Elink ... unable to open the desigated com port

[vicki_rodgers]

I have just bought the railmaster and elink majestic kit, I have got railmaster installed and updated .. plugged in the elink and checked the com port and settings in device manager ... gone into railmaster and checked that they are the same settings and the com port is the right one.

 

When I go into railmaster i get the error that it is unable to open the designated com port.

 

 

Any Ideas ... ive been trying for hours and im getting frustrated.

 

Thanks

 

Vicki

[Yelrow]

Vicky, hi, welcome to the forum, although it is not the best time, due to new launch. I have exactly same set, great package, and struggled as you have. If you really cannot do it, ring margate, and their expert, Mark Lodge, a brilliant guy, will do it with you. Howver before then, there are things to try. Are you certain your anti virus is not stopping it. , Next there is a sequence of connecting. Turn everything off, unplug, replug, turn on your elink, with usb connectd. Then turn on your laptop. Does it work. If not, remove usb from laptop, wait 5 secs, reconnect. Now does it work. If still a problem, power down elink, then power up. There is a lot of talk about better usb leads, but the one you have is ok. There is a lot of talk, to which i subscribe to changing to 4 amp transformer, which you will need anyway, if you are going to electrify points. Once i fitted a 4 amp transformer, all my connection problems, stopped, but horngy, do not agree, there is a need.If the forum was back to normal, you would see that almost everybody who changed to a 4 amp transformer, had no further problem. Let me know how you get on. If by  tomorrow you are still stuck, talk  To MARK LODGE. They will take your number, and he will ring you back, there is nobody better, john

[Fishmanoz]

John, you seem to have missed one very recent development before the old forum site closed - it may not be that eLink needs a 4 Amp transformer, rather the 1 Amps they have been supplying are faulty. 

So Vicki, do ring HCC as John suggests, but before you do that, I suggest you open the Help window of RM and email RM Support from there. Before you do, make sure you are running RM as administrator and that your virus protection is not blocking you. Check the PDF on your desktop on virus protection, and on another thread here, I earlier today went right through basic setup for someone including making sure about running as administrator. Check these and tell RM Support what you have done when you email as these are always the first 2 questions they ask. 

[Yelrow]

Fishy, hi, was not that the time they removed the post, due to its controversial nature , all of us who moved to 4 amp, with one exception, achieved a better result, and,i do not remember hornby admitting, faulty transformers were a possibility.  There is, i belive a difference in setting up elink, as opposed to Elite, i think its a bit more fiddly, as we hardly had any post about elite set up problems, whereas we have had a lot of postings for elink. I do remember hornby saying there was an order of wiring up , as i explained in my reply, john

[Fishmanoz]

Another forum glitch strikes again!  That was me posted the above but it comes up anonymous as I was logged out during the time it took me to compile my reply. 

[roeland_bodart]

Hi,

 

this is my first post on the forum and the first time I'm trying to build a DCC system. I puchased a new elink and have been trying for hours and hours to get it running. My laptop runs windows 8.1

So far:

- I did (or I think) everyting by the book and also had to swith off the automatic windows 8.1 driver update as it continioulsy changed the Hornby driver to an ordinary USB driver

Very frustrating so far as I only managed to get my second hand "City of Coventry" operational a hand full of times. At present the there's a message "unable to handshake..." and the DCC decoder in the train is stuck at full sound.

 

Any advise regarding a possible next step would be welcome.

 

Thanks

 

Roeland

 

[Yelrow]

Roeland, high, welcome to the forum. There are many things you could try, but given the situation, Ring hornby at 01843 233525, ask to speak with mark Lodge. He will talk you through the whole set up. He is brilliant, you may have to leave your number, but he WILL ring back. Once he has set it up with you, should be fine. I could solve the elink thing, but know nothing about windows 8,  Let us know how you get on with Mark, john. ps, your sound decoder, take it off the track, and leave it. that normally stops it, until you can get back in

[HornbyRailMasterSupport]

You must allow Windows to download its own driver on Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 as it states in the PDF guides.  It will be a "Serial port" driver.

[roeland_bodart]

Thanks - so far it is working - even reading the CV's

[roeland_bodart]

10 minitus it worked - then lost contact with the DCC controler?

[Yelrow]

Roeland, hi, hornby support saved you the phone call. Elinks are a tad temperemental, but there is a proceedure for  Re connecting, which normally works. Just power it down, wait 8-10 secs, power back up. Its a great system. Adjust your computer to stop it going to sleep, and should be fine, john

[HornbyRailMasterSupport]

The eLink is not temperamental.  Like most USB devices it requires the correct driver to be installed for the operating system in use.  Also, you should allow a few seconds when connecting the eLink (as with any USB device) for Windows to recognise its presence before running RailMaster.  You should also ensure that the eLink is connected directly to a USB port on the PC and not through a USB hub.  Most computers that are set to go to sleep will of course shut down communications with their USB ports, which means that the USB device (especially those using virtual serial ports, like the eLink) will be disconnected.

