New to DCC having issues with Elink

[Photega]

Hi All
I am returning to Railway modelling after a 25+ year break and keen to get into DCC as such I have bought an elink system

I managed to get the system up and run as admin have got it to recognise the controller on com port 5 only doesn't seem to like changing this. but have fitted a chip to a bachmann class 08 which is dcc ready used the standard 4 function Hornby chip as the bachmann one doesn't work but I just cannot get it to setup and control the loco.
the loco has been tested on DC and works fine but need some idiots guide type advice on how to use elink to program and get the loco working.

Thanks in advance for all help and support 

[St1ngr4y]

Hi,

Welcome to the Forum. You haven't mentioned Railmaster. Have you successfully installed Railmaster software on your pc, and allowed it to download the latest version (1.58).

Ray

[Photega]

Hi,

Welcome to the Forum. You haven't mentioned Railmaster. Have you successfully installed Railmaster software on your pc, and allowed it to download the latest version (1.58).

Ray

 

Sorry Ray, Yes have installed Railmaster and updated successfully to 1.58. I am using a laptop running Windows 7 64 bit, but if necessary have access to several machines (joys of being a computer engineer)

[St1ngr4y]

Sorry Ray, Yes have installed Railmaster and updated successfully to 1.58. I am using a laptop running Windows 7 64 bit, but if necessary have access to several machines (joys of being a computer engineer)

Have you set up a programming track and connected it to the Elink? Have you set up your loco in Railmaster?

By the way, with Elink you have to do everything through Railmaster.

Ray

[Photega]

Hi Ray

Yes I tried setting up using a piece of straight track, have connected it to both the Prog and Track outputs on the elink neither seem to recognise it is there.Maybe I need a step by step guide to the process of setting up and then getting a loco working. I cannot find one on the net  :(p.s: I have just taken the chip out of the loco and it still runs fine under DC. 

[Yelrow]

Photeag, idiots guide, herewith. Do as ray says, place loco on prog track, click on list of locos. Then click on blue, exclamation  type blue emblem at bottom, for RM to read CV. When its finished, substitute 08, if thats your number into CV1, then click sqare type box at bottom, for it to write to loco. When thats done, enter your 08 no in box showing loco inlst, set cruising speed, shunting speed, type, branch, express, whatever. gove loco a name. Click green tick, and you are done. Loco will then appesr on your screen in big box on RH side. That is how i do mine, with elink. Any thing you dont follow, ask. john

[Graskie]

You shouldn't connect both the programming and running wires to your piece of track at the same time, Photega, if that's what you mean.

[Photega]

No not at the same time, just tried both different outputs to see if I could make it work.

[Yelrow]

Photega, if you follow my  setup, you will be running it within 5 mins. provided your chip fitting was ok, says he with fingers crossed. john

[Photega]

Hi Yelrow where is that setup listed?? Thanks

[Yelrow]

Its posted  5 posts ago 12. 29, idiots guide,  thats how i was taught. john

[Photega]

Photeag, idiots guide, herewith. Do as ray says, place loco on prog track, click on list of locos. Then click on blue, exclamation  type blue emblem at bottom, for RM to read CV. When its finished, substitute 08, if thats your number into CV1, then click sqare type box at bottom, for it to write to loco. When thats done, enter your 08 no in box showing loco inlst, set cruising speed, shunting speed, type, branch, express, whatever. gove loco a name. Click green tick, and you are done. Loco will then appesr on your screen in big box on RH side. That is how i do mine, with elink. Any thing you dont follow, ask. john

Thanks for that, don't know why I missed it first time round. However I am still trying to get my head around the naming and numbering bit. I am told the chip comes set as 003 so I put that in as ID, I assume I can change that later as being a simple kind I will probably like to number it 08.

So I I then click the blue emblem at the bottom and it correctly seems to ID the chip and starts writing away, initial shock when it says this will take 59 mins 30 secs however it didn't puts a whole lot of data into the various CV's but when finished I click the green tick and it says by not specifying a loco the CV's read will not be saved to database. {confused} obviously from the above I must be missing something but cannot see what that is.  

[Photega]

Right think I have the name fault issue sorted but after doing that and everything seeming to say it is done the loco still doesn't go anywhere when I open the throttle! :(

[Photega]

Maybe a daft question now, but after doing the programming connected to the prog connections on the elink, do I have to connect to the track connections before I can get the loco to move?

