Hornby DCC issues

[Luke c]

Hi there,

I recently purchased a class 153 and the hornby select dcc controller. I have fitted the class 153 with the rails 8 pin dcc decoder, and I have done with a tutorial to help as I'm a beginner. The dcc controller arrived today and I've just gone to set it up and I've made a programming track too, but the class 153 has its lights on, but it isn't moving, so I thought it might be something to do with the address, so I put the address to 01 like a friend told me to do. My class 153 is still not moving though, just the lights are on...

thanks,

luke

[Chrissaf]

The DCC controller arrived today.

 

As you have not said whether your Hornby Select purchase was a 'Brand New' Select or a previously owned one. Knowing the firmware version of the Select may have a bearing on your issue as written.

 

So to help us decide whether the firmware level may or may not be a contributory cause of your issue, can you please tell us the very first number to appear briefly on the Select LCD screen when you power it up. Expect to see a number between 10 & 20.

 

However, regardless of the firmware revision level of the Select, your issue cause might be more basic.

 

You say that the 'Lights are on'. Normally with a DCC fitted loco, the lights won't come on until they are switched on with a DCC F0 command. The fact that they are on, just by placing the loco on the track, infers that the loco might possibly have faulty socket wiring. Ignore this statement if you did actually send the F0 command to switch the lights on. Even if you didn't send an F0 command, send one anyway to see if the lights go off.

 

For the lights to come on or go off with the F0 command, then you must have selected the correct DCC address of the decoder first. If then, the loco is still not moving, then it [or the decoder] is probably faulty.

 

Check this out by reverting the loco back to 'DCC Ready' by removing the Rails decoder and re-instating the 'Blanking Plate' then test the loco on a new fully charged 9 volt battery. If the loco motor still doesn't turn with a battery across its wheels, then the loco is faulty, if the wheels turn then it would seem to indicate that your Rails decoder is either faulty of not compatible with the Select controller. This brings us full circle to the first question regarding the firmware revision level of the Select. Early version firmware Selects may have issues with non Hornby decoders.

 

Even with later firmware revisions, some rogue budget decoders may still have problems. You haven't given much detail about this 'Rails' decoder. Such as what decoder brand is it based upon, I would imagine that Rails of Sheffield will have badge engineered somebody else's decoder or bought in a cheap clone from China. Either way, the solution might be purchasing a better well known branded decoder.

 

TIP: As a newbie poster on the forum, just be aware that the 'Blue Button with the White Arrow' is not a 'Reply to this post' button. If you want to reply to any of the posts, scroll down and write your reply in the reply text box at the bottom of the page and click the Green 'Reply' button.

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See also – further TIPs on how to get the best user experience from this forum.

https://www.hornby.com/uk-en/forum/tips-on-using-the-forum/

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[ColinB]

I don't know if this is any help, but I have found that soon as you enable DCC if the loco has lights, they come on when using certain decoders. It happens a lot on my ones. Once you select the right address, they then go off and don't come on again as Chrissaf says until you press function 0. If it is a new decoder it has an address of 3. I will let Chrissaf advise you on the Select, I don't have one of those.