Hornby Elite and Bachmann 36-557 decoders

[pacman849]

Hi Guys,

Has anyone noticed any issues trying to use locomotives fitted with the new Bachmann 36-557 4 Function 21 Pin decoders from their Hornby Elite controllers? I have used an Elite since it was introduced and with no issues, using a mix of Hornby,

 

Bachmann and Heljan locos, with Hornby and Bachmann decoders. My roster of over 50 locos all work beautifully. However I have just fitted two 36-557 decoders to a G2A and a 7F and am struggling to get them working from the Elite. The locos do all manner of

 

erratic things, like creeping without being asked to move, jerking, running off at high speed, not accepting CV programming, not responding to CV reading, and worse of all the loco noticeably buzzing when on the main track.

 

This sounds like some incompatibility

 

issue to me, but I might just have been unlucky and got three knackered 36-557 decoders, although from 2 independent sources this seems unlikely. Both the 36-557 and the Hornby Elite are marked as NMRA compliant, so I cannot see why this is happening.

 

Does

 

anyone have any experience around this? Is there a fix?

 

Cheers,

 

Paul.

BTW My Elite is running the latest firmware download from Hornby (v1.41)

[Michael_A]

I was looking for a solution to a Bachmann issue and stumbled across this. Not sure if the thread has dissapeared, or if you solved the issue, as it is quite old.

However, the only way I could programme these decoders was in Register mode using the Elite and with the loco on the programming track. This limits the options to the basics like address, start voltage, acceleration and deceleration plus some others I cant remember off hand. Not sure if it makes a difference, but I have my Elite in Standard mode, with DC running disabled. All the required info is in the Elite Manual

Even though RailMaster wont write to these decoders, it will read them

 

[Fishmanoz]

Note to HRMS - are you aware of these decoders and are they really so non-NMRA that the above is true And RM can't write to them?

There are certainly some threads in the Rm section about having to adjust CVs 53-55 if I remember rightly to avoid jerky running on these decoders, but very difficult to do this if you can't write to them. 

[Michael_A]

Hey, thanks for mentioning jerky running. I have a loco that was doing that with one of these and just thought the decoder was faulty. New decoder fixed it. Glad I didnt throw the old one away, however, without being able to write to CV 53 - 55, not much I can do just yet. I was hoping it might behave in a different loco.

Interestingly the loco ran perfectly smoothly (with the decoder still insitu) on DC on my DC test track.

[Fishmanoz]

Do a search on those CVs Michael, there are old threads with more detail on this. It is more likely the B team locos with the B team decoders that have this problem they say. 

[gilbo2]

I know its not an elite but I fitted a 36-557 last night as it happens using an eLink based system. I have not had any problems with poor running and no trouble changing CV's.

[Graskie]

Resetting an Elite can sometimes sort this sort of problem.

[LMS_Dave]

I am having exactly this problem withmy RailMaster/eLink set-up and 2 new Bachmann locos - a Class G2A (31-480) and a Class 3F (31-627B).  3 previous Bachmann locos I had with DCC chips from the same batch of 36-557s all worked fine when I set them up, but also now seem to have stopped responding.  My 8-pin decoders all work fine.  The only thing that I can determine is that the RailMaster software did a software update to version 1.65.1 just before I tried installing my 2 new locos with 36-557 and I think that this may have in some way altered the set-up.  Any help/suggestions gratefully appreciated.  Meanwhile, I have ordered a load of the 21- to 8-pin adapters so I can use the 8-pin chips.  Would be nice to solve the 36-557 problem though...

[LMS_Dave]

I am having exactly this problem withmy RailMaster/eLink set-up and 2 new Bachmann locos - a Class G2A (31-480) and a Class 3F (31-627B).  3 previous Bachmann locos I had with DCC chips from the same batch of 36-557s all worked fine when I set them up, but also now seem to have stopped responding.  My 8-pin decoders all work fine.  The only thing that I can determine is that the RailMaster software did a software update to version 1.65.1 just before I tried installing my 2 new locos with 36-557 and I think that this may have in some way altered the set-up.  Any help/suggestions gratefully appreciated.  Meanwhile, I have ordered a load of the 21- to 8-pin adapters so I can use the 8-pin chips.  Would be nice to solve the 36-557 problem though...

So...  I decided to install my spare copy of RailMaster on a different laptop and see if I could get it to a version other than 1.65.1.  After the customary messing about running as administrator, setting-up firewall permissions and temporarily switching-off anti-virus software, I had a running copy of version 1.65.  I connected the same USB eLink module I had been using previously and, lo and behold, my 36-557 decoders worked with absolutely no problem at all.  The RailMaster software could read CVs 1 to 8, showing the correct manufacturer and model credentials at CVs 7 and 8, it set-up the Extended address I was after as well as Accelleration/Decelleration settings for a steam era loco and when I switched to Track, the loco performed perfectly.  So, for me, this is very definitely a version 1.65.1 bug.  Just for the record the 36-557 shows-up in version 1.65 as CV8=141 "Throttle-Up (Soundtraxx)" and CV7=081 "Soundtraxx/BM 36-558".

[Fishmanoz]

This bug should be reported to HRMS via the email facility in the Help screen of RM.  

 

You might also take a look at the topic on R8249 or R8245 which is actually about the 36-557, noting this potential bug may explain some things.

[LMS_Dave]

Thanks for everyone who took the time to reply to me on here - both threads!  Having had some sleep, cleaned everything, run-up my RailMaster/eLink set up without the Track connector in-place and tried 3 of my spare 4 decoders across both versions 1.65 and 1.65.1, there is absolutely no discernible pattern to the results I obtain.  Sometimes the 36-558s read/write CVs, sometimes they don't and, even less often, I get them to run on Track.  On those occasions that RailMaster does read my 36-557 it shows-up as CV8=141 "Throttle-Up (Soundtraxx)" and CV7=081 "Soundtraxx/BM 36-558".  Clearly, that last detail is inaccurate ie 36-558 vs 36-557.  So, my (new) guess is that RailMaster can sometimes see a 36-557 as a 36-558 and allow it to be read/written/run and other times it fails.  So, I'm going Fishmanoz's advice to ask HRMS to look at it.  Meanwhile, my 21- to 8-pin adapters are on their way from Hattons...