Hornby E-Link Railmaster and Cobalt iP Digital Points Motors

[OldBill]

I have had the Hornby E-Link/Railmaster system for about 4 years now and in all of that time it has never worked properly. I have eight Cobalt iP digital points motors on the layout and Railmaster does not recognise them. After I set up no.1 then no.7 works. Then no matter which one I set up and operate no.7 always works and not the others. This lasts for about five minutes then everything shuts down.

When I pull up the other points motor set up screen the small blue vertical bars never go right across the small rectangle and the test port button never works showing presumably that the system has not recognized the motor. Also what is the '12' delay, 12 seconds, 12 minutes or 12 hours!?

These motors have just been returned from DCC Concepts as I assumed that they were at fault and they updated them specifically to suit Railmaster, but to no avail.

I have spent hours trying to get this to work, sent numerous e-mails to people who know more about this than I do, spent time on forums, everything except bin it and take up a less stressful hobby which I think I should have done several years ago and reclaimed a bedroom at the same time.

As a pastime it has certainly done that, passed a lot of time that I will never see again.

[Chrissaf]

Now my apologies in advance if you feel my reply is 'Teaching Grandmother to Suck Eggs'. But since you haven't given a detailed 'step by step' account of the method you have used to set these iP Digital point motors up, then there is always a possibility that your method might not be the optimum method to use.

 

Many others are successfully using RailMaster / eLink with iP Digital point motors and have either set them up without further guidance from anyone, or have completed the set-up successfully with reference to my documented 'step by step' guidance.

 

My 'step by step' set-up tutorial can be viewed here, but do take note of some of the further comments below before trying to implement it.

https://www.hornby.com/uk-en/forum/adding-colbolt-ip-points-motors/?p=1

 

Now I turn to some of your comments one at a time.

 

I have had the Hornby E-Link/RailMaster system for about 4 years now and in all of that time it has never worked properly.

 

It looks as if you have a fundamental basic issue in your RailMaster configuration set-up that probably needs resolving first, to ensure that the best possible chance of trouble free operation of your iP Digitals is obtained. Now you haven't said, and it would be useful to know:

 

1. What version of RM are you running?
2. On what version of Windows is RM installed?
3. What is not actually working ... are you observing communication errors with your eLink?

 

If your answers are: RM version 1.7.0 or higher, Windows 7, 8 or 10 and yes I am seeing 'communication errors'. Then these problems can probably be resolved by following my guidance in this previous thread.

 

https://www.hornby.com/uk-en/forum/adding-the-hornby-r8213-dcc-select-controller/?p=1

 

When I pull up the other points motor set up screen the small blue vertical bars never go right across the small rectangle.

 

I don't recognise this description. Can you post a screen capture of the specific screen part to review. See TIP 8 in my TIPs page (see link at end of this reply).

 

Also what is the '12' delay, 12 seconds, 12 minutes or 12 hours!?

 

If your delay reference is referring to the yellow highlighted box in the example image below. Then you are in the wrong screen. This example screen image is showing a R8247 and may not be the product image screen you are looking at. This Accessory Decoder configuration screen part of RailMaster has got absolutely nothing to do with setting up DCC Concepts iP Digital point motors. These motors by DCC Concepts are 'self learning' decoders and are set up whilst still connected to the main track output of the eLink. The screen below is meant only for Accessory Decoders that are configured using 'Direct Mode' programming via the 'PROG A&B' output of the eLink.

 

If you have been trying to use this part of RailMaster referenced below to configure your iP Digitals, then you really need to follow the 'step by step' how to tutorial in the link I have posted above instead.

 

/media/tinymce_upload/557b865db1aaa2e5da6156e0d0202a44.jpg

The delay is seconds by the way and is the time delay between sending consecutive DCC accessory programming data packets. Not that this is relevant to configuring iP Digitals.

 

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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Particularly as my reply includes an image, using the 'Blue Button' may result in your reply being held back for image approval, even though it is an existing image.

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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/

 

[OldBill]

Thank you for your reply. 

Unfortunately I am not one of the 'many others' who have set them up without further guidance, but we can't all be the same.

I have read the Cobalt iP Digital Owners Manual again and under the heading 'setting the address of your Cobalt iP Digital' there is a line that says 'To do this use your DCC system instructions for changing an accessory or turnout' ie the screen that you displayed in your response which is what I did then I pulled down cobalt point motor (with decoder) and attempted to set it/them.

There is no mention in this manual of having to go onto this forum and have your intelligene questioned, also it does not mention 'self-learning' but it does say set the switch to ' learn'  which 'set' now appears to have become???

I bought a new computer to run this system as I mistakenly blamed the old one for it not running properly and lo and behold after I plugged it in and switched it on it worked (the computer not Railmaster). If you can just plug and play with a computer why is setting up a points motor on Railmaster so convoluted!!??

I am going to have another go following your instructions and will do a follow up post later.

 

[Chrissaf]

'To do this use your DCC system instructions for changing an accessory or turnout' ie the screen that you displayed in your response which is what I did.

 

Unfortunately, the screen I reproduced in my response is not the screen that the 'DCC Concepts' instructions are referring to. I included that screen to re-enforce my comments that this was not the screen to use.

 

The screen the DCC Concepts instructions are referring to, is this example one:

 

/media/tinymce_upload/c5e9e3411b7bdbdd62208db3553e90b1.jpg

Once you have created your own track layout plan (mimic). And configured the appropriate point buttons on your own plan (similar to those circled in white) on it using the DCC point addressing scheme you want to use. As described in my previously linked tutorial. Then it is these white highlighted point operating buttons on your layout plan that you use in conjunction with the 'set' [learn] button on the iP Digital motor.

 

In essence, what the 'DCC Concepts' instructions are saying. Is that you use your controller in exactly the same way that you would use it to operate your points during a normal 'play session'.

 

Then as long as the iP Digital point motor [which needs to be connected to the controller main track output, not the programming output] switch is in the 'Set' [Learn] position. The iP Digital will listen to the DCC data packets being sent from the controller and learn the DCC address it has to use from reading the DCC point operating data packet that is being broadcast onto the layout DCC power feed.

 

This is why they are termed 'self learning' decoders. Although they are termed 'self learning' they still need the 'user' to perform a controller 'task'. In this instance, that task is to go through the motions of operating the point using the controller interface.

 

Unfortunately, Hornby do not use 'self learning' for their own branded decoders. This 'self learning' method adopted by other brands is gaining popular momentum and they really are easy to set up once the basic principle implemented to do it is fully understood.

 

In RailMaster, the 'Accessory Decoder' configuration screen (the screen image capture in my original reply) is really aimed at decoders that are not 'self learning' and have to be fully manually set up on the 'programming track output' instead of the main track output. Whereas, 'Self Learning' decoders are best configured when attached to the main 'Track' output of a controller as per my tutorial 'step by step' guidance.

 

The guidance above is the abridged version of the 'step by step' tutorial in my previously linked reply. My documented method may be 'long winded' and use a different method to other potential methods, but it is a method that has been proven to be effective ... as per the 'plaudit' comments left in the linked thread by satisfied forum members who have followed them.