Railmaster DCC / Elink problems

[Mark390]

John

Might have another try with Littlewoods, as the retailer. In this case, however a repair/replacement might not solve the problem, as you have said earlier the actual laptop might not be up to the job, even if it is working properly. True I could find other uses for the laptop, especially internet/emails when I'm away from my main desktop, but that is not the issue - in most cases I could use my iPhone if I wanted to!

I'm glad for buying locos etc, I usually go to model shop. I am fortuntate, that I live only a few miles close to one - Locoshed (Manchester), a proper model shop, which is often more like a social club with the "regulars". New engines are DCC fitted while you wait (if they need to be), tested so you can see them working perfectly, including lights and sound if appropriate! They also offer repair and other services, prices are reasonable, so would now be unlikely to go elsewhere. I would recommend going to a shop like that, if one is available locally.

Mark

[RB51]

Hi Mark - I'd be tempted to have a look at the Citizens Advice site regarding consumer rights. I'm not clear on the detail of your purchase. They set it all out very clearly. R-

[Mark390]

Roger

The CAB website (www.adviceguide.org.uk) does give some very useful information regarding goods not being fit or purpose. It would appear that unless I specifically asked - if the laptop was compatable with Hornby Elink, and/or the retailer said it was; then the Sale of Goods Act might not cover me. "If you haven't told a salesperson that you need something for a specific purpose,  you won't have a right to return it if the item turns out to be wrong. It must, however, still be suitable for its normal purpose."

Mark

 

[RB51]

I dont know what else to suggest. Looks as though you may be stuck with a useless (as far as RM is concerned) laptop. I went the RM/ELite route and didn't look back. R-

[HornbyRailMasterSupport]

There is another thing you can try.  We believe that some Lenovo PCs USB subsystems do not work 100% with Window 8.1 however the same hardware does with Windows 7, even using the same Microsoft USB driver for the eLink.  If your PC is using Windows 8.1 you can try 'downgrading' to Window 7.  Most Windows 8 licences allow this to be done and Lenovo should provide you with a Windows 7 DVD.  This may well then work.

 

 

[Augustus Caesar]

Mark

I'm sure you may already know this but may not have thought about it. I'll tell you anyway...

Your last post includes the following: the Sale of Goods Act might not cover me. "If you haven't told a salesperson that you need something for a specific purpose,  you won't have a right to return it if the item turns out to be wrong. It must, however, still be suitable for its normal purpose."

To me I wonder how on earth you are going to be able to inform your seller over an Internet purchase at Littlewoods that you are going to run the laptop with RailMaster, Hornby's model railway software, and then ask them (as if they would know anyway!!) if the eLink would work with said laptop?

So, that sentence is invalid and you can claim a 'not fit for purpose' action and return the item. A repair is not warranted and is not worth it anyway. In law, as I am sure you are well aware, it comes down to how you interpret the sentences, paragraphs and whole law of that which you are looking up.

Personally I would hammer Littlewoods with everything I have got until they relent. I've never lost an argument over the Sale of Goods Act... even when a mate's DVD recorder was over one year past its 'normal' 1 year warranty with PC World. This was a model which had a known manufacturing fault and all goods were recalled in the US but here in the UK one had to literally argue about it.

Read the SoGA and the CAB texts and pick out certain sentences, like yours above, and hit them with it. You couldn't inform them of the use you were going to make of the laptop, originally, with RailMaster, as there is no provision to do so on the order form I take it(!) so therefore it is NOT fit for its original purpose. On that premise alone you have a right to return. They cannot prove to anyone you had ordered the laptop for a different purpose (not that you did :-) ) for the same reason. So they don't have an argument. To me then... only one winner!

[Yelrow]

Like i said, too nice. I am with Augustus, i also, have never lost a  Sale of Goods, or Citizens Charter, argument., in fact its more fun, when then fight on. john

[simon hereford 1979]

hi there mark

hi there mark i do have the same problems it take me 5-6 times to connect i am like you dont know waht to to fix it i am uesing win 8.1

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Chrissaf]

Simon, as this is your first post, welcome to the forum.

.

This thread is long....over 9 pages.....there are related replies to your issue on previous pages, but to save you having to wade through all the previous replies to find the right one, read on. This is the point (if he was about) where John (yelrow) would direct you to his solution documented in the locked thread. But since John isn't here to do it and I am, my answer is just what John would have said if he was here.

.

Go to this locked thread and scroll right the way down to the last entry (John's solution) titled System Start Up. He swears by it.

[Fishmanoz]

Simon, don't just scroll to the bottom, check out the whole thread to make sure you have really set up RM correctly in the first place.  You could also go to the top locked thread and check through the separate site called up there.

