Windows 10

[Augustus Caesar]

Contact form completed. R-

That email has yet to get through to me Roger. I have tested the form and I get my own email!! That's no help of course. Can you resend? One question... are you using Hotmail or Yahoo for example? Don't put your full address on here though... If a further problem arises I will redo the form... seems there a couple of glitches with this one unfortunately.

[RB51]

Hmmmm.... I've done it again and DOUBLE checked spelling etc. There was no bounce back but then using your form rather than my e-mail account (Gmail) don't suppose there would be. I have also managed to find your work e-mail address [we corresponded about BT hub settings] so have sent another message directly to that. R-

[RDS]

... WARNING: Railmaster is configured for remote devices ...

What an interesting error message.  I guess in theory I should get that message as well - but I don't.

I have a networked version but I have not set a fixed IP address, for the reasons I explained a couple of days ago.

 

I wish RailMaster had offered to do it for me!

[RB51]

Nice thought eh RDS? Unfortunatley it doesn't fix it, but in fairness having looked at the blurb I can't see how it could. It's a very complex process. Or at least it seems so to a non-techie. Anyway AC is going to have a go off-line for me and he or I will post the outcome here. R-

[Augustus Caesar]

@Roger

Hi Roger... apart from sticking a few posts on here I will be busy looking at a client's PC and laptop today (just dropped off) so will get back in touch you very shortly with some help. So, in the immortal words of Corporal Jones... or from the cover of a very good book by Douglas Adams: "Don't Panic!"

[Ph0neB0y]

I also have upgraded to win 10 and since then have the elink problem , first it shows the handshake info and then the static ip problem window ( yes it is static ) .I made the leap having asked hornby if any problems , the reply was " no issues on the test platform but until final version is released cannot be sure " ,so it was my decision .I can only think that there are a lot of people now in this situation but they are not following the forum . I have tried many things with no success but want to double check with some items on the forum but being new to this I see mention of setups on two locked threads .Please where do I find these ?

I have tried to use the the driver that was used when elink was working ok (then running windows 7) but the windows will not allow me to do this even when logged in as Administrator, something that I am trying to speak to Microsoft support about.

Hopefully if I am pointed to the locked threads there may be something I have missed .

[RDS]

... I see mention of setups on two locked threads .Please where do I find these ...

The 2 locked threads are first first 2 threads in this RailMaster section of the forum, named: RailMaster Help Site & RailMaster: Setting up and getting started

[RB51]

 "Don't Panic!"

Very good AC. I am very far from panic, as I said RM and Elite are working just fine. R-

[PhilAllwood]

There seems to be a misconception creeping into this thread that the handshake problem only exists between RailMaster and the Elink. I beg to differ as for some of us (well me at least;)), there is a similar problem with RailMaster connecting to the Elite. When trying to connect RailMaster gives the following message:

"The connection with DCC controller A has been lost. This could be due to a short circuit or USB cable disconnection. Clear the error then click on the tick and Railmaster will try to connect again."

No amount of fiddling with cables makes any difference and the same physical setup works fine if I use either JMRI or Big Bear to operate the Elite.

Unfortunately I haven’t had chance, over the last few days, to try resolving this problem. Now I’ve got more time, I’ll try some of the suggestions that I’ve seen on this thread regarding the drivers and see if I can get things working.

Phil

[Augustus Caesar]

@Phil

You've got a lot of reading to do in this thread but when done some ideas may spurn others for you to action.

I tried all I could to get Win10 and eLink to do the handshake by many methods but all failed with slightly problems. However, the Elite DID work for me first time and subsequently again when I reinstalled Win10 the second time. I didn't really mention the Elite as I assumed everyone had gotten that controller to work.

It seems that not everyone has been able to do so. If you get it to work after reading this thread please do come back and let everyone know exactly how you did it for future reference... mine is all boxed up again while I may have another pop at Win10 through a full CLEAN install of the OS on that same machine later on.

Oh the days are just soooo busy....

[RB51]

A further update on the W10 upgrade, and at risk of opening another flood gate of angst, I thought I would pass this on.

