ELink and RM back in stock at discounted price.

[96RAF]

https://uk.hornby.com/products/elink-railmaster-software-r8312

[rpjallan]

Is it just me or do Hornby not seem so interested in DCC anymore?

[96RAF]

If so what do you think they are concentrating on instead ?

All their new locos (size permitting) have a socket for the 21-pin decoder when it eventually becomes available. Others are 4, 6 or 8-pin ready. Their new steam equipped locos are factory fitted with DCC sound.

[Peter Stiles]

Hmm.

The "outlet", where this discounted eLink/RM is shown, is advertised with the phrase:

"Last chance to buy! Discover great savings on selected items."

Does this presage a replacement for eLink? Does this herald a replacement for Railmaster?

Or is this just a cheap time to pick up a licence for RM?

[rpjallan]

If so what do you think they are concentrating on instead ?

 

 

Well, that's the big question, isn't it!

Having linked to an eLink/Railmaster special I was mainly commenting on DCC control, not their upcoming locomotives. The last couple of years at their new product announcements there has been little, if any new DCC products. Their new accessory decoder is so complicated & so expensive I wonder if anyone is buying it. I just think since the loco detection debacle they have really dropped the ball. Maybe intentionally...

[ColinB]

Hornby have to put DCC on their locos or else I doubt they would sell that many. I get the opinion that it is a bit of an afterthought as many of the sockets are positioned such that it is difficult to make a decoder fit. Why they have stuck with the 8 pin variety for so long defeats me especially when many of their diesel and modern electric locos already have a large PCB to drive the lights. They did venture into 21 pin years ago and their solution was very neat. If you could get those pcbs at a reasonable price (you can't get them anyway) they would be a great retrofit, on something like a Duchess even with the socket in the tender it is a tight fit because of the huge amount of wire you have to find a place for. I must admit the Plux18 socket has given me issues even on factory fit options where it doesn't connect properly. On one of my Bachmann factory fitted sound options I had to clean all the connections with alcohol to get the decoder to work reliably, so I could see why Hornby would want to give them a miss.

[jhmkarisma]

I think they have given up on Railmaster. I have been trying to get a response for several months now with no luck. I think it is time to forget about Hornby DCC control and adopt one of the many other systems. It's a pity as it was(is) a reasonable PC controlled system.

[96RAF]

@karisma

I have been in contact with HRMS recently. They are operating as normal.

[Fishmanoz]

If it’s been months and no response, it would seem your emails aren’t getting through, which is not unheard of.

How are you trying to contact them, through RM (you should get an immediate auto-acknowledge) or support@rail-master.com? We can help either way, may require you to do it via another ISP.

[rpjallan]

I think it is time to forget about Hornby DCC control and adopt one of the many other systems. It's a pity as it was(is) a reasonable PC controlled system.

 

 

I'm not saying that by any means. I have a Hornby Elite that I use with Railmaster. It does everything I need at the moment. And I can't see me needing any more than this in the foreseeable future, apart from some things I can use from other manufacturers. However, it is disappointing to see a manufacturer, who's not inexpensive products you have invested in, showing very little interest, if any, in the product line you use...

[Andrew-362505]

I've been trying to get in touch with RM for over two months. No response and Hornby Customer Service aren't responding now either, although they'd promised to chase for me. Previous couple of times they've taken a few weeks, but now just silence. Gonna try calling again this week as email is pointless.

[RDS]

@Andrew

Moderator Note:

It is in your own interest to have a unique user name. 

Could you please select ‘My Account’ towards the top right hand corner of your screen, then Community and choose a nickname in the ‘My Profile' tab, rather than your First name that has been automatically allocated by the system. We had hoped a Forum change was coming to prevent this automatic allocation but a manual change is required at the moment and there will be more than one member with your name. This request together with some other information for new posters is contained in a thread at the top of the General Discussion section called ‘Information for new members registering for the Forum’

[96RAF]

At risk of boring folk, can I repeat that Hornby Hobbies is only responsible for the hardware aspect of RM and HRMS looks after the software side, normally via the inbuilt help system.

HH Customer Services offers basic fault finding support, but in general HRMS needs the files attached by the RM help system to provide practical targeted help.

[Fishmanoz]

Andrew, might I suggest you can make much better use of this forum by raising a new topic which describes briefly the issue/s you are having with RM, then we can begin to address them.

Adding your post to a 4 month old one about discount prices is unlikely to get you good answers, particularly as it has now gone off-topic and you are adding to that off-topic.

But given you are new to the forum so haven’t yet had the benefit of any targeted advice from the knowledgeable people here, let me make a few initial suggestions for you, and you can tell us how they’ve gone when you raise your topic:

• have you installed the latest version of RM from the link at the top of the forum? If not, do so now
• have you activated it using your purchased key?
• have you tried to activate and failed?
• have you gone to the sticky FAQ post at the top of this forum and followed the advice there meticulously?
• you seem to have a problem contacting HRMS. Is that true?
• If so, have you been trying to contact them via the built in email facility in the RM Help screen?
• did you get an immediate auto-acknowledgement from your email via the Help screen? If not, it has not gone through.
• if a Help screen email has failed, have you tried a direct email to support@rail-master.com? They should reply in a day or 2 if this goes through

If neither of the comms methods are working for you, the chances are you are one of a number whose IP addresses are blocked to HRMS. In that case, you should try using a completely different email address to get through to them.

Once you been able to answer/try the above and raised your own topic, please report all of the above in your initial post. And I’d suggest the thread title you choose should not just say you are having comms problems, tell us the problem you have that is the reason for your trying to contact them in the first place.

[96RAF]

This is reply I had late last night from HRMS within minutes of my asking if they were alive and well.

”...We have no outstanding emails or Help Requests from any users and usually respond to them within the same day so we're not sure who is doing what. What we can say is that we have found a number of users do email incorrectly variously to suport@rail-master.com, support@railmaster.com and so on - note the spelling errors. We also find that some who use the built-in Help Request system enter their reply email addresses incorrectly, so after responding to them, our messages go nowhere. These account for a tiny number, though, but then we do have many thousands of users all over the world, so just 1% making mistakes comes to a reasonably large number.

If you can let us have any of the affected users' email addresses then we can try to investigate further.

The important thing to note is that we never ignore messages and always respond in a timely manner...”

Please note that forum moderators do not have access to your emails so cannot pass any complaints direct to them. Note also that the email addresses shown above are typical miss-spellings and that their correct direct email is support@rail-master.com but again I state that initial contact should be via the help system for the reasons Fishy states.

[96RAF]

If anyone wants a cheap stand alone eLink, my local model shop has one.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/627539614510187/permalink/1218919162038893/?fs=e&s=cl

Give them a call.