Hornby R8247

[liam_stewart]

Can anyone  tell me how long it should take to write to the R8247 decorder,and how can you tell when it's finished thanks.

[RB51]

What are you using to write to the decoder? What device? R-

[liam_stewart]

Rog I'm still tryin to get my points set up with the R8247 point decoder. I have the decoder wired to the prog output and the input of the R8247, when I open the point decoder window the settings are port 1 highlighted 2.3.4 are greyed out, pulse on port 1 is 100. I then click on the right hand bottom button, then the decoder starts reading and goes through the processes obtaining moduleI ID obtaining module address on all ports, obtaining pulse on ports 1,2,3,4, after this process the ID shows as 12.1 outport have changed to 257, 258,259,260, I then click on the write button and that's as far as it goes. That's why I asked the question how long does it take to write and when do you know it's finished. I was waiting for more than half hour, but nothing seemed to be happening.

[96RAF]

To repeat Rog's question. What device are you using to write to the acc decoder. Is it an Elite, a Select, an eLInk via Railmaster or some other manufacturers' controller. It all has its effect.

[St1ngr4y]

Liam,

Have you decided on what the port addresses of your decoder are to be? For each R8247 decoder, the addresses must be consecutive and the lowest of the four has to be a multiple of four + 1. Or put another way, the highest of the four must be a multiple of four. For example, you can have 13 14 15 16 on one decoder, and 25 26 27 28 on another, but you can't have for example, 10 11 12 13 on the same decoder. The image below shows the three stages of programming a decoder. In this case I have programmed it for addresses 97 98 99 100.

The first window (Stage 1) shows what you see when you click on the Railmaster button. 

Next, I have typed into the first output port number box 97, and Railmaster automatically fills in the other three boxes.

Next, I have pressed the button in the bottom LEFT of the window, and this starts off the programming of the decoder and you should see a window such as Stage 3 shown. When the "Please wait" box disappears, programming is complete.

 /media/tinymce_upload/accessory_decoder.png

At this point you should press the button second from the bottom right with a X on it, to exit from the programming window.

Disconnect your decoder from the Prog track and connect it up to your DCC bus or main track, plug in the wires from your points, and you are ready to go.

Ray

[liam_stewart]

eLink with rail master.

[idlemarvel]

If you are using elink/RM then I seem to remember it is set to 15 seconds to read each value.  So it reads the version number, group address,and the pulse time settings for each 4 ports, so about 90 seconds.  Probably same time to write.  No way should it take 30 minutes.  After you had read the values what did you change before you clicked the write button?

[St1ngr4y]

Hi Liam,

I have posted an image giving step by step instructions on programming a R8247, but you might have the answer before the image is approved for display.

Ray

[liam_stewart]

If you are using elink/RM then I seem to remember it is set to 15 seconds to read each value.  So it reads the version number, group address,and the pulse time settings for each 4 ports, so about 90 seconds.  Probably same time to write.  No way should it take 30 minutes.  After you had read the values what did you change before you clicked the write button?

I didn't change anything. Should I have?

[liam_stewart]

Hi Liam,

I have posted an image giving step by step instructions on programming a R8247, but you might have the answer before the image is approved for display.

Ray

Ok thanks

[St1ngr4y]

If you are using elink/RM then I seem to remember it is set to 15 seconds to read each value.  So it reads the version number, group address,and the pulse time settings for each 4 ports, so about 90 seconds.  Probably same time to write.  No way should it take 30 minutes.  After you had read the values what did you change before you clicked the write button?

I didn't change anything. Should I have?

As I have mentioned in my post (yet to be displayed), you need to decide the addresses which you want each of the four ports of your R8247 to use. These must be four consecutive numbers, and the highest of the four must be a multiple of four. For example, 13 14 15 16 are acceptable, but 18 19 20 21 cannot be used on the same R8247.

On the first screen, enter the lowest of the four numbers you decide upon, into the first output port number, and RM will fill in the other three boxes. To program these (with your decoder attached to the Prog track), press the button at the bottom LEFT of the window (not the Green Tick - this is used for reading the values from the decoder). When it has finished, press the X button, link your decoder to the DCC bus or track, wire in your points and you are ready to go.

Ray

 

[liam_stewart]

If you are using elink/RM then I seem to remember it is set to 15 seconds to read each value.  So it reads the version number, group address,and the pulse time settings for each 4 ports, so about 90 seconds.  Probably same time to write.  No way should it take 30 minutes.  After you had read the values what did you change before you clicked the write button?

I didn't change anything. Should I have?

As I have mentioned in my post (yet to be displayed), you need to decide the addresses which you want each of the four ports of your R8247 to use. These must be four consecutive numbers, and the highest of the four must be a multiple of four. For example, 13 14 15 16 are acceptable, but 18 19 20 21 cannot be used on the same R8247.

