Yelrow Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 Greetings, thought i would pop upstairs and try elite, but to no avail. I assumed that loco nos already given in RM, would work, eg CON 009. So connected elte to laptop/RM, not sure of Baud rate, changed controller 1 from elink, to Elite. Put loco on track, nothing. Am i right in thinking that i cannot use existing numbers. Will i have to put each loco on prog track, or will RM, pick up what is going on. Just to try, i used loco i had on prog track, etc etc, followed elite instructions, as it was already 0003, but nothing, will not respond. Has someone an idiots guide, do i have to do it all again, as thats not what i was led to belive. Elite is brand new and up to date, its ME , that is not. john Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
96RAF Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 Just check that RM has picked up the Elite correctly once you have defined it in setup and checked the Com port hasn't changed. Baud rate for the Elite is 96200 from memory, next one down from the eLink rate.RM is sending the addresses John and the Elite is just echoing that to the locos. So all your existing addresses are good.You did connect the Elite to the track instead of the eLink of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yelrow Posted March 7, 2015 Author Share Posted March 7, 2015 RAF, hi, simply moved wires from elink to Elite. Thank the lord i dont have to alter too much. I had prechecked and was told this. it may well be that rm has not picked it up. My prob, is that being a french laptop, with french windows, com port window, as RM Support found, aint easy to locate. It was on 4 before, have not changed cable, except to new controller, so hopefully will be okay. How do i know, when it has hand shook. Will dame big rectangle come up as with elink. Its a pain, as my lady wife came up to watch how much easier it was going to be, and is not impressed with my big spend, if i am going to be no better off. john Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
96RAF Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 Ah oui l'ordinateur Francaise - le cochon.I suggest you do a full shutdown on everything and let them find each other on startup.Bon chance mes ami.RobPS Handshake - RM should report this is OK on starting by not saying it didn't and the green controller icon top RH corner should be lit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrissaf Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 John,I know from other posts that you have made recently that your Elite is a recent purchase..This may be stating the obvious but have you installed the Elite driver onto your laptop. I would think that it is a different driver to the e-link one that you installed when setting up your e-link for the first time. Before you start RM, when you plug in the E-lite controller to the USB port do you get any messages regarding to searching for new device driver..On the other hand, I maybe wrong, it might be an all encompasing multi controller model driver. There are people on here who use both e-link and Elite together, they should be able to confirm if this is so or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yelrow Posted March 7, 2015 Author Share Posted March 7, 2015 Chissaf, and RAF, MUDDLE IMPROVES SLIGHTLY. on restarting, RM finds elite big Green Elite symbol on top right lights up. Whats next is curious, I can now run all locos from screen with mouse as before, so elite working as Elink.When i click on Green Elite symbol, it says, DCC Controller, inactive. Hence i need to know how to activate. Under the spanner symbol, i changed Elink to Elite, and changed Baud Rate, so controller A, should be Elite. There is nothing in the Massive Manual, about Activation. I presume, i have to press or click something ANY IDEAS. john Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yelrow Posted March 7, 2015 Author Share Posted March 7, 2015 May i just add that this is shown as on com4 so presumably, driver is installed, but what do i know. john Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrissaf Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 I've learned something new today then John, If you can move locos about using RM connected to Elite instead of e-link and you haven't gone through a second driver installation process. Then it follows that e-link and Elite share the same driver software. If your e-link is physically disconnected and everything is connected via your Elite and your Elite is controlling trains as expected, then why the green top right symbol is showing controller inactive is a mystery. This would normally only happen, as far as I am aware, if RM can't see the controller for any reason. Controller USB unpluged, powered off, or driver not correctly installed and configured. But these would appear not to be the case because you say you can control locos with your mouse via RM and Elite. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