 

Both the locked threads at the top of the RM forum are designed to get new users up and running while avoiding some common pitfalls.  Your problem may be the same as in this thread but is far more likely to be something else that is easy to fix.  The most basic are not installing as administrator or not having properly set up your AV.  If you've checked all of this thread, you'll see it is a particular problem with USB ports and that is not very common.

 

Once you've been through the initial procedures, let us know how you go.  If you still have a problem, don't come back here, start a new thread describing exactly what you've found, what you've done, what did work and what isn't working.  Then we will be in a far better position to give you more help.

[gilbert_chadefaux]

Good afternoon

I've had RailMaster/E-link for several months, and am still getting connectional issues with the hardware. It's the usual problem of being unable to connect, and requested to power down e-link and restart, etc.

I try changing USB ports, sometimes this works, other times it makes no difference. Drivers and RailMaster itself are currently showing as being up to date.

The system normally works after about 4 or 5 attempts, it's a suprise if it works sooner. Usually, not always, once it starts it keeps going. 

Does anyone else have similar problems? Is there a solution or this the best I can expect?

Building up a nice stock collection, but bit infuriating that eLink is so problematic.

Am even wondering if an alternative controller would be a better answer, e.g. a handheld one rather than laptop. Controlling trains via Railmaster and laptop can be fiddly, to say the least, especially as the number of trains increases. Controlling locos with sounds also seems to be limited, but that's another issue. I am unlikely to use advanced features - e.g. motorised points; not sure about the programming side of things; so am not likely to use many of these features.

Any replies would be appreciated.

 

Mark

 

 

 

[Yelrow]

Gilbert, hi, and welcome to the forum. To start with, read the locked threads at front of topics, one of which contains my idiots guide to Elink/ RM start up. Most of us have been there, and following guide in the post, should/ will improve your connections. A lot of it, is WAIT,WAIT,WAIT.. Movimg to a hand held  controller, wont make a scrap of difference. The only long term improvement, some of us now use, is to buy an Elite, off ebay, but its an expensive solution, just for a bit of patience, but it does mean you can use layout, and sounds,  without Railmaster, on, or while it is warming up. Is also a very good bit of kit. this would give you best of both worlds, as both Elite and RM work on same throttle, so you can run your trains, using control knob, as opposed to mouse. Worth downloading guide, and having a read. Moving on to sound, and number of locos, you can control 2 at once with Elite, but more with laptop, depending on your mouse dexterity, and RM. is brilliant for sounds, as you enter in all the sound functions, be it steam or diesel, and can utilise up to six, at a time. I do not want or have PRO PLUS, as think its expensive, but do have 15 motorised points, controlled from screen schematic, plus dcc turntable. This is a brilliant forum for info, and advice. Do not hold back, asking questions, there are a lot of clever guys, excluding me, on here, who will help. john

[KrazyKris]

In a previous post I wrote: "I would also mention that I declined to use the Windows plug & play drivers and installed Hornby's drivers included in the installation files." this is a sentence that I may need to retract. I installed two years ago so it is difficult to remember exactly the installation process I followed. I certainly thought I was installing the Hornby drivers.

.

But I have just found the text below posted by Hornby RailMaster Support on another thread. This would seem to indicate that as I am not having any issues whatever with Win 8.1 that I must have installed the Windows generic drivers without realising it.

.

"RailMaster has been tested and works on Windows 8.1 as it does on Windows 8, 7, Vista and XP all in 32-bit and 64-bit variants.On Windows 7/8 you need to ensure you have allowed Windows to download and install its own "Serial Port" driver.  Do not use the Hornby-supplied one as that is only for Windows Vista or XP."

I've just bought a brand new Elink and with windows 10 &  7 64 bit versions Microsoft does not find any driver at all when searching with windows update and using the supplied drivers does work but the handshaking is very sporadic at best. Where do you get this windows version of the driver?

[Chrissaf]

KrazyKris, this is an extremely old topic thread form mid 2015 and much of the information contained within it is out of date and not relevant to the current Windows OS and RM scenarios.

.

You say you are using the supplied drivers. The supplied drivers are for Windows XP and Vista and should not be used for Windows 10. With the eLink connected and powered up, open Windows Device Manager (DM) and look at this section in the Device Manager tree and tell me what text is listed where the yellow highlight is. It should display as shown in the image below with (COM4) maybe showing as (COM3). If it says either "R8214 Hornby Elite" or "CDC RS232 Emulation Demo" then you have not got the right driver installed for Windows 10.

.

IMPORTANT DO NOT IGNORE.

