Cobalt Digital with Elink and Railmaster

[HooliganHedgehog]

Sorry, start again. If I had say a Select unit with Hornby Points and Decoders, how would I throw a set of points ?

[Fishmanoz]

You program the accessory decoder with an address in the Select's range for accessory decoders, starting st 61 and go from there.

 

If you mean you don't know how to operate the Select to do this, then go to Downloads here and grab the Select manual

 

and follow the instructions.

[Fishmanoz]

Also, given this thread is not about Select, not about Hornby accessory decodes, not about Hornby point motors, and is about using RM which cannot operate with Select, you would probably find more people to answer your question if you had started a new

 

thread with a title describing your problem.

 

And I'm not trying to be critical here, just suggesting a better way of getting the answer to your problem.

[Bulleidboy]

I don't think we are any closer to sorting this problem - of those who have got the Cobalt Digital to work with the Elite - they all appear to have a different formula. The one thing that I think has been agreed is that Railcom is OFF when the Elites is

 

in default setting - it is also possible to switch Railcom ON manually with v1.41. Unless my Cobalt Digital is faulty, it does not work following the published instructions. I'll hold off buying more until this problem is rectified.

[HooliganHedgehog]

Hi Bulleidboy. I have just read back through a few posts and see that you tried numbering your points starting 61 as you would if using Hornby Decoders. You can call them whatever you need to. Mine start from 1, not that it matters, other than it is fewer

 

key presses if operating directly from Elite. I would strongly recommend checking that the motor is not stalled, by tapping it firmly, as in a stalled condition you will get no response whatsoever.

[Bulleidboy]

I'll give it a go tomorrow. Thanks

[Fishmanoz]

61 is a hangover from Select where it is the accessory starting address.

 

And turning RailCom on is only possible in a loco decoder, not in the unit itself.

 

Seems to me there are enough successes noted that others can emulate?

[Bulleidboy]

IT WORKS!! but not quite as it should, but it does work. I read everything again, and renumbered the point address as No.1. (I don't think that was too important but I did it) and followed the correct procedure. I can only operate the Cobalt by using both

 

control knobs on the Elite - one for left and two for right. Unless this is a change in one of the upgrades, I've just watched the Hornby YouTube video for changing points with the Elite, normally only one Control knob is used. I turned it all off - switched

 

it back on, and it still works. So - happier than I was. Any comments with regards to using both control knobs would be apprciated - I can live with it.

[Bulleidboy]

Hi Fishy,

 

When I said you can switch Railcom off or on, I do understand your comment, but you can with your Elite (not connected to the layout), reach the point where "Railcom" is displayed on screen, and by the push of a button you can either turn

 

it off or on. I assume if turned off it may affect how your loco decoder functions?

[Fishmanoz]

Yes, that's what it does. If you look at your Menu Guide on pp8-9 of the manual, you can see it is one of the functions under Configuration of a particular loco address.

 

If you want to control something that needs Rsilcom, you first have to switch

 

on the feature. An example is you need Rsilcom on to use the Sapphire's fuel function.

 

And turning it on in the decoder has nothing to do with turning it on in the controller. RM Support tells us that only happens when something makes a RailCom call,

 

and it happens automatically. However, Ricard at DCC Concepts still insists the default is on in latest Elite firmware version, hence the problem with programming Cobalt.

 

I suspect this is only going to be resolved if Richard and RM Support actually

 

talk to each other. Each tell me that what they are doing is NMRA compliant, and what the other is doing potentially isn't.

[96RAF]

[reply]bulleidboy said:

I can only operate the Cobalt by using both control knobs on the Elite - one for left and two for right. Unless this is a change in one of the upgrades, I've just watched the Hornby YouTube video for changing points with the

 

Elite, normally only one Control knob is used. /reply]

Rev 1.41 to the Elite introduced left button for left and right button for right points selection - this to enable a re-hit if a point motor was sticky - all this is covered in the Elite manual update

 

included with the v1.41 download.

I presume this is also convenient for RM software to double send an instruction for reliable point operation.

[Bulleidboy]

Hi RAFHAAA9th

Thanks for confirming that. I have downloaded a hard copy of the latest v1.41 manual, but have not read it yet. This does actually appear to be a more commonsense way of changing the points. I'm more relieved that the Cobalt worked, I

 

was getting a little concerned from the problems many seemed to be having, and I was only using the basic wiring, compared to some set-ups used by others.

[Wildebeeste]

At last I too have managed to get my cobalt point motor to work reliably and repeatably

I put the motor into 'SET' mode and connected it to the Track outputs on the Elite. I then activated it as detailed in the V1.41 manual. I then put the motor back

 

to run mode and hey presto it works. I have tried this many times before without success, but this time I took the advice of another post somewhere on these forums and added a 150 ohm resistor between the Track output and the motor. At 20mA this will drop

 

the voltage by 3V and the motor seems to like that a lot better. It is now slower and quieter and the servo no longer over drives.

