Railmaster & E-link Woes

[tony_rigby_uk]

Firstly Hello from someone who has been away from model railways for quite some time, and I hope you can help.

 

I have a e-link with railmaster, I've managed to get past the whole windows 7 & com issues (although the update which then sends you off

 

to a re-install with a big "please use administrator rights" was lots of fun.. next time a download link would be handy as that was a pain for a while.

 

It's all up and on screen. If I stick a loco on the programing track I can read the CV's of the loco.

 

If for test purposed I move the cables from the programing track to the track outputs on the e-link the loco doesn't move??? or do anything. I've checked the track link and there is power present.

 

I've even spent another hour converting the "duke of

 

Sutherland" to DCC, to test it wasn't my DCC read Train. As said I can read both the CV's for the chip on programing but still neither will move even when the programing track wires are put in the main track inputs.

 

Both loco's work if I put it on a

 

DC track,

 

My first guess is it's as if the rail master software is not writing the ID's. Hence nothing happens. You can clearly see the CV's and set a loco ID but there isn't any form of confirmation in rail master to say the code has stuck to the loco.

 

 

 

Any Ideas people? It's driving me insane, and every problem I've looked at seems to be not getting the railmaster to read CV's..

 

Thanks in advance

 

 

[Fishmanoz]

Check your power track or power clip is not a DC version with a capacitor across the input. Look at Help, Latest News in Railmaster for instructions on what to look for and how to fix.

[tony_rigby_uk]

It's a soldered and wired track. Not a connector clip. From what I've read the capacitor would interfere with reading cv's. Which i can do. It's as of the loco id isn't writing. Does anyone know if you put a train on track if railmaster see's it or not?

 

Without trying to read cv's.

[Fishmanoz]

So you mean you have wires soldered directly to your track? You do not use a power track into which the wires are clipped?

 

In case check this thread https://www.hornby.com/forums/hornby-forums/hornby-digital/5254/ which causes you to be unable to

 

write CVs, including the loco ID. You should still be able to run them on the default 03 address though, which will confirm if this could be the problem.

[beejack]

I had the same issue when trying to write new addresses. I found that short code addresses up to 49 worked but anything above failed.

I solved it by resetting the decoder using cv8 and a value of either 2 or 8 depending on the chip make. This put it

 

back to 3. I then used a calculator for cv29 and cv's 17 & 18 and manually inputed the values and wrote them to the chip with no problems.

the calculator I used can be found at:

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

 

Upgrading to

 

railmaster 1.52 and elink firmware 1.03 also solved this.

 

 

[tony_rigby_uk]

Fishmanoz said:

So you mean you have wires soldered directly to your track? You do not use a power track into which the wires are clipped?

In case check this thread https://www.hornby.com/forums/hornby-forums/hornby-digital/5254/ which

causes you to be unable to write CVs, including the loco ID. You should still be able to run them on the default 03 address though, which will confirm if this could be the problem.

Yes Correct soldered directly. No a finished layout just a really

basic oval as i'm just trying to get the front end of the controls working before I complicate things with more tables and bigger layout.

I can write CV's / read CV's. Just had the wires into program again, can write the loco id as a Long address (e.g

6201) and that gives me some sort of confirmation that it's writing in the form of a bar and the changing of long address in the CV. (as expected)

Can you run the loco from the programing track? if I use the slide it will move on programing? That isn't

happening. Nor are they running when I switch wires to Track output on the e-link. it's as if it just isn't communicating with the R8249 chips.. there isn't anything special that needs to be added.?

[tony_rigby_uk]

Think I've managed to sort it.. Thanks for help anyway

[Fishmanoz]

Just to confirm one thing, you can't run a loco on program track, only program it. Program output is low power.