Basic Help required DCC decoders

[ROB80128]

Hi just need some basic help (sorry for asking anything deemed stupid)

After an absence of 35+ years I have decided to take up Railway Modelling again. My prefered scale would be S4, but rooms and finances soon stopped that.
I then decided N gauge, but Fine Scale. Having started from scratch, i am currently building my track, but have no loco's but an old GF Class 25.
Rather than convert to FS I thought I would be sensible and do in stages. ie Standard Loco - test it, convert to DCC - test it....then finailly convert to 2mmFS

I purchased a Hornby R8312 eLink and RailMaster and some R8249 decoders and a couple of Gaugemaster DCC22.
Before I go to all the lengths of fitting the DCC to the rather old Class 25, I want to at least see if the DCC controller talks to the Decoder. 

Can this be done purely by connecting the Contoller directly to the Black/Red wires on the decoder. At present I have tried this with the R8249 and don't seem to get any response of trying to read from the decoder or write the Loco ID.

Personally i think I am maybe doing something wrong or missing something obvious out. But always at the back of my mind have I bought a faulty elink!!

Any help would be appeciated.

Robert

[Chrissaf]

Yes you can do that in principle, that is connect the controller directly to the 'Red & Black' decoder wires. But see comment below:

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Personally I think I am maybe doing something wrong or missing something obvious out.

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Yes you are....doing something wrong / missing something out that is.

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Most (but not all) decoders must have a motor load attached to the Orange & Grey wires before the controller can read & write any CVs and change DCC addresses etc. For most decoders (the Hornby R8249 is definitely a case in point), the motor circuit is used as part of the Read/Write CV process.

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You can buy a ready made ESU multi-function decoder tester that supports all the major decoder pin configurations, or you can make one specifically for the Hornby NEM 8 pin decoder plug on vero-board very easily and cheaply. I use the ESU 53900 and very good it is too. The slightly cheaper ESU 51900 is just the older version.

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Google "DCC Decoder Tester" for ready made ESU products and DIY tester circuits can be found in the 'Image' tab of the search results page. Note, some of the DIY circuits substitute the test motor with a resistor, sometimes supplemented with LEDs for a forward/reverse direction indicator.

[ROB80128]

Hi ChrisMany thanks for your reply, it has answered all my questions...I guess maybe I should have googled the question first....but sometimes you end up with so many conflicting answers.....you end up even more confused.Again I appreciate your help 

Regards Robert

[Fishmanoz]

Then again, you can test it by installing in a loco, red and black wires to the pickups, Orange a grey to the motor.