steamfreak Posted March 12, 2013 Share Posted March 12, 2013 Hi all I've had a very frustrating afternoon trying to program a R8216 and a R8247 accesssory decoder. With nothing else connected i have tried numerous times to program the above with seemingly no sucess.I have tried the Elite on its own and with Railmaster ,changing the wiring and point motors and outlets on both decoders. I have followed the instuctions for using the Elite only for both decoders and although the red light flashes the correct amount of times I cannot get a point to work. Again with Railmaster it seems to do something with the R8247 but having started by accepting the green tick it ends as follows Port No. 6629 pulse duration 25500 Port No. 6630 Port No. 6631 Port No. 6632 I have then changed this to Port No.1 pulse duration 100 - as per diagram in the manual and then ticked the left hand icon to program it but I cannot tell if it has pogrammed correctly other than by the non operation of points. Sorry this has been a long thread but any help or suggestions would be appreciated. Best regards Steamfreak Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishmanoz Posted March 12, 2013 Share Posted March 12, 2013 Hi steamfreak, with the 8216, have you pre-charged on the track before putting on the programming track to program? There are instructions for doing this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steamfreak Posted March 13, 2013 Author Share Posted March 13, 2013 Fishmanoz said: Hi steamfreak, with the 8216, have you pre-charged on the track before putting on the programming track to program? There are instructions for doing this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steamfreak Posted March 13, 2013 Author Share Posted March 13, 2013 Hi Fishmanoz yes i did precharge the 8216 and followed the instructions given by Customer Care which I found within this forum.Is it possible because of repeated attempts on both decoders to set up ports 1-4 I have " confused " them regards steamfreak Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevecamden Posted March 13, 2013 Share Posted March 13, 2013 Firstly, I wouldn't programme through Railmaster and I don't have any experience on the older decoder. I would take the programming outlet directly from the back of the Elite to the decoder. I would also reset the decoders before re-programming them, which is done by writing 8 to CV 8 ( see the Elite manual) Hope this helps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigNoj Posted March 13, 2013 Share Posted March 13, 2013 I had 2 faulty R8247's that I had similar problems with. I sent them to Hornby who replaced them FOC and had no further issues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishmanoz Posted March 13, 2013 Share Posted March 13, 2013 Agree with Steve a reset is a good idea. And it's interesting that some on here report having trouble programming with either Elite or RM and not the other - some can only program with Elite and some only with RM. and there have also been a few recently reporting faulty 8247s with sometimes some ports not working and sometimes all not working. Whether you are using RM or not, the setup between Elite and the decoder should be the same - the decoder must be connected to the programming track outlet on the Elite. RM simply provides a facility via the USB cable to push buttons and turn knobs on the Elite without actually touching them. So in theory it should work whether you use the Elite or RM but clearly something weird is happening in practice for some. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steamfreak Posted March 13, 2013 Author Share Posted March 13, 2013 Fishmanoz said: Agree with Steve a reset is a good idea. And it's interesting that some on here report having trouble programming with either Elite or RM and not the other - some can only program with Elite and some only with RM. and there have also been a few recently reporting faulty 8247s with sometimes some ports not working and sometimes all not working. Whether you are using RM or not, the setup between Elite and the decoder should be the same - the decoder must be connected to the programming track outlet on the Elite. RM simply provides a facility via the USB cable to push buttons and turn knobs on the Elite without actually touching them. So in theory it should work whether you use the Elite or RM but clearly something weird is happening in practice for some. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steamfreak Posted March 13, 2013 Author Share Posted March 13, 2013 Hi Guys Thanks for your replys. I have been in touch with Customer Care this afternoon but it seems I am trying to program correctly. I am returning them for testing but I am also going to return my "elite" just in case there is a problem here to. I will post the results in this thread in due course. Regards Steamfreak Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishmanoz Posted March 13, 2013 Share Posted March 13, 2013 One person has reported an Elite with no programming track output recently, so good idea to check it too. And please do report back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
96RAF Posted March 14, 2013 Share Posted March 14, 2013 Without reading the manual - does RM provide programming to a dedicated programming track or simply on the main. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
