Alan K

George at Hornby said much the same - but I have to say that keeping the data within the app is not my idea of an export function. I didn't try the Apple transfer process as I didn't want to clone Ipad 1 - rather setup Ipad 2 to run just the model railway related software leaving Ipad 1 to continue running everything else.

I am in the process of transferring HM7000 from my general use Ipad to a dedicated Ipad. I have several locos in the engine shed setup to be controlled via the Dongle. I have created custom function maps as they have non-Hornby sound decoders fitted. That is quite laborious so I hoped to be able to use Export Function Map on Ipad 1 and Import Function Map on Ipad 2 but after exporting some of them I cannot find the Exported data. They are shown as available to be imported back into the app on Ipad 1 but that is of no use at all. Any ideas?

Well that's weird. Before unplugging everything I gave it one last chance plugged into the Digikeijs and without changing anything at all it sprang into life. I therefore changed back to the Elite and that worked too. So I'll leave it for today and fingers crossed it will work when switched on tomorrow. I note that there is the option to choose Elite or Select - that begs the question as to what to choose for AN Other controller or indeed what difference it might make. Alan

My HM7040 arrived today. I've given it a whirl following the scant instructions in the Quick Start Guide. First of all I checked that the loco worked using the Elite controller which it did. I plugged the HM7040 into the Elite, the two LEDs lit and the app duly connected. I updated the firmware - so far so good. I then assigned the loco, allocated the default function map, gave it the correct address that had worked under direct Elite control and according to the guide the loco should then be controllable from the app. However the loco did not respond - no movement and no sound. I found a link to the more comprehensive guide (p24 onwards of the HM DCC Text Tutorial) and read that all the way through but although it provides more detail it didn't indicate that I had missed anything or made any mistakes. I have also plugged it into the Xpressnet socket of a Digikeijs DR5000 - again it connected to the app but no response from the loco. So at the moment I am very disappointed. Alan

NEM662 is the whole thing - “In addition to specifying the electrical interface and connectors, the NEM 662 standard also mandates the maximum physical size of decoders. A fully compliant Next18 decoder is no larger than 15mm x 9.5mm - one would fit on a dime; a Next18S decoder is no larger than 25mm x 10.5mm.”

The box for the Next18 does say Retrofit to Next18 pin NMRA - NEM662 compatible locomotives but quite clearly they are far too big to fit many as Sam’s Trains review clearly demonstrates. I purchased one without checking dimensions assuming they would be compliant with NEM662 standards and was shocked when I saw the actual size. Fortunately I have hardwired a NEXT18 socket so have some flexibility as to where to place it and the decoder but even then it is a tight fit with a decent size speaker and a Power Pack is likely to be problematical.

Ok I have put the coal shovelling and aux1 function keys next to each other with the latter renamed as Firebox flicker so it’s easier to turn them both on and off. Of course that does not help with no light if the sound plays as a random sound. I still find it a disappointing omission as the two should so obviously be synchronised. Things have progressed from the TTS decoders in that the lighting can be set to operate in various ways including firebox flicker. So that has been thought of to a degree but perhaps not too deeply in terms of practicalities.

Yes I did note that you cannot remap functions. I was hoping that firebox flicker would be available when coal shovelling is turned on either as a random sound or by function key. All mainstream decoders can do that and I am surprised that a newly developed decoder cannot. It wouldn't be so bad if the aux lighting was on the same page but selecting F7 for the sound then moving to another page to select say F21 is too much of a pain. Perhaps this could be addressed in a future update.

I have several DCC sound locos and I routinely install firebox flicker LEDs. The LEDs are set to flicker and they light when the coal shovelling function key is pressed. There is such a function key available on downloaded steam locomotive profiles on the HM7000 decoders but I cannot find anything in the 130 page manual to suggest that it is possible to associate that function key with the relevant lighting. It is possible to set a lighting output to flicker on function keys 21,22 and 24 but that is hardly convenient. Equally most sound decoders will also switch on firebox flicker whenever the sound is played as a random sound. It may well be that the HM7000 has those capabilities but as I said I cannot see anything in the documentation.

The loco is DCC fitted R2625X so unless the decoder was changed it will be Hornby. Thanks for that Chris. Looking at images of the R8215 as well as the R8249 there seem to be no obvious distinguising features - they look very similar. There is only one chip with a number printed on it and that number varies on both decoders and I haven't found one with the same number as my chip. If it is an R8215 are you saying that it is virtually impossible to write to CVs if only to change the address? That would mean that if you had two of them they would both irrevocably have an address of 3. Surely that would be unsellable (if that's a word). ... UPDATE: Found this elsewhere on the forum,,, ... R8215 Decoder - General DescriptionNote: This decoder has now been superseded by the R8249 4 function decoder. The R8215 is a basic 4 function decoder; it does not support the following features:1) Railcom2) Interrogation. ****Late version decoders manufactured after November 2007 have the ability to be read in “REG” mode. These later decoders are identified by a red dot painted on the MCU chip on the circuit board. Older versions of the decoder either have no painted dots, or a white paint dot. ,,, Mine does have a white paint dot but the loco is not pre 2007!! ... Apparently it is possible to write to CVs 1,3,4 and 29 but it doesn't say how. Alan

