R406 & R8247 Points and Accessory Decoder

[Hornby Customer Care]

Signal lights usually require a continuous voltages to operate, thus the accessory decoder used to drive them will be set to give a continuous voltage output. Hornby Point Motors use solenoids to physically move the point mechanism. Solenoid Point Motors

require a single pulse of electricity to activate. It is not possible to commonly connect light signals and Point Motors to the same accessory decoder.

Using R8247 Point and Accessory Decoders
Using Hornby R8247 Point and Accessory decoders

(PAD) the best scheme would be to run them as a pair. The pair will be programmed to the same address range. But, one unit will be set to output a pulse and will have the Point Motor connected; the other will be set to give a continuous output and will have

the signal light connected. When a point is accessed via its address both units will activate their corresponding ports, activating the light signal at the same time as the Point Motor.

Setting the outputs of the R8247
The output duration,

or “dwell time” of each port of the R8247 PAD is set by the value programmed into various CVs. Please note: in order to access the “dwell time” set up you will require a DCC controller which can programme and access individual CVs. The Hornby Elite has all

the features required to do this.

Also the default setting for the “dwell time” of the ports of the R8247 PAD is 100mS. This ensures that the unit will operate a Point Motor without further programming (other than address.) It is not advised to set

the “dwell time” any longer than 800mS, or damage to the Point Motor/R8247 will result.

R8247 - Description of CVs

CV513 or CV1 Group Address LSB 1-64 (when used with ELITE.. thus 252 Points.) Default 1
CV515 or CV3 Duration Output

1 0 or 1-255 Default 1 … Continuous or 100mS – 25.5Seconds
CV516 or CV4 Duration Output 2 0 or 1-255 Default 1 … Continuous or 100mS – 25.5Seconds
CV517 or CV5 Duration Output 3 0 or 1-255 Default 1 … Continuous or 100mS – 25.5Seconds
CV518 or CV6

Duration Output 4 0 or 1-255 Default 1 … Continuous or 100mS – 25.5Seconds

CV519 or CV7 Firmware Version Read Only Default 12
CV520 or CV8 Manufacturer ID Read Only Default 255 (will be 48) ******
CV521 or CV9 Group Address MSB When used with

Controllers capable of addressing 511 Groups. Default 0.

******
NOTE: By writing any number to CV8 the unit may be reset to factory default. We usually recommend writing “8” (in line with our loco decoders.)

Switching two points together
It

is sometime desirable to activate multiple points at the same time; the user enters a single point address and two or more points activate in unison. This can be achieved by setting up two or more PADs with the same address i.e. all PADs with a common address

range will individually fire the same port when accessed. This practice is sometimes referred to as “Shadowing.”

The R8247 unit was designed to reliably activate a single point motor/point. However, in practice it was found that there was enough “capacity”

to switch 2 parallel connected point motors with a reasonable reliability. A practice adopted by some users is to use this ability when controlling two point back to back e.g. when passing from one loop of track to another.
However, the above technique

can have its draw backs. We must point out that the “cycle time of the on-board CDU (capacitor discharge unit) maybe longer due to the increased load of two point motors together. When activating a series of points in this “doubled up” configuration it is

advisable to wait at least 6 seconds or so between each action.

Please note: In some cases it is possible for the on-board CDU to fail to activate two Point Motors/points connected commonly if the points in question are mechanically “tight.” This can

happen if the point is not mounted absolutely flat or is blocked in some way by landscaping materials. This issue is a case of experimentation to see if the R8247 can supply enough energy to activate the pair of points.

[b]How to connect Point Motors

and Coloured Light Signal to the Hornby Point Decoder/Point and Accessory Decoder - R8216/R8247[/b]
When connecting the Point Motors and Coloured Light signals to the Point and Accessory Decoder R8247 (PAD), or the older Point Decoder R8216 please follow

the guidelines below.

The ports/channels of the R8216 and R8247 units are clearly labelled +, C and -

Please ensure that you observe the following wiring details. Please Note: the wire colour codes have different functions in each case.

[b]Point

Motors R8014/R8243[/b]

Red wire = +

Black wire = C (common)

Green wire = - ***

*** R8014, it is possible that this wire may be Brown or White depending on when your point motor was manufactured.

[b]Coloured Light Signal

R406[/b]

Red light = red wire = +

Common = green wire = C (common)

Green light = black wire = -

[poliss]

Instructions noted. Thank you HCC.

[Graskie]

Hi HCC. I bought about half a dozen R8216's a few years ago but haven't yet got round to fitting them. What differences are there between those and the current R8247's? Should I update to get maximum benefit?