Where to buy R8247 Accessory Decoder?

[Ullswater]

Could anybody advise where I can buy R8247 accessory decoders?

 

I cannot find an online store with any stock - even Hornby itself.

 

Cheers, Ben

[Bulleidboy]

Have a look at the Liverpool site (H*tto*s) - type in R8247 in the search box, and it displays the "blue box" equivalent, which they say is the same as the Hornby version, and is currently available for £22.

[Ullswater]

Many thanks bulleidboy ... I have ordered one and will see how I get on with it. H*tto*s tell me they expect the R8247 back in stock in December, and I've also emailed Hornby to get confirmation.

 

I wonder if this is anything to do with the release

 

of detection capability!?

[Bert85]

I have been advised by my local shop that the R8247 Accessory Decoder is currently on order, due to problems in China where they are currently made there is a backlog along with a lot of other Hornby items. These should be available from November time,

 

but its happy hunting for them at the moment. Try e-Bay.

[Ullswater]

Hornby replied to me that they would be available December ...

 

I've got the blue box equivalent working now - not quite as user friendly, but appears to have more functionality.

 

Thanks for the inputs all.

[gilbo2]

bulleidboy said:

Have a look at the Liverpool site (H*tto*s) - type in R8247 in the search box, and it displays the "blue box" equivalent, which they say is the same as the Hornby version, and is currently available for £22.

These

look like they need a separate power supply feed or can you connect to the track the same as r8247?

[GarH]

The instruction sheet that comes with the unit and the instructions that appear on screen when you go to "programme a decoder" tells you that on shorter layouts you obtain power from the track and connect both track A and power A to the A socket on the

 

power clip and track B and power B wires to the socket B on the power clip.

 

I bought one and it seemed to go well (the second time of asking) following instructions on screen with RM but when I connected it all up from the programming track to the layout

 

- zilch and I'm sure I did it all okay so I have gone back to the single switch for the motor I was programming in and may just have to wait until Hornby's suppliers get the R8247 back in stock as they are so much easier to programme - well in my humble opinion

 

although I did have problem persuading RM to get rid of the programming box off the screen and it may well be that in the process I have undone all I had achieved?

[Fishmanoz]

Hey Gar (sounds very Viking!), how did you power it on the programming track, by leaving the power connections on the layout track, or everything on the programming track?

 

If you had power from the programming track, it may not have been operational

 

when you tried to program it as the programming track has reduced power available. I don't know this for sure, just a suggestion.

 

The reason this and other brands have the ability to use a separate supply is just to conserve track power for running

 

other things like locos. It's not that they run better with a separate supply.

[GarH]

Everything on the programming track - I even disconnected the power wiring to the layout as I get a wee bit worried that by having the layout connected whilst I am programming I will somehow reprogramme the other accessory coders on the layout. Probably

 

a silly assumption to make but there you are old habits die hard. So basically I had the decoder connected to the points motor as instructed and the power and track wires from the decoder linked to the programming wires on the programming track ie all A connected

 

to A and all B connected to B. There is a Led on the unit which I'm sure flashed at one stage to verify power was getting to it but I must admit I was more keen on watching the laptop screen trying to make sure I followed what was appearing in the dialogue

 

boxes. I also assumed that once you had set up the programming you just ticked the save box and the programme box would disappear but this didn't seem to be the case so as I said before I could have undone everything by my getting rid of the box before it

 

had finished but again I'm not sure but may try again in the week and see what happens.

[GarH]

Following on Fismanoz I am using an old DC power unit to give power to my two remaining points motor switches so I guess I could use the two power connections on that to connect the decoder up whilst I programme it or even use the power unit to power the

 

decoder permanently for both the remaining points motors and ensure there is no power loss - although I wouldn't have thought on my 8' x 4' layout with only 5 working locos and ten point motors that using power only from eLink would see a reduction on the

 

performance of the locos?

[Fishmanoz]

Should be no problem with leaving the power on the layout. All that will be on this connection will be a standard bridge rectifier power supply arrangement, one that will work from anything that looks like AC. There should be no possibility of programming

 

signals leaking out to the layout via this (he says confidently with all care and no responsibility).

[GarH]

Nice to know you are confidently not confident over leaving the power on the track but I might try connecting up the old DC unit to the decoder and hope I get the connectors round the correct way as can't remember if it says Track A and B on the terminals

 

- which is live and which is return out of A and B? or Plus + and Minus -?

[Fishmanoz]

Hang on, if you are using the blue box equivalent, it is not an option as a decoder in RM. So I take it you are using the 8247 option? And you are pressing the Write to Decoder box at bottom left of window once you have the address you want? The tick and

 

closing of the box shouldn't matter after that, but strange if the box won't close.

 

Have you asked RM Support about it?

[GarH]

Not sure what you mean Fishmanoz once you pull up the Programme Accessory Decoder screen there is a drop down menu and the third option down the list is the non Hornby unit I bought and it confirms it on selection by providing you with a picture of said

 

unit and then it tells you that you have to wire up the track and power in a specific way. Fine. You select and then it goes through the programming sequence wherein you allocate the first number (in my case as I used 61 and 65 on the first points on my two

 

R8247 decoders I entered 69 and it allocates the next 3 numbers to 72) once the dialogue finishes I pressed the save icon and the box stayed on screen. I actually got rid of it eventually by pressing the exit box at the top right of the dialogue box I can

 

only assume it stays on screen for you to select another decoder but it messes things up by coming up with Do you want to save Cross or Tick and depending on what you do it either stays on screen or yes strangely it stays on screen. I may be expecting too

 

much from RM but I am still happy with what I've done so far with Hornby products and if I can't get this foreign unit to operate the points I'll just give up and wait for the "Real McCoy" to be available. It's all good fun and another learning curve.

