

Also - be aware that you cannot have analogue loco's on a DCC track, because the motors will very quicky burn out on the 16v AC signal they get.

If that now works, go on to the next step. If not look for the reason why. It might be nothing more complex than a short circuit somewhere. If you have a test meter, go around the track, and see if you can find it, or measure the AC voltage readings.

I do not have (nor want) e-link, so if the problem is there, or the computer you are controlling it with, you will have to ask again, for someone more familiar with the system. But you should realize that the more complex you make the control system, the more likely there is to be a minor fault that scrambles the whole lot.

Good luck.

[Chrissaf]

Percy, ignore all the gumph about setting up an oval and calibrating the loco. This is for advanced users and is not something you need to do to get a basic loco moving on the track. Apart from which, when a Hornby brand loco is correctly installed in RailMaster, Hornby have already done the calibration for you and the correct settings will have been imported into RailMaster. The calibration oval is meant for locos that are not in the Hornby RailMaster database and predominantly not even a Hornby brand. The calibration procedure can be treated as an optional feature if you like, it is not a critical requirement to follow.

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Percy, no DCC controller by any brand has the ability to auto detect and auto configure locos for true 'plug'n'play'. The DCC protocol is very basic and doesn't have that level of sophistication. In fact in this area, Hornby RailMaster is more advanced than any of the competitive brands. At least it does have an internal loco database for Hornby brand locos. None of the other non Hornby brands have anything similar, they all rely on the user spending ages configuring every aspect of the loco in the basic system (for software controlled controllers that is).

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There is most likely a fundamental setting up process that you have either not yet done, or done incorrectly that is preventing your loco from moving.

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First of all my apologies in advance if you come back and say I have already done all the things in your instructions and my loco still won't move. I don't have the benefit of looking over your shoulder and watching what you are doing. Thus my instructions are based on the whole process from the beginning and may duplicate things you have already done.

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The Hornby R3284TTS (assuming you haven't changed it) should have the factory default DCC Address 3 configured in it. Before getting diverted off at a tangent re-addressing the loco to something different, the first task is to get the loco to respond on your layout using the default address.

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First of all, review the RailMaster setting up procedures detailed in the 'sticky thread' at the top of the forum RailMaster section. Pay particular attention to the sections on 'railmaster.ini' file settings and ensuring that the com port allocated to RM in Windows Device Manager matches the com port set in RailMaster (System Setting Window).

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Assuming that the settings are all correct, the controller icon (looks like an audio cassette) in the top right hand corner should be green, and you should be getting no error messages relating to communications between RailMaster and the eLink.

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Now to the loco.

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With the layout connected to the eLink Track A&B terminals, place the R3284TTS on the main track (not the programming track at this stage).

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Open the 'Loco Settings' window within RailMaster (the steam train icon).

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1. Enter the factory default DCC Address 3 in this box. Just type the number "3" in the box without the " " marks.
2. Type in the R3284TTS product code in this box and initiate a search of the Hornby database. If the R3284TTS can not be found at this stage, you can deal with that later. At this stage I am just trying to get your loco moving under your control. Note the search may be more effective if you search for just the R3284 part of the product code.
3. In this box you can search the Hornby database for an image of your loco. It should auto populate if the search above in item 2 was successful.
4. If the loco was found in the database these two boxes should be populated. If empty, just put in a couple of arbitrary values as a temporary measure.
5. If the loco was found in the Hornby database then the function list should be populated, if it is empty then ignore at this time. As I said before, I am just trying to get your loco to move on the track under DCC control. Populating the function list is covered in the supplementary reference thread linked at the bottom of this reply.
6. Ignore arrow 6 at this time - see function list comment in item 5 above.
7. Click the Green tick (bottom right arrow) to save your loco in your loco roster, then close the window using the X top right.

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Close and reopen RailMaster, you should find your loco is now shown as a throttle on the right hand side column of the main RM screen.

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Click the throttle and move the slider.

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Does your loco now move on the track?

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If it does come back and tell us. Of course also come back and tell us if it doesn't.

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If the loco moves but was not found in the Hornby database, then follow the instructions on this previous post relating to adding a sound loco manually to RM. This other post also covers how to change the loco Default DCC Address 3 to something else.

