No COM's port- Windows 10

[BTR42]

Trying to set up railmaster with elink but cant get it working. After following advice on forum found we don't have a USB serial port under device manager making trouble shooting difficult. Running off of Windows 10, any advice welcome.

[hedley_reynolds]

Hi BTR42 for to find the com's port all you have to do is the first thing is have your controller plugged into the usb and switched on, then click on the start menu and type into the box at the bottom left hand of your screen device manager and a box comes up and at the top of the list click on the top one that says device manager and scroll down the list and you'll see the usb serial port com's and that has everything that you need for to get the information for to put in rm settings

Hedley

[96RAF]

In Dev Mgr Win 10 does not tell you what is connected to your com port unlike earlier Win editions, so to confirm which you are connected to have Dev Mgr open and plug/unplug your USB and note which port disappears/reappears.

[Chrissaf]

Do not start up RailMaster till expressly told to do so. All these actions below should be undertaken WITHOUT RailMaster running.

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The eLink driver will ONLY be listed in Device Manager when the eLink is connected to the USB port and powered up. Make sure, if at all possible, that the eLink is plugged into a USB2.0 port and not a USB3.0 one. Once you have got a working solution, then ALWAYS use the same physical USB port for your eLink, using a different USB port is likely to loose your eLink communication link.

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With your PC/Laptop sound on. You should hear a 'Beep' when you plug the eLink USB lead in. If you hear the 'Beep' then the driver is loaded.

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When you plug the eLink USB lead in (with eLink powered) but you don't hear the 'Beep' do you get any on screen messages near the bottom right of Windows 10 making reference to 'New Device Detected' and 'Installing Devices' If you do, does it end up with a message saying 'Device Ready to Use'.

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If you get the 'Beep' or you get the 'Device Ready to Use' message. Then open Windows 'Device Manager' and navigate to the 'Ports (Com & LPT)' branch of the tree.

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Do you see an entry similar to 'image one' below:

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/media/tinymce_upload/1ff1a0c51d0884fe712a080c74fcbe3c.jpg

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If you don't, do you see this entry instead - 'image two'.

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/media/tinymce_upload/0534c866a2ecd02d2bf7d5e0f3a58643.jpg

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What to do if you see the entry in 'image two'.

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Right click the "CDC RS-232 Emulation Demo" entry and choose 'Update Driver Software'. Follow the on-screen prompts but choose 'Let Windows Search Automatically' - you need to be connected to the Internet. Follow more on screen prompts and you should end up with the Device Manager entry now showing as per 'image one'

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What to do when you see the entry in 'image one'

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In 'image one' the entry has a number in the ( ). The number shown in 'image one' above is 4, but it may be 3. Whatever this number is, make a mental note of it. Image one represents the CORRECT driver entry for eLink in Windows 10. If the number in the ( ) is 5 or higher. Then report that back into this thread and await further instruction.

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Now you can start RailMaster. When RailMaster opens do you get any error messages regarding communications ? If you do, temporarily ignore them (close them down if necessary without performing any actions that the messages recommend). Open the RailMaster 'System Settings' window (icon in top navigation bar) and look at the entry for 'Controller A', there is a 'Com Port' pull down selection box. Make sure the number in this box matches the number that was shown in 'Device Manager' that you made a mental note of. This ideally should be 3 or 4.

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Still having 'communication errors' between RM and your eLink. Then open the 'railmaster.ini' file editor [bluish COG icon in bottom left corner of RailMaster 'Help' window]. Follow on-screen prompts to open the .INI file in the editor. Look for and 'add if missing' or 'edit values to match' if different the following two .INI file entries. These ideally should be the last two lines in the file.

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Alternative comms=1

Check controller=1

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With these two lines present, with the values as shown. Save the .INI file and close the editor. Close and re-open RailMaster and test again. If all is well, you should have a basic operational system ready to accept all the programming and configuration required to control your layout.

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PS - Check your RailMaster software version by looking at the small yellow box in the bottom right hand corner near the clock. It should say 1.65 and when you hover the mouse cursor over the yellow box a pop-up should appear saying 'Revision 1'. If this is not so, then download the latest RM version from the link at the top of the Hornby RailMaster forum section and run the downloaded file to install the latest version over the top of the current one.

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PPS - When you performed the ORIGINAL RailMaster installation. I take it that you did 'right click the installer file' and choose 'Run as Administrator' as per the Hornby instructions.