I have acquired a used Hornby loco with DCC fitted. I assume it is an R8249 though there is nothing printed on it to confirm that and looking at images it seems that there are various iterations with different chips on board. It runs using address 3 but I want to change the address to match the running number. However I cannot read any CVs. I assume I cannot write either but as I would not be able to read back it doesn't seem to be worth trying. I originally tried to read it while in the loco using Railmaster usng an e-Link (I would have tried my Elite but the programming circuit gave up and Hornby declined to repair it.). I then tried again with the decoder plugged in to a decoder tester to take any issues with wheels and track out of the equation. Further tests using a Digikeijs command station and Decoder Pro also failed. Again it would run in the tester and lighting also worked. I have had decoders fail before but thay failed completely. I have never had one work but be unreadable. Any thoughts on this would be welcome.

Chris - This problem has been running over a few days with PC turned off between sessions plus an update to RM so it was not a Windows glitch - just a RM one!! As suggested I looked at the Railmaster folder and found several plan files including mine. I thought I would try a long shot by double clicking on the plan file to see if it would open RM and if so what would happen. It did indeed open with my layout and lo and behold when I entered edit mode the layouts were all there in the pull down. That must have restored a broken link somewhere. RM is a law unto itself so who knows how the archaic program works. Rather odd but I have now managed to configure the additional points that I couldn't control - and of course one of them defaulted at power up to routing into an unfinished section of the layout! Now OK. Thanks for the advice. Alan

The track plan has a unique name and does as I said load into RM in normal mode. In edit mode nothing shows no matter how much I scroll up and down the pull down box - not even the RM default track plan whatever that is called. I'll have a browse around RM folders when I have a chance.

I created a track plan several months ago which I have been using ever since. I have just made a couple of changes to my layout and need to reflect them in that track plan. However when I enter edit mode there is no plan to edit, The pull down box where you should be able to select the name of the plan you want to edit is also blank. As editing track plans is not something one does very often I don't know when it vanished. I have upgraded from 1.72 to 1.73 in the hope that it might resolve the issue but it has not. I imagine the only solution will be to recreate a plan from scratch but that will be laborious and prone to error especially where point control is concerned. I can take a screenshot of the layout in normal mode but that will not show the point configurations and there are around 20. The track plan must exist somewhere for RM to use it in operation mode so it's hard to understand why it isn't visible in edit mode. Any suggestions to avoid having to do that would be most welcome. Alan

My Elite suffered the programming failure so I duly contacted Hornby. They issued an RMA and asked me to send it in which I did. It was returned quickly and I was initially pleasantly surprised that they had managed to fix it quickly. Excellent service I thought until I opened the parcel to find a note which simply said they wouldn't repair it as it is too old. As the date of manufacture is stamped on the botton of the case they could have asked for that information before asking me to package it and pay postage. I'm not sure what difference the age actually makes once the Elite is out of warranty - all the photos of the internal components I have seen show no obvious differences - certainly Q8 and Q9 seem to be unchanged. If they simply do not fix PCBs they shoukd say so. My previous interaction with Hornby customer service has been quite contructive albeit long winded but on this occasion I was most disappointed. As I was using the Elite as controller A and an e-Link as controller B for accessories the failure of the progamming function upsets that as it is not possible to program using contoller B. It was helpful to be able to use the control knobs on the Elite alongside RM but of course that is not possible if the controllers are swapped.

I think the more you try to do with RM the more the limitations become apparent. As I said I did try using a tablet PC as a slave with a second full copy of RM. Hopeless - among other issues if I hit a function key on the slave it turned on a different function on the host PC (and on the loco). Just had a look at at Digikeis. Does seem to offer a lot for the money though I don't know why I might need the various supported protocols with a mix of decoders. Interestingly it will work with the Z21 app. Seems much cheaper than an actual Z21. Several of the paid for software packages come in various versions with enormous differences in price.- anything from under £100 to £500+. I don't always find it very easy to work out which would actually be required. And you dont know how you would get on with any package until you try. Not all have evaluation facilities.

Rob, I don't have an oscilloscope and I'm certainly not going to invest in one just to prove to the n'th degree that the Elite has ceased to program. To be honest I am getting more than a little fed up with RM and Hornby controls in general. It's all taking up far too much of the limited time I have available that I should be spending on actual modelling - not to mention the frustration and stress. After all railway modelling is supposed to be an enjoyable hobby. My wife is strongly of the opinion that I should have given up on it a while ago and dumped it. Big questions -what to replace it with? - how much would it cost? - how much time and effort to set it up? The one advantage of RM etc is ostensibly that it is relatively simple to set up and operate - in practice there are quite a few foibles and it is unreliable. I gave up trying to use a second copy of RM on a Windows tablet PC - issues were raised years ago and I brought them up again a few months ago but nothing whatsoever has changed to my knowledge.

