Reversing Direction Spontaneously

[salmontrout]

Hi  After 40 years, returning to the hobby.

 I have a DCC system with second hand horby select. Must be quite old as start up is 11 30 3

I have a number of locos but two both new one from ebay (The Burton) sealed in unopened box and Class 47 from new majestic set (from amazon at Christmas) are running fine then suddenly go in reverse.  Another loco seems to have started this habit.  Any suggestions as to whats going on  Both are dcc factory fitted. Suspect issue is with select,  It seems to have dead spots on the rotary control and button 7 doesnt respond

Have got elink with trackmaster but havent got my head round to set it up with the pc yet

Thanks in advance for any suggestions

[poliss]

Usually happens when the decoder detects a momentary short circuit and thinks it's on DC power. You can turn of DC in CV29 using the eLink, but not with the Select.

[96RAF]

Reversing direction spontaneously - that's the job spec for a politician.

 

seriously - your Select is at Rev 1.1 whereas the current state is Rev 1.5 but the update can only be done at Horby and for a modest fee - 15 pounds at last count. The update gives improved features such as supporting more sound functions and the way some of the buttons work.

[2e0dtoeric]

Reversing direction spontaneously - this could be dirty track, wheels, or the pick-up wipers, giving the decoder corrupted data.

(edit for a typo - I've got a large cat draped over one arm!)

 

[Fishmanoz]

Certainly, this could be dirty track/wipers/wheels as has been said, this is the usual cause.  But you say you may have dead spots on your Select throttle, so does it happen when you are adjusting speed with the throttle or at other times?

 

If you wish to persist with the Select, you should send it to Hornby for upgrade to its firmware, v1.1 you have is very old.  Hornby can look at the throttle at the same time and the button.  Minimum cost would be £15 for the upgrade.  Then, can you return it to the seller as it isn't working very well?

 

I would recommend ditching the Select, return to seller or place carefully at the back of your bottom draw.  It's useless as a doorstop unfortunately, too light.  Then get your head around RM and eLink, sooner rather than later.  Start by going to the RM forum and read the top locked thread Railmaster: Setting Up and Getting Started. Or follow the link from AC's locked thread to his excellent separate site for even more detail.  Won't take long to get the hang of it.

[salmontrout]

Hi thanks for replies

I have managed to install Railmaster to my windows 10 computer but having no luck getting the e link  recogised

What forum are you referrring to fishmanoz?  Ill have a look at it and see if that helps. Meanwhile I have emailed hornby for advice.

Thanks again

[RDS]

... What forum are you referrring to fishmanoz ...

The forum Fishy is referring to is this forum but the RailMaster section.  The third thread down is a locked thread called 'RailMaster Help Site'.  Everything you should need is in there.

(Incidentally, it sounds to me like your Select is faulty, especially seeing as you have experienced the problem with more than 1 Loco)

[Fishmanoz]

First thread, not the third, at least for a start.  And go through the entire thing.  Do start by upgrading to the latest version from the link at the top of the RM forum above the threads.  Having upgraded, throw away the CD, you'll never need it agsin, but keep your licence code.

 

And if you have emailed Hornby Customer Care (HCC), you will only get a reply this side of Christmas if you are lucky and, in general, they know nothing.  You need to contact Hornby Railmaster Support (HRMS).  This is best done from the email facility within the Help screen of RM.  however, if you don't receive an immediate auto acknowledgement from this, your AV will be blocking you.  So follow the AV instructions in the threads or separate site and, if still no acknowledgement, come back and we'll let you know what to do next.

[RDS]

First thread, not the third, ...

 

I meant for AC's guide.

[Fishmanoz]

Knew that RDS, was just suggesting he start with the short version in the first thread, rather than the comprehensive on AC's site.  Not sure if Ac has added the ini settings advice now in the first thread to his site either.  AC?

[salmontrout]

Thanks for all the help and advice.  Managed to get elink up and communicating with PC,  Programed   a number of locos and tested on programming track  Away for weekend, will try on layout on Tuesday when I return

[salmontrout]

Hi Again

Sorry for being a pest.  Have managed to get locos running using e link but their speed is much slower.

For example D49 The Burton was very fast previously but slow now,  Couldnt find The Burton on railmaster but loaded it under Chesire,  The cruise speed suggested is 52 or 54,  I went to loco settings and adjusted this up to 80 and saved changes.  However controller still shows 54.  Do I need to do this under programming mode or not.

If not, how do I keep the speed level up

[96RAF]

It seems as if your speed amendment has not been saved.

from the loco setting screen call up the loco, amend the cruise speed, click the green tick, then close the window and restart RM.

recheck that the new speed has been taken.

[salmontrout]

Thanks RAF96.  I changed the locomotive to "the burton" without uising the hornby loco id and set a new maximum speed.  However looking at two others, EC Trench for one there is a blue maximum speed of 72 showing on railmaster.  Can this be overcome or do I just not use the hornby database for manual control.  It doesnt matter waht i do that blue maximukm stays in place.

Thanks again

[96RAF]

Whether you placed the loco manually or by way of its R number into the loco database in RM you can still reset the shunt and cruise speeds to what you like - for instance my old end to end would not support runnig Pacifics at 90 mPH cruise so I had them set at 40 with a 10 MPH shunt.

 

I went through the procedure I described, saved them and importantly restarted RM to consolidate the changes.

 

You can also run the RM CV reader with the loco on a programming and amend the top speed CV value across the range 0-255, which I did in my case as I never want a loco to run flat out - a  useful enforced speed limiter. This is handy if you dont want the kids/grandkids to race your trains off the edge of the layout.

 

You are probably well aware by now that if you relist a loco via R number or manually you end up with another loco in your list at the bottom, so I was wondering if you had ended up with two locos listed and were looking at the 'wrong' one.

[salmontrout]

No I only have one loco at the address but cant get rid of maximum speed (in blue underneath cruise speed) in the locomotives list.  The max speed on the throttle stays as was.  The only way I have found to get round this is to delete the loco and then add it again under a made up nam  This worked with the Jinty now called magpie with a cruise speed of 70 as opposed to previous max of 35

[GWR LNER fan 4472]

I have also been experiencing direction difficulties like this, in fact I was just about to add a new topic when I saw this, so thanks all it's been really usefull. One thing I've noticed is that the three engines I've had trouble with are all railroad (Mallard, Tornado and Olton Hall) so I was wondering if that's got anything to do with it as my non-railroad locos have not had this problem. I use an oldish (2009ish) select and a new (September 2015) walkabout, which are more or less the same. Ta.

[poliss]

Swap the Walkabout with the Select and use it as the master. You can turn DC off with the newer versions.

[Fishmanoz]

Are you sure it will turn DC running off poliss?  Had no idea it would go anywhere near CV29.

[poliss]

It says in the latest manual that it turns the DC option off Fishy.