JMRI Drivers for Hornby Elite wanted

[Simon G 15,904]

My Model Club has a Hornby Elite controller, which we have used along with Railmaster up to now.  We would also like to try using JMRI to control it, but can’t find the necessary Windows drivers.  I put a query to Hornby who reply was that they don’t have the drivers on their website, contrary to what was said on the JMRI website.

 

Has anyone tried this combination, and if so, where did you find the drivers?

[nick_bastable 2,167]

Hornby

Configure: Hornby Elite via built in USB Port

Configure: Hornby Elite or Hornby Select via Lenz LI100, LI101F, LIUSB or GenLi XPressNet interfaces, ZTC Controls ZTC640 interface, or an XPA and Hayes compatible modem.

Please check the notes above for system specific restrictions on what JMRI can do.

 

 

from the MRI website

[Simon G 15,904]

Yes, I had seen those details on the JMRI website, and am trying to connect via the built in Elite USB port, but the PC, running Windows 7, cannot recognise the Elite without the necessary drivers.

[nick_bastable 2,167]

https://www.Hornby.com/uk-en/downloads/view/index/cat/9

 

[Simon G 15,904]

Sadly the downloads on that link do not contain any suitable drivers, or at least none that JMRI recognises.

[Nigelcliffe 1,210]

Its years since I did a JMRI install with an Elite for someone however.....

 

The Hornby files for update, or to use RailMaster should contain a two stage process.   The first puts a driver onto the PC, this is what you need for other software, including JMRI.   

 

Reading through the manual for the Windows 7 update and Railmaster use, and follow the steps to put the device driver onto the PC.   Once done, open the "Device Manager" in Windows (click the start icon in bottom left of screen, then type "Device Manager" to find it), and watch the "Ports (COM & LPT)" section whilst plugging in the Elite via USB.   The Com port for the Elite should appear.    That's the port setting you need for other software such as JMRI.

 

Producing device drivers is down to the hardware vendor - Hornby in this case.   JMRI just uses the COM ports within the operating system.

 

- Nigel

[RAF96 418]

The Elite used to use custom drivers but Win10 uses its own MS drivers for Elite.

As far as I can remember up to that point Elite used the old Vista drivers. The only difference was the installation screen notifications.

 

I think the clue is when you connect the Elite - Win 7 sets it up as an RS232 emulation, then you load the drivers and it changes the Dev Mgr screen to say Hornby Elite. Win 10 doesn’t identify it like this, merely as another in ise USB port.

 

Have a look at this Railmaster guide substituting eLink for Elite as they both use the same drivers. The page tells the differences when installing to Win 7 or other levels.

https://octaviancs.com/railmaster/installation1.php?id=installation

[nick_bastable 2,167]

as posted earlier and mentioned by Nigel  the instal instructions on the Hornby link for W7  should resolve your issue  secxtion 1 gives  a blow by blow how to

 

 

how_to_update_the_hornby_elite_-_w7 (1).pdf

[Simon G 15,904]

Thanks for the suggestions again.  I will give it a go in due course, but for the time being another member of the MRC has use of the laptop in question, so I need to wait a week until I get it back!