Communication problems from PC to Elite to Layout

[Andrew Rolland]

I eventually mananged to get my Railmaster v 1.2 installed by following the notes on here to upgrade it to v 1.21, I got the product registered and I've managed to design a layout and assign points etc.

I'm running Elite v1.3 on standard mode. Windows

7 on a split new laptop.

The Elite is connected via Com3 and all the setings for the device match that specified in the Railmaster manual. The laptop recognises the Hornby Elite when looking it up in the devices. It tells me that the device is working

properly. I've upped the bits rate to 19200 as suggested if having communication errors. All the settings in the device manager are replicated in the settings page in Railmaster, yet I cannot change points or make a loco move.

I can operate the points

and loco when using the Elite on it's own so I know the Elite works, the point accessory works, and the loco works all on DCC.

I've now spent 2 hours 32 minutes according to the clock on the Elite trying to make something move but to no avail.

Can

anyone help?

The only thing I can think of is replacing the USB lead. I can't see anything in the manual other than calling Hornby.

Thanks

Andrew

[Gregd99]

can you give some info on what you observe. error messages anywhere? does railMaster complain the device doesn't exist....

[Andrew Rolland]

I've got the screen showing my layout, with the correct point numbers. When I click on the green and red buttons to change the points, the graphics move to show change of direction but no corresponding change in point happens on the layout.

When

I move the loco throttle, nothing happens to the loco on the track.

No error messages. Railmaster does not complain that the device doesn't exist.

I'm completely stumped!

Thanks for the quick response.

Andrew

[wiggy25]

Have you checked device manager in Windows 7 and looked to see which port the Elite is connected to?

I know you said it's connected to com port 3 but in device manager you can see to make 100% sure it is indeed connected to com 3.

I would

try another USB cable just in case it is that as well.
Trying to think what else I would try, may be reset the Elite as well then reconnect everything.
Failing that I would uninstall Railmaster and re-install it, remember to copy the .pln file of your

layout plan, found in the Railmaster folder.
You can then paste this back into the re-installed version so you don't have to draw up your layout plan again.

I will keep thinking about what elese you can try, not having Windows 7 I'm just guessing

as to what else you can try.

Cheers

Ian

[wiggy25]

Please excuse the fantastic grammer and spelling in that last sentence!!
I'm now going to shoot myself, that's almost as bad as writing a reply in text short cuts :-(

[Andrew Rolland]

Hi

Double checked it is connected to COM3 on both Device manager settings and Railmaster settings. I've tried changing the USB cable too, still nothing doing.

If I try and move the throttle, the programme appears to stall, the clock stops

and nothing happens, I can't even minimise the window and I have to use task manager to shut Railmaster down. Railmaster appears to crash if I move the throttle!

Andrew

[Andrew Rolland]

Meant to add the following

When in Device manager settings it dispalys R8214 Hornby Elite (COM3) with a location of Port_#0002.Hub_#0004. I can't find anything relating to this.

[wiggy25]

Mmm, I would go for the uninstall and re-install option.

First things can you click on the ABout button in Railmaster to send the developers an email?
If so try this first explaining what is happening they may be able to see something in your

set up, but I don't really know what they actually get sent.

If/When you re-install the software don't run it, download the updated v1.21 file and save it into the railmaster folder, before activating it, just use the demo to see if it will move a loco.

It

does seem like the software is not talking to the Elite.

After going through the process above and if it still fails I would just contact support,
The Elite is connected directly into the PC and not through a hub anywhere isn't it?

Cheers

Ian

[Andrew Rolland]

Thanks Ian

It took a bit of phaffing to get the thing installed last night with the downloading of updated files but I'll try the un install and re-install later.

Yeah the Elite is plugged into the USB on the laptop and not via a hub or

anything fancy.

I'll try the demo version out after re-installing.

I had to completely disarm my firewall Macafee to get it to download the new files and to send the registration. I've put my firewall back up, would this have any issues? I can't

see any option within Macafee to allow Railmaster to communicate thru the firewall as implied in the info from Hornby.

Thanks again

Andrew

[Andrew Rolland]

Thanks Ian

It took a bit of phaffing to get the thing installed last night with the downloading of updated files but I'll try the un install and re-install later.

Yeah the Elite is plugged into the USB on the laptop and not via a hub or

anything fancy.

I'll try the demo version out after re-installing.

I had to completely disarm my firewall Macafee to get it to download the new files and to send the registration. I've put my firewall back up, would this have any issues? I can't

see any option within Macafee to allow Railmaster to communicate thru the firewall as implied in the info from Hornby.

