Help to get started please

[Chrissaf]

Disconnect all the wires from the back of the Elite, except the power cable.  Does the red light still come on when you power it up again?  If the red light doesn't come on there must be a fault of some sort on the layout or the track power connection or possibly something short circuiting the track, such as a tool or a piece of wire

[johnrobert_williams]

Disconnect all the wires from the back of the Elite, except the power cable.  Does the red light still come on when you power it up again?  If the red light doesn't come on there must be a fault of some sort on the layout or the track power connection or possibly something short circuiting the track, such as a tool or a piece of wire

I tried that and there was no red light.  I also did a self test on the Elite which it passed. Thanks. What's the best configuration for the wires?  Elite leads to programming track and A/B with main track leads in first A/B?

[Chrissaf]

A picture saves a thousand words:

 

This image below gives one example of how the Hornby Elite should be connected. There must be no electrical or physical connection between the Elite TRACK and PROG outputs, thus why the 'Programming Track' is shown completely separate and isolated from the main layout.

 

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Note the reference to not using R602, R8206 or R8201 power connectors. These are designed for DC Analogue and not Digital DCC. These three items contain suppression capacitors that go across the track rails. It is possible that if there are more than one of these products used on the layout, the accumulative effect of the capacitors can make the Elite see a 'short circuit'. If you are using any of these three products then it is possible that your previous controller was more tolerant than the Hornby Elite. The correct track power parts to use on a DCC layout are R8241 and/or R8242.

 

If you are not using any R602, R8206 or R8201 track connectors, then it may just be that your Elite is faulty [was it purchased as a pre-owned controller?]. Or for some reason the conversion from the previous controller to the Elite has caused a short to occur due to some aspect of your wiring installation.

 

It is assumed that you have completely removed the previous controller wiring connections from the layout. You cannot have two controllers connected at the same time, even if one of them is turned off.

 

In order to diagnose this issue you really need access to a multimeter. Meters can be purchased from eBay for less than £8 delivered if you do not have access to one. They are a critical tool to have in the toolbox to diagnose 'short circuits' and other electrical issues.

 

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.

 

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/

 

[Chrissaf]

As I am disabled, a friend wired up my track layout and it was connected to a prodigy Wi-Fi system to use with an iPad but I found this difficult without manual dexterity. I now wish to use the Hornby Elite instead. My wife has tried simply connecting the wires and new connecting lead to the Elite as per the Prodigy but we get a red error light which I believe indicates a short circuit. We do not have a programming track actually connected to the main layout (its separate) and I have made sure it is the correct one for DCC after reading advice on this forum. The track itself has one main red wire and one black, which worked ok with the Prodigy system but isn't connected to anything else. Is there something we are missing that will correct this issue?  Help please for a DCC amateur.  Thanks