St1ngr4y Posted March 14, 2013 Share Posted March 14, 2013 RM does everything through your controller, so if you have an Elite, it operates through them programming outlet of the Elite. For locos, it is convenient to have the programming outlet connected to a programming track, but for accessory decoders, which they are probably located around the layout close to the accessories they operate, it is less convenient. Personally, I have a pair of wires from the Elite programming outlet to a pair of terminal connectors close by. From here, I can stretch a pair of wires to a decoder located out on the layout. It's then just a case of disconnecting the accessory decoder from the bus, and connecting the programming wires. This is only necessary, of course, if you need to change its address or pulse duration CVs. It saves having to disconnect all of the accessories from the decoder in order to take the decoder to the Elite or programming track. Ray Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishmanoz Posted March 14, 2013 Share Posted March 14, 2013 RAFHAAA96th said: Without reading the manual - does RM provide programming to a dedicated programming track or simply on the main. Yes, definitely must be done on programming track. Effectively, all RM does is push the Elite buttons for you and rotate the knobs, although it does do that more efficiently than the Elite as it automates some of the steps you have to go through on the Elite. But the same physical setup is necessary, so the programming track must be used. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malc58 Posted March 23, 2013 Share Posted March 23, 2013 I have a R8247 Decoder outlets 1,2,4 work fine change points, but outlet 3 only works the points one way. I have tried setting to CV8 W8 with the Elite and RM this did nothing still have the same fault. has anybody got any ideas of what to try next. Thanks Malc58 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geoffb41 Posted March 23, 2013 Share Posted March 23, 2013 have you tried swapping the point motors over so you have a different one (known working) on port three.If it still then does the same would say the decoder is faulty.There isn't much else you can try except resetting cv8. I just went thru 4 or 5 8247 that had problems on port 3.Luckily customer care sent us a few used ones so we could troubleshoot the problem and found it was the point motor hooked to port three that was killing them although it looked fine. geoff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malc58 Posted March 23, 2013 Share Posted March 23, 2013 tried 2 point motors on outlet 1,2,4 all ok then put them to outlet 3 on its own still the same. thanks for your help Malc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete172 Posted March 23, 2013 Share Posted March 23, 2013 Crikey, you guys have got me worried now. I purchased 5 off R8247 accessory decoders some time ago, but have not tried them yet ! (been too busy building a large layout). Just hope that the decoders actually work. Come to think about it, I have not tried to read or write CV's with my Elite either...hope the USB port works. I will run the above with Railmaster & an IIyama touch screen monitor (again still in their boxes) - these have not been tried or tested either. Suppose I'm naively relying on modern technology being fully tested at the factory, and working right first time thereafter. Fingers tightly crossed.... Pete. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steamfreak Posted April 24, 2013 Author Share Posted April 24, 2013 Hi all just to update my original post The problem lay with the Elite. The programming section had stopped working correctly. This was unable to be repaired and needed a new Elite. In fairness to Hornby although mine was out of warranty they offered a brand new one at a greatly reduced price, which I accepted. Everything now works as it should and programming accessory decoders has commenced best regards Steamfreak Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishmanoz Posted April 24, 2013 Share Posted April 24, 2013 Interesting results here. Clearly there are some problems with some Elites having a faulty programming output and Hornby are replacing. And they have been replacing 8247s too with some or all ports apparently not working. Clearly, if you are having problems programming accessory decoders, it worth first checking the Elite as it may turn out this is the only problem. Then again, it could be both, or just the decoders. Either way, there are some quality issues with a lot of Hornby DCC gear just now (loco decoders with wires falling off too). What we never hear about here though are reports from the silent majority whose gear is working just fine. All we know I'd that things aren't perfect and some unspecified proportion has some problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete172 Posted May 3, 2013 Share Posted May 3, 2013 Fishmanoz said: Interesting results here. Clearly there are some problems with some Elites having a faulty programming output and Hornby are replacing. And they have been replacing 8247s too with some or all ports apparently not working. Clearly, if you are having problems programming accessory decoders, it worth first checking the Elite as it may turn out this is the only problem. Then again, it could be both, or just the decoders. Either way, there are some quality issues with a lot of Hornby DCC gear just now (loco decoders with wires falling off too). What we never hear about here though are reports from the silent majority whose gear is working just fine. All we know I'd that things aren't perfect and some unspecified proportion has some problems. As I mentioned earlier in this thread, I had 5 R8247 acc decoders still new in their boxes and not tested. Never having programmed a decoder before, I am pleased to inform that all 5 decoders have programmed correctly 1st time using my Elite !! Well pleased... Peter. Peter... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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