Losing my rag with Railmaster...alternatives?

[Spireblade]

As my thread title says, I am losing it with Railmaster. Various issues after a decent length of time without any but I feel I need to move on to a better, more adaptable and reliable software.

Firstly I am using an Elite, and not everyones cup of tea, but I like it and I am happy with it. Whatever software I choose, it needs to be able to run with the Elite as I cannot afford a new controller at this point.

 

Any suggestions? nothing too complicated, just reliable.

 

Cheers folks

[WIMorrison]

I would recommend iTrain

 

Https://www.berros.eu

Edited December 7, 2019 by WIMorrison

[RAF96]

Rocrail works with Elite and every other piece of hardware yet invented. Well documented and a lively forum. Usually updated every night and the support is excellent. 

 

Edit - what exactly are the problems you are having with RM because the majority of config problems are found to be due to finger trouble. None of this computer stuff is PnP, you have to work at it a little bit to get it configured correctly.

Edited December 7, 2019 by RAF96

[Spireblade]

I have issues with Railmaster recognising  the loco decoders mainly. Most are reading as UNOBTAINABLE which makes it difficult to change CV's and loco ID numbers. Nearly every loco I put on the programming track has problems with this or repeatedly attempting to get the CV values. It is taking hours to get them sorted. All because I am trying to sort out my loco list as I have changed a few old ones for new. There are other minor issues but nothing I can't handle. I am also a bit fed up with the Windows 98 style graphics but that is just my own preference.

[grriff]

JRMI is free but can be a bit teccy. I've found JRMi's DecoderPro to be very easy to use for changing CVs. It should work with the Elite https://www.jmri.org/help/en/html/hardware/index.shtml

[RAF96]

Does your Elite program normally as loss of PROG output is a known failure mode. 

 

With regard to the decoders not being recognised. You can right click on CV7 in the read decoder screen and select your decoder from a drop down list. This forces RM to load the correct CV list for that decoder and from there it should read correctly.

[Spireblade]

Ahhh...thanks . I wasn't aware of that. I'll check it out.

I have never used the Elite for programming, just controlling the loco's. I have always used Railmaster.

[Spireblade]

I have reinstalled Railmaster and it seems to be working fine for the moment. It must have become corrupted in some way.

[Pete the Elaner]

52 minutes ago, Spireblade said:

I have reinstalled Railmaster and it seems to be working fine for the moment. It must have become corrupted in some way.

That's a trick to remember then.

Glad you got sorted & thanks for posting the answer. It is nice to see a solution rather than a problem, some suggestions & then nothing. 

[Spireblade]

It's a bit of a ballache but thankfully it remembered my Propack and track plans. I only had to re enter the loco ID's again. It still dosen't like certain decoders but on the whole it's now fine.

[RAF96]

You shouldn’t ever have to clean reinstall RM but you should check (almost daily) that you are using the latest revision by downloading from the link on the Hornby forum RM page. The reason being that although there are puka auto-updates for regular revisions HRMS has a habit of slipping in uncontrolled micro updates usually just to add locos to the database but at times to covertly fix bugs. All very un-industry standard methodology unfortunately.

[PeterDavid]

Does anyone have any genuine information on the Railmaster Loco identification kit, if it's ever going to happen, etc?  I recall ages (years!) ago an R number being quoted on one of the RM Web forums.  I recently asked Hornby Customer Care and the best I got was a "not this year".

Can anyone suggest any thing I can use as an alternative, without getting too technical, preferably PNP.  I use Railmaster, which I'm quite happy with, never had any real issues  - I find reading the manual helps mostly!

I would like to store complete trains in hidden siding/fiddle yards and a detection system would help my failing memory!

Edited July 30, 2020 by PeterDavid

[Nigelcliffe]

11 hours ago, PeterDavid said:

Does anyone have any genuine information on the Railmaster Loco identification kit, if it's ever going to happen, etc?  I recall ages (years!) ago an R number being quoted on one of the RM Web forums.  I recently asked Hornby Customer Care and the best I got was a "not this year".

Can anyone suggest any thing I can use as an alternative, without getting too technical, preferably PNP.  I use Railmaster, which I'm quite happy with, never had any real issues  - I find reading the manual helps mostly!

I would like to store complete trains in hidden siding/fiddle yards and a detection system would help my failing memory!

 

No idea about Hornby,  if you see Mr Kohler, you could ask him for an answer.   

 

This might work for you, assuming the Hornby system does have the RailCom signal on the track at present.  And you have RailCom enabled decoders fitted, or fit a RailCom identification decoder to those locos lacking RailCom in their decoder. 
Use a Lenz LR120 RailCom display unit, to indicate the address of the loco on a storage track.   One LR120 per storage track will get expensive, but if you can arrange the wiring and a multi-pole switch (eg a 12-position rotary switch), you can switch the LR120 between different tracks using the switch, getting an address on each.

 

 

- Nigel

[PeterDavid]

Thanks Nigel, appreciate your reply I may have to go down that road but it could work out expensive as you noted.

I know Lenz is well thought of but I used Lenz kit in the early days and had nothing but problems so I'm a bit wary.  Then again, I've seen loads of complaints about Railmaster ..... Cheers!