[Bulleidboy]

Wildebeeste said:

At last I too have managed to get my cobalt point motor to work reliably and repeatably
I put the motor into 'SET' mode and connected it to the Track outputs on the Elite. I then activated it as detailed in the V1.41

manual. I then put the motor back to run mode and hey presto it works. I have tried this many times before without success, but this time I took the advice of another post somewhere on these forums and added a 150 ohm resistor between the Track output and

the motor. At 20mA this will drop the voltage by 3V and the motor seems to like that a lot better. It is now slower and quieter and the servo no longer over drives.

Not being an electrician, do you just buy a 150 ohm resistor (one or two?) from

Maplins, and solder it between the droppers from your bus, and the power connections on the Cobalt?

[HooliganHedgehog]

Yes Bulleidboy, that's all I did .... but I used 200 ohm resistors as recommended by DCC Concepts. I had to ask at Maplins for the resistors as (at our local branch at least)they do not have them on display. You need one per motor and can be placed in

 

either of the wires and it doesn't matter which way round the resistors are.

[Wildebeeste]

Take a wire from track A and connect it to one end of the 150 ohm resistor, then connect a wire from the other end of the resistor and connect it to the power terminal on the motor. Connect track B to the DCC track terminal on the motor. That is how I

 

tested it out, but if you have several motors you need to connect them in the same way, but you only need one resistor. Connect each motor power terminal to the same end of the resistor as the first one. This solution assumes that you can only change one point

 

at a time.

[Wildebeeste]

Take a wire from track A and connect it to one end of the 150 ohm resistor, then connect a wire from the other end of the resistor and connect it to the power terminal on the motor. Connect track B to the DCC track terminal on the motor. That is how I

 

tested it out, but if you have several motors you need to connect them in the same way, but you only need one resistor. Connect each motor power terminal to the same end of the resistor as the first one. This solution assumes that you can only change one point

 

at a time.

[Bulleidboy]

All is now clear - many thanks to you all. Wildebeeste, you say this solution assumes that you can only change one point at a time - surely if two points are given the same code they will both change at the same time?

[Fishmanoz]

The reason that WB says one at a time is that, with the use of just one resistor, you change the operating conditions when you go to change 2 or more motors at the same time. For a start, changing 2 at once means double the voltage drop across the resistor

 

with double the current running through it. That leaves less volts to operate the Cobalts. And you may also exceed the power rating of the resistor with double the current, leading to it burning out.

 

Therefore only use the common resistor solution

 

if you will never want to throw any of the points in the arrangement together. Otherwise use individual resistors to each point and avoid the problem.

[Bulleidboy]

Fishmanoz said:

The reason that WB says one at a time is that, with the use of just one resistor, you change the operating conditions when you go to change 2 or more motors at the same time. For a start, changing 2 at once means double the

voltage drop across the resistor with double the current running through it. That leaves less volts to operate the Cobalts. And you may also exceed the power rating of the resistor with double the current, leading to it burning out.

Therefore only

use the common resistor solution if you will never want to throw any of the points in the arrangement together. Otherwise use individual resistors to each point and avoid the problem.

So even if two points were totally isolated from one another,

but with the same operating code number, it would be best to leave the two resistors (one for each Cobalt) out of the wiring completely?

[Bulleidboy]

Sorry, I had assumed you wired a resistor into every point motor - not one being common to all point motors - which now makes your answer about two motors operating at once possibly causing some form of overload - clear.

[Paul_and_Matt]

Fishmanoz said:

Hi P and M, please note you are looking at the info on Cobalt with Rm and eLink here. Try the DCC thread where Cobalt and Elite are covered, including solutions people say work.

Great thanks for that Fishmanoz-

will have a look in that forum. We're not using RM or Elink.

[Paul_and_Matt]

Hi All

 

Just to let you know what happened to us in the end. We just couldn't get the Cobalt motor to work at all with the Elite, even after DCC Concepts very nicely sent us a new unit and talked us through some solutions. Next option was a Traintronics

 

TT300 - worked like a dream first time out of the box. That's where we're headed now.

 

Thanks all - may your trains run smoothly and your track stay clean...

[Fishmanoz]

Hi P and M, did you program it with a loco address as is indicated in the documentation, then address it as one of your locos once programmed in order to operate it?

 

It would be good to know for some on here as I have no idea how you might then

 

be able to operate it using Railmaster if that is the case and the RM users on here will want to know.

[MatthewCarty]

Hi all,

I have only just got a Cobalt digital and run Elink and Railmaster. Although some people seem to have managed to get it to work with the elite has anyone got it working with Elink? If so, how did you do it?

 

Thanks for any help