Loco’s do nothing

[GAA]

Hi all

I am brand new to model railways (now in my 70’s) but I am a gadget lover. I was bought a Hogwarts Express set (DC) which started me off.

I decided after a lot of research to go down the DCC route with sound loco’s. Bought the Railmaster with eLink.

I have now put about 90% of my track which is 8’+ by 4’ with about 30’ of track length. Having first tested the Hogwarts Castle on DC for any problems with the track, which is OK. I have also bought 3 more Loco’s and fitted a sound decoder to the Hogwarts. I also had one of the new loco’s (class 8 - Chris Wren Shunter) running on the DC with sound.

Now after about 6 hours of trying to get Railmaster on to a brand new laptop running Windows 10 (bought specifically for this as I am an Apple Mac user), found it was being prevented by Macafee so had to delete that.

I connected the eLink and set up RM Without any further problems. Programmed one of the Hornby point decoders and that works 4 points fine. Programmed the two aforementioned loco’s (on a separate piece of programming track) in and also a DCC converted turntable, all good, except only the points work neither of the turntable or the loco’s do anything other than the Hogwarts headlight is on.

I have read through a number of problems others have had but nothing is like this. I have been at it for over a week and now thinking of ditching the whole thing. 😩

please help

[96RAF]

There is a comprehensive set of guides on this forum to help youget your eLink and RM up and running, including a remote help site authored by our forum IT guru Augustus Caesar.

The Hogwarts light will be on all the time as it is powered directly from the track, not via the decoder.

I am amazed you got sound from your loco on DC as few sound decoders work sound on DC. Which sound decoder is fitted.

As you are using an eLink it is assumed you have not only programmed each loco with its unique address, but also saved it in the RM loco roster.

If the loco is in roster then it will have throttle at the RH side of screen.

You should also roster a default loco on address 3 and use this throttle to see if any other locos respond to this address. If so then the previous addressing of them did not take.

Turntable - it is presumed you used the guide on this forum - see FAQ 4 - to convert your TT to DCC. If so tells us which option you used. If not tell us how you converted it and if so to which guide.

Answers to these questions will help us to help you get back on track.

[RDS]

Hi GAA and welcome to the Forum.

There is no need to consider ditching anything. There is sufficient help on this Forum for you. You don't mention which decoders you have fitted to your other Loco's or how you managed to try them out on DC before converting them to DCC. Do you have a separate DC layout.

I use RailMaster on a W10 PC, with Windows Defender Security, which is free with Windows.

[GAA]

Hi 96RAF

The RM seems to be working fine. The decoder in the Class 8 is factory fitted code R2902XS.

I used the Hornby guide to convert the turntable. Cutting off the plug, connecting the orange to brown and grey to black, red and black to track power.

Yes the two loco’s have been programmed (10,11 not 3) and added to the roster along with the turntable. Nothing happens when moving the accelerator not any sounds when clicking the functions below.

[GAA]

Hi GAA and welcome to the Forum.

There is no need to consider ditching anything. There is sufficient help on this Forum for you. You don't mention which decoders you have fitted to your other Loco's or how you managed to try them out on DC before converting them to DCC. Do you have a separate DC layout.

I use RailMaster on a W10 PC, with Windows Defender Security, which is free with Windows.

The layout is brand new and still in the process of being built, I just had the loco’s running with the supplied DC controller before setting up the eLink and RM. (See my other reply regarding the decoder.)

[GAA]

96RAF, I have done as you suggested and put in a dummy loco with ID 3, with both loco’s on the track I moved the accelerator up to see if any moved, yes the class 08 shunter moved but not the Hogwarts. It then curiously carried on moving, although very slowly and would not stop when the accelerator was moved back down. Tried the stop all button, still did not stop.

I deleted the dummy loco but it still did not stop, quilted the programme, launched again but still the loco carried on!!!!

By the way the decoder fitted to the turntable is the basic Hornby R8249 and the one I fitted to the Hogwarts is R7142TTS.

[96RAF]

The XS loco has the old ESU sound decoder which will provide limited noise on DC, so ignore that bit. Other decoders like TTS will allow motor control on DC but no sound, so be aware.

Any loco responding to address 3 is set to factory default and has not accepted a different address. Try reprogramming it again, even a couple of times.

The Hornby method of converting a turntable is not the optimum method as it removes the track end contacts. Far better to put them back in and have a read of the DCC forum section FAQ about converting a Hornby turntable.

Any loco running on after being set to zero could be a few things. Can you read the CVs for that loco and tell us the value in CV29.

[GAA]

The value of CV29 = 6

And by the way, this loco although moving has no sounds.

[96RAF]

As you can see from this CV29 calculator value 6 means you have DC running enabled. What you are seeing is likely a result of DC runaway. RM does not support running an analogue loco so the feature is best disabled on all your decoders. For TTS sound you need to be running 128 speed steps. Tick the boxes to suit your needs and write that new value into CV29.

http://www.2mm.org.uk/articles/cv29%20calculator.htm

I take it you have set up the functions for each sound loco in your roster and that toggle sounds have the suffix on/off. Have a read of the RM forum FAQs for setting up locos. F1 enables background sound.