Thanks again

Andrew

[wiggy25]

Hi Andrew, I would'nt think the firewall is stopping it talking to the Elite.
I thought the firewall was just for internet access but I don't really know.

Easiest thing to do first is disable the firewall and see if it does work, if not then

try the uninstall and try again.

Bit of a strange one.

Cheers

Ian

[Andrew Rolland]

Having another bash at this. I've removed and uninstalled everything.

Should I then use the downloaded files for the re-install rather than use the CD Rom?

[Andrew Rolland]

Right, I loaded it up via the downloaded railmaster.exe file and I then had problems with the drivers for the USB connection to the Elite.

Scrapped that, uninstalled it again.

Re-installed it via the downloaded setup.exe file.

Drivers

now worked and the computer recognises that Hornby Elite as it did before.

On running Railmaster (as administrator Windows 7 thing) it opens up o.k. and the problems with crashing have gone but still nothing doing with moving a loco or changing points.

On

start it Railmaster now says "Unable to open the designated DCC Controller port. Hornby Elite".

But all the Baud rate values and Com ports all match from the settings window in Railmaster to those in Control panel.

After installing it this way

it already has my Activation key in it. After a failed attempt yesterday with V1.2 after uninstalling and reinstalling the activation key had to be re entered.

Any suggestions?

Still stumped by a £55 bit of software.

Andrew

[wiggy25]

I've been playing about today with Railmaster at a friends and they had a similar problem although it was running on Windows XP.

For some strange reason it says unable to find Elite trying com port 6 even though everything was actually working!!

It

also said it was connected to com port 3!

It really does sound like a communications issue but I'm a little stumped as to what else to try.

Have you carried out a reset of the Elite, just in case to rule it out?

Cheers

Ian

[Andrew Rolland]

Hi Ian

I carried out a reset of the Elite yesterday and double checked again it was in the correct mode and still nothing. I've spent well over 10 hours trying to get it to work and no avail.

Going to call Hornby.

Andrew

[Hornby Customer Care]

Hi Andrew,

When you viewed the driver did you see which com port it was attached too? Then did you change this in the RailMaster settings?

[Andrew Rolland]

Thanks for the advice, Hornby.

Yes the Com ports were all the same, although, on the settings in Railmaster it came up with COM1 and didn't list any other pull downs. It did let me over type the 1 to 3 as the computer device manager states the Elite

is connected to COM3. Could this be an issue?

Hornby has kindly and very helpfully given advice to me over the phone. I'm going to try that tonight when I get home...provided my wife lets me as I've spent so long trying to get it to work.

Will

report back tomorrow.

Thanks to all so far

Andrew

[Andrew Rolland]

Right,

After speaking to the very helpful Customer Service (CS) in Margate this morning, I have managed to get my Elite working again. I thought I had damaged it verifying the software version on the Elite. I had tried to update the software on

it but in the end I had almost wiped it.

CS had told me to perservere with the Elite software upload.

But this is the real point here. I could NOT get the Elite to take the software upload using my brand new Windows 7 laptop. I changed COM ports

and Baud/bit rates to no success. Everytime it would say update fail!

Gave up and went to try my other pc

I had to go and raise steam pressure on the old Windows XP (2005 model), download everything again and follow the step by step instructions

for the driver uploads etc. The update took much longer but it worked perfectly first time on the old XP machine.

Thanks to Windows XP, I've spared my Elite a round trip to Margate. Windows 7 and it would have been going for a trip!

I also bought

a new USB2.0 cable. I used this for the software upgrade on the XP pc which worked. I thne tried using the same new cable from all my Laptop COM ports to print to a printer. This also worked, so I know that all the COM ports work on the Laptop via the new

cable. So I know there is nothing wrong with the laptop or the USB cable or the Elite!

Now that I know the Elite is back firing on all 8 cylinders, I'm going to re-try it on Railmaster but I'm going to have my dinner first.

Andrew

[Andrew Rolland]

Connected everything up and opened Railmaster on my Windows 7 laptop.

Hey presto it started twitching the points.

I then managed to operate all the points successfuly. Excitement building.....

Went and got a loco.....Excitment building

even more......

Went to operate loco (all correctly assgined 0001 etc) ....and nothing happened. Excitement smashed.

Points then refused to work.

Uninstalled and reinstalled the whole Railamster shooting match....