 

On my laptop the upgrade stripped out the registration for the RM handheld device (an iPad in my case) and, because it had not been correctly de-activated, RM would not allow re-activation without a re-set by Railmaster techies. A form for this pops up automatically when attempting to re-activate BUT you must know your licence key code/s. If you don't you are warned by the system that you will have to buy another one. To me that sounds reasonable (well I would say that wouldn't I? - I kept a note of mine) but to anyone who hasn't, go to the HELP screen which is the "?" on the top bar and make a note of your codes. Keep the codes because after the re-set all the codes, RM, handheld, and the duplicate registration for the handheld are all the same. Odd, but it all works. Oh, by the way, the RM technical response time was about 2 minutes. R-

[john_wilson1]

I've been reading this forum with interest I have had no success getting Railmaster working on Windows 10 after the upgrade. In my experience it was a little hit and miss under Windows 8.1 as well, but it did work eventually. I had hoped that moving to Windows 10 might help, but obviously it hasn't. Rolling back to my Laptop's original OS, Windows 8.1, isn't really a solution. It's a fix, albeit a temporary one. It is up to Hornby to get a resolution to the problem between Windows 10 and Railmaster. I'm guessing everyone who has contributed so far already had Railmaster installed on a PC with an older version of Windows. What about those potential new customers who have purchased a new PC with Windows 10 on it. Does Hornby say sorry you'll have to use an older version of Windows - Not very customer focussed. Of course that assumes Hornby believe there is a future for Railmaster.

I'm not convinced this is a USB driver problem. I've tried three, including the older Hornby supplied driver. The version Windows 10 installs came out with Windows 8 and that worked. From the driver point of view if the Elink device is picked up in Device Manager correctly as a COM port and shows it as working then at this low level of communication it probably is working. I wouldn't rule out a compatibility problem with the software. I've tried Windows 7 and 8 compatibility modes and it makes no difference. I even tried Windows XP Service pack 3 compatibility mode. Railmaster opened without any errors, but when I tried to set-up a loco it told me there was no DCC controller attached!

Railmaster/Elink isn't unique in using the USB port. In my experience the printer, scanner, camera and external hard drive worked first time without any problems. I'm not sure what is unique about Railmaster/Elink, but it is unlikely to be bulk standard USB driver provided by Microchip Technologies. Also, if Railmaster/Elite works, as some of you are saying then that could indicate that the problem may be an applications level communications issue between Railmaster and Elink on Windows 10.

 

[St1ngr4y]

@Phil

You've got a lot of reading to do in this thread but when done some ideas may spurn others for you to action.

I tried all I could to get Win10 and eLink to do the handshake by many methods but all failed with slightly problems. However, the Elite DID work for me first time and subsequently again when I reinstalled Win10 the second time. I didn't really mention the Elite as I assumed everyone had gotten that controller to work.

It seems that not everyone has been able to do so. If you get it to work after reading this thread please do come back and let everyone know exactly how you did it for future reference... mine is all boxed up again while I may have another pop at Win10 through a full CLEAN install of the OS on that same machine later on.

Oh the days are just soooo busy....

So, apart from the baud rate, what other differences are there between Elink and Elite which would cause so many problems for Elink users?

Ray

[Yelrow]

John Wilson, hi, if you have read all these posts, you will see, that against Hornby advice, you decided to load windows 10. So the situation , you find yourself in, is very unfortunate.   Behind Hornby, are a dedicated HRMS team, who, obviously gave advice, at the time to wait. There was no way they could have predicted this, and i am sure, they are working, as usual, sefllessly, to come up with a solution to help the handfull of people, who decided to go their own way. This is basically, only an elink problem, thank goodness, as the Elite controller, works fine. Railmaster is a fine product, with new things on the horizon, and hornby, must be just as irritated as you are. You have, as you indicated a temporary fix, by rolling back, which some have done, and if you read the posts of our resident  expert, Augustus, you will perhaps understand the background. It is very distressing to hear of any of our fellow members having problems and i hope HRMS, can help you with your situation, in the near future. john. You need to email them, either from RM, or ask hornby,  as they  have no telephone contact nos..

[37lover]

John,

Perhaps you should bear in mind that not everyone with RM is a forum member and some may have loaded windows 10 quite innocently without knowing HRMS advised [and as far as I know only on this forum] against it.

[GWR Greg]

As much as I agree HRMS do a great job and the information on this forum is great, that is no help to RM user who do not read or even know about this forum. So I must support 37lovers comments.

[walkingthedog]

There must be many hundreds of Hornby users who have no idea that this forum exists. I've had a model railway for what feels like a hundred years and only joined the forum a few years ago.  

