RailMaster/e-Link unable to find or make trains move.

[Mjimeyg]

Hi, I recently purchased the RailMaster and eLink bundle. I was able to install both and get the software to activate and find the eLink device.

 

(A word to anyone else who might have trouble activating the software: Turn off VPNs. My firewall was

 

off and I was running as administrator but it wasn't until I deactivated my VPN that it finally activated.)

 

Anyway, I have three trains, two I have put the decoder chip in myself and one is a DCC Fitted little LNER train. One of the chips I fitted is

 

brand new and never been used with anything but the eLink.

 

That said I get nothing when I add the train and try to get them to move. No lights, no movement no Barclaycard.

 

I have scoured the internet for any videos or how-to guides on building

 

a DCC set up from scratch to make sure I have all the parts I need. I can't find any videos showing people adding the trains to the software and yes, I have followed the manual forward and backwards.

 

If anyone has any idea about what I might be doing

 

wrong I would greatly appreciate it.

 

A bit of background information on me: I am fluent in computers. I can build them, program and make them miraculously repair themselves (usually when my family says it is broken, I walk up to it and bingo! It works.)

 

However...

 

I am a complete and utter novice when it comes to the RailMaster Software and the eLink. My previous experiences with DCC have started and ended with the Select.

 

Again, any help or ideas before I go bawling my eyes out to Hornby would be greatly appreciated.

[Yelrow]

hi, mjimevg, do you know you have to have a seperate small piece of track with power clip, and put wires in programming side of elink to read cvs, and then re- set,cos they will all be on no 3, as a default. There is more, but dont want to teach you to

 

suck eggs if you have already done this bit. Until you use programming track, they will never run. yelrow

[Mjimeyg]

yellow thanks for the response.

 

At this point I might need to be taught how to suck eggs!

 

I have set up the small programming track. But shouldn't at least one of the trains work if it is on the factory setting of three?

 

If not, could

 

you let me know how this should be done? When I put the train on the programming track I try to read the CVs but it just says there is an error reading.

 

I am honestly a novice when it comes to programming the trains, like I say, I have followed the

 

manual but with no luck.

[Yelrow]

greetings again, sorry about the eggs. Make sure you have put the 2 wires in the other terminals on elink,and that they are properly connected, eg programming ones, you will then be able to enter locos and read cvs. I would check the lner cv first, as

 

it may be there is a problem , god forbid with your fitting. If you go right back on this link, you will find all my problems, and forum solutions from people far more able than me. You will have to set all locos up with different numbers. There are videos

 

on utube that cover this under dcc, and elink, etc, but you will get far more by reading all my old stuff on forum, people like fishy, etc can do it in their sleep. Keep in touch, john

[96RAF]

OK M

Give this a go - take a large pin and poke it into the sharp end of the egg ..... sorry, couldn't resist it..

If your locos previously responded to the Select (you can always swap out the eLink and try to operate or re-set your locos with the

 

Select to re-prove things) then you have eliminated 2 problems - DCC and the locos.

The problem must be within RM and/or eLink.

Swap the eLink back into the loop and try RM again, making sure you specify the correct COM port for the eLink, then report

 

back the results to the forum.

RM produces a log file of events so you can open this from the RM folder using say Notepad and see what RM is telling you is happening. As a pc pro it should make sense.

You can also report the current situation back to

 

HRMS from within RM via the Help button, The app will pack and send the necessary files to RM for analysis. I have found them to be promptly responsive and most helpful.

[Yelrow]

RAF96 said:

OK M
Give this a go - take a large pin and poke it into the sharp end of the egg ..... sorry, couldn't resist it..
If your locos previously responded to the Select (you can always swap out the eLink and try to operate or

re-set your locos with the Select to re-prove things) then you have eliminated 2 problems - DCC and the locos.
The problem must be within RM and/or eLink.
Swap the eLink back into the loop and try RM again, making sure you specify the correct COM port

for the eLink, then report back the results to the forum.
RM produces a log file of events so you can open this from the RM folder using say Notepad and see what RM is telling you is happening. As a pc pro it should make sense.
You can also report the

current situation back to HRMS from within RM via the Help button, The app will pack and send the necessary files to RM for analysis. I have found them to be promptly responsive and most helpful.

[Yelrow]

RAF96 said:

OK M
Give this a go - take a large pin and poke it into the sharp end of the egg ..... sorry, couldn't resist it..
If your locos previously responded to the Select (you can always swap out the eLink and try to operate or

re-set your locos with the Select to re-prove things) then you have eliminated 2 problems - DCC and the locos.
The problem must be within RM and/or eLink.
Swap the eLink back into the loop and try RM again, making sure you specify the correct COM port

for the eLink, then report back the results to the forum.
RM produces a log file of events so you can open this from the RM folder using say Notepad and see what RM is telling you is happening. As a pc pro it should make sense.
You can also report the

current situation back to HRMS from within RM via the Help button, The app will pack and send the necessary files to RM for analysis. I have found them to be promptly responsive and most helpful.

[Yelrow]

hi, m, did you have dcc before, if like me its all new, look back on forum, but if you do as i suggeste, you can read your cvs. Your lner loco, should run without any of this, by entering it in the loco naming field in RM, the reason i mentioned the short

 

track, is if they had all worked, they would all have run at the same time, you have to re programme the other 2, and you might as well have cv for third one while your doing it, keep taking the tablets, i spent days on it upsetting god knows who in the meantime,

 

as i was convinced it was not my lack of understanding. Unfortunately, it was, report back yelrow

[Mjimeyg]

Thanks for all the help so far.