If DM says "R8214 Hornby Elite" (this is the XP / Vista driver) then you need to uninstall it and start again using the process documented in the link after the next image. Note that it is not enough to just uninstall or disable this driver. You need to look for a check box in the uninstall process where it says 'delete the driver file' (or words to that effect) and choose that option, else the same driver will just be reloaded the next time you connect your eLink. You cannot re-trigger the 'Plug n Play' detection new driver installation process if the existing driver file is NOT deleted first. If you can't find the 'delete the driver file' check box, then take a manual note of the file name indicated in the driver properties dialogue box and manually move it to a temporary folder, so that you can put it back if you have inadvertently moved the wrong one.

.

If the entry says "CD RS232 Emulation Demo" then you have started to install the Windows 10 driver, but it has not been successfully completed yet. To complete the installation follow the process documented in the link after the image below.

.

/media/tinymce_upload/f8608c883fe6d854a07bd1a0496c6f4a.jpg

It is important that you tell me what your DM shows in the entry highlighted in yellow if NOT displayed as shown.

.

This topic thread (see link below) is more up to date and tells you all you need to know to successfully install the eLink drivers on a Windows 10 x64 PC machine.

.

See the third post down on the page. Ignore the fact that the post was written for the Elite controller. Both the Elite and the eLink use exactly the SAME driver and the installation process is identical. However once the driver is installed, the eLink does require some different settings in RM compared to those required for the Elite.

.

https://www.hornby.com/uk-en/forum/windows-10-drivers-for-hornby-elite/?p=1

.

Once the driver is installed as documented in the link above, you will need to check certain settings in RM and edit them if not correct. It is really important to use a USB2.0 and not a USB3.0 port for your eLink. The eLink communication is more reliable using USB2.0. Once you have got a working connection, always use the SAME physical USB2.0 port, changing the port confuses RM and can lead to loss of communications between the eLink and RM requiring the allocated COM port to be checked and re-configured in RM.

.

Firstly, the eLink needs to be selected as the controller in the pull down box for Controller A in the RM 'System Settings' screen and ensure that the 'baud rate' is 115200, bits are 8, parity is none and stop bits is 1.......see image below:

.

/media/tinymce_upload/098eacc99fbc32afc609550510e0ddd4.jpg

.

Ensure that the COM port number (just above the yellow highlight area in the image above) matches the one shown against the driver in Windows 'Device Manager'. Then open the 'railmaster.ini' editor (bluish COG icon in bottom left of RM 'Help' screen). Edit the file to ensure that the following two lines are the bottom two lines in the file, then save changes, close and re-open RM

.

Alternative comms=1

Check controller=1

.

Once all the above are done, then you should be ready to start creating your RM track plan and loading your loco roster.

.

I cannot stress enough how important it is to follow all the guidance and instructions given, for example you might find that your 'railmaster.ini' file already has the two entries listed above but they are not at the end of the file as the last two lines. If they are there but in lines further up the file, delete them and retype them again as the last two lines. Doing this has been proven to improve communication reliability, but why it does is a mystery as it really shouldn't (in theory) make any difference where the entries are in the file.

.

The above is just the abridged version of the setting up process. The see ALL the custom setting up documentation review the contents of the two sticky posts at the very top of the RailMaster forum page. The link to the off site 'Help' site will give a 'step by step' tutorial using screen shots. Take particular heed of the details on ensuring that your Windows Firewall is configured with a RM exception. Follow my instructions above first, and follow the sticky post links if your issue is still not resolved.

.

PS - If you have installed RM from a purchased CD. Download the RM installer from the link at the top of the RM forum. Right click the file and choose 'Run as administrator' to install the very latest version over the top of the currently installed version.

.

IMPORTANT DO NOT IGNORE.

I take it that when you installed RM the first time, that you DID 'right click' the 'setup.exe' file and choose 'Run as administrator'. If you didn't, then you will need to right click the 'railmaster.exe' file in the program folder and select 'Run as administrator' manually. I would also do this with any RM shortcut icon that you use to run RM as well.

[hedley_reynolds]

Hi krazykris 

you have posted on a thread that’s over 3 years old anyway you would be best downloading RM from the top of this section where it says v1:67 over the top of your version and also read the top 2 sticky posts at the top of the page which are highlighted and this will help you with getting started with Railmaster and it also solve your problems and I’m very surprised that windows didn’t find the drivers for Railmaster as I too have windows 10 on my 2 laptops and they have downloaded the drivers no problem and the only reason that I can think off causing you problems is your internet security as I use windows defender on both also in the sticky threads they also tell you about this as well also in the top one there’s a link to AC’s site for helping you as well as it goes through everything very clearly and step by step in the second post so I would start by looking at them first before starting again with windows drivers Hedley