[mrcrazy504]

any one who has windows 10 but the hornby elink is not working i might be abal to help the team iv been emailing gave me a usb link to update the drives for some of you that are having probs  but i dont know it will work on all laptops/pc ok but its some help here is the link www.powerpos.com/rail-master/eLinkDriver.zip use this and it might help its not 100% ok and let overs know if it work ok

[Yelrow]

Train lover, and Greg. when a new windows is released, and i have had at least 6, bugs exist, and all advice is to wait. Indeed the internet this time, was more active than normal, in suggesting caution, until updates were finalised. When a new model of car comes out, the same caution, is advised. In addition it is well known that you need new drivers, for things like printers. I would like to think that anybody running something on windows 8,  successfully would check, or ask, the manufacturer, if it was ok, to proceed, prior to downloading. You may, and it is your right to disagree, but i think  most people, relying on a running application, of such importance to their hobby, would seek advice. . john

[walkingthedog]

I reckon if you don't know anybody who is computer savvy and don't use this forum or any other come to that, that you'd just upgrade and go for it. I just went for W10 knowing there was a chance I'd have to download a printer driver, you nearly always have to. 

 

Look at how many RM users on here had no idea about contacting RM help from within the system. 

[Yelrow]

WTD, morning, totally agree that if you dont have 1% of computer savvy, you could well upgrade, but RM, requires more than that to understand/ run it.. I think all forum guys are more than 1% computer knowledgeable. As to contacting RM, help, again you are right, but thats cos most peoplrethese days dont read/ go through things, before they start to play, me included. My lady wife on the other hand reads manuals, from cover to cover, and would have explored every aspect of RM, before attenpting to use. Its all this plug and play, its spoilt us. Before , we had to understand what to do, before we did it. She would have identified how you contact RM, as i . did not, initially, wanting to run a train. From memory, somewhere it said that to  use RM, you needed a basic computer grounding. john

[PhilAllwood]

Having played about with RailMaster, Elite and Windows 10 for a couple of days, I’ve managed to get things working by following previous advice and copying the “usbser.sys” file from the Windows.old (in my case Windows 7) into the new Windowssystem32drivers folder having first renamed the existing one “ubser-old.sys”. This needs to be done with the Elite disconnected or windows won’t allow you to do it. You also need to be logged on as Administrator.

 In my case the “usbser.sys” file from Windows 7 is file version 6.1.7601.18247 dated 29/8/2013. The “usbser.sys” file that was in the Windows 10 folder is file version 10.0.10240.16401 dated 05/08/2015. It seems that the driver installed by Windows 10 does not “talk” correctly to the Elite (and Elink) or RailMaster does not “talk” correctly to the driver. Or, possibly, a combination of both as well as there being elements that are system dependent.

I did actually go through the following procedure but I’m not certain if the steps 1 to 11 are really necessary but it might be worth a try if just copying the sys file does not work.

1. Open “Settings” from the start menu and select “Devices” and then “Connected devices”.

2. At the bottom of this window under “Related Settings”  select “Device Manager”

3. In “Device Manager”, select the “Ports (COM & LPT)” and there will be the driver “USB Serial Port (COM #)” – where # is the port number. In my case 4.

4. Right click and select “Update software driver” then select “Browse my computer for driver software” to locate and install the driver software manually.

5. The select “Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer”

6. Select “Have disk” and browse to the RailMaster folder e.g. C:Program FilesRailmaster and select the “Elite_eLink driver (Win Vista)” file and click open. Then select OK.

7. You should then see a list in the selection box. Under USB Serial Port, I had listed R8214 Hornby Elite Version 5.1.2600.0 and Hornby Elite Version 5.1.2600.0 [18/08/2001]. I selected the first one.

8. Click “Next” and you will be told that the driver is installing. You may get a warning about unsigned driver. In which case click “Install anyway”.

9. Click “OK” and return to “Device Manager” where the “Ports (COM & LPT)” will now show the driver as R8214 Hornby Elite (COM#) – again where # is the port number.

10. Check the port settings by double-clicking on the driver and set them accordingly (19200 BPS for the Elite)

11. Close “Device Manager

12. I then disconnected the Elite and renamed the file “usbser.sys” in c:windowssystem32drivers to “usbser-old.sys”. I then copied the “usbser.sys” file from c:windows.oldsystem32drivers into the c:windowssystem32drivers folder.

13. On reconnecting the Elite and starting RailMaster, everything worked OK.

This worked for me. I hope it works for you.

Phil

 

[walkingthedog]

I wonder how many RM users are on this forum compared to the number sold. 

[Yelrow]

Phil, good catch, good perseverence. john

[37lover]

I wonder how many RM users are on this forum compared to the number sold. 

I just tried to count up the users posting on this thread and got to either the mid thirties or low forties. I was doing the mental arithmetic but 'lost count' in the low thirties, blame it on old age! Several are/were first time posters and of course the subject is windows 10 so not all forum RM users would have posted. I doubt if Hornby will disclose how many numbers have been sold, I think I saw something recently suggest several thousand. A bit like Ebay, it can be very hard to appreciate the large numbers involved.

Unlike some of the other forums I don't believe Hornby members can see a list of users?