On the first screen, enter the lowest of the four numbers you decide upon, into the first output port number, and RM will fill in the other three boxes. To program these (with your decoder attached to the Prog track), press the button at the bottom LEFT of the window (not the Green Tick - this is used for reading the values from the decoder). When it has finished, press the X button, link your decoder to the DCC bus or track, wire in your points and you are ready to go.

Ray

 

Ray I thought that's what I did on my first post, on the first port I set as number 1 the other 3 were set up automatically as 2, 3 & 4 these were greyes out. Do you mean at this stage to press the write button to write the values? The R8247 goes through the processes then the screen shows port 1 has changed to 257 port 2 - 258 port 3 - 259 and port 4 - 260. nothing happens once this screen appears. 

[St1ngr4y]

Liam,

If 1 2 3 4 are the addresses you want, then, yes, press the Write button (bottom LEFT, not the Green tick).

Ray

[ParkyTrain]

Hi. I have programmed my r8247 decoder but when i connect it back to main track from prog track the points do not work. On my plan i have set the points with the numbers each has been configured for on decoder but still nothing. From reading the above i have done all i need to. All points worked using select before i switched over to elink and railmaster. Not sure what else to try or what i have missed? Any help / suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks

[RDS]

... before i switched over to elink and railmaster ...

You need to open up your layout in Design mode on RailMaster and then Right click on one of the buttons for each point, to tell RailMaster, the id number and which Decoder you are using.  Then save the modified Track Layout plan.  Your Points should then work when you click on the buttons adjacent to the Point.

 

 

[Chrissaf]

All points worked using select before i switched over to elink and railmaster.

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Parky,

When you changed over from the Select to the eLink, did you change your point addressing scheme to one that is compatible with eLInk. The Select point addressing has a known incompatibility with Elite/eLink issue that is not particularly well documented in Hornby manuals and guides but is fairly well covered on numerous previous posts on this forum. The issue can result in the addresses in Select compared to Elite/eLink being offset by a factor of 3.

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So, for example, what you think is address 60 in Select is not address 60 in Elite/eLink, it is either 57 or 63 (off the top of my head I can't remember if the offset is minus 3 or plus 3).

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If I was you, I would re-address my point decoders using RM/eLink to a new supported scheme (read the RM manual on point addressing to derive a new numbering scheme - see suggested page numbers below), change your track plan point configurations in RM to match the new point address numbers applied to your point decoders and all should be well. For example port address 1-4, 5-8, 9-16 etc. If possible avoid using addresses 1-4.

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For more information see RM manual Pages 73-75 and 85-87

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Caveat - The issue described above is only a theory to your problem and I believe to be subject to the firmware level in the Select. In other words not all Selects may exhibit this issue. However, that said. If your current point addresses are in the 60's range, then making the addresses conform with the RM manual recommendations is still worth doing.

[Fishmanoz]

I'm not convinced your theory is right Chris.  The offset you are talking about is that Elite addresses with Select Walkabout not matching, and in this instance the Select shows 3 below the Elite.

 

For this case, the addresses have already been set using the Select and the accessory decoders will still have those addresses stored when moved onto the RM/eLink system.  There is no need to do any further decoder programming.  All you need to do is go into Layout Design, include your points, add point buttons snapped into them and give them the addresses for the decoders to which they are wired. It should all then work.

 

One thing to remember in future is that, while Select set up addresses of 60-63 for the first decoder, RM can only set up 61-64.  That's not a problem for the decoder already programmed but if you now program another with RM, it will have to be 65-68 and you will have to skip using 64 for any of your points.

[ParkyTrain]

... before i switched over to elink and railmaster ...

You need to open up your layout in Design mode on RailMaster and then Right click on one of the buttons for each point, to tell RailMaster, the id number and which Decoder you are using.  Then save the modified Track Layout plan.  Your Points should then work when you click on the buttons adjacent to the Point.

 

 hi, many thanks all point now working fine. I thought i had done this but cannot of saved correctly. Thanks for your help and thanks to other that responded all infonhelping me to understand railmaster. Cheers all.

 

 

 

[96RAF]

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz.your next task Parky is to read the instructions widely posted on here about how to reply without getting stuck in the yellow box where your text blends in with previous text and no one can work out who said what.abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

[Chrissaf]

I'm not convinced your theory is right Chris

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Neither was I Fishman to be true, hence the caveats. Not having a Select myself to experiment with I was unsure whether the off-set issue was more than just 'Walkabout' mode or not. Obviously not the problem as Parky has now resolved it as being a basic configuration error.

[96RAF]

The Elite provided Classic / Standard operating modes to overcome the off-set issue also depending upon the revision state of the Select. There is a bit about it in the elite manual on the operating modes page.