Short circuit recovery

[michael_button]

Hello all, haven't been able to get near my layout for a few months due to building work. Finally started it up today, had a message appear that I'd not seen before, something like railmaster can't link with e-link, unplug both leads then plug in the power, wait 14 seconds and then plug in the link wire, Did this, railmaster linked and finished start up. Set a loco off, no problems. I'd forgotten to switch a point so derailment and a short. In my experience when this happened before a yellow square appeared and a pop up message said there's a short, clear it. I used to do this and the loco would restart. Now however there's no yellow square, no message, and the only way I found of clearing the short was to turn off the power, turn it back on, exit railmaster and restart it, and go throught the whole process again including the unplugging wires and putting them back in. I caused a deliberate short ot see what would happen, exactly as above. I downloaded the current version of railmaster to ensure everything was correct and tried again, exactly the same as above. Anyone any ideas what's wrong? I'm using a Windows 8 laptop by the way, railmaster connected to Com4. Thanks in advance, Mike

[Chrissaf]

Well first thing to check is to ensure that Windows 7, 8 or 10 'Device Manager' is still showing the eLink as being Com4. Sometimes Windows does its own thing and chooses another Com port without bringing the change to the 'users' attention. Of course you should also check and confirm that the same Com port number shown in Device Manager is also chosen in the 'Controller A' pull down Com port box in the RailMaster (RM) 'System Settings' screen.

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Note: Com ports 5 and above should be avoided, they have been proven to cause communication issues in RM if used. RM works best with either Com3 or Com4. If Com 5 or above has been allocated by Windows Device Manager then the allocation needs to be investigated and resolved to force Windows to allocate a lower Com port number before moving on.

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Nine times out of ten, this Com port configuration miss-match is the reason for getting the "unplug cable........." dialogue error message.

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The second thing to do, is to open the 'railmaster.ini' editor using the bluish COG icon in the bottom left hand corner of the RM 'Help' screen.

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Now search out the following two lines in the .INI file and DELETE THEM.

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Alternative comms=1 (might be =0 or not present at all)

Check controller=1 (might be 0 or not present at all)

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Either way DELETE THESE ENTRIES if present.

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Now retype them again as new entries AT THE VERY BOTTOM OF THE .INI FILE AS THE LAST TWO LINES, even if they were already the last two entries.

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Alternative comms=1 (if it was previously =0, make it =1)

Check controller=1(if it was previously =0, make it =1)

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Save the edits to the .INI file, close and re-open RailMaster.

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If everything has gone to plan, your 'short circuit' notification should start working again.

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With the above amendment, you should also see this RED square inside the ALL STOP button. This is the 'eLink reset' button, that amongst other things can re-start eLink after you clear the short circuit condition.

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For evidence of the effectiveness of this fix, read the 2nd, 3rd and 9th posts down on this previous thread:

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https://uk.hornby.com/community/forum/delayed-notification-of-short-circuit/?p=1/

[michael_button]

Thanks Chris spounds very helpful and easy to follow, I'll work through the steps you've listed tomorrow. All the best Mike

[michael_button]

Thanks Chris, I think it's worked okay, will get more chance to test it thoroughly soon. Cheers!

[Chrissaf]

Glad to hear that I am maintaining my perfect score on this fix..... 😎