Railmaster dropping connection, tried all the fixes!

[Skipper61]

Hi all, I have been trying to rectify a problem with my Railmaster dropping the connection with my Elite contrller. It lasts between 20 seconds and 10 minutes then drops the connection. Often it remains showing it is connected but no signal is sent.

My system is a laptop running Windows 7.

Railmaster Pro with latest update 1.72

Elite with 1.44 software

A USB 2  A to B cable from Maplin with a transfer rate of 480 Mbps.

I have my windows firewall set with railmaster.exe file allowed. Also I have Avast Anti-virus, CCleaner and Malwarebyte all set to allow railmaster.exe.

I have runsetup.exe set as administrator. Checked all port settings match and as listed on the forum. My port number is Comm4.

I have added Elitefeedback=0, Alternative Comms=1, Check controller=1, to the ini file and also tried all the combinations of 0 & 1

I have deleted the ini file and allowed RM to write a new one.

I thank everyone for the advise but nothing has made any differance.

 I have been struggling with this for many weeks, and as diehard Hornby supporter, I am very disappointed. Is there any thing else I can do?

[96RAF]

Check your baud rate matches in setup and device manager as sometimes it can be different.

[Chrissaf]

• Have you tried a different USB port on the PC? [this will assign a different Com number that will need to be selected in RM 'System Settings' screen].
• Is the current port a USB2.0 or USB3.0 one? [RailMaster comms work more reliably using USB2.0].
• Are you using a USB Hub Port on your PC to connect the Elite to. The Elite must be connected to a native USB port and not via a Hub. Some internal PC USB multi-port expansion cards are built as a Hub card to save using up too many USB headers on the PC Motherboard. You need to use a USB port that goes directly to a PC Motherboard header connector or uses one of the motherboard expansion card BUSes such as PCI or PCI-e. This is not necessarily applicable if your PC is a Laptop.

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In my experience when using RM version 1.7x, with an Elite ... controller communication is better when both Alternative comms & Check controller are set to =0

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Have you deleted the current entries for these two lines and typed them manually in again as the very last two lines in the 'railmaster.ini' file. Being placed at the very end of the file seems to work better for some reason.

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I would also have Elite feedback=1 and not 0

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If "Reset eLink on start" is present in your .INI file make sure that it is =0

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EDIT: In light of Rob's reply above regarding Baud rate. Windows 'Device Manager' AND RailMaster 'System Settings' should both show 19200 Baud Rate for an Elite controller.

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TIP: As a newbie poster on the forum, 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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See also – further TIPs on how to get the best user experience from this forum.

https://www.hornby.com/uk-en/forum/tips-on-using-the-forum/

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[Skipper61]

Hi, thanks for your thoughts.

I have made sure that the port settings are as follows- 19200, 8, None, 1, None. They are the same in RM.

I am using an Acer Aspire 5336 Laptop. I will try another port tomorrow, but have used this port for other devises and it has been ok. I do not know if the port is a USB2 or 3, but the laptop is a few years old now so I would guess it is a USB2.

I have retyped the two lines in the ini file and put then last. All made no differance.

I will try another port and the ini file changes you mentioned tomorrow and let you know.

 

Many thanks.

[Chrissaf]

I have an ACER Aspire V5-571P with W10 and have absolutely no problems with it running RM. It was originally a W8 Laptop when first purchased. The free upgrade to W10 was unsupported. What I mean by this, was as far as ACER was concerned, the upgrade to W10 was done at my risk as they were not underwriting it as being a 100% compatible upgrade. But I had no issues with the upgrade, W10 runs without issue on it.

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My ACER has USB3.0 ports with 'Blue' inserts to indicate that they are USB3.0, both my USB3.0 and my USB2.0 ports will run RM OK.

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MAPLIN brand is not in my view an indicator of quality, most of their products were over-priced rubbish (unless it was a well established third party branded cable). No wonder they went bust. I would try another cable, if only to eliminate the cable from the equation.

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See also this recent thread reporting the exact same issue as yours .... now working having followed my advice.