[Yelrow]

No, no,   if this is the only loco you have, it could stay at 03, but all locos/ chips come at 03, so you need to change it. Lets go back a step.It saiys it will take ages to read, but it does not, you can alter that later, but for now. You understand how to read chip, let it read it. When it stops reading, change CV! to 08. ok, now cliick on square box at bottom left, rectangle, with a smaller one inside it.NOT GREEN TICK. Having clicked on square green box, it writes new cv to no 1, and one or 2 others are added. When it finishes, put 08   in DCC ID  box where locos are, add cruising speed, shunting speed type, if it has a light, go to functions and click lights on in func 0, and cab lights in func 1, then click green ticl, and  x (come out ).. Hope you follow this, it is in manual, but......... WRITE IT ALL DOWN YOURSELF,  for next time. I did not, and forgot it, now have it all to hand. You should not have anything on no 03. Provided you have done this ok, loco should appear in the big rhand box. BEFORE YOU EXIT, AFTER SPEED ETC, GIVE LOCO A NAME. YOU WILL NEED TO TYPE IT IN, AS BACHMANN ARE NOT IN MEMORY. let me know how it goes. john

[Yelrow]

Hi, before loco will move wires must be in Track holes in Elink, and connected to the track. It does not run on prog track. come back. john

[Photega]

Many thanks John. took a bit of working out but finally it runs!!!!! Think I may need to modify the acceleration etc. as is very slow, but that is for another day, for now just happy I got something to run. Will definitely have to write this all down and get onto the more interesting stuff. :)

[Yelrow]

Photega, great, have you looked at the amazon loco sale. john

[Photega]

No not yet, will have a look later though to be honest have bought a few locos lately, need to get on with getting a permanent layout built. Cheers Stuart

[CornishJim]

Best thing to do is take it back to where you got it from and choose another system! Lol that's what I'm gonna do!

 

 

 

[Yelrow]

Cornish Jim, For the price, there is no better system, carefully reading the manual, and a tad of patience, is all that is required. Most of us, me included, despite hornby asking us to fully read the manual, before we started, refused to do so, thinking we knew better.  Now, those who persevered, and there are a lot, are extremely happy with this very competively priced system, and are  more tolerant, as a result. john

[Photega]

Well said John. It does take patience and you are right I hadn't read all the instructions, though must admit the layout of the pdf manual is a tad confusing as the section labelled setting up loco's has to also be read with a later chapter on programming CV's before you understand and even then it isn't as straight forward as your own idiot proof instructions. Thanks Stuart

[westernwill]

John and Stuart, I fully agree with both of you.

I am one of those sad people that always read the manual before using something for the first time. Even so I had a lot of problems getting RM to work, which in the end HRMS diagnosed as a PC hardware problem. New PC,no problems whatsoever, The manual is not too bad but as stuart says it is not really laid out in a logical fashion. What someone needs to do is create an "Idiots Guide to Railmaster". I have one for Windows 8.1 and its great.

My next problem is getting points set up, I have managed to get one going, and then start to set up programs. I might even try signals later on although those PJ uses sound incredibly confusing to someone brought up on the old semaphore ones.

I hope the manual Hornby produce on Loco Detection is good as at the moment I cannot even picture in my mind how to set it up and use it.

Merry Christmas everyone and just enjoy, it is a hobby for relaxation after all   !!!!!   Bryan

[choralc]

 What someone needs to do is create an "Idiots Guide to Railmaster". I have one for Windows 8.1 and its great. 

Bryan

Bryan, is it possible to share this idiots' guide for Windows 8.1? I have someone who wants to get RM up and running on his new laptop.

[westernwill]

Hi Choralc. My idiots guide is actually a guide to Windows 8.1 itself written in simple langauge going through the basics step by step.

I initially set up RM on a new Dell laptop with Win 8.1 and setting it up was easy. The problem I had was intermittent working of the Elink connection which Hornby RM finally diagnosed as a problem they had come across with some new laptops/desktops having some sort of problem between the USB subsystem and Windows 8.1. Suggestions to fix it, which had worked for other people, were to get a replacement, a new one of the same model would work fine, or downgrade to Win 7 which then also worked fine.

I had an older laptop running Vista so I transferred RM to that and have not had a single problem since.

Hope this helps. Bryan