Windows 10

[Yelrow]

Baz 009, it was not just hornby. They came at the end of a long list of experts, all freely available on the net. Why do you think the upgrade was free, when normally you have to buy it. I am afraid, you have become another free tester for Microsoft, in order for them to identify the bugs quicker. It was a superb piece of marketing, that appears to have succeeded. It is a great shame, for you, and many others. If by going on show you mean at exhibitions, than a dedicated xp laptop, is the way to go. You have the  opportunity, to roll back, which is again unusual, but in these circumstances, understandable

[Fireman_Ian]

Am I correct in thinking that it is only the ELink that has issues with Windows 10? because I have been using Railmaster with the Elite Controller with Windows 10 since I upgraded on the 31st July with no problems at all.

When I upgraded from 8.1 I never even uninstalled any programs so nothing needed reinstalling and after the upgrade everything worked as before, just a lot quicker.

[Augustus Caesar]

To those who blame Microsoft or Hornby for the driver file usbser.sys being at fault... I will correct you again.

The driver was written by Microchip Technology Inc. NOT MicroSOFT but MicroCHIP... two different entities!

Microsoft have it in their libraries to download to whomever requires it on their machines through updates etc. and software released by Hornby will download it when their equipment is connected to your machine. Simples!

[Augustus Caesar]

@AC

Could I just add my thanks to you for all the effort you have put into this topic.

I do not get a successful handshake either with my Elite but I have not found anything yet that does not work properly so the only problem appears to be that the Elite icon is 'greyed out'

You've probably already guessed this anyway but the greying out of the icon, for those who may think this is a different fault to the handshake, is simply because RM cannot connect to the eLink unit through the driver used by RM which is the usbser.sys file. When this is sorted the handshake will work, RM will 'light up' the icon and communication between RM and eLink will be established forever (we hope!!).

I thank you RDS and all others for your own and their kind words but I do find this kinda stuff intriguing and will attempt, as far as I can, a fix or workaround for temporary measures until the powers that be (Microchip Technology Inc.) sort it for us.

[Yelrow]

And there was i thinking rds needed to change his bulb, to move from grey to green. Good catch AC. john

[RAINESCOLIN]

John.Your views don't fall on stony ground at all,but YOU should try listening to other user views as well, it appears as though RAILMASTER would never have worked on WINDOWS 10 until idiots like me upgraded and found the problems, as before RAILMASTER informed me by email that they along with other BETA testers had tried WINDOWS 10 and proven NO PROBLEMS.Try reading other users views and accepting we are not all computer experts BUT we are also NOT IDIOTS.

[RB51]

Am I correct in thinking that it is only the ELink that has issues with Windows 10? because I have been using Railmaster with the Elite Controller with Windows 10 since I upgraded on the 31st July with no problems at all.

Yes you are almost right Fireman - E-link seems to be having the major problems and Elite users, in the main, seem to be OK except for the greyed out Elite icon top right. It seems easy for some to mis-read Elite for E-link (AC appears to have just done so) or the other way around. R-

[Augustus Caesar]

Getting this warning in W10 which does not seem to be having any impact on the operation of RM or the connection and function of the iPad. I am not very up on IP addresses and after a trawl of the web it seems that you cannot make a BT residential hub 2 become static - only BT business hubs can do this. I have looked at the locked thread and read your instructions AC, but dont see what I can do to remove the warning. R-

The BT offered static IP address Roger does not refer to the one you would setup on a router for the PC or indeed RM to react to. That is your Internet Service Provider IP (Internet Protocol) address which resets every time your router is powered off or reset. Thus it is called a dynamic IP address. This is usually the one that ordinary Joe Public are allocated unless they ask specifically for a static IP. These are always given to business customers but residential folk can ask for them too... BT charge £5 per month for them. They are easier for hackers to get through to your systems as the only IP address they need is the one you are permanently given and this can only be changed with permissions from BT IF they feel like doing it.

Dynamic IP addresses are different. Everyone is allocated an address from a pool of addresses allocated to each ISP (Sky, Virgin, Talk Talk etc.)  and they, in turn, select automatically one of those addresses to allocate to you. When your router is restarted or reset then that IP address WILL change to another from that pool allocated to the ISP.

 

Now... the static IP address that is talked about for your PC and RM to work with is known as a local static IP address and will begin with any one of these numbers: 10 or 192. The latter is more common but if your router is preset with one of those starting with 10 you can change it within the router settings to follow a more conventional numer set so instead of, say, 10.0.0 1 for the gateway (I'll mention this shortly) you would have 192.168.1.1.

The first two numers of those above you CANNOT change. The last number is allocated to each PC, laptop, PDA, Sky box even, tablet, mobile phone etc. and each one will be different. These numbers can range from .2 to .254 so the IP's would be 192.168.1.2 to 192.168.1.254. You can't set 192.168.1.0 as that address is reserved as is 192.168.1.255. These are network reservations and the user never sees them. The 192.168.1.1 address is usually the gateway to the outside world and is used by your router to send data to the Internet as well as all other communications in or out. You can change this but if you do you narrow down your choice of numbers for  your network (especially businesses with large amounts of computers). No equipment can be allocated more than ONE IP and no two pieces of equipment can be allocated the SAME IP.