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https://www.hornby.com/uk-en/forum/railmaster-isnt-connecting-with-my-elite-controller-30720/?p=1

 

[Skipper61]

Hi all, tried to post reply yesterday, but as newbie, I was blocked by the anti spam rules.(Max 2 posts in 24hrs)

I have tried all the setting suggested in the ini file, but made no difference.

I have three USB ports, Com4, 5 & 6. I tried all three and they all worked fine for a few minutes then dropped out. The only thing left is to try another USB cable. I have ordered one from RS components which should be here in a couple of days. I have tried to pick the best I could find with gold plated terminals, so I will have to wait until it arrives now.

 

Thanks for all your help.

[Chrissaf]

If that doesn't resolve your issue. See my reply in this other thread published earlier today ... regarding getting HRMS to remortely log on to your PC:

https://www.hornby.com/uk-en/forum/railmaster-not-connecting-with-elink/?p=1/

[Skipper61]

Hi all, have received the new USB cable and connected it up, but has not made any difference. It still keeps dropping the connection.

I have contacted Hornby Support, so I hope I will get some further assistance from there.

Many thanks for all your help.

 

Best wishes

[RDS]

Have you ever had RM working with your Elite?

Also, some anti virus packages are notorious for causing problems with RM.

[Skipper61]

Hi, I bought the Elite and RM a couple of years ago. Used the elite alot whilst building the layout, but not RM. Now have my layout to the point where I want to start setting up and testing the automation of it. Been trying to get it working for about two months, but have not got any further than it running for about ten minutes and then dropping the connection.

I have set all the anti-virus to allow RM to work, including windows firewall.

Been in touch with Hornby Support, they just sent me the same information that I had from the forum, not very helpful.

When I replied that I had tried that already, they said they think it is not a software problem. Possibly a fault in my laptop, Elite unit, power supply or USB cable. They have suggested substituting each part to try and eliminate things. Not that easy with only one of each things to start with. Already tried a new USB cable. I am now waiting on a delivery of a new laptop to try. Not very optomistic, as my laptop runs other peripheries with out any problems. If that makes no difference, I will have to return the complete Elite unit for them to check.

What a nightmere!

[96RAF]

The thing is there are many, many folk out there, myself includied who are successfully using an Elite with RM and on several different platforms, the only real variables are ini file settings and the host computer. In my case I have it running on an i3 HP all in one PC, an i5 HP tower PC and an i7 HP laptop. I have also had it running on a Win 7 Toshiba laptop. In each case having experienced the odd comms drop out the matter was easily resolved within the ini file.

 

It seems odd that the Elite works fine outwith RM, yet within RM there seem to be problems. Another thread is reporting inability to read certain decoder make/model CVs in RM yet Elite works fine with them stand alone.

[Fishmanoz]

When you say Hornby Support, do you mean Hornby Customer Care (HCC) by phone or the email address at the bottom of the website, or do you mean Hornby Railmaster Support (HRMS) only via email from within the Help section of RM, or via support@rail-master.com?

 

If you mean HCC, they know little about RM. You must contact HRMS. And if you are already in contact with HRMS, get them to log into your PC remotely as suggested by Chris a couple of posts back.  They will be able to fix it, guaranteed. 

[RDS]

Getting a new laptop sounds drastic but I would suggest you do not add any anti-virus software to it before you try to connect it to RM.

 

I use Microsoft Security protection, that is available as a free download and it it works perfectly with my Elite / RM combination.

[Skipper61]

Hi all, its been a long wait, but good news, I now have a working system.

After waiting many weeks for my Elite unit to be returned to Hornby for test and repair, I am now the very happy owner of a fully functioning Railmaster and Elite system.

From discusions with Hornby Service, they suspected a dry solder joint inside my elite unit that lost its connection after warming up. Not sure if it was, they did not specify what they did, but it is working now.

A mind blowing long wait, but mostly cause by the covid problems and the subsequent back log it caused. In the end it was there and back in eight days. Brilliant. I must admit my faith in Hornby was beginning to fade, but it is restored now.

Thanks to everyone for thier contributions

[RDS]

That is great news.  Thanks for letting us know.