 

First of all, RAF96: I tried the pin but the egg shattered... I do not have steady hands unfortunately and got covered in egg... my cat seemed to like me a bit more though as a result.

 

Unfortunately I can't

 

use my Select as it is faulty (keeps blinking 12 and doesn't respond to any buttons). Hence the reason for my foray into the eLink.

 

I know that the eLink is found and recognised by the software because whilst I can't get a response out of the locos

 

I have managed to get it to tell me there was a short on the line. Other than that it can't seem to do anything with the trains.

 

yelrow (And I apologise for the misspelling of your handle earlier, autocorrect got in the way) I have tried each train

 

on the programming track and when I tell it to read the cvs it just says "Error... repeating" and finally "Unobtainable".

 

I also tried putting in locos in the RM software for ids 1 through 10 and trying them on the main track and still nothing.

 

One

 

thing did change when I just rebooted the computer and eLink and that is it updated the firmware to 1.4v... alas it did not improve anything.

 

My two self chipped trains use the standard Hornby chip, not the sapphire. One of the YouTube videos said that

 

you can't read the cvs with the RM software off the standard chip, is that true?

 

I had a look at the logs but there was nothing there that would explain a lack of communication between the eLink and train. At the very least there was plenty of evidence

 

that the computer and eLink are good friends now and have a healthy relationship.

 

(Does the egg have to be in its shell?)

[Mjimeyg]

A hint of progress!

 

I managed to read the cvs off one of my standard self-chipped locos. So I guess it is possible.

 

Let me give you a run down of what I changed as I don't have it all working... just reading the cvs.

 

I have the following

 

pieces of track to connect to the eLink:

 

R8206 Power Track(brown knobs): Nothing happened when connected to either track sockets or programming.

 

R8241 Digital Power Track (green knobs): Nothing happened when connected

 

to either track sockets or programming.

 

Standard track with attached R602 Power connecting clip(annoying little black clip with no means of securing the cable into the slots): Managed to read the cvs off my standard hornby self-chipped

 

loco but unable to make it move.

 

No eggs involved yet.

[Yelrow]

yelrow, hi, the only power connection you must use is R8241, nothing else.. Make a small track, eg, this rail plus 2 more straights. Make sure you put wires into sockets marked A andB on programming side of elink, and same on track, , they must be right,.

 

Once this is set up, not connected in any way to main track, you should be able to read cvs. In odd case you have to apply a little pressure to loco, to make it read, but that normally applies to diesels. Once you have read and recorded, cvs, you can remake

 

your track, put wires back on normal side of elink, and then enter locos on loco programme. Most of them are there, but if not, you will have to enter them. Your lner loco, should work, once entered, cos its 03, and new. Back to sucking eggs, nothing moves

 

on programming track, only when on main circuit. Let me know how you get on, i am surprised, nobody else is chipping with advice, cos their all much better than me at it, john

[Mjimeyg]

Well this is truly weird then as I have now got two of my trains (one of the self-chipped and the LNER) programmed and running using the little black clips.

 

I read your last post yelrow and tried the green digital track and still couldn't read the

 

cvs from the programming track.

 

I have a longish programming track as I have a Virgin Pendolino and it won't fit on the little digital track on its own.

 

I think this is solved for now just with a bit of mystery as to why I can't use the green

 

digital track.

 

Thanks to you all for your help and input though!

[Fishmanoz]

If you are having trouble with particular connections to the track, check that you have your wires plugged firmly into the connections at the track end at the eLink. It shouldn't be too hard to see if you have done this correctly. Only use one connection

 

to each of your track or the programming track at a time. You can leave both track and programming track attached at the same time as long as they are completely separate. If you don't have to keep swapping wires that should help you make sure you have secure

 

connections but you'll need 2 wires.

 

It is easy to convert your non-DCC power track for DC use. Go into RM Help, Latest News and scroll down until you see the instructions for doing it (some incorrect tracks were supplied with the Western Master set,

 

hence the instructions here). As you can see, no problem removing the offending capacitor.

 

Now place each of your locos on the programming track in turn. You should be able to read supported CVs (not many supported by the 8249 but you can read the

 

ones that are). Once you can read CVs, you should also be able to write them and, in particular you should change each loco ID to something other then 3 (that way, 03 is available to run the next new one you get or, in your case, run those you have yet to

 

reprogram. Make sure you follow all the instructions in the manual re setting up a loco in the Setup Window, changing its ID, then actually writing the changed ID to the decoder. Some seem to forget that last Write process, but it is all clear in the manual

 

when you read all the way through the setup instructions.

 

Back on the main track, you can't run more then one loco still set to 03 at a time, but you should be able to run the ones you've changed, plus one only on 03, all at once.

 

Let us know

 

how you get on with this process.

[Mjimeyg]

All trains are now working. I clipped the capacitor off but it really doesn't explain why the green digital power track didn't work. I took the cover off of that and there was no capacitor there.

 

My train IDs are set to 1, 2 and 4 leaving 3 available

 

for any new train to be programmed.

 

I was also able to read all the cvs.

 

The problem seems to have been the problem with the power track.

[Yelrow]

yelrow here, well done, just remember how you did it,and when my next loco arrives, i will contact you, as i am sure i am going to need help changing ID, as that will be 3 ,and i have slept since i did the last ones. My wife told me to write it all down,

 

but still.

[Fishmanoz]

Sounds like your digital power track has a broken connection somewhere. You can check for continuity between connection points and rails with a multimeter or just a battery, globe and a couple of wires. Shouldn't be too hard to find and fix.