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https://www.hornby.com/uk-en/forum/r3459tts-decoder-not-recognized/?p=1/

 

[Percybigun]

thanks for the replies, i already knew not to connect dc and dcc controllers at the same time, i only switched back to dc to check the track was working. also i know not to put dc loco's on the dcc track, i will mark the dcc track with a big warning sign (if i ever get it working)

i will add that railmaster successfully updated itself during installation. i have tried different com port settings with railmaster (and windows) to no avail. the computer e-link is connected to is an Acer laptop running windows vista, with railmaster unblocked in the firewall settings. i only have the e-link controller, no elite to test it with. the e-link came with no instructions, and the pdf manual is a load of gash. 

should i download new e-link drivers from hornby and try that? the laptop seems to communicate with e-link ok anyway.

another thought, do i have to put the new loco (hornby scotsman tts sound model) onto a program track, and read/write cv's to and from the loco, before i am able to use the loco?

[Percybigun]

edit, just read the above post about setting the loco id number to 0003, this is not mentioned in the hornby manual! i finally have loco sound and movement wahey!

 

last questions, what is the correct way to draw curve points on the track designer, or does it not matter if they are not drawn properly? and do i have to fit dcc point clips to my points to make the oval work on dcc (i havent tried an oval with points yet), or do the point clips make both directions possible?

[Fishmanoz]

Hi Percy, welcome to the forums.  May I say for a start that this topic would be better posted in the RM forum rather than General and hopefully one of the community moderators will be along soon to move it there so more of the DCC and RM experts will see it.

 

That said, I will give you that RM is not a straightforward PnP system and the chances are you still have some setup issues, even though it is clear you have already got a fair way on your own by the fact you've been able to activate the software.  So what I am going to do now is give you some first up advice, answer some of your questions and then give some more advice.  And even if you have done some of it, I'd like you to humour me and go through the lot again.

 

So for a start, go to the RM forum to the link at the top of the forum to the latest version of RM.  Click on it and download it.  Then right click on it once downloaded and select Run as Administrator and install it over the top of your existing installation, no need to remove anything before doing this.

 

Now for some answers to questions you put and comments you made before we do more setup.  First, the RM guide actually does contain all you need, but I admit it is not written the best and some things are hard to find.

 

 You should only need to make one connection to track first up, as long as you have DCC point clips on all points.  Nothing wrong with making more than one connection as long as they have the same polarity - Track A to say the outer track of both ovals and Track B to the inner.  Get this wrong and the controller will see a short and shut down, giving you an error on the RM screen.

 

You do not need to calibrate track length for Hornby locos, even Hornby International locos, you just set them up by calling them up in RM by their R number and all of those setup things are already done to calibrate the shunt and cruise speeds to the real loco speeds.  Note this as you must set up your loco R3284T for it and all of its sounds to work correctly.

 

For now, please put all of your old steel track to one side and use only your new nickel silver.  DCC, all DCC not just RM,  is very sensitive to interrruptions to current flow and any tarnishing/rust on your steel track will be giving you problems.  And please make sure all of it is spotlessly clean

 

The trackplan you draw in RM has nothing, absolutely nothing to do with running your locos.  It is a convenience for you when you do things like run your points through DCC accessory decoders and point motors.  That partly explains why it is just a representation of your layout, not a scale model of it.

 

That brings us back to finishing off your setup.  Please go to the RM forum again, to the second top locked thread labelled Setting Up and Getting Started and go through everything there.  I say everything, except you can skip the installing of the latest version as you have already done it from what I said above.  Then you can skip the Running as Admin too as that is already done and, done once, it will always be that way and doesn't need to be done again.  Make sure you go all the way to the end of the thread and have the correct entries in your ini file.  These will not be correct unless your first installation of RM was done with eLink connected to the PC/laptop and the correct com port and baud rate were selected at initial installation.  If this wasn't the case, the railmaster.ini file will have been created incorrectly and will not be overwritten by subsequent installations.  You should check your ini file anyway and make sure it is correct using the Cog icon in the RM Help window and has the correct final 2 entries as per the final post in the thread.

 

Having done all that setup, please make sure you have set up your loco in the loco setup screen using the correct R number as I gave you above with just T on the end, not TTS.  There is no need to change it from the default 003 ID to test it, so no need to put it on a programming track for now,  Having tested though, you should change it's ID on the programming track so 003 is available for testing your next new DCC loco.