The THIRD number is a network IP and if you have, say three networks with several machines attached to each in different offices you will say one office would have the gateway as 192.168.1.1, the next office would be 192.168.2.1 and the third 192.168.3.1 and so on. For example: each machine in office 2 would always be allocated the set... 192.168.2.* where the star represents any machine in that office having a number allocated between two and 254.

 

So, within your router you would allocate a static IP locally of say 192.168.1.10 to your PC or laptop running RM and would tie it in to your machines Ethernet or wireless cards MAC address. Then in "Network Sharing Centre > Change Adapter Settings > right click your adapter being used for local area or wireless > Properties then double-click Internet Protocal Version 4 (TCP/IPv4).

Highlight the bullet 'Use the following IP address: and enter 192.168.1.10 (you set that in your router remember and this should match that number) and then press the TAB key and a subnet mask number appears below: 255.255.255.0. This is always that number where an IP address starts with 192.

In the gateway field enter 192.168.1.1 if the router uses that for its gateway (it will tell in the router settings of course) and also set that same number in the DNS box below. Leave the second DNS setting blank. OK everything.

Of course this is the simplest and quite effective way to set a local static IP but you can also tie it down more securely especially if using wireless by BINDING the IP address to the computers network card MAC address. Thus the SAME IP will always be allocated to that card and ONLY PC's setup this way using binding can access your network from inside or outside. The router will REJECT any other connection if bnding is used.

 

Thus you will be able to set a static local IP address....

 

ROGER... as the pic isn't loading showing your message can you describe it for me in better detail and offer up the info it gives so I can offer a solution?

[Augustus Caesar]

Am I correct in thinking that it is only the ELink that has issues with Windows 10? because I have been using Railmaster with the Elite Controller with Windows 10 since I upgraded on the 31st July with no problems at all.

Yes you are almost right Fireman - E-link seems to be having the major problems and Elite users, in the main, seem to be OK except for the greyed out Elite icon top right. It seems easy for some to mis-read Elite for E-link (AC appears to have just done so) or the other way around. R-

Correct Roger and I realised a tad later on but some will wonder why, with eLink, the icon doesn't light up either and it is because the handshake is not complete. The Elite is different... maybe a new buld or LED is required... mind you I have had little sleep in the last few days... lol Good excuse, non?

[Nick_]

@AC

When I check the properties of the file usbser.sys (in c:windowsssyrem32drivers) is says v10.0.10240.16401 Copyright Microsoft Corporation, Modified 03/082015 18:21. If I look at the file in a binary editor it contains the microsoft copyright and no reference at all to MicroChip. Thus it would appear to me that usbser.sys is from Microsoft? and it has already had an upgrade since the original release of Windows 10. Are you sure that Microchip is not a reference to the USB-Serial chip/firmware in the E-Link itself? 

[Augustus Caesar]

When I try to apply AC's fix, on clicking 'Scan for hardware changes', I briefly see "CDC RS-232 Emulation Demo" appear in the Device Manager and then it disappears. I wonder if anyone else has experienced this? (In my case, the fix is unsuccessful.)

 

 

Monty

Monty... the Demo tag you see is correct although why it disappears is a mystery... Win10 to blame again then?. You will see that when the eLink is attached but no driver is installed. It is simply Windows telling you the hardware is found but please install a driver to use it. So that step is normal.

As you did not get the driver to install and work you confirm the last failed attempt to try to get this operational. Thank you for at least having a go with this method. You have saved me reinstalling Win10 and rolling back again. One can only do this so many times... :-)

[Yelrow]

Colin , Augustus, as you can see, is one of our forum buffs, and he advised caution/ wait. For those of us with Elites, windows 10 works fine, so, as before it is an Elink problem. I make a point of reading all views/ comments, and several posters admit to jumping the gun, a few have gone back to wait, whilst playing trains, and the more intranscient, soldier on. That is your decision, your hobby, being the loser. The other thing you need to accept, is, if there had been a massive Elink problem, HRMS, who  are so on the ball, its not true, would have picked it up, on their radar, through their own elink usage, and reported it. They have not done so. Therefore it comes down to make/ model of laptop/ desktop, and usb facilities.. coupled with upgrade, how done/ correctly, etc.  As i say, AC, is the expert, but with so many bugs/ updates, who is to say that any initial fix, will stay effective. john

[Yelrow]

Colin , Augustus, as you can see, is one of our forum buffs, and he advised caution/ wait. For those of us with Elites, windows 10 works fine, so, as before it is an Elink problem. I make a point of reading all views/ comments, and several posters admit to jumping the gun, a few have gone back to wait, whilst playing trains, and the more intranscient, soldier on. That is your decision, your hobby, being the loser. The other thing you need to accept, is, if there had been a massive Elink problem, HRMS, who  are so on the ball, its not true, would have picked it up, on their radar, through their own elink usage, and reported it. They have not done so. Therefore it comes down to make/ model of laptop/ desktop, and usb facilities.. coupled with upgrade, how done/ correctly, etc.  As i say, AC, is the expert, but with so many bugs/ updates, who is to say that any initial fix, will stay effective. john

[RB51]

@AC

This is the pop-up in question. R-

/media/tinymce_upload/ecf96e4f9d08d8e8a3995a9932846bcf.png

[Augustus Caesar]

Since upgrading to Windows 10 I, like many others can no longer use my Elink.  Rail Master loads but will not communicate with my Elink.  According to my Troubleshooter the Rail Master program is incompatible with Windows 10.

