Do I need Decoders with Railmaster

[gerard_martin]

Good Day to you all & greetings from Ireland,

I am building my layout using my computer with the railmaster and eLink system. When finished, some of my system will be beyond my reach due to size constraints. I have been told that I will need the Hornby decoders by some, by others I have been told that I can operate the whole system through the computers.

Would some kind person please advise me as to what advice I should follow?

If anybody needs further information please do not hesitate to ask

With every good wish,

Gerard16

[Nick_]

How big is your layout going to be? Give us the overall length and width of the baseboard 

[Nick_]

Do you mean to say 'decoders'? A decoder is what you put in each loco, so you will need a DCC decoder per loco. Did you mean 'power booster'? You would only need a power booster to go along with the eLink if your layout is very large.

[96RAF]

Or did you mean decoders to operate your points...

[Chrissaf]

I assume that your question relates to the operation of accessories such as points.

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RailMaster is a digital control system, thus it can only communicate and operate a device (any device) via a DCC decoder. Thus, each locomotive will need a decoder, as putting an analogue (DC) locomotive on a DCC powered track is not a good idea at all.

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However, points and accessories can be operated by a whole range of different options.

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1. Your fingers.
2. Wire in Tube (WIT)
3. Remotely via analogue DC, using a wide range of electrical switching options. Such as non locking change over switches. Tag and Probe (small metal contacts set into a control surface touched by a wire on a probe to make an electrical circuit) and many other numerous switching arrangements - these are nearly always 'home brewed' and designed and implemented by the layout builder.
4. Remotely via DCC ie using RailMaster - see below for a more in depth description.

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Item 3 above would be a completely separate overlay system, completely separate from RailMaster and your computer.

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Item 4 in the list above - DCC Accessory Control - In my view it would be a waste of RailMaster to only relegate its use to operating only locos. One huge benefit and the power of the RailMaster system is the ability to build a representation of your track layout on screen, click the screen point icons and have that mouse click translate into actually changing the point in real life. That you can automate via programs if you should so wish.

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Search 'You-Tube' for Brian Hughes he does a lot of using RailMaster videos. To get you started here is a link for his video on using RailMaster to control

'. he has a whole range of RailMaster videos describing different aspects of its use.

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But to do that, you need dedicated DCC Accessory Decoders between RailMaster and the points. Hornby's Accessory Decoders are the R8247. There are many more Accessory Decoder brands and products (better in my view) out there, all compatible with RailMaster. Some point Accessory Decoders are even built directly into the point motor (DCC Concepts IP Digital point motors for example).

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The link below is for a reply I recently gave to a similar forum question. It contains a connectivity overview diagram using the Hornby R8247.

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https://www.hornby.com/uk-en/forum/starting-out-a-new-layout-and-need-advice-16099/?p=1/#post-181104

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So in answer to your question as written "Do I need Decoders with Railmaster?"

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The answer is NO, they are not mandatory, but YES they are beneficial and recommended.

 

 

[Fishmanoz]

Answering the question as asked, everything to be operated by DCC needs a decoder.  Each loco needs a loco decoder, each accessory or point needs an accessory decoder.  Some accessory decoders have more than one port and can operate a point or accessory per port, in fact you can usually control 2 points per port.

 

All decoders are operated through your DCC controller whatever it is, so you must be able to reach this to do the controlling.  Many systems have moveable controller arrangements though.  For Hornby this includes Select in Walkabout mode connected to another Select or an Elite, or a handheld phone or tablet connected by wifi to a Railmaster PC or laptop.

[Chrissaf]

Had the forum edit feature not gone 'walkabout' today. I would have edited my post as below, so just to add clarity making the edit as a belated one and to eliminate any confusion arising between what I wrote vs what Fishy wrote.

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So in answer to your question as written "Do I need Decoders with Railmaster?"

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For locos, the answer is Yes.

For points, the answer is NO, they are not mandatory unless you want to operate them with a DCC controller, but YES they are beneficial and recommended.

[gerard_martin]

How big is your layout going to be? Give us the overall length and width of the baseboard 

The baseboard is 8 Feet square

 

[gerard_martin]

Good Evening All

I would like to express my sincere thanks to all of you especially Chrissaf for his very detailed explanation to my question. 

I would also like to apologise if I mislead anybody - the decoders I had in mind were Hornby Accessory decoders P/N R8247. If I am correct, I willnot need these after all.

It is great to be a member of a group who are so helpful, especially to a beginner. I thank you all and look forward to the next occasion

Sincerely,

Gerard 16

[Fishmanoz]

If you wish to operate your points via the RM screen, you definitely need accessory decoders, either Hornby or one of the many other brands.  If you intend to operate them manually and not use RM, you won't.