hornby point decoders address nce power cab

[bigbonce]

Can anyone please advise me regarding cv's. My early hornby point decoders were originally addressed by the elite controller. I changed my controller to the nce power cab and all of the original point decoder addresses were accepted by the nce without

a problem. Recently some of the point addresses failed to work while others did work. Why this would happen when all the wiring connections are sound I do not know. However the simple solution I assume is to re-address the decoders again with there original

addresses however the nce cab control requires one to enter a cv number followed by a cv value in order to address the decoder. This is where I am stuck as to the number and value. Can anyone help on this on for which I would be most grateful.

[poliss]

Which decoders are they? The R8216 or the R8247?

[bigbonce]

poliss said:

Which decoders are they? The R8216 or the R8247?

[bigbonce]

Hi thanks for response. They are r8216

[wiggy25]

Is the R8216 the first one where you need to program it a few times to charge the on board CDU?
If so I wrote these out a very long time ago so where it says all afternoon it probably was two years ago!

when I tested the Accessory decoder with

my NCE Powercab:-
Right connect a point motor to the first ouptut of the accessory decoder, this will show us the decoder is working.
Just for test purposes I connected the two output wires from the PowerCab power panel straight into the track input

terminals on the decoder.

Now on the PowerCab press PROG/ESC button followed by the number 4 key(short cut to program track)
the screen will show
USE PROGRAM TRK
Press enter.
You should have on the display
1=STD 2=CV 3=REG press the number

3 button.

The screen will show
PROG TRK
REGISTER?
Type in the number of the register you want to look at or change.
We want to change register address 1 (This is the accessory address)

Screen will show:-

PROG TRK
REGISTER

1=

After a short while maybe 30secs it will then show can't read CV
Press enter
Screen will show

PROG TRK
REGISTER 1= ???

Type in the GROUP number you want to set this decoder to then press enter. See note below

I

repeated this a few times just to make sure the internal capacitors had charged up.

Now press the PROG/ESC button to return to the main operating screen.
Press the SELECT ACCY button then enter a point address EG 1 to 4 followed by enter.
The

on screen display will show 1=N(ON) 2=R(OFF)

By pressing 1 or 2 the point motor should fire across, if nothing happens repeat operating the point motor in the other direction just in case it's already in the correct position.
You can test further

by connecting the point motor to each output and testing accessory addresses 1 through to 4.


NOTE

Where you enter the address, you have to remember it's in blocks of 4.
So if you put in address 1, it will automatically program outputs

1 to 4 with addresses 1 to 4 respectively.
Now if you want to add another decoder and have the next four ouput addresses as 5-8 you must use the group address of 2 in the step above which is underlined.
Or if you want the next lot of addresses to be

9-12 you must use the group address 3

It's a bit of a misnomer really, your not actually programming the address but the group number:-

Group 1 gives output addresses 1-4
Group 2 gives output addresses 5-8
Group 3 gives output addresses

9-12
Group 4 gives output addresses 13-16
Group 5 gives output addresses 17-20

And so on etc.

I've been playing about with it most of this afternoon and it all works perfectly with the PowerCab.
You can use macros, if you want point

addresses 1,2,3 and 4 to fire at once, when programming the macro actually use the correct address numbers 1 to 4.
Hope that makes sense.


Regards

Ian

[Phil_Spiegel.]

Just to add a footnote to Ian's comprehensive explanation:
With SOME 'systems'/manufacturers, the USER (Displayed) range of numbers for points starts at CV1=0 and with others at CV1=1 ('Software Writers' often start with 0, 'Humans' with 1)
Therefore,

if moving a programmed accessory decoder from 1 system to another, it is ALWAYS worth TRYING the numbers either 4 above, or 4 below the number you expect.
(ie modifying Ian's table above gives Group 0 = 1to 4, Group 1 = 5 to 8 etc)
Yet other systems

(following the documentation) refer to the Group as the Decoder Address, and 8 individual sub-outputs 8-( None are 'wrong' - just 'different' in their description.

[bigbonce]

hi Ian. thank you for your detailed info re addressing the decoders via the nce cab. I was hoping to address the decoders via the track after removing all locos and detaching all connections of the other decoders other than the one that is to be addressed.

Unfortunately the nce identified a short circuit even though it asked if one wanted to program anyway by pressing 1. the decoder did not address therefore I removed it from the layout and addressed it as you suggested to the two wires from the controller direct

to the decoder and it all addressed okay therefore I assume that perhaps the short circuit prevented addressing via the track. Thankyou once again for the information. John

when I tested the Accessory decoder with my NCE Powercab:-
Right connect

a point motor to the first ouptut of the accessory decoder, this will show us the decoder is working.
Just for test purposes I connected the two output wires from the PowerCab power panel straight into the track input terminals on the decoder.

Now

on the PowerCab press PROG/ESC button followed by the number 4 key(short cut to program track)
the screen will show
USE PROGRAM TRK
Press enter.
You should have on the display
1=STD 2=CV 3=REG press the number 3 button.

The screen will

show
PROG TRK
REGISTER?
Type in the number of the register you want to look at or change.
We want to change register address 1 (This is the accessory address)

Screen will show:-

PROG TRK
REGISTER 1=

After a short while maybe

30secs it will then show can't read CV
Press enter
Screen will show

PROG TRK
REGISTER 1= ???

Type in the GROUP number you want to set this decoder to then press enter. See note below

I repeated this a few times just to make sure

the internal capacitors had charged up.

Now press the PROG/ESC button to return to the main operating screen.
Press the SELECT ACCY button then enter a point address EG 1 to 4 followed by enter.
The on screen display will show 1=N(ON) 2=R(OFF)

By

pressing 1 or 2 the point motor should fire across, if nothing happens repeat operating the point motor in the other direction just in case it's already in the correct position.
You can test further by connecting the point motor to each output and testing

accessory addresses 1 through to 4.


NOTE

Where you enter the address, you have to remember it's in blocks of 4.
So if you put in address 1, it will automatically program outputs 1 to 4 with addresses 1 to 4 respectively.
Now if you

want to add another decoder and have the next four ouput addresses as 5-8 you must use the group address of 2 in the step above which is underlined.
Or if you want the next lot of addresses to be 9-12 you must use the group address 3

It's a bit of

a misnomer really, your not actually programming the address but the group number:-

Group 1 gives output addresses 1-4
Group 2 gives output addresses 5-8
Group 3 gives output addresses 9-12
Group 4 gives output addresses 13-16
Group 5 gives

output addresses 17-20

And so on etc.

I've been playing about with it most of this afternoon and it all works perfectly with the PowerCab.
You can use macros, if you want point addresses 1,2,3 and 4 to fire at once, when programming the macro

actually use the correct address numbers 1 to 4.
Hope that makes sense.


Regards

Ian