Railmaster operating 2 Controllers

[Jazzonics]

Railmaster has the capability of operating 2 Controllers one for the Tack and one for Accessories such as points and signals.

I have operated my system through a single eLink, covering Track and Accessories, and after a period had reliable operation.

I then decided to add another eLink as the second Controller and after seperating the wiring l added the second unit. Railmaster recognised the change but came up with a cannot recognise the unit messages so l made sure that the parameters in Railmaster and Device Manager aligned. After several attempts l was able to pass beyond the unable to recognise messages and the system came alive. After changing all the points to operate from the A controller to the B l had successful operation and stopped to have a coffee feeling pleased with change.

Upon returning l found l had lost connection with B controller and was receiving again the cannot connect to the COM4 Unit try removing the usb lead and reconnect after 5 seconds. I have tried this many times. I have also powered down the eLink system, updated drivers and all the other checks l did when getting the original eLink single system to work but so far have not been able to get Railmaster to see the second unit.

Getting a little frustrated so thought l would seek help as l cannot imagine l am alone in trying to get my model railway to operate using 2 controllers and Railmaster.

Any advice or guidance would be appreciated.

[Chrissaf]

When you add a second controller B, you also have to modify the 'railmaster.ini' file as well. Something you haven't mentioned as a task you have completed in your query.

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This assumes that you are running RM on Windows 7 to 10.

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To open the 'railmaster.ini' file editor use the bluish COG icon that you will find in the lower left corner of the 'Help About' screen. Click the COG and follow the prompts to open the editor.

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Now find these two entries in your file and delete them. Don't worry if they are not already there or have different = values. If these two lines are missing from the file or not the last two lines in it or not =1 values, that would almost certainly account for why you originally had communication issues between the original eLink and RM that you documented in your question.

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Check controller=1

Alternative comms=1

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With the two entries above deleted (if present). Manually retype them again along with the two new lines at the very bottom of the file. It is important that they are the last lines and re-typed afresh (do not use cut n paste).

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Check controller2=1

Alternative comms2=1

Check controller=1

Alternative comms=1

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Now save these .INI file edits, then close and re-open RailMaster and test your controller functionality again.

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For all readers. I have never come across a situation where it has become necessary to uninstall and reinstall either RM itself or the drivers. Nearly everything can be fixed through changing settings and configuration options. Asking here on this forum is the first place to ask before tinkering.

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[96RAF]

There should also be a small red button within the big red stop button which allows you to reset the dontroller without the bother of disconnecting and restarting RM, etc. There is also a line in the ini file for RM to ensure reset the eLink pn startup.

 

It is worth finding the ini file listing in the RM manual and printing it out for reference as it is important the lines are typed exactly as indicated without spaces, as well as being in the correct sequence in the ini file.

Rob

[Chrissaf]

Just note that the listing in the manual is not necessarily showing lines in the most reliable listing order, hence my recommendations about last lines in my reply above. The listing in the manual also shows a number of entries that can be considered 'optional'. Not everybody's system needs all the lines listed. I believe that there may be some lines that HRMS might use in special circumstances if they remotely log in to your system to fix issues that are not documented at all in the manual.

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For info. This is the small red button that Rob referenced in his post. This button should appear when using an eLink and have the correct lines in the .INI file as per my previous posted reply. If the red button is not present, then those .INI lines are either not present or not being recognised, hence the recommendation to place them as the last lines. What I am not 100% sure about (as I don't use an eLink) is whether the small red button is always visible or if it only appears when the eLink is tripped and needs resetting (Rob could clarify if he sees this).

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PS - Jazz

I can see that you tried putting in paragraph gaps in your question that are not showing. When writing your text insert two sequential 'carriage returns' where you want a gap to appear. The first will be stripped out by the forum software but the second one will stick.

[Jazzonics]

Hi Chrissaf,

 

Thank you for your input and l went and modified the .ini file in accordance with your instructions. Another feature l noticed when trying to get the second eLink to function yesterday was that it performed several installations of firmware upgrade 1.07.

