Help needed with RailMaster eLink with Windows 10

[Novice74]

Good morning. Totally new to this but here goes.

I have spent a week trying to install the DCC controller. The Railmaster software installed ok, problems began when I tried to install the DCC Controller. The Help Guides don't help at all as references are made to differences with versions of Windows, but nothing specific is advised with Windows 10. Hornby Technical Support referred me to Railmaster. Railmaster don't talk they only email but their advice has not worked either. A friend who is an IT professional with 20 years' experience spent 3 hours yesterday working on it and we still haven't cracked it. We have looked at multiple forums and videos on YouTube but nothing specifically covers the issues with Windows10, which I am sure is the route of the issue. Does anyone have Railmaster eLink with Windows 10 who can help? If you live in Pembrokeshire, West Wales, that would be even better.

[Chrissaf]

You could read yesterdays thread relating to Windows 10 and RailMaster [RM]. My reply in that thread provides 'RM Help' resource locations and instructions for Win 10.

Things probably would have gone better if you had installed the controller driver before installing RM. At the top of the RM forum is a sticky thread titled "RailMaster FAQ Index". Everything you need to know to install your controller driver in Win 10 and configure it with RM is documented in FAQ1. This actually indicates that installing the controller and getting it working with RM is a very common issue as it warrants being listed as FAQ number 1. Pay partiicular attention to the guidance in FAQ1 relating to amendments that you have to make to the .INI file for an eLink. Also the guidance on how to tell if the current .INI file is corrupted and needs regenerating. This corruption issue is very important as you will struggle to get a working system, if corruption is present and not fixed. This corruption is more likely to occur when RM is installed before the controller, particularly if the controller is not powered up with the Windows driver loaded into the system when running the RM installer for the very first initial time. It is not necessary to have the controller powered up when running RM software updates.

Note1 - that there are 8 FAQs in the sticky thread covering various aspects of working with RM issues. So you may find coming back to the index worthwhile should you come across further issues as you progress with your usage with RM. All my FAQs have been written by me based upon my own personal experience of resolving RM issues, both for myself and other members on this forum.

Note 2 - the current RM version is version 1.74.5. If your installed version is lower, then I recommend you update RM first before trying to resolve your eLink connection issue. The 1.74.5 version can be downloaded from one of the RM stickies. Do not uninstall your currently installed version. Just right click the downloaded 1.74.5 installer and choose "Run as administrator" to overwrite the installation. It might be worth checking your current .INI file first for corruption as documented in FAQ1. Because if the .INI file needs to be regenerated, the running of the installer is needed as part of the fix. Thus checking the .INI file for corruption first could save the need to run the installer twice. Note that RM is treated by Microsoft as being "untrusted" as it does not have an up to date MS security certificate. This means that subject to the browser being used there might be additional security overrides that will need to be made to force the 'RM installer' download to complete. The Chrome browser in particular seems to block the download aggressively.

Note 3 - if after following the documented guidance you are still unable to establish a connection between RM and your eLink controller, then it might be due to a fault with the controller. This is rare, but not unknown. Apart from saying that you have got connection issues, you haven't actually described what they are i.e. what error messages do you get, what do you observe, does the power indicator on the eLink illuminate, what shows in Windows Device Manager etc etc. So if my guidance does not work for you, come back and provide more detailed information to allow further assessment of your issue. If needed, I can give guidance on how to reload the operating firmware into the eLink, this has been known to resolve some eLink issues that RM software configuration tweaking does not.

QUESTION. You say that RM has installed OK. Does this include authenticating your RM key over the Internet?. If you have, then that is good news as key authentication is also a common issue which is far more onerous to resolve, for which no "magic bullet" solution guidance is available.

As I have a particular interest in RM issues and resolutions, I have browsed various Internet resources for any tips I can make use of. So far, I have been unable to find any Internet resource including YouTube that betters the guidance that is available on this forum and the linked "Help Site". In general, I found the information being offered elsewhere to be either just plain wrong or 'the blind leading the blind' [apologies to any member on this forum with sight issues for using this well known descriptive phrase].

As this is your very first post and my reply is extremely long, it would be appreciated if you would reply using the "Reply Text Box" at the bottom of the page rather than the within post blue button.

[Novice74]

@Chrissaf

 

 

Hello and thank you for such a thorough reply. In answer to your question, Yes, authenticating the activation code over the internet was done successfully.

Some of the suggestions you mention are familiar to me, others are not, so I'm going to work through everything you suggest and see how I get on. Thank you again. Your knowledge is very impressive.

[Chrissaf]

@Novice74

I hope following my advice will end up with your system working.

Since you have confirmed that Key Activation via the Internet was successful, then follow the guidance documented in FAQ1 to the letter without exception or deviation.