Mine is only a couple of years old but they are unusually long lived for products in the technological world, Can't say I have heard any rumours of a replacement coming any time soon though....

Chris, I have already tried a factory reset to no avail. A couple of posts that I have found by others with similar programming issues report that it made no difference - may have worked for some but I have not actually found any reports of success. I note some reports that there is no voltage on the Elite outputs but mine has 15v+ on track and a very low voltage on prog that does change when the red LED flashes but so quickly that I can't read the value. Presumably an oscilloscope would give more info..... As far as RM is concerned it will probably work with the settings as last used with the lack of programming being attributed to the Elite throwing a tantrum. I may have to switch controllers so that I can program using the eLink though that is not the ideal arrangement. Presumably the .ini would need to be changed yet again... Alternative comms=1 [for Controller A eLink 1.07] Check controller=1 Alternative comms2=1 [for Controller B Elite v1.44] Check controller2=0

Rob, I was hoping that even if the software is flakey the Elite hardware would be reliable but after expreiencing the current issue with the Elite I found reports of previous programming failures (including one by yourself) or even total output failures both within theses forums and elsewhere. Probably being over optimistic as I have previously had a defective eLink and a malfunctioning TTS decoder replaced. Alan

RAF96 The Elite is supposed to be able to read on Main in Operate mode if the decoder is Railcom capable and it is enabled. My Loksound is capable and it is enabled. The function would logically not be available in Operate mode if it couldn't read in any circumstance. Anyway probably academic if the Elite has on a whim decided that will no longer read in Direct mode with the decoder in a decoder tester. Alan

Update to the above. It would appear that the Elite has conspired to compound the felony. It will no longer read CVs via RM nor standalone in either Direct Mode on the programming track nor in operate mode on the main. Despire flashing lights and clicks it returns either 255 or XXX depending on mode. Significantly the LEDs on my decoder tester do not flicker as they should when reading or writing in Direct Mode.It was certatinly working just a few weeks ago. My sole consolation today is that my loco does work perfectly well with its decoder reinstalled whether connected to eLink or Elite though I have yet to put RM back into dual controller mode. I suppose I could switch them so that I can program CVs via the eLink but that loses that possibility of using the knobs on the Elite to control trains.

Chris, My next step will indeed be to try the Elite on its own as Controller A. Though the when I tried to program with both controllers connected the Elite did click and flash the red LED as it should and I did use the Elite with RM 1.69 a couple of months ago when I set the address and a couple of other CVs on the loco with the Loksound decoder before I removed the decoder to work on it. To be honest I have lots of tasks to carry out on my railway and stock and am loathe to spend hours more on RM going through the combinations especially if the Elite proves to OK as apart from getting both controllers to connect it would be necessary to test functionality as well - oh and I'll also have a lounge and living room and extension to decorate as soon as the builders finish!! So for the time being the easiest option would seem to be to bridge the track and accessory buses and use a single controller although that is a rather galling prospect as I am only just completing altering the wiring to connect all the points to the accessory bus.

Chris, Tried again today. Controller A initially not found but after carring out the usual usb disconnect and reconnect both controllers connected. Again the points worked via controller B. With RM "working" I thought I would carry on with some work I had been doing on a loco. The loco has a Loksound 4 decoder which I had taken out while enhancing it and having completed that work I plugged it back in. To make sure all was OK I thought I would get RM to read the CVs as that is safer than applying track voltage. RM failed to read CVs so I removed the decoder and plugged it in to an ESU decoder tester. RM still failed to read CVs. Obviously I was concerned for the health of the expensive decoder so I tried with the loco that had been happiliy running a couple of days ago. I couldn't read CVs from that either. In exasperation I reconfigured RM to use just the eLink as Controller A and tried again. RM then happily read the CVs. ☹️

Chris, Yes I can confirm they are the settings that I used. At this stage I would agree that my feedback is no more than potentially positive as recent history suggests that RM is quite unpredictable and of course the one thing one expects from a computer program is that with the same inputs it will inevitably produce the same results. In my early days in IT I wrote mainframe computer programs and if there was an error in the code and the program failed the one thing that was certain is that it would always fail in exactly the same way until the code was corrected. Crossing fingers never helped!! Although I am totally bemused by RM, I will give it another go. However there are many things I would rather spend the limited time I have to work on my model railway on than fighting to overcome the whims and foibles of RM. It should just work and I imagine most people who have experienced the issues highlighted in this forum will simply give up and buy something that does work out of the box.