One more thing to check is if you are using track power connectors, a power track or link cables that there are no capacitors in them, see here. Any such items will corrupt the DCC signal.

[GAA]

Firstly can I ask is there a setting on here that lets me know when someone replies?

Right back to topic I had spotted Thais about CV29 on another post and actually changed this to 2.

I have put the functions into the list.

I use a power clip in the ‘prog’ track which has DCC printed on the underside and the power to the track is the Hornby R8241 digital power track (green buttons).

And finally I got the turntable working by changing CV29 to 2.

EDITED:

I have just tried another loco’ a Bachman class 24/1 diesel (brand new out of the box) setting everything as normal and changing CV29 to 2 and as with the others nothing happens.

[RDS]

@GAA

There is no setting on this Forum to see if anyone has replied. You need to keep an eye on the thread to check for updates.

Incidentally, on this Forum there is no need to add an extra carriage return to separate your sentences or paragraphs. A line space is automatically added each time you press Enter. (I have removed all the additional empty lines from your posts)

[GAA]

Tried putting the new Class 24/1 diesel in with ID3, loco moved about an inch and the I was presented with th following message:

‘The connection with the DCC Controller A has been lost.

This could be due to a short circuit or USB cable disconnection.

Clear the error then click the tick and Railmaster will try again.’

After clicking the tick the Railmaster pro logo comes on as if just starting up. When this had gone off I tried again and the same thing happens.

Another test removing the shunter from the roster makes no difference as it still runs when placed back on the track even though the CV29 is now set at 2.

[Brew Man]

Have you tried reading back the value of CV 29 to make sure it has been set to 2?

other than that it sounds to me that you have a problem with the supply to your track.

Maybe you could try just building a simple circle or oval of track and see if there is any improvement.

[GAA]

Yes done all that.

[96RAF]

Read this to resolve the lost connection

https://uk.hornby.com/community/forum/lost-elite-on-laptop-322514?ccm_paging_p=1#end-of-replies

I have run out of suggestions, so its down to someone else to come up with a silver bullet.

[Fishmanoz]

I suggest you go the the FAQ Index at the top of this forum and run through everything in FAQ1. Given locos work at all, doesn’t sound like a decoder issue, more likely a controller connection problem. You’d already identified an AV problem, I suspect there are more for the unwary in there.

Then if no joy with FAQ1, email HRMS from within the Help screen of RM, tell them what you’ve done already and look to have them log into your computer to fix anything you’ve missed. You should get an auto-acknowledge immediately if your email to them goes through.

[rpjallan]

Also, just for your info, Railmaster runs fine on a Mac under emulation. I use VMware Fusion, which is now free, with Windows 10. I have been doing this for about 15 years and had very few problems. You can also install Windows directly on your Mac with Bootcamp, unless you are using one of the new M1 Macs.

[GAA]

Also, just for your info, Railmaster runs fine on a Mac under emulation. I use VMware Fusion, which is now free, with Windows 10. I have been doing this for about 15 years and had very few problems. You can also install Windows directly on your Mac with Bootcamp, unless you are using one of the new M1 Macs.

I have been using Mac’s for over 30yrs I know them inside out. I don’t need windows for anything other than ‘Railmaster’ and there I think lies the problem that Windows never has been any good and never will be they are far too sensitive and confusing. I personally don’t have a Mac laptop as I use an iMac 27”, my wife has a MacBook Air with M1. We used to have a Windows emulator on a laptop which my wife used, being a teacher.

My aunty whom is now almost 80yrs old, worked with windows for around 25yrs at work but after she retired she moved over to a Mac and then said to me “Why do people use Windows?”

So the sooner Hornby can get a Mac version up and running the better I think it would be.

Anyway that is all way off topic and after many more hours of deleting loco’s deleting .ink files resetting decoders I found that the main thing I had to do was go into the cv settings and set cv1 to the new loco address which I only came across by accident as upon entering one of the loco’s a message popped up to tell me to do this, which it hadn’t before and is not in the manual.

Now have 3 of my 4 loco’s running.

[rpjallan]

So the sooner Hornby can get a Mac version up and running the better I think it would be.

 

 

That will never happen! face_with_rolling_eyes Lol... flushed

[96RAF]

GAA said...

I found that the main thing I had to do was go into the cv settings and set cv1 to the new loco address which I only came across by accident as upon entering one of the loco’s a message popped up to tell me to do this, which it hadn’t before and is not in the manual.

As I said in my very first reply to this topic...

As you are using an eLink it is assumed you have not only programmed each loco with its unique address, but also saved it in the RM loco roster.

[GAA]

Yes did this so many times I lost count. Anyway all see to be OK now.

Thank you to all those who replied.