96RAF Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 I wouldn't fret too much about the green icon John as long as it all seems to works to your liking from the screen. Although I would have thought if lit up then it was active. Instead of clicking it just hover over and see what the popup reportsThere is another controller re-crank possible - in the big red button (bottom RH corner) there is at times a small red button within this bigger button and clicking this resets the controller(s). Its not a full controller reset as we know it (i.e. resetting the Elite from its own Menu) but rather a restart of RMs process of initiating the controller like it does at startup.Anyhow as a tip to learning the Elite look at the flow chart in the manual (making sure you have the manual downloaded for your revision state, presuming v1.41). The flow chart is a nice easy way of finding your way round the various setup menus when programming a decoder.Rob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yelrow Posted March 7, 2015 Author Share Posted March 7, 2015 Chissaf, yup, thats exactly what i have,. a new expesive elink. Not that its bad, as i can at least use layout while we sort out elite becoming active. I am hoping one of the other clever guys, yet to post, or RAF, will come up with the solution. Should Elite be on controller B. Would it make a difference. If nothing by next week, will email support, but it has thrown up quite a conundrum, has it not., where is that australian, when you need him. john Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yelrow Posted March 7, 2015 Author Share Posted March 7, 2015 RAF, i only mentioned green icon, cos i thought it ought to say DCC controller active. Do you think the Elite should be on controller B. There is nothing in any notes i can find about activation of Elite. I know its new, and the guy drove 140 miles to bring it, and offered to demonstrate, so i know its not the ELITE.. Iam happy it works from the screen, but i want it also to work from the knobs. john Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
96RAF Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 If Elite is the only controller in RM John then it must be Controller A. You cannot have a Controller B without having a Controller A first.And you should be able to control locos either from RM or by selecting same ID on the elite (Loco button, type in the number and click knob) to take over control with the Elite.If you do take control with the Elite you will see throttle slider for that loco in RM follow the Elite setting (more or less).If at some stage you decide to split your points from the track control onto Controller B then thats where the eLink will come into its own. More on that if and when... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDS Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 JohnThe easiest way to do a quick check is just to connect the Elite to a separate piece of track and try one of your Loco's on that.You will (or at least you should) be able to control the Loco with the address you have already got in it.By doing it that way you are isolating the Elite from any computer drivers etc. After success with that that, you can move to the next stage of connecting to the rest of your system.I use the Elite on my system and I am delighted with it. Hope you will be too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrissaf Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 John, What follows is pretty much what RAF has already said, but I thought you might benefit from some of my detailed descriptions. Just a point of clarification with regard to using RM as well as Elite to control a loco at the same time. Let's just say for the sake of description that your loco has an ID of 101. Substitute 101 with your own particular loco address that you are testing. In RM you open the throttle window associated with loco address 101 and move the slider. The loco moves. All right so far. Now you might be thinking that because you have selected loco 101 in RM and it is moving, and that action has been done from RM via Elite, that the Elite somehow knows that 101 is the loco being controlled. Thus, turning the knob on the Elite will take over manual control of the 101 loco. THIS IS NOT THE CASE, it doesn't work that way. Although, RM is using the Elite to access the locos on the track. The Elite knobs and buttons function completely independantly of RM (well almost independently, more of which later). To control loco 101 (my example loco address) using the Elite knob. You first have to press the little 'loco' button on the right hand side of the Elite front panel, key in using the keypad the numbers 0101, then press a controller knob (say for example the left hand one). This action has now set the left hand knob as being the physical control knob for loco 101 until such time as you re-assign it to another loco address, by using the 'loco' button again. Similarly you could assign loco 102 to the right hand side Elite control knob, by pressing 'loco' then keying in 0102 and then pressing the right hand controller knob. Now turning the left hand knob on the Elite will control the speed of the 101 loco. Pressing the big left Elite control knob will change direction from forward to reverse and back again. You should now notice that the loco 101 throttle window on the RM screen will mimic the movements made on the physical Elite left hand controller knob. In other words if you turn the controller knob clockwise (speed up) the RM throttle slider will move up as if by magic. Because magic is what it is !!!!. When you move the left hand controller knob anti-clockwise, the throttle slider in RM for loco 101 will move down. You can now control loco 101 by either the left hand control knob OR the RM throttle and switch between them at will. Pressing the Elite controller knob will toggle the RM 'Forward / Reverse' display. For every loco that you want to control with the Elite, you first have to assign that loco to one of the two Elite control knobs by pressing the 'loco' button and keying in the loco address, then press the controller button that you want to assign that address to. And as RAF says, ensure that Elite is 'Controller A' in RM, if it is the only controller physically connected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
