DCC

[lambie]

Hi im new to DCC

Have just purchased a used class 55 deltic(Bachmann) of Ebay.

Its DCC fitted with directional and cab lights. Backmann 36-557-EZ decoder 21 pinn.

The previous owner removed the sound and speaker.

When placing on track to set code , loco would move forward a foot and stop, lights would flash on and off.

Spoke to the seller and he said i wont work with Dcc Hornby select is this true.

Ha also said to change and by hornby decoder is this correct.

 

[locojoe]

Hi Lambie i don't know the answer to this but just offer you some advice 

 leave the second hand stuff alone until you become more experienced in DCC 

You will end up wasting alot of money

[lambie]

Can a class 47 Bachmann with decoder ESU DCC V4.0 with light mod work with a Hornby select DCC controler.

[RDS]

@lambie

Welcome to the Forum

I regularly run Bachmann Loco's (mine are fitted with 36-553 & 36-554) using a Select Controller.  I do have the 36-557 fitted to a Heljan Class 128 Loco and this works perfectly with my Hornby Elite Controller.  (I cannot try it with the Select because I have allocated it id 128, which is outside the range of the Select).   My Select is still running the original version Firmware.

What id are you trying, as the Select is limited to up to id 59.

 

However, what you don't know is what the previous owner did regarding the change of Decoder and to some extent I agree with locojoe, regarding buying secondhand, especially when you cannot see it running before you buy.

[Chrissaf]

Lambie, I am assuming that your second question is a continuation of the first. Which is why I moved it here from the 'General Discussion' forum where it had been incorrectly placed and was potentially a duplicate of the first post in this thread.

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My answer below is applicable to both questions.

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Spoke to the seller and he said it wont work with DCC Hornby select is this true?

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All my decoders are ESU Loksound V4.0 and work flawlessly with my Hornby Elite. I believe that they work with Hornby Select as well, with some caveats. If they didn't then there would be many posts on this forum raising this ESU compatibility as an issue .... which there isn't.

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The Select needs to be at firmware revision 1.5 or higher to use the full capabilities of a ESU V4.0 Loksound decoder.

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It is potentially true that the very early Selects did have some issues with non Hornby decoders. Your Seller maybe basing his 'does not work with a Select' comment on these early firmware issues. Later Select firmware revisions had improvements in regard non Hornby decoder support.

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But as I stated above, I cannot recall seeing any posts specifically citing compatibility issues between the Select and the ESU V4.0 ..... I do however recall seeing compatibility issue posts relating to early firmware Selects and some of the cheaper Bachmann decoders.

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The current installed firmware is displayed as the very first number to briefly appear on the Select screen as it is being powered up. Expect to see a number between 10 and 20. At the time of writing, the latest version is 1.6 [16] or 2.0 [20] - both the same. These latest versions completely transform the user experience of the Select controller and add the ability to write (not read) all CVs up to CV255. As well as access to the full F0 - F28 range of functions.

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The upgrade charge is typically £15 plus VAT [£18] plus your sending postage costs. You need to get a 'returns number' from Hornby Customer Services - see 'Contact Us' link at the very bottom of the page.

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If you do arrange to get your Select firmware upgraded, then you will need both the Select version 1.5 full manual and the version 1.6 addendum manual. As the operation of your Select (how to use it) will be completely different in certain areas of operation compared to your current firmware version.

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You can download these two manual PDFs from here:

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https://www.hornby.com/uk-en/downloads/view/index/cat/12/

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If nothing appears to happen, check your nominated browser download folder for the files as they can download silently in the background.

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PS - If your Select is already at version 1.6 or above. OR you have it upgraded to version 1.6. Then you will be able to factory reset the Bachmann decoder [write a value of 8 to CV8] this will remove any tweaking that the previous owner might have implemented and increase the probability of getting it to work with your Select.

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[ColinB]

Secondhand is ok if you know what you are doing. I have just bought a second hand Bachmann Class 66 and Class 47, both are very good. Mind you I have bought some lemons, trouble is they are a lot of people that own locos and DCC ones that know little about fixing them, fortunately all the lemons I have managed to fix. Add to mix early Select controllers that seem to have a lot of issues.

Loco is moving forward so something is working, my favorite is the pickups, it looks like it is loosing power. Check they are all touching the wheels and that the wheels are clean. I bought a Fowler off someone which had supposedly had the sound chip removed, I don't know how they did it but they damaged the pickups while they were doing it. 

I had just had to fix the pickups on the class 66 I bought. Yours is a Bachmann so the mechanism will be roughly the same. Turn the loco upside down and move each wheel from side to side, check that the pickups touch the wheel as you move it in and out.