 

I re-started Railmaster but had the same error message as before. So l tried a full restart of the PC by closing Railmaster, removing the eLink USB cables and then turning off the power to them. I then re-booted the PC reconnected the 2 eLink USB cables, powered up the eLink units and started Railmaster and all worked as it should do. I also checked what version of firmware the two eLinks displayed as installed and they both were 1.07.

 

Being the sort of person l am l then went through a full turn off and restart again and ended up with the original message. I removed the B eLink USB cable and waited 5 seconds then reconnected and the eLink started to install firmware version 1.07. This came up with a failure message and suggested l do a manual install as in accordance with the .pdf instruction sheet. The system however started with both eLinks working and all functioined correctly. When l checked which version of firmware was installed l had the A eLink showing 1.07 and the B eLink showing 1.06. Yet previously both had shown 1.07. Have l secondary problem with the B eLink unit and if so can you tell me where l can get the .pdf document refered to on the error message.

 

I hope you don't mind me asking these questions but l enjoy Railmaster and would like to get on with deploying it on my static layout. Thank you for again for your original response and l feel progress is being made.

[96RAF]

Simple troubleshooting - swap the eLinks over. If the update problem stays with controller 2 channel as opposed to the following the supposed errant eLink then we can presume the eLinks are both OK and the problem is within RM, whether this is the update checker or ini file or something else.

 

If the update error follows the eLink try a manul update by finding the v1.07 update file in the RM folder, right click it and install. It may be wise to only have the one eLink connected for this operation. The instruction to do this is in the main RM manual Page 144.

 

From memory (I don’t have RM available to me at present) the little red square is there all the time not just under trip conditions If called up via the ini file entry.

Rob

[Chrissaf]

Jazz,

As Rob says, the PDF referred to is the main RailMaster user guide PDF, page 144. I have pasted the relative extract below. But two further things to stress and note.

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1. RailMaster must not be running when you perform a manual firmware update of the eLink. Also I recommend that you right click the updater file and choose 'Run as administrator'.
2. Only the eLink that is being updated should be connected, do not leave both connected. I also recommend that the eLink being updated is plugged into the USB port to which you normally connect Controller A. The eLink should also be powered up from its power supply, and its driver should show as loaded in Windows Device Manager, before running the updater file.

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/media/tinymce_upload/f04302c263b59f18e5dd2ee1e582c1bd.jpg

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At the time of posting, eLink version 1.07 is the current firmware release. So the file you are looking for in the "program files (x86)railmaster" folder is [ eLink107.exe ].

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It is more typical to use a Hornby Elite as controller A with the eLink as controller B. Although using two eLinks for controllers A&B is supported, having them both connected together at the same time when RailMaster runs the updater is probably confusing the system. The Elite is never updated this way within RM. The Elite has to be manually updated outside of RM.

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[Jazzonics]

Hi Chrissaf and RAF96,

 

Thank you for your inputs. I had to modify the firmware to 1.07 manually as you advised and have successfully logged in without confusing Railmaster. I hope this is the end of this challenge and thank you both for your support.

 

Regards

 

Dave

[Chrissaf]

Thank you for the feedback....and glad to hear that the advise given worked for you.

[Nick_]

I do wonder why the OP wanted to do this in the first place?

I can see good reasons for having an Elite as controller A for the locos and an eLink as controller B for the points etc. But what is the point of using 2 eLinks? I can see no benefits over using just one? (perhaps I’m missing something?)

[Chrissaf]

I just assumed that he wanted the benefit of having his accessories on an isolated DCC 'Controller B' Bus, and that a second eLink was cheaper than buying an Elite. When running two controllers, yes normally this would be assumed to be an Elite and an eLink. But technically that doesn't have to be the case. You can operate two eLinks as per the OP or possibly even two Elite's (would have to check the pull down controller box for Controller B to be sure).

[96RAF]

You can have two of any controllers listed in RM providing as Chris says they are each on a separate bus. The main advantage being the points do not detract from from track running power.

Rob

[Chrissaf]

The main advantage being the points do not detract from from track running power.

.......and a loco shorting out on a point [because it is set the wrong way] doesn't trip the controller controlling the point. Thus you can then change the point remotely to remove the short circuit condition, before restarting the tripped loco controller.