96RAF Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 Just to add a little more to what Chris has posted. Once you start to 'list' locos on the Elite by selecting them to control you can scroll through them (as many as the last 10) by using the ESC button on the Elite, but this list is only active for a session. As soon as you switch it off then the list disappears. This list logic also works for any points you select in a session - again up to 10. Another thing to note is the Elite knobs are rate dependant. If you turn them slowly nothing seems to happen. If you spin them fast then you get max chat all in one go. Something I find irritating with the Elite is if you want to control a loco on knob 2 and you press Loco, enter ID and press knob 2 it doesn't latch onto that loco. You have to press knob 2 to say I am using this knob, then press Loco then ID and knob 2 again to latch onto it. OK - bedtime for me - I'll check up tomorrow to see how you got on John. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrissaf Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 Thanks RAF (Rob), "Something I find irritating with the Elite is if you want to control a loco on knob 2 and you press Loco, enter ID and press knob 2 it doesn't latch onto that loco. You have to press knob 2 to say I am using this knob, then press Loco then ID and knob 2 again to latch onto it.".Now I understand why I sometimes found that I had accidently overwrote my controller 1 setting. It makes sense now, illogical, but does make sense. Tend to use RM most of the time, so lack of practice with the Elite. Interesting tip about the ESC button, will have to try that out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RB51 Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 In RM you open the throttle window associated with loco address 101 and move the slider. The loco moves. All right so far. Can I just say Chris, having seen quite a few of your reponses to forum queries how very impressed I have been with your calm, well detailed and informative manner, There are a few on here that a newcomer would do well to heed (RAF96 and Fishy for example - and WTD if he comes back) but I have always been taken with the thoughtful way you explain things. I imagine that at some point in your working life you must have had a training role. Anyway, from me, thank you for your input. R- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graskie Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 I thought right from the start of this thread, John, that you should first of all have tried checking the running your locos direct from the Elite only, in order to check that out, before connecting to RM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrissaf Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 Can I just say Chris, having seen quite a few of your reponses to forum queries how very impressed I have been with your calm, well detailed and informative manner, There are a few on here that a newcomer would do well to heed (RAF96 and Fishy for example - and WTD if he comes back) but I have always been taken with the thoughtful way you explain things. I imagine that at some point in your working life you must have had a training role. Anyway, from me, thank you for your input. R- How very kind of you to say so Roger. My mantra is let me make the wood in the trees visible, and if I can make people understand something from and using 'first principles' then they are more likely to work things out for themselves in the future. Yes, you are quite right, one of my job roles in the early days was providing 'on the job' training for apprentices coming up through the ranks. This involved providing some limited 'class room' type training, then taking the trainees into the live working environment to put the theory into practice. Something that I enjoyed immensely as it broke up the monotomy of a normal working day. The apprentices were only in our working environment for one week in four before moving on to another department. So the training part of the job role was very much ad-hoc when taking the year as a whole. In later years, I found myself doing white board (chalk 'n' talk) and PowerPoint presentations of technical solutions to customers - supporting our National Sales Account Managers. Occasionally being called upon to do formal company product presentations at corporate customer facing conference centre type events. It was technical by the way, if you haven't already guessed. I worked in the communications and IT industry. If you've seen any of my posted drawings, they are done in PowerPoint - an example - near bottom of this page I think my writing style has now been largely accepted, but early on I did draw some quite vitriolic flak and criticism for being, in some peoples eyes, too detailed and in-depth. The unexpected criticism I received was quite hurtful at the time, because in my eyes I was only trying to be genuinely helpful to people. So the more people like you who are kind enough to comment positively. The more encouraged I am to carry on doing more of the same. Thank you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDS Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 I thought right from the start of this thread, John, that you should first of all have tried checking the running your locos direct from the Elite only, in order to check that out, before connecting to RM.Totally agree. See my post, 3rd one down on this page. