Short circuit question

[AdeRail]

Hi,

 

After getting a few shorts due to the back 2 back being out on my metal coach wheels, and getting fed up with having to unplug the elink and close and reopen railmaster to get things up and running again, I thought I would ask a couple of things.

 

Firstly when I get a short nothing really happens apart from the loco stopping, I have to restart railmaster and unplug elink, then the loco carries on at the speed it was running at before it stopped, this is before I reopen railmaster, as when railmaster is opened the loco stops then I have control again... which is annoying!

 

So, should there be something showing up on my pc screen when a short happens, and is there an easier way of resetting things?

I'm using the latest railmaster and firmware on a laptop running windows XP.

 

Thanks

Ade

 

[Chrissaf]

Ade, you are kinda in a catch 22 situation. Just for a moment, let us pretend you are not running RM on XP, but running RM on a later Windows version i.e 7, 8.x or 10.

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On these later Windows versions, you would normally have your railmaster.ini file configured with these two entries:

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Alternative comms=1

Check controller=1

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Now for users who have these entries present in a later Windows version and with an eLink controller, the following happens when a 'short occurs'.

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• Firstly, the controller shuts down (this of course happens with your installation as well).
• Secondly, an on screen pop-up appears telling you that a short circuit has been detected.
• Thirdly, a reset controller 'soft button' appears in the middle top of the large red 'stop' button in the bottom right hand corner of RM.

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This 'soft' reset button in essence reboots the eLink without having to stop and restart RM (of course you have to remove what is physically causing the short before using the 'soft' reset).

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Now back to your particular setup. Because you are using XP, you don't need these additional lines (mentioned above) in your railmaster.ini file. They were originally introduced to provide support for the Microsoft eLink driver used in Windows 10. Because you are using Windows XP, you will be using Hornby's own driver and not the Microsoft one.

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So even if you did have (or added) the two extra lines mentioned above in your railmaster.ini file. It would be expected for them to have the values =0 as they are not needed and not =1. As said before, the short circuit detection and reset should only function when the values are =1.

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Now this is a grey area, but you could experiment and add (if missing) these railmaster.ini entries and set them to =1, but what will happen is a bit of an unknown. Either you will get odd adverse things happening that might make your RM unstable, or the entries will be completely ignored, or bizarrely the short circuit detection might possibly work (but I am led to the believe that the 'short circuit' detection is not written into the old original Hornby eLink XP driver, but I may be wrong).

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The bottom line is, nobody can be really sure what will happen till someone tries it. To open the railmaster.ini editor you click the bluish COG icon located in the bottom left hand corner of the RM 'Help' page and follow 'on screen' prompts. The first thing to check would be to see if the two lines at the head of this reply are present or not and if they are, what values do they have. If you edit the file and make any changes, then save the changes and restart RM for them to take effect. It is best if the two documented entries are the last two lines listed at the very bottom of the railmaster.ini file.

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Note: Just for completeness of information and for others. This 'short circuit' on screen display is for eLink only and not Elite.

[AdeRail]

Wow what a reply!!!

Thanks Chris

I don't know how you do it, you've certainly given me something to chew on!!

[AdeRail]

Right just to let you know Chris, that I tried what you suggested and changed from 0 to 1 this entry "Check controller=0"

 

This solved my problem, I get a pop up asking me to clear the short and asking if I want to resume the speed of the locos, without having to unplug the elink and close and reopen RM, this has made it so much easier and user friendly..

 

I haven't added the "alternative comms" so can't comment on this

 

But thanks very much for your help  😎

[Chrissaf]

Ade, There is a certain amount of sense to that. Check controller=1 polls the eLink every 3 to 5 seconds to check controller status. Whereas Alternative comms=1 was introduced specifically to resolve issues with the controller driver when Windows 10 was released. There doesn't seem any point in adding 'Alternative comms' if 'Check controller' is doing the job. So It is reasonable to assume and deduce that with XP 'Check controller' can have an effect on RM operation without 'Alternative Comms' being present.

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Question: Just for completeness of information (so that I can file this new updated information away should the same question be raised again). Now that you get an on-screen 'short circuit detected' notification.

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When the short circuit notification pop-up is triggered, do you also get the 'soft eLink reset' button appearing in the middle top of the large red soft 'Stop' button in the bottom right corner of RM?

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or do you

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Just get asked whether you want to resume loco speed?

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I'm just trying to ascertain whether there are differences or not between the way the 'short circuit' notification works in practice between XP and later Windows versions.

[AdeRail]

Not that I've noticed, I'll have a look next time I'm on it to be sure.

[Chrissaf]

I found an image that shows what the eLink short circuit soft reset button looks like. It is on the top right of the Stop button, not top middle as originally stated, but clearly visible all the same. I believe it only appears when a 'short circuit detected' pop-up has been triggered.

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/media/tinymce_upload/008fa5d581090cf56e347b54802412cd.png

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Image courtesy of RAF96. As I don't have an eLink only Elite.

[AdeRail]

Well I checked this today, and the soft reset button is on the stop button all the time!

 

Its always there.

[Chrissaf]

Thanks Ade, that is useful to know.