[GarH]

Sorry, and no I haven't bothered RM Support yet as I want to have another go some time later this week at sorting it out myself as I may find I have missed a trick or two in the process and don't want to be embarrassed asking a silly question which at

 

my age I ought to be able to sort out using something called common sense or logic. But I may resort to asking for their opinion so thanks for reminding me they are there.

[Fishmanoz]

Well Gar, that last bit of information solved it for me, now to solve it for you. You told me it was a blue box equivalent and there isn't one in the Rm list. What you actually have from you 2nd last post is an ESU Switchpilot.

 

Now go and take

 

a look at https://www.hornby.com/forums/hornby-forums/hornby-railmaster/5296/ and read it through to the HRMS post at the end of the thread and you'll see why you have a problem. And assuming you are running v1.53, their fix isn't as good as they think it

 

is.

 

So again, suggest you contact RM Support. Then I think I would get upset with the Liverpool mob as they should have known better.

[GarH]

Fishmanoz I never cease to be amazed at your knowledgeable contributions. I have only dipped into the thread you suggest and I guess as Delboy Trotter would say "Rodney you are a plonker" not that my name is Rodney of course. I got swept away by the thread

 

into alternative decoders and to be honest it wasn't really a costly one and I guess I'm more upset with Hornby than the Liverpool lot, bless their cotton socks, for not having a sufficient supply of accessory decoders to meet supply and demand. The trouble

 

is that I had put in a search on Hornby for decoders and realise now I should have put in ESU switchpilot - I'll have a closer read of the thread later but as they are supposed to say down under "Thanks Cobber" or something like that. Guess the Squash tournament

 

judging went okay the other weekend - had a sneaky peek on the website of the tournament and see a local Oz beat a Scot in the final of the men's comp.

[GarH]

I may try programming the ESU switch pilot with my Select on the programming track as I see someone dealt with the problem that way but I did have an earlier attempt this way and it too didn't work but it may be something to do with an auxiliary power

 

supply and pressing the programming button to get the led light flashing to show the unit is in programming mode. I haven't had to programme any accessory decoders on eLink and RM as these were set up via my Select Control and accepted when I upgraded from

 

Select to eLink and RM. The old common sense and logic coming into play? Or, not as the case may prove when I try it sometime this week. Glad I kept the Select - well here's hoping otherwise just wait for the R8247 to appear in stock!!

[GarH]

It has just occurred to me after reading the HRMS post at the end of the thread Fishmanoz highlighted that when I last used eLink and RM it came up with a message to say that it couldn't download firmware 1.04 into the eLink DCC controller and that I would

 

have to download manually and it wouldn't open up RM. Whilst I was doing other updates to my laptop something must have happened on RM as when I pulled it up on screen I was at my layout and everything was working hunky dory until I started programming the

 

Accessory decoder of course - I was still able to run all the locos and operate the decoder points on the layout until I got fed up trying to sort the decoder out. Does that mean I have to somehow try to manually download some upgrade or am I getting confused

 

by another glitch which seems to have sorted itself out. Get those R8247 Accessory Decoders back on the shelf Hornby!!

[Fishmanoz]

You were just lucky I remembered the thread. To me it doesn't make sense there is so much trouble with this. Everything is supposed to be NMRA compliant and interchangeable. Imagine if every time you put a different brand decoder in a loco you had to program

 

it differently. Shouldn't be any different for accessory decoders.

 

That final match in Coffs was interesting. The young Scot choked big time against a very wise older Aussie. Should have been a very close match the Scot could have own, but wasn't as

 

it turned out. Good weekend up there at that tournament, as it usually is.

[GarH]

Well that failed miserably. Connected my Select controller up to the ESU Switchpoint to see if I could program it from Select rather than from eLink and then put the point on the layout plan with the decoder number. I connected up the decoder to the point

 

motor - wiring correct I should add, connected the decoder up to an auxiliary power supply from my old DC controller and got a blip on the led as I powered it up to suggest power was there and then connected the decoder up to the programming track (direct

 

to Select actually) and then - now is the interesting bit of course - do you press the programming button on the ESU decoder before you use the Select to program the first connection, after you program the Select or not bother? I tried all options and although

 

there was a suggestion that something caused the motor to "click" it basically didn't work - although if I manually set the point one way in the process it would "click" back to its previous position and this happened several times making me think that Harry

 

Potter was up in the loft with me performing magic with his wand. When I pressed the programming button on the ESU the led light flashed but the only way I could stop it flashing was to power off the unit. This suggests to me it wasn't programming? I will

 

try again from RM when I get the opportunity using the old DC control to power the decoder and then either give up on the unit, go to HRMS or telephone the Scouse outfit who I bought said unit from. Any useful comments from the guys would be welcome

[Fishmanoz]

As I said on the other thread, email RM Support now and tell them v1.53 doesn't solve the problem of programming this decoder for you. They need to know and will help you.

 

They are not last resort, in fact for any things like this, they are the

 

first place to go.

 

Do you get the impression I think you should email them now?

[GarH]

I did wonder what you were trying to say Fishmanoz. Will do so when next have system up and running but it is probably me doing something stupid in my ignorance. Will eat humble pie if I need to and let the forum know what transpires from my eventual contact

 

from within RM Help

[GarH]

Hi Fishmanoz. You may see a similar response to this in another thread but this is the response I got from RM Support today "With regard to your switchpilot, this device is not the easiest to set up (nothing to do with RailMaster). It requires that you

 

connect BOTH the track output and PROG output to the input of the decoder module AND have a load on port one - a point motor will do. RailMaster will do the rest. This is fully documented in the instructions which come with your Switchpilot." Not sure it really

 

answers my question but will have another go at it just to show willing.