eLink will just not become active.

[Chrissaf]

I have to say i'm not lacking it tech ability after working in telcom's for 38 years on Fibre Tech. However I just do not understand why this product is just so hard to make work. I perchased an e-link just so I could remove all the old switches and wiring and just have one stop control. I should have kept with what I had as the product is just not fit for perpose. 

1/ All the com ports are correct. yet it will still not see the e-link?

2/ If I unistall / reinstall the beep driver one more time the whole unit may go out of the loft window.

3/ If you read the forum it keeps refering back to older links, why not just answer the question asked.

4/ For the brief 5 mins the railmaster did see the see e-link, I almost fell on my seat, the rail master then froze and when switch back on could no longer see the e-link. Back to where I started !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

5/ There is talk about amending or adding some lines in the softwear/infile if thats the case why the hell has Hornby done this on an update.

6/ Why is it working on XP or only slightly newer versions for god sake.

You can tell from this that I am so very disapointed with this product which I had such great expectations after reading the Horndy lit on it.

I use a single laptop running XP, found an old one in loft. The e-link light is green and then goes off and come back on again when the softwear is loading up. However the t/master will just not see the e-link. I have deleted the ports several times and reloaded and even moved it from one USB port to another twice. Reloading the drive after uninstalling it. Checked and rechecked the bit rate on the PC and r/master.  

YET STILL THE BEEP THING DOES NOT WOIRK !!!!!!!!!

How the hell would you expect a child to work this.

 

 

 

[Chrissaf]

First of all you say you are using an XP machine. You also say you have loaded and reloaded the driver several times.

.

But are you using the correct driver?

.

On an XP machine using an eLink, you have to use the Hornby supplied Elite driver and not the Windows USB driver. The eLink uses the Elite driver.

.

The Elite driver will be located in the 'Driver' folder which is a subfolder of the main RailMaster program folder. You can tell if you have the correct XP driver installed, because Windows Device Manager will show this entry:

.

/media/tinymce_upload/077d47f425bb6aa3815abd1b8d6e6d0d.jpg

.

If instead of 'R8214 Hornby Elite' it shows 'CDC RS-232 Emulation Demo', then the driver is not properly installed yet. So in that scenario come back and I will give further guidance.

.

If the correct driver is installed and you still have issues then.

.

Edit the .INI file and change

.

Reset eLink on start=1

to

Reset eLink on start =0

.

If you are still running RailMaster on an XP machine, then also change:

.

Alternative comms=1

to

Alternative comms=0

.

0 is used for XP and Vista

1 is used for Win 7, 8 & 10

.

Check controller I suggest should be left as =1, but if the changes above do not fully resolve, then try changing Check controller to =0 just to see.

.

Also, whatever the changes you try. Make sure that 'Alternative comms' and 'Check controller' are the last two lines listed in the .INI file [this is important].

.

If your .INI file only has a total of about 20 lines in it, then it is not a complete file and about another further 20 lines are missing from it. There should be about 40 lines in total for a valid file. If your .INI file needs rebuilding, then ask back here and I will tell you how to do it.

.

3/ If you read the forum it keeps referring back to older links, why not just answer the question asked.

.

Because its the same question (or a variant of) that keeps getting asked. It is just easier to refer back to an existing answer which might originally have taken an hour to write, than spend another hour writing it out again.

.

 

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.

.

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/

.

[St1ngr4y]

Hi Chris,

 

Can I ask a question which has been puzzling me for a while now?   ....

 

You recommend setting  ..... Reset eLink on start =0

 

I have an eLink as Controller B and I have tried setting this value to both 0 and 1. Regardless of the setting, RM always resets the eLink on startup, and it always works fine thereafter. So I was just wondering how this recommendation came about. Also, usually if you want something to be done, the value is 1, not 0.

