Railmaster points

[Goldenboy70]

Hi, can anyone help with this problem.

Railmaster on my pc changes the wrong points yet they work perfectly through the Elite controller and the laptop. Any advice would be much appreciated as I am baffled as to why it has suddenly thrown a wobbly. 

[RB51]

Hello Goldenboy - welcome to the forum.

 

Slightly confused by the Railmaster -v- laptop part of your query. You will be using the laptop to run Railmaster.

 

The first thing to check is the addresses of the points - are you selecting the same port ID's on the Elite as you are using on Railmaster?

 

R-

[Chrissaf]

Is the point numbering scheme out by 4 by chance between the Elite and RM.

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If so, your Elite is almost certainly starting up in 'Classic Mode'. The Elite has to be put in 'Standard Mode' for the point numbering to be synchronised between RM and the Elite. Normally, the Elite will remember what mode it is in, but sometimes the mode can change. For example after a 'factory reset' or a firmware 'upgrade'.

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Changing the Elite operating mode manually is covered on Page 67 of the Elite manual.

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PS - The word 'Classic' or 'Standard' will appear briefly on the Elite screen during the power on self test.

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TIP: As this is your very first post, just be aware that the 'Blue Button with the White Arrow' is not a 'Reply to this post' button. If you want to reply to any of the posts, scroll down and write your reply in the reply text box at the bottom of the page and click the Green 'Reply' button.

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[Goldenboy70]

Hi RogerB

Thanks for replying to my post.

Sorry for the confusion. 

We're running the Railmaster in conjunction with the Elite. When operating the points through the Elite all work OK. When using the mouse and the Railmaster the points are confused and are operating different numbers to what is on the screen and some don't work at all.

The laptop and the Elink has got the same track layout  but is only used as a backup and we use it just for testing.

Two nights ago two things occurred : 

I did a factory reset on the Elite as we bought it second hand from a local model train shop and decided to reset the memory. Not sure whether this has caused a problem or the bigger problem which was, on the same night, the transformer for the Elite blew a fuse and on close inspection inside the casing showed blacking round the mains input terminals in the transformer.

Have now plugged in the Elink transformer to power the Elite as a temporary measure. I have a feeling that this second problem may be causing the fault with the Railmaster software regarding the points.

Regards G

[Chrissaf]

I did a factory reset on the Elite

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There's your answer then. The Elite is more than likely starting in 'Classic Mode' - see my previous reply.

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[St1ngr4y]

I did a factory reset on the Elite

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There's your answer then. The Elite is more than likely starting in 'Classic Mode' - see my previous reply.

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Chris,

 

Does this mean that G must apply the latest firmware update to his Elite ?

 

Ray

[Chrissaf]

Must? .......not necessarily......one doesn't do factory resets that often and if you know to check the start up display to see the operating mode then it is an easy thing to change. GB70 hasn't actually stated what firmware revision his Elite is at, he may already have a later 1.4x release. Albeit, a second-hand Elite might have an earlier firmware version installed that could benefit from an update.

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Note to GB70, Elite firmware can be updated at home via your PC using firmware files downloaded from the Hornby website. There are threads in the DCC forum providing a 'How To' do it description. The currently installed firmware version also briefly displays on the Elite screen during the 'power on' self test. The current latest version is 1.44.

[Rog RJ]

Golden boy said

"Have now plugged in the Elink transformer to power the Elite as a temporary measure"

 

 I'm sure I've read that the Elite doesn't work properly with a 1Amp power supply, which I believe is what the elink normally uses.

[96RAF]

You can get an Elite to power up on the 1-amp power unit but as its standing draw is 850mA there is not a lot of oomph left to do anything else.

[Goldenboy70]

RogerB

Thank you very much for your advice. As my manual only goes upto page 51, I have downloaded the manual from Hornby and followed the steps as you suggested and low and behold all is well with the world again.

Regarding the transformer,it is my intention to buy a new 4 amp power supply as the 1 amp for the Elink was only ever meant to be a temporary measure to overcome the problem.

We will look into updating the firmware version, as it is on 1.4 at the moment.

Thank you once again for all your valuable advice.It's very much appreciated.

GB70

[Fishmanoz]

If you really mean 1.4 and not 1.41 or later, don’t just look into it, do it as soon as you look it up on the website.  1.4 is full of bugs that will significantly interfere with operation.  1.41 was released within weeks to overcome these bugs.  You won’t have the problem of it starting in Classic mode after a reset either with the current 1.44, it always starts in Standard.