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishmanoz Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 John, that Australian person is now up on Sunday morning and has had his coffee. Also, he's not rushing off anywhere, so he is going to spend a little time summarising your idiot's guide for you. You've already had some good advice but, reading through the thread to here for the first time, I've found you have to go from post to post to get the entire story. I'll try to put it all here for you. So to start. Your Elite is a very capable controller. One of the consequences of this though is that it has a complicated menu system and you have absolutely no chance of understanding anywhere near all of it without the manual - yes, you really are going to have to read it at some time. Now if it came with a hard copy manual, the first thing I want you to do with it is put in a bottom drawer somewhere in your bureau and don't take it out again until you know how your Elite works. The hard copy will not relate to the latest firmware version and and your Elite doesn't operate the way the hard copy says in many quite significant respects. You have to use the downloaded soft copy manual that I know you have already obtained. We know you have already taken it out of the box and plugged it in by simply removing the cables from your eLink and plugging them into the Elite. This was the right thing to do. Graskie has suggested above you didn't need to connect to RM, and you don't, but there is nothing wrong in doing so. So we'll assume you have Elite track connections to your track and USB cable from the Elite to your laptop using the same USB connection on your laptop as you had the eLink in. So starting with everything switched off, go through exactly the same startup sequence as you would with elink, using all the same delays between steps as you are used to. One thing you are going to do in that is to plug the power into the Elite (or turn the power on at your power switch, there is no on/off switch on your Elite). When you do that, the Elite screen will cycle through its startup sequence. During that, the bottom line will at one stage say DCC: followed by a number. That number will be one of 1.3, 1.4 or 1.41. The number is the firmware version. What is the number on yours? If it isn't 1.41, we are not going any further now. You should unplug the Elite and put eLink back. You must upgrade to 1.41 before continuing with Elite. The reason is that it operates very differently at v1.3 compared to 1.41 and when they first upgraded to 1.4, the firmware was full of bugs which were all fixed in v1.41. Even the way you operate a loco is different between 1.3 and 1.41! So confirm to us whether at 1.41 or not please. If not we will tell you what to do next, starting with taking it and your USB cable (unless you have two) downstairs to your PC connected to the Internet to download and install the firmware upgrade. From here on, I'm going to assume it was already at 1.41, or you have upgraded to 1.41. I hope for your sake it is the former. So you are plugged in and switched on, you've configured RM with Elite as Controller A and changed the baud rate to the lower value for Elite (19,200 if I remember rightly, and RM will have prompted you anyway, not the 115,000 odd for eLink). There is noting else to do, the driver is the same for eLink and Elite and if you haven't moved any cables, the com port number will be the same too. If necessary do a full restart, but you have already been through all of that anyway. The green controller icon should be showing active but don't worry as previously if not. There is no button to activate it, activation should happen when you go through the correct startup sequence after making Elite Controller A. Now you have the option of operating your trains and points with either the RM screen or Elite's knobs by just using either. You don't have to go through any procedure to swap from one to the other, you just do it, and your loco and point IDs don't change because they are of course held in the respective decoders. But remember, if you should use Elite to change an address, you are also going to have to change it to match in RM, apart from having to then write it to the decoder as it is already there. And you needn't think of Elite acting like an eLink, or eLink acting like an Elite, they are just alternative interfaces between RM and your track. So you are all set up and switched on and your locos run through RM. Now we are going to run them with Elite. For a start, all the things you are going to do with Elite, whether just running a loco, or doing some very advanced stuff, operate similarly. You will start by pressing a button adjacent to the screen, rotating either