 

Ray

[Yelrow]

Jeff, i do understand your frustration, and CHris will give you all the tec stuff, but that apart, there is a start up sequence, that i amongst others, wrote and was pinned to forum, a few years ago.. You have to connect in the correct order, and turn on, again in the correct order, and wait, wait, wait, betwwen each operation. If this is correctly done, everything, especially on XP, for which it was originally, designed, works first time. Various amendments/ adjustments, detailed by chris, allow elink to work with windows 7, 8 , and 10. When i bought mine, several years ago, i was in your position, and very agitated. I rang Hornby, spoke to Mark Lodge, who was at that time, Customer services manager.   Unplug everything, he said, then turn on as i tell you,strictly, in this sequence, after each piece of equipment, wait, allow RM, to find elink, allow RM, to find usb, allow, Elink to find Laptop.. I followed to the letter, and it worked , first time, and every subsequent time. Because, over the years, my memory, is not what it was, you will need to read the original posts, and again, Chris will know where they are.  Its a great piece of kit, for the price, and many on here, use them daily.  Have a read up, and i dont think you will have  any problem, provided you connect in the right sequence.

[Chrissaf]

Hi Chris,

 

Can I ask a question which has been puzzling me for a while now?   ....

 

You recommend setting  ..... Reset eLink on start =0

 

I have an eLink as Controller B and I have tried setting this value to both 0 and 1. Regardless of the setting, RM always resets the eLink on startup, and it always works fine thereafter. So I was just wondering how this recommendation came about. Also, usually if you want something to be done, the value is 1, not 0.

 

Ray

.

Ray,

I am not the originator of this TIP as a solution. Very much a case of 'monkey see ... monkey do'.

.

How it came about.

.

HRMS did something to RailMaster when they released version 1.7. A 'user at that time' who was using eLink as their primary Controller A interface and not a Controller B as in your case. Reported on the forum that their eLink kept loosing contact every couple of minutes. I of course responded with my normal .INI file modifications that had until then worked more often than not to resolve such issues.

.

The OP at the time, came back to report that my fixes had not worked and they had subsequently been in touch with HRMS and it was HRMS that had advised the change to =0 for that line.

.

I filed that information away for future reference. I then suggested that modification as a fix to others who also reported their eLinks as Controller A not being able to maintain a stable connection for more than a couple of minutes at a time. I found as a result, that the =0 advice was working fairly consistently for them too. It only seems to be applicable to version 1.7 and above RailMaster versions. I daresay, that HRMS will tweak something in a later release that will break this fix and make =1 a better value. Trying to keep RailMaster stable is like chasing a rainbow. Its only stable when HRMS don't touch it.

.

In all my Railmaster advice, sure a lot of it is arrived at from personal experience. But as a ComMod I end up reading every post and take particular interest in the RailMaster posts. So lots of these advice snippets are not my own, but derived from reading and noting what solutions others find or are given by HRMS that they report as working fixes.

.

Another tip that I regularly give out, that does seem to work, but was actually reported as a fix on the forum by a user, is the one about making the AC and CC lines the last lines in the file.

.

As I said, I don't necessarily discover these fixes myself, I just have a good ability to spot the significance of tips that others post and a memory to replicate them on the forum if I feel it is beneficial to do so. It is in the end experimentation, I then use the feedback that I get to my suggested fixes to fine tune the ones that I give out in future replies. Which is why you might notice that I sometimes ask 'users' who report using my advice worked, to clarify what were the final .INI file settings that they arrived at that worked.

.

 

[Yelrow]

Jeff, did any of this heip.

[Fishmanoz]

Jeff, John's advice on startup order is still sitting in the sticky topic at the top of the forum - RM: Setting Up and Getting Started.  Most of the rest of this topic, being 4 years old, is outdated and better to follow Chris's advice. 

[Yelrow]

Fishy, hi, not posting so much these days. Thanks for pointing out the location.  Fishing interfering with your postings. ?.

[Fishmanoz]

Too many other things demanding my time John, must do something about that.