Railmaster, control using both elink and elite

[Robert -348404]

Hi I’ve been trying to find an exact answer to several questions

ive had elink and railmaster sat in its box for some time and just this week got railmaster working with elink and played around with a couple of locos

ive Got a layout with four lines that I can run four trains on continuous plus a goods/ fiddle yard with turntable for shunting etc

I looking for a straight answer to a question can I control trains on the main lines with rail master through elink as main power supply and also use elite as a second controller in railmaster to operate other locos ie doing some shunting

I’ve seen people mention using elite to control trains and using elink to operate points etc but just want to know if you can use both at the same time to control trains at the same time

also can the smart phone app be used at the same time aswell ?

[LTSR_NSE]

@robert - provided the tracks (layouts) that the 2 controllers are each operating, are entirely (electrically) separated from each other, then yes RM can control both separately. Similar to the way that it can control locos with one & accessories with another.

However with DCC you must only connect one controller electrically to each set of tracks.

[96RAF]

The ‘smart phone app’ HM | DCC can be used to control Bluetooth locos on the same track that RM is controlling regular locos on.

What you must never do is connect 2 DCC controllers to the same track. They must as LT says be controlling separate electrically isolated tracks. To do this in RM you need to draw up the loops as separate track plans and flip between them. I have never seen this done on one screen.

The whole point of RM is to operate trains from a screen, but you can still use the Elite to control trains manually, however expect sluggish response and possibly missed commands whilst doing that.

[Fishmanoz]

What RAF is missing is commands not O mands.

And to be clear - if you use the Elite instead of eLink as a single controller with RM, so no need to isolate any part of the layout, you can do some controlling via RM and other locos directly via the Elite.

If you then have a separate bus for accessory control, you can control that with the eLink connected as Controller B on RM. That’s not essential though as RM/Elite can handle the lot on a single bus.

And all of that is before any consideration of HM | DCC, either using HM7000 decoders and the app, or existing decoders plus the dongle and the Elite and the app.

[Robert -348404]

Yeah I allready understand that I’d have the elink connected to the track connected to a pc and the elite to the pc only what I was getting at was railmaster and elite controlling trains at the same time obviously the elite would run via usb and send signals through rail master and elink to the track

[LTSR_NSE]

Right I see what you are asking - can the Elite be used merely as an input/handset to send commands to RM, which would then be sent through the eLink to the track?

No unfortunately that isn’t possible - both Elite & eLink only possess the ability to send commands to their track outputs - both use their USB connections simply to receive commands from a PC (running either RM or an alternative program e.g. TGG or JMRI.)

[P-Henny]

NO - USING TWO LOCO CONTROLLERS IN RM WILL NOT WORK.

Even if you were to use two separate DCC Buses and connect a controller to each. In Railmaster you have an option to select either Controller A OR Controller B when configuring an Accessory such as a point.

In Railmaster THERE IS NO such controller selection facility when configuring a loco and its decoder. ALL loco decoder commands are ONLY sent via Controller A and can not be sent via Controller B.

Plus additionally some other concepts to consider and overcome even if it were possible. Where the Controller A domain track interconnected with the Controller B domain track. Just using Insulated Rail Joiners at that location is no good either, because as the wheels of the loco cross the join, the outputs of both controllers would be connected together and be a significant issue. I suspect that this is one reason why HRMS specifically do not give any option in the Railmaster configuration to use Controller A or Controller B in the loco set up screen, only Controller A.

Plus I can't see any benefit. You still have to use the SAME Railmaster screen and its loco throttles to control the locos on both mainline & shunting yard. Having two controllers doesn't change the screen layout, and a single controller (Controller A) can do it all on its own under Railmaster control.

What follows is something close to what your query was asking for.

If you want to separate the mainline from the shunting, the easy and fully supported option would be to use the Elite as Controller A [can't be done with the eLink as no control knobs on eLink], then use the Railmaster screen to operate the mainline locos and then use the screen OR the two knobs on the Elite to control one or two shunting locos. There is a setting in the Railmaster.ini file that allows the position of the physical control knobs on the Elite to be 'fed back' into the Railmaster screen throttle to support this.

Refer to page 33 of the RM Manual for this 'Railmaster.ini' file entry:

Elite feedback=0

0=Do not feedback throttle to RailMaster 1=Feedback throttle

Sorry LT&SR-NSE, this is contradictory to your USB (one way - receive only) statement in your last post, but I have used this dual control facility via USB feedback with success on my own RM setup.

EDIT: My reply, basically confirms everything Fishman and to a certain extent what 96RAF wrote in their replies but in more in depth greater detail.

[96RAF]

Yeah I allready understand that I’d have the elink connected to the track connected to a pc and the elite to the pc only what I was getting at was railmaster and elite controlling trains at the same time obviously the elite would run via usb and send signals through rail master and elink to the track

 

 

Totally wrong - Elite and eLink are both DCC controllers and essentially the same device functionally, so you do not send signals from the Elite thru’ RM and then eLink to the track. You send signals from only either Elite or eLink to the track via RM. Try your method and you will destroy both controllers.

[Alan-375731]

Good day fellow hornby enthusiasts I have been running a layout for approximately 8 years and have enjoyed all the challenges i.e. soldering, learning about electronic components etc. The controller that I am working with is RailMaster on laptop with the Pro add on,I find this is a good control for my self. I have come to a stage where I would like to run programmed locos and scheduled locomotives and opperate shunters manually at the same time.

When attempting this I fine the the timming of scheduled and programmed units is corrupted.

Would this be a similar issue?.

For tech guys will the new bluetooth HM7000 sound decoders run with Railmaster to sort our enquiries ?.

i.e can this tested ?.

Thanks.

[96RAF]

Ref HM7K and RM.

The app does not interface with RM but locos running in DCC mode can be controlled by RM same as any other decoder.

Running programs in RM is prone to timing errors due to loco creep as they warm up and due to Elite skipping commands especially if used in manual mode whilst RM is running auto-ops.