Switched it all

back on and nothing. Big fat nothing. No points twitching on start up, no nothing. Holding back the tears of frustration now.

It worked well the points did, then nothing. I'm back where I started.

All the baud rates and com ports all matched.

Com 3 and 19,200.

I changed Baud settings in both Railmaster and Device manager and still nothing.

Elite is V1.3 on Standard mode.

Can anyone suggest anything?

Andrew

[Andrew Rolland]

While trying to get things to work I have noticed other problems.

When I slide the loco throttle up and down, it does not move smoothly, it jumps as if it is trying to process the information and failing and it has to keep pausing, giving it the

jumping impression. Also while this is going on the clock stops and then only ticks on in multiples of 5 seconds, again as if it trying to process commands and is struggling.

Same applies when trying to change points. Click on the green and red dots

and the clock stops pauses for 5 seconds, then changes up by 5 seconds, stops again, then changes up by 5 seconds.

During all of the above, nothing happens on my layout.

Also trying to click on the toolbar at the top, the programme is not responding

to my clicking of the mouse on the About button or the settings button. Again this strikes me as a processing problem. Same thing going on with the clock. Stops for 5 seconds then advances for 5 seconds.

Giving up for tonight, that's now a grand total

of about 13 hours spent trying to get this to work.

[wiggy25]

Andrew I would try the following.

Clear your Windows Xp laptop of just about everything you don't need, you only need it to connect to the inter for activation of the software.

De-activate the Railmaster software on your WIndows 7 laptop

and install it on your Windows XP laptop and try running Railmaster via the old laptop and software.

See if that is stable and works ok, if it does I would that purely for Railmaster!
I've done the same thing only with a Samsung netbook running Windows

XP.
If it works OK it will prove that there is an issue with your Windows 7 set up, be it software, hardware or settings.

At the moment you just need to get a stable base to work from and prove everything is ok, may be an isdea to check the Elite

again if it's gone back to doing the same thing it may need the firmware re-installing again.

Cheers

Ian

[Tee1707818014]

I had a similar problem with the COM ports from my laptop running Vista not connecting to the elite, although it appeared to as there was no error messages. Nothing would move in Rail Master so I left the elite on & connected by the usb cable. I eventually

went into device manager found the com port R8214, right clicked the mouse on it scrolled down to uninstall it (do not reboot PC yet) then I did the same with the usb root hubs. Then I scanned for hardware changes & it found & reinstalled the com port & usb

hubs again. Rebooted the PC to complete installation & followed Hornby CS procedure for installing the drivers for R8214 Elite again, It recognised the elite port & now works fine for me. It is up to you if you want to try this on windows 7 as I said I only

tried this on my vista laptop.
best of luck
Tee

[Andrew Rolland]

Thanks Tee, that's worth a try.

Ian, I agree with you, I have my doubts that Railmaster actually works on Windows 7.
My Elite was able to re-boot using Windows XP, it failed enough times trying to re-boot on Windows 7 to convince

me that the Railmaster/Elite software just cannot cope with Windows 7.

Worked first time on Windows XP. I didn't have to phaff with Baud rates or assign COM ports. It was all correctly assigned by the Windows XP computer without interface from the

soft squidgy bit pressing the buttons on keyboard.

My wife isn't happy, as she bought me the Windows 7 laptop so I can use Railamster in the loft (where my train set will be), that was the whole point of buying the new up to date laptop. I've spent

far too long trying to get this thing to work so she isn't a happy bunny and that is never a good thing. Although she was impressed when I managed to get the points to work and sh then saw the whoe thing fall over when Iried a

Looks like I'll need

to use the old desktop PC for Railmaster. We are going to buy a new desktop PC (windows 7 no doubt) which will replace the Windows XP machine, which as you say Ian, I'll strip all the not needed stuff of it and use it for Railmaster in the loft.

Can

someone convince me that Railmaster works on Windows 7?

Will write to the e-mail address Hornby CS gave me yesterday listing all my findings/lack of operation.

[Brightstar]

Hi All,

If you are having problems getting Railmaster running on a Windows 7 Operating System, you couldtry this link on how to run programmmes in Windows compatiblity mode or inside a windows virtual PC.

I have not tried this solution, but

it seams to be a possible solution

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/10436/using-program-compatibility-mode-in-windows-7/

[Andrew Rolland]

Thanks Brightstar

I had thought about that, I have heard of that before but hadn't investigated it. I will try that out, got nowt to loose.

What is annoying is that Railamster says it is suitable for Windows 7.....I've yet to be convinced.