knob 1 or 2, pressing it to confirm, then maybe doing this sequence again depending on what it is. To run your locos, you first press the Loco button, after which it will show you on screen either the default address of 003, or the number of the last loco you operated. To select a loco, you can either key in its ID, or rotate a knob until it shows the ID you want. Then you press the knob to confirm, and if correct, press again to confirm. Now you are ready to operate it. You can do this with either knob, in fact you can have one loco on each set up exactly the same way. To swap between control of one loco and the other, you just press the knob set up for the loco you want. Let's assume you've set up loco 10 this way on knob 1, and loco 20 on knob 2. So you are on knob 1 with loco 10 showing. Now just rotate the knob and it should start to move. You may have to rotate it some way before it starts, and you will notice it's speed starts to show on the screen in that half moon throttle display area at the middle bottom. You will notice the knobs work very differently to Select and you may have to rotate a full 2-3 turns to go from zero to flat out (this difference is why I don't bother using my Select as a walkabout). There are no fixed end positions at either zero or top speed, you just rotate either way until the throttle displays zero or max. Turn the knob to zero, then press it, and the loco changes direction, and you'll notice the direction arrow at either side bottom of the display changes to show the new direction. If you set a loco moving then go to the other knob by pressing it to control a second loco, the first continues to run until you press to come back to it, just like Select, and when you do, unlike Select, the knob will match the speed it is running at. Doing all of this, you can now have loco 10 on knob 1, and loco 20 on knob 2, to use my example. If you want to control a third loco, you will have to press the Loco button again and go through the sequence above to set up for its address. And check in the manual as to how to cycle between all of your recently used locos without having to set their addresses again (you use the ESC key to do it). So that's the basics, let us know how you are going? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RB51 Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 If you've seen any of my posted drawings, they are done in PowerPoint - an example - near bottom of this pageThat was the drawing that first drew my attention. I was struck by how clear and simple it was. R- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrissaf Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 When responding, I try to gauge the competence level of the poster. I look at their posting history. I look at the way they phrase and write their questions. It is true to say that there are some people who are completely out of their comfort zone with anything more technical than an electric toothbrush. If I feel it necessary I will do my utmost to try and provide 'step by step' blow by blow' guidance in my replies. What follows is my personal opinion and may get me into trouble, but I feel that there are some contributors on here who put their own 'heads' on the shoulders of the poster and give a brief overview type reply with perhaps a suggestion for a Google search that makes perfect sense to them but goes completely over the head of the original poster. My logic is, if that poster had the gumption to perform that particular Google search and answer their own question, then why are they asking it here..There was a case recently, an elderly gentleman with the initials R.H. some here will probably know who I'm talking about. Contributors here did try their best to help him, but it was obvious he really needed to engage with a 'one on one' relationship with a forum mentor. I tried to engage him myself in that role. But before a mentor relationship could be established, he went away and never returned. I can quite now imagine that the DCC e-link railway set he received as a present has probably been donated to another family member or grandchild or sold. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishmanoz Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 My approach too Chris when I know the poster and what type of answer he needs. Hence my idiot's guide for john who is quite competent but needs it kept simple for anything new. And hence my long post which covers some ground already covered for him, but putting it all in the one post in the right order with simple steps and and in the context of what I know to be his setup at home. PS. John, why do you use French Windows when your language is English? Just because you are in France, no need to use theirs. Is it an SWMBO issue? And no comments on the obvious pun please Graskie! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrissaf Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 Yes Fishman, I had noticed that some of your posts were getting as long as mine. I was beginning to think my "writealotofitvirus" disease was infectious and catching. What I can't understand is, why doesn't John go into Windows setup and choose English as default language instead of French. Or is it the reference to SWMBO you made, the answer for that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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