Help adding colour signals

[paul_jeanes]

Completely new to hornby railmaster, have used the hornby track plans large oval 9/13 fixed layout 7/11 (track plan 9 in railmaster).

Track layed, hornby points and hornby point motors installed through hornby decoders, now want to add colour signals, does anyone know where there might be a tutorial to do this, not sure where to start, for instance which colour signals to work with the points and motors installed, any help would be appreciated.

Equipment: Hornby Elite +railmaster pro 1.56

[paul_jeanes]

Further to my post, must point out I am in a steep learning curve and could almost write what I know about railmaster and dcc control on a postage stamp.

So if I ask about something which is obvious to most, please treat me as if I know nothing but the most basic.

Will I need further decoders for the colour lights, will I add them like a point motors (ports 1-4, 5-8 etc) Green to -, red to +, black to C.

Will train-tech colour signals work with Hornby R8247 decoders.

[Chrissaf]

Paul, here are the basics.

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Option 1) wire a signal directly to an Accessory Decoder [e.g R8247]

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In this option the signal will either be BULB based or LED based and have only TWO states, RED or GREEN, this is termed DUAL ASPECT. A single Accessory Decoder port will be used and have a single Accessory Decoder address associated with it. Three wires are needed, one for the RED lamp, one for the GREEN and one common +ve return. The R8247 Accessory Decoder port will also need to be configured for ‘always on’ the default configuration is a ‘pulse’ output.

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Although more complicated it would be possible to accommodate THREE and FOUR ASPECT signals but this would involve more complicated wiring to multiple Accessory Decoder ports and would require multiple Accessory Decoder addresses to be configured. This would IMHO be very messy, particularly to switch the signal colour conditions as more than one address is needed.

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Note that LED based signals will need a protective resistor included in the common return [typically 1,000 ohms] and the LED signals will need to be wired as ‘common anode’ as the common C terminal on the R8247 Accessory Decoder is +ve. Note some ready-made LED signals are wired ‘common cathode’ and are not suitable to be wired to a R8247.

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Option 2) use a signal with an integral Accessory Decoder function built in.

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This is the type of signal that Train Tech provide. They have the advantage that they are relatively ‘plug n play’ compared to Option 1) above, very little wiring is required. The TT signal doesn’t require any additional resistors. They have an integral Accessory Decoder function built in so don’t require additional R8247 ports.

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DUAL ASPECT TT signals will work with the standard RM software, but note that TT signals with more than two aspects require RM ProPack to be installed.

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Regardless of whether Option 1) or 2) is deployed. In principle, the signals are added to your RM track plan in a similar way to points. Once the signal icon is placed on the track plan you right click it and enter the configuration options in the resultant pop-up menu.

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Train Tech signals are very easy to set up. Search You-Tube and you will find a plethora of videos showing how it is done. In principle, you short circuit a metallic link on the base of the signal. This puts the signal in ‘learning mode’. You use your controller (in this case RM) to send the address that you want to use to operate the signal. The TT signal sees this address and self-configures itself to it….job done!!

[96RAF]

Couple of things Paul:

First use the link at the top of the Railmaster forum page to download and install the latest update for RM - currently v1.64. Many things have changed since your version.

 

There is a lot of forum traffic about using Train-Tech signals with RM - search on Train-Tech.

 

R8247 acc decoders will light signals but you have to set them for continuous output not pulse as used for solenoid point motors - this can be configured from inside RM - use programming accessory decoders button.

 

The other way of lighting signals is by way of a switch attached to the point such that when the point switches the light changes but this may not be what you want. You may want to change a signal and have that set the point - this requires the accessory decoders method.

 

Edit: As usual while I was typing, so was a quicker typist - apologies for any duplication...

[Chrissaf]

Paul, as RAF says. Your RM 1.56 version is now very old with limited, if not non existent, support for TT signals. You will really benefit from upgrading your 1.56 version to 1.64

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Firstly you DO NOT need to uninstall your current version. Just download the file from the link at the top of the RM forum section and run it. Depending upon your version of Windows you MAY need to make some amendments to your RM .INI file to get the best out of the 1.64 version. These are documented in the last reply posted in the locked thread at the top of the RM forum section titled: Railmaster: Setting Up and Getting Started. Don't be put off by the reference to Win 10, the post has some validity for all versions of Windows.

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Updating your RM version to 1.64 will also place a new 1.64 version RM user guide PDF manual on your desktop. See page 33 in this manual to see how to edit your .INI file if you need to.

[Chrissaf]

Further to my previous posts. I have just noticed that you have an Elite and not eLink. This will make configuring TT signals even easier, as once the TT signal is put in 'learning mode' all you need to do is to press the 'Accessory' button on the Elite, dial in the required address and activate.

[Fishmanoz]

Paul, you certainly already have some good advice, starting by upgrading to latest version, and just to add a couple of things.

 

When you have the latest, you will notice you have a sample track plan showing you how to configure TT signals.

 

Fnally, with ProPack, you can now configure a signal to trigger a point or a point to change a signal. Just right click on them in layout designer mode and a configuration box will appear with those options.  It's also covered in the manual.

[paul_jeanes]

A big thank you to all replies, this really is a brilliant forum, just need to work out which particular signals are required for my layout (Railmaster Hornby Tracks Plans 2009 layout 9) and the placement, unfortunately I don't have any experience in signalling, Train-tech is a definite with Option 2, I think might just add signals on the main tracks first, need to learn up.Thanks again.

[Chrissaf]

Your welcome.......

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Note: the only negative of doing signals this way is that there is (currently) very little scope for automation when controlling locos manually. In other words, once a train has passed a signal at Green, then it is up to you as the operator to manually change it to Red. After a while and the novelty has worn off, the tendency would be to just leave it at Green unless you want it set at Red to stop the train.

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Of course you could configure a RM program to perform some element of signal switching, either with full computer control of the loco or you manually driving the loco and adhering to shown signal conditions controlled by the computer program.

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If Hornby Loco Detection (planned) should ever be released, then the TT signals are ideally placed technically to be fully automated and integrated into the layout control system. As the LD system will (if configured to do so) know when a loco has passed a Green signal and switch it to Red.