E-Link Disappointment

[Mal_R]

I have to admit to being disappointed with my e-link - I purchased in February (within the Majestic set) and since then had issues with connection between elink and the PC, taking multiple reboots etc to finally connect each time I used it. So I purchased the 4 amp transformer as I read that may solve the issue but it didnt. Now the elink has finally given up for good with no power being delivered to the track at all. I wonder if people have had the same problem as me whereby it takes around 20 to 30 minutes every operating session to get a connections between elink and PC. As I feel I will now give in with elink and the fortune I have spend on it and look for the simpler DCC controller. Sorry if this sounds like a rant but just frustrated and interested how many other people has suffered similar to me.

I have contacted hornby via their website but after receiving the automated message I have heard nothing from them.

By the way thanks for all the support you forum guys have given in the past.

[RB51]

Thats a shame Mal as many others seem to have it working just fine. I suggest you contact Hornby again from within Rail Master (do you know how to do that?) as this sends some operating data with the e-mail and helps them to diagnose the problems. I have to say its rare for them to fail and even rarer for them to ignore. R-

[Mal_R]

Thanks Roger for your response. The railmaster connection is the main problem but I think this is from the E-link system however as you suggest I will raise a case via Railmaster and see if I fair any better. I notice you are on elite, would you consider this a better system than E-Link.

[RB51]

I struggled to get E-link to stay in contact with the PC so put it in storage until such times as I had more patience. I think my issues were more to do with W8.1 than anything else. With the Elite all is superb, and you have two extra control knobs. Cant fault it but it's not cheap. R-

[Yelrow]

MAL R, There have been very few problems with the elinc, i have same set and am very happy. The usual problem, is the antivirus, McAffie, being the major, culprit. I have Norton, which has been great. The quickest way to solve your problem, is pick up the phone , and talk, only to Mark Lodge, Hornby, Customer Service Manager, on, 01843 233 525. You could not have a more helpful chap. He will help you set up, or replace elink, if faulty. He can also arrange for hornby to take over your machine, remotely, and sort. Your 4 amp transformer, is money well spent, as for points, etc, you will need it anyway. Have you updated to version 1.58, as most, if not all, connection problems, were solved in the 1.57 update. Talk it through with mark, he always return your call, and a more dedicated man, i have yet to find. You will probably have to leave your no, for call back, but he works excessive hours, and will sort it. Let maknow how you get on. john

[Mal_R]

Thanks guys and whatever we think of Hornby, good or bad, the forum is full of helpful stuff from people who have been through the same thing. I will try to phone Mark. I have upgraded to 1.58 and to be fair it only took two reboots to connect when I last tried it, however my problem I think it is a little more serious but again one that Mark may be able to solve.

 

Thanks once again.

[Yelrow]

MAL R The elite, is a much earlier controller, and was all that was available prior to elink. Those who have it, again, did so beforehand, and will not have a word said against it, probably, rightly so, but its very expensive. Are you running windows 8, as that appears to be the main stumbling block, along with the anti virus. Elink works best of all, for some reason on xp, and several people have picked up a laptop, from ebay, as a dedicated machine. I would not touch windows 8, with a bargepole, and am very happy with windows 7. Let us know what mark comes up with. I have never known him fail. john

[Mal_R]

Yelrow, you are right and as part of my initial remedation strategy (that sounds good) I now use a dedicated windows 7 and have tried different anti virus/ and even to the point of having anti virus disabled completely. To make sure it is not at risk no other software or data is stored on this machine. Whilst elite may be expensive in the long run seems to be cheaper than the money spent on dedicated PC, new 4A supply, etc.

[Yelrow]

MAL R, 4 amp supply, £30, Laptop, off ebay, £75, elink/ Railmaster £85. total £190, still cheaper than Elite. Add to that the fact that elink/ rm in majestic set, about £60, saving to date, about £80, and think of all the pleasure you have had, as opposed to sitting, and moving 2 plastic knobs, to and through. You are in my view, too far down the elink route to back out now. Leave it to Mark. john

[Mal_R]

You are right John, although for the record i didnt get a laptop from ebay, but I could have done I suppose. You are right I do feel too far down to change and maybe it will be all sorted once Hornby get back to me. it may be one of those tiny percentage of units that has a fault. I suppose I get frustrated because I spend all days with computers and dont want to spend another so long before I can get a train running.

To John and everyone else who has commented, thanks guys and I will update once I get some feedback from Hornby and no doubt at that point I will be praising the company to the high heavens.

[westernwill]

Mal-R I also had a lot of problems keeping the connection between PC and Elink going. I had a new Dell PC on Windows 8.1. Hornby logged in to my PC and after trying several things out came to the conclusion that the Dell PC has the same problem they have encountered with new Lenovo PC's. There is something wrong with the Dell/Lenovo USB sub-system that causes it to fail with certain devices. One solution which worked on a Lenovo was to downgrade to Win 7 and that worked fine.

 

I have an older Dell laptop running Vista so I moved RM to that and have experienced no problems at all. It fires up everytime.

 

I don't know what PC you have but Hornby RM support can look at it and see if you have the same problem as me.

 

Good Luck and persevere. Once you get it going RM is a very good system.

[MetmanUK]

@mal R

 

Have you tried a different USB cable ?

[RDS]

@Mal_R

There are many satisifed elink users on the forum and as has been said earlier in this thread, the support from Hornby RailMaster Support has been superb for anyone that did suffer problems.

I myself prefer the Elite, in conjunction with RailMaster but that is because I do not want to always control my layout using a computer.

[gilbo2]

I fall firmly into the "satisfied elink" camp, in fact I gave up with my elite as I found its manual controls very sluggish. The elink with its faster processor is my personal recommendation every time :-)

 

 

 

I also use it with a new Lenovo laptop (2pro) without problems, other than the software bugs we all get ;-)

 

 

 

Initial setup can be frustrating but Hornby and this forum will usually get things working for you.

[idlemarvel]

I am using eLink with a "new" Lenovo Flex touch screen laptop with Windows 8.1 and eLink (and RM) work fine.

 

I say "new" because it is new to me but an old model (now Flex 2) going cheap with John Lewis. £200 for a new touch screen laptop can't be bad (albeit quite a small 10.1" screen).

[Mal_R]

It has been interesting reading all of your replies. I will report that Mark struck again and with the usual level of support my system is back up and running. To update you with the problem, it seems that during the upgrade to v1.58 of Railmaster some settings had mysteriously changed and with Mark's help they have now been reset and it is all working. I have started up a few times over the weekend and still have the occasional problem of no connectivity without rebooting everything but at least over the weekend it has taken one reboot and not 30 minutes of rebooting as before. Perhaps the upgrades are getting the system to a good standard and look forward to more.

So to close this off, I want to add a thanks to Mark (of course) but also you guys in the forum who deliver a good broad base of knowledge.

[AlanBuzz]

  Mal,  Are you running the most up to date versions of Railmaster and Elink firmware?  I had no end of issues with Elink not wanting to connect when I first bought it, and despite a good deal of help from Hornby it was always a bit flakey taking one or two attempts on many occasions.  However since the Railmaster software upgrade it links first time every time, and is behaving impecably.