eLink & RailMaster problems - I can't find answers !

[Chrissaf]

Hello all, 

Not a regular poster, I occasionally drop in for a quick nose round unless I have a problem which is now, the first of severalI suspect. a bit of background, railmaster version 1.72 running on windows 10,  PC is ssd,16 ram,  additional large hard drive, software installed is standard railmaster and some CNC software for the other-halfs CNC laser engraver and router. Track mainly peco flexible with mixture of peco and hornby points, track is curently two loops about 20 metres each with dropper fitted to most of it to a main bus. Mainly Hornby dcc and tts decoders.various rolling stock wagons and coaches.

Having now got the track complete to a runable condition, My first problem was getting the PC  to conect to my E link. had trains running previously but after installing CNC software it became a night mare!eventually after removing bot sets of software and reinstalling them and connected to E link with out the drivers to the CNC stuff it all connected, so I have left RM running so I can. make some progress, all my loco's were tested with a select individually so all had to be renumbered using E link, all good practice I thought, still don't seem to give loco's a 4 digit numberbut maybe I am trying to give it a 4 digit dcc id? will check on that tomorrow.

latest problem I have was after a loco derailed over diamond crossing was lifted off the track and replaced in another position, but would not move again, the E link (V7.02) is saying that it is connected to the track, but the track appears to be lacking in Power I have tried other loco's with the same result, I have one of those little gismos that illuminate a LED to show weather the track has power or not, does not light up any where.

I have also tried to down load the latest softwear fo RM and the E link but the RM seems to be down and I have no idea where to find the E link software/ firmware if any. I was under the impression that RM looked for later versions during the boot Phase, it does not on my setup..

if anyone has any ideas please let me know.. TIA

sam

[Chrissaf]

This is almost certainly a 'railmaster.ini' file content issue.

 

Open the 'railmaster.ini' file editor. Bluish COG icon in the bottom left of the 'RailMaster Help Screen'.

 

First of all confirm that you have about 40 lines of .INI file lines in the file. If there are only about 10 lines or less, then you need to rebuild a new file. I will tell you how to do that, but only if you need to. For the present, I am assuming that you have a full file list present.

 

Look for and locate the line:

 

Reset eLink on start=1

 

edit this line to

 

Reset eLink on start=0

 

Save and close the editor, close and restart RailMaster and test operation to see if fixed.

 

If not fixed or observations changed, then come back and refresh your observations as to what you now observe and I will give further guidance. But do remember to advise if "Reset eLink on start=1" is missing or the number of entries are less then 10.

 

I also suggest that both the following lines should have =1 values for an eLink being used as Controller A.

 

Alternative comms=1

Check controller=1

 

The latest version of RailMaster is version 1.73. This version DOES NOT auto-update from version 1.72 and needs to be installed manually over version 1.72 [do not uninstall the previous 1.72 version, you right click the downloaded 1.73 installer and choose 'Run as administrator' and just run it over the top of the installed version]. For info, only feature updates or major issue bug fixes auto-update during the RailMaster start up process. Not every new updated RM version will trigger the auto-update.

 

The download link for 1.73 is working [just tested it] and is located here [yellow highlight] on the Hornby forum Website.

/media/tinymce_upload/9e5aa856c4415ef27fb53a4eca615bf3.jpg

 

The eLink firmware is version 1.07 and not 7.02 ... no idea where you got the 7.02 version number from. I doubt that you need to be concerned about the eLink firmware version at present, but if this becomes necessary I can advise on that later.

 

Four digit addressing. I suggest not trying to run before you can walk. Let's get your basic comms sorted first, then I can advise on your other issues and four digit addressing & eLink firmware.

 

I can also probably fix your eLink not powering track after a short circuit issue. This is also a .INI file configuration issue but as I said above, lets get basic eLink comms working first.

 

Your post is a 'shotgun' approach of multiple issues. It is easier to deal with them one at a time. Starting with the most important and significant one .... basic eLink communication.

 

[Fishmanoz]

Just putting another issue to bed while Chris takes you through basic steps - why did it not work after installing CNC software and presumably hardware?  Very possibly because the Comm port number for the eLink changed after you'd done the CNC installation.  Easy to check with Windows Device Manager to tell you what Comm port the eLink is on, then check the RM Setup screen to make sure they are the same.  Change RM setup to match DM if not.

 

Any time you change the hardware connected to your USB ports, you run the risk Windows will re-allocate port numbers.  There should be no problem with have the CNC and RM software installed together as long as you keep track of port numbers and always plug the hardware into the same USB connections.

 

And on uninstalling then re-installing your software packages, RM in particular - you will hardly ever solve RM problems doing this, in fact you are likely to cause yourself problems.  Problems will likely include undoing the ini file changes Chris has recommended for you.  Best way with RM is to regularly download and install the latest version from the link over the top of whatever version you are running. 

[Chrissaf]

@Sam,

Fishy makes a good point. RailMaster was written for Windows XP and does not manage Comm ports very well [unlike more modern software and drivers]. RM doesn't keep track of changing Comm Port allocations and the first thing to do when communication is lost between RM and the controller is to look in 'Windows Device Manager' to check which 'Comm Port' number has been assigned to the eLink and compare that to what is showing in the RM 'System Settings' screen. The numbers have to match in both screens. Each time you plug the eLink into a different USB port, a new number gets assigned, so it is very important with RM to standardise on one physical USB port for the controller and always use the same one.