Question on Railmaster

[Crassus]

I gather using the Hornby Railmaster system , you control through a PC so there is not a actual throttle you hold . Can members of the forum confirm or correct me here please ,also could members tell me what the benefits of using the E Link with the RM system are

[96RAF]

Control is from a PC screen (mouse or touch) or with additional licences from a handheld such as tablet or phone, but you still need the main install on a PC.

The main benefit of using an eLink and RM is it is a fairly cheap way to get into DCC although you still need to install decoders into your locos.

Beware buying eLink and/or RM second hand as the licence is not transferable so if pre-registered it is worthless as you need to buy a new licence. This means you can pick up S/H eLinks for peanuts.

You can also use an Elite with RM which does give you manual override, however this can lead to interaction cross talk getting screen buttons out of synch with the Elite screen indications.

[P-Henny]

The only advantage of using an eLink as the physical interface box is the cost. eLink is considerably cheaper than an Elite. There are NO physical controls on an eLink, thus it cannot function without RM software. Therefore your requirement cannot be met using an eLink.

BUT, if you use an Elite as the physical interface box with RM then you can indeed have both a physical control knob speed control experience in conjunction with the software throttle sliders in RM.

With an Elite, there is a RM .ini file setting that allows the two speed control knobs on the Elite to take control of two throttle sliders in RM, such that rotating the Elite knobs moves the RM throttle sliders and, of course, therefore the locos assigned to those two RM throttles will move and be controlled as well.

That is exactly what you are asking for.

It is however a bit of a faff. You have to decide which two locos you want to control using the Elite knobs and assign the knobs with the DCC addresses of the two chosen locos. Then as long as the same two locos have also been configured to be controlled by RM, then the RM throttles and the Elite knobs become synchronised. You can change the Elite knob loco DCC address assignments on the fly as you control the layout, such that at any time, any two of your fleet of RM configured locos can be dual controlled this way.

The only practical reason as far as I can see for doing this, is if you have a young child that you want to give a physical knob to, whilst the adult uses the RM software. It is advised however that the Elite is only used to synchronise the speed control knobs, because if you use the Elite buttons to operate functions, it has been known that the functions in RM for the same loco get confused and quickly out of sync with what functions have been chosen on the Elite for the same loco. But for speed control, the feedback feature works quite well.

As just said, the Elite knob feedback feature is a suitable solution for a young child. However, if your question relates to using a 'Hand Held' device for an adult. RM supports using an iPad / iPhone APP as a handheld throttle. This requires additional paid for licenses and is not free with RM, and some users have reported technical issues with this handheld feature, so I advise some more research before committing. The APP handheld solution works with the eLink as well as Elite because it is a software solution between the HH device and RM, thus irrelevant to which track interface hardware is being used.

Using RM as your primary controller has so many benefits, this would need a complete new thread in its own right to cover them all. But in principal, any PC software based control system significantly opens up the control options. The primary one being clicking icons on screen to control things rather than having to memorise their DCC addresses and physically enter them each time you want to do something.

EDIT: 96RAF posted whilst I was typing mine.

[RDS]

I think the apparent difficulties of synchronisation between Elite and the RM screen are over emphasised above, as is the need to decide which 2 Loco's to control.

I have the Elite but not eLink and I regularly use RM by computer control with the added capability of 'manual' control by the Elite. In fact RM can be running a program whilst you control some other Loco's using the Elite. Best of both worlds!

[Yelrow]

Dave, totally agree about Elite. I have never considered it a problem. When you use the knobs, Railmaster slider, goes with speed. It’s fine. And perfect for anyone with children. Add the walkabout Selects, and you have perfection.

[96RAF]

My comment about things getting out of kilter were aimed at the functions only, which can just be crossed indications or contra selection with what the loco is doing, e.g. function set to off but sound stays on.

As stated the throttle slider feedback is fine.

Just be aware if you are running a loco under control of a program and you take manual control of it then the program will likely go awry as your subsequent event timings will be off. Not in program locos should not create any problems.

Edit - amended for clarity of locos under control. Reference RDS comments following.

[RDS]

Dave, totally agree about Elite. I have never considered it a problem. When you use the knobs, Railmaster slider, goes with speed. It’s fine. And perfect for anyone with children. Add the walkabout Selects, and you have perfection.

 

 

and I agree about Select as a walkabout John. Our grandchildren love it.

[RDS]

Just be aware if you are running a loco under control of a program and you take manual control then the program will likely go awry as your subsequent event timings will be off.

 

 

I tried it out again just to check, before posting. The Loco I was taking manual control of was not included in those running under program control and it seemed perfect. I did not check any timings but everything worked as expected.

[Fishmanoz]

Crassus, you may have noticed that I sometimes make suggestions on thread titles in this forum. On your current title, something in the order of 90% of the threads in the RM forum are questions so your title isn’t telling us much. Might I suggest it be changed to:

Physical Throttle in RM versus eLink Advantages

With that title, we have a fair idea if we are able to help before reading the specifics in your post and you are likely to draw the attention of those who know the answer.

Now might I give two short to the point answers:

• there is no physical throttle as part of RM. You can only access one or more if you use the Elite or Elite plus Select Walkabout/s. There are also Handheld licences on your phones or tablets but these are still not physical knobs. And in particular, there are none if you use an eLink only.
• the advantages of eLink are that it is cheap and a perfectly good interface between the RM on your PC/laptop and the track.