Troubleshooters can only give an estimate to what is wrong in the vast majority of cases with Windows or anything for that matter. One should never pay too much attention to them.. they can only guide you. Computers are dumb remember and for a troubleshooter to say RM is incompatible with Windows 10 is a bit whacky to say the least really. Why isn't it the other way around? Why is Winodws 10 not incompatible with RailMaster? But a worthy mention anyway so thanks for listing that. It just goes to show the range of messages everyone is getting from this OS.

 

Welcome to the forum by the way, John.

[RB51]

ROGER... as the pic isn't loading showing your message can you describe it for me in better detail and offer up the info it gives so I can offer a solution?

 

I have tried copying and pasting the image from my original post, which oddly shows properly on my laptop (W10) but not my Mac. It will be here shortly [if it loads] I am sure. R-

[RB51]

mind you I have had little sleep in the last few days... lol Good excuse, non?

 

Completely understandable AC - given all the hours you are putting in to helping us all out. Keep up the good work, but have 40 winks first? R-

[Augustus Caesar]

@AC

When I check the properties of the file usbser.sys (in c:windowsssyrem32drivers) is says v10.0.10240.16401 Copyright Microsoft Corporation, Modified 03/082015 18:21. If I look at the file in a binary editor it contains the microsoft copyright and no reference at all to MicroChip. Thus it would appear to me that usbser.sys is from Microsoft? and it has already had an upgrade since the original release of Windows 10. Are you sure that Microchip is not a reference to the USB-Serial chip/firmware in the E-Link itself? 

Some of these things can be a little spurious and the way I read the data (more than once I may add) I took it that the driver data was written by Microchip... If Microsoft do own copyright and they wrote it they should say so in all versions. The ones I checked do not reference MS at all. Maybe they write the newer versions for Win 10 or even 8/8.1 but not prior? That might make sense. Anyway, it would be down to Microchip or Microsoft either way to sort this one out. It depends upon who wants to do what and in which way. Microchip may own the copyright to the chips which means they would probably automatically own the code within. Thus they would not pass on that data to MS freely unless they wished MS to write the driver.

For us, anyway, it doesn't matter that much as we have no influence over either and they wouldn't listen too hard anyway. One program like RM is hardly worthy of them breaking a gut trying to find a fix.. unfortunately.

 

[Augustus Caesar]

@AC

This is the pop-up in question. R-

/media/tinymce_upload/ecf96e4f9d08d8e8a3995a9932846bcf.png

Me thinks myself, and others, are struggling to get a pic here Roger... just a spinning 'please wait' icon. What it doesn't say is how long we have to wait!!! A quick msg to forum Admin from yourself may help sort this one out... I may just pop in an email to Adam too...

In the meantime can you give us more info?

[Augustus Caesar]

@AC

This is the pop-up in question. R-

Oh dear... I posted a reply but didn't delete the image and now it awaits modding... so hopefully it gets through... I need a cuppa!!!

 

Edit ** apparently it did!!!

[RB51]

ROGER... as the pic isn't loading showing your message can you describe it for me in better detail and offer up the info it gives so I can offer a solution?

 

Hmm.... looks as though the 2nd post didn't work either (same as before on Mac, but OK on W10) so here is text. R-

 

WARNING: Railmaster is configured for remote devices, yet the network configuration is set to obtain an IP address automatically.

You must set a static IP address for this computer to allow remote devices to work correctly.  Read the PDF guides.  Would you like RailMaster to try this for you?

Realtek PCle Family Controller

[RB51]

Yes, some folk do seem unable to see anything exept the spinning wheel. I e-mailed Adam last night and he has responed to say they are working on it. I hesitate to tell you what he said in detail - LOL - in case you set off trying to solve something else :-)  The text of the message I am trying to post is two posts above here now. R-

[Augustus Caesar]

Hi AC,

 

Roger has already emailed me and, unfortunately, image loading has been affected by some changes that have been made across the whole website.

 

Hopefully the issue will be resolved shortly though as we are currently working on it.

No problem Admin... I appreciate, as will others, that you have let us know. Hopefully a fix will be in place shortly.

A sterling job is being done on the forum and site and, like any software offering, bugs or glitches, will appear anywhere.

[Augustus Caesar]

Curious. As I don't know your setup Roger we could be on here for a while trying to correct it. Thus taking away the real topic in this thread. Would you consider emailing myself through my Help Site and if a solution is found either myself or yourself can post that solution here for all to read and implement if anyone has similar errors?

[RB51]

Contact form completed. R-