RailMaster also sends and receives a large amount of data to and from the DCC controller so it is best to use a short, high quality USB cable.  The USB cable supplied will do the job in most cases, however if there is any elecromagnetic interference in the immediate area you should use a shielded USB cable.

[Yelrow]

Hornby Railmaster Support, If you read my Totally Commited post you will see enormous praise given for taking over my machine and making various adjustments. However, it  still does not connect first time, every time, despite being 95% better. I have your usb cable, and am adhering totally to instructions., no usb hub.  We all accept its a great product, but i am afraid it is a bit temperamental. If it was not, it would not be necessary to have all these posts. I have never seen a post on Elite not connecting.  My machine is in  an upstairs area, with no electromagnet interference, right in the middle of rural france. Please dont think i am being critical, just stating the facts. We only pass on our experience of the product to try to help others, and speak as we find .If it connected first time,every time, we would say so. john

[Yelrow]

I did reply fully to Railmaster support, which many of you saw, before it was moderated, similar to Fishys comments before.. Clearly despite known faults, while praise is acceptable, of a product, criticism, even when constuctive, is not. I find this worrying, as the number of posts are growing daily, proving, something is amiss, john

[gilbo2]

Sorry HRMS, but I do associate with John's post. The initialisation routine between RailMaster and eLink is only 80% reliable in my experience and only 5% reliable on USB3. HOWEVER, once past the initialisation routine RailMaster and eLink is a fantastic reliable product and the programming / automation side of it is jaw dropping for the people who witness the results!

So, when people have took the time to read the manual, updated all necessary drivers, correctly configured the drivers, ensured using the supplied USB lead (which must be right?!) etc, please please please don't be so defensive and listen to the feedback you are getting from the field. Personally I do so hope that behind the scenes you are working on improved initialisation coding to address the issues being raised as it does currently spoil the user experience of an amazing product.

[gilbo2]

I must admit that I have not seen this problem from my end as elink is usually good once initialised but it obviously is on your setup. So to try and offer some support I wonder if you have a bad USB connection. I have known the usb ports become intermittent due to collecting dust, try to clean them with suction from a vacume cleaner. You know if this is your problem as you only have to touch the USB plug slightly and you will get a connection error from the USB device.

[Yelrow]

Dgilbert2, hi, thanks for your comments, however, my post was removed, when i said Elink was 95% right, be interesting to see how long they leave yours, as you have reduced it to 80%, and 5% on USB3. I as you raved over it, once connected, but they will take no adverse comments, which is a shame, as we are only trying to help, john

[Fishmanoz]

I think you might find the criticism filter will allow valid comment now, these last 2 posts having been there more than half a day?

[Eurostar9119]

Hello I'm new to this

I have an Elink and Railmaster set (Western Master Train Set) and Somehow the USB it com port setting are wrong. My friend is sorting this out and hoping it worked on my End to End layout. For some reason the train did not move

 

Thank you

[Yelrow]

Eurostar 9119, Hi, and welcome to the forum. If you are stuck, please explain what you have done so far, and what your problem is. There are several of us with Elink set up, who will be able to set you straight, john

[Fishmanoz]

Hi Eurostar, as you haven't told us any detail, let me start quickly from scratch. 

First, when asking a new question, best to start a new thread rather than jumping on the end of another, but let's continue anyway. 

Have you installed RM as administrator and has it upgraded itself with your permission to the latest v1.55?

Are you sure your virus protection is not blocking the program?

Have you checked the com port number using Device Manager to ensure it is the same number as in RM Setup?

Give us some answers to those and you will be well on the way. 

Also, you can get good and fast help by emailing RM Support from within the Help window of RM. If you still have problems, try it.  And tell them the answers to the questions I asked above as they will be the first ones they ask. 

[Greybags]

Hi.. 

I was the one who was supposed to recieve a new 1A and 4A supply to test for them, and return my old 1A supply when I recieved the new.. 

In the end I was just sent a new 4A supply and I also treated myself to a quality USB lead.. Since using the 4A unit I have had no connection or operational problems at all. Connects 1st time everytime with no drop out at all. As a personal experiment, I connected using the old 1A unit with the better USB cable, and all the problems reappeared.

Evidently there is some problem with some of the 1A supplies.

I did post all the updates  and info about this on the old forum, but they seem to keep dissapearing, so gave up in the end.