Hornby Select

[newcastle62]

HI All

 

This is my first post as I am pretty new to model railways (less than 3 months). My wife bought me the mixed freight set for my 54th birthday as I have always wanted a train set since the age of 10. As good as the Select is I think that I may have outgrown it. I wish to buy the Elite but before I do I could do with some advice (with thanks).

I have bought 4 Hornby surface mounted point motors, DCC Accessory Controller, various locos with lighted carriages and so on. My set up is basically the Hornby double loop built up using all standard packs up to "Track Extension E". 

The point motors refuse to work and it seems as if the "Select" is not "man enough" for the job. Would that be the case? and if it is would using the Elite resolve this problem?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Dave

[Chrissaf]

The Hornby R8247 Accessory Decoder works perfectly well with the Hornby Select controller and its 1 amp power supply. If it is not working, then you have not configured it up correctly yet.

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Straight out of the box, the R8247 is configured with port addresses 1 to 4. This address range is not compatible with the Select controller and needs to be reconfigured to addresses starting at 61. Refer to the user guide for the R8247 where this is explained. If port one is configured as 61, then ports 2 two to four will be automatically configured as addresses 62 to 64.

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The R8247 user guide datasheet explains about the Select addressing scheme required for point control. The Select user guide (page 27) tells you how to perform the re-configuration and then how to operate the points.

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The R8247 will not be able to operate points with the Select until the above re-configuration has been performed.

[Chrissaf]

PS - Do not reconfigure the R8247 whilst connected to the track if there are any locos still on the track. Preferably, make a direct connection between the R8247 and the Select track output. Similarly, when programming a loco, the loco being programmed must be the only DCC device connected to the Select. If more than one DCC device is connected during a programming activity, you risk compromising the existing configuration of the other inadvertently connected device.

[newcastle62]

Thank you for your answer and I'll see how it goes tomorrow

Cheers

 

Dave

[Fishmanoz]

If you are going to get the Elite soon, you could just wait for it, then the default addresses of 1-4 will be fine and you won't have to change them.  And if you do change them for the Select, change them back when you get the Elite so you can start your point numbering from 1.

 

PS.  Just on Select being man enough or not, it is actually the 8247 that provides the power to throw the point motor, not the controller, be it Select or Elite.

[newcastle62]

Thank you all.

The answer to the problem was as Chrisaff said, I was trying to program it whilst there were locomotives on  the track and as soon as they were removed everything worked :-)

Thanks to Fishmanoz as well. I now understand the full purpose of the 8247 and so putting that problem to rest means that I will stick with the Select for the foreseeable until I really have got some idea of what I'm talking about.

 

[Chrissaf]

The Select manual does clearly state that only the device being programmed should be connected to the Select. However, as usual with Hornby documentation the significance of these statements are not necessarily sufficiently emphasised to bring to the CLEAR attention of a Newbie user. It's all there in the manuals, but invariably hidden away as a single throwaway sentence.