 

So having done all of that, how is it running now?

[RDS]

Hi Percy. 

Glad you have made some progress. Yes, in order to make the whole circuit live, you fit point clips to the points. This ensures that all sidings etc are live all the time.

[Fishmanoz]

Percy, I note that Chris has covered some of what I said while I was typing, still please do all I said.

 

On DCC point clips, not necessary if you have power connections to all of your ovals.  But what RDS has just posted is also correct.

 

On curved points, no, you can use any point icon you like to represent any point, left or right, and it will work to change your points, still irrelevant to running your locos.

[Chrissaf]

Hi, after 40 years of being a huge hornby fan and collector, their build qulaity is better than all their competitors, i finally decided to convert to DCC, knowing it would be awkward but did not expect such major hassle.

i've bought a brand new scotsman R3284TTS, and e-link/railmaster. I would have preferred Elite to avoid computer involvement, but refuse to pay such a high price for a controller, and now i've seen how rubbish dcc is, i'm glad i didnt!

 

i've successfully installed railmaster and after many hours of issues, got it successfully linked to E-link. I've installed thousands of pc parts and accessories in the past, and never had such a struggle as this. I've activated RM online aswell.

i find the railmaster guide is also rubbish, telling me loads of stuff i dont need, and nothing i do need.

 

basically i can not get the loco to move, or play any of its sounds.

 

the loco runs perfect on DC, and has been "run in".

 

i've tried connecting the e-link to two different ovals on my layout, one with points, one with none, and neither will work. Also tried 2 different power tracks (both with internal capacitors snipped). All of the above equipment works fine on DC.

 

i see in the RM guide that i should set up an oval of specific length (like i want to go out and waste more money!) and faff about with a stopwatch calibrating the loco??? Is this for real? Do i HAVE to do this to make the loco move? Surely this means the product is NOT DIGITAL, it is manual. Its like buying a new car, and the owner having to tune the engine and calibrate the speedo. Surely with the ridiculous prices hornby charge for their so-called digital equipment, it should be plug and play.

i've tried drawing the track plans with the hugely flawed track plan software, but still it dont work.

 

can anyone help me make this loco move, before i send it all back to hornby.

 

the only thing i can think is some of my existing track is steel (hornby 1980's track), but most is brand new nickel hornby.

 

i have 60 other dc hornby loco's spanning 5 decades which all run faultlessly under analogue control on my layout.

 

forgive my frustration, i just feel conned by this whole dcc illusion, i had expected track/loco's to be detected automatically - given the high price.

[Fishmanoz]

Well, I see RDS has moved this to the RM forum for us.

 

Also Percy, you might note that Chris and I have been posting and editing at the same time.  He posted a short version of his while I was typing, I then posted mine, saw his short version and made a comment, then he edited his into the long version, and he did that after you first read it, so go back and look at it again.  Note in his long version, his sticky thread link is the same one I referred you to.  The sticky thread above this one at the very top of the forum goes to AC's excellent separate site but I made the judgement you would not need the content in this given where you are already up to.  Between us, we have told you exactly the same thing in our own ways with different emphases.  If you read both, you will see this to be the case and you now have all the info you need to get your loco running.

[Chrissaf]

Fishy it was me that moved the thread not RDS. However in the move I did, by accident, get the last two posts (yours and RDS's out of sequence).

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If you had looked closer at my short reply. The last sentence said that I had a domestic matter to attend to and that I would return to finish the post later. In effect, I left the post open on my desktop before coming back 40 minutes later to finish it off. At the time that I finished it off, I would not have seen any of the later replies until after it had been saved. That is the reason that it duplicated some of your later content.

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Of course, the other reply that I would not have seen whilst finishing off mine, was Percy's reply saying that he had got the loco working on default address 3.

[Fishmanoz]

Yep, my mistake Chris, I realised that afterwards.  I saw the approved/moved under RDS's and thought it meant he did it.  You didn't just miss his during your dit, you missed my long complete answer and my comments on your short answer.  Maybe when you keep an edit window open like that, you could open another forum window to monitor other activity on the post.

 

But like I said, effectively the same answer from each of us, different emphasis.  I think I gave Percy credit for a fair bit of knowledge from his initial and subsequent posts and didn't think he needed so much loco setup detail as you gave him.