ColinB

As Margate-Richmond said it is a capacitor, they looked like that in the sixties, I have a Nellie in the loft but I think I removed that or it broke. It will not stop your loco working if it is missing, I think they were about 100 pF but I am not sure. TVs are still susceptical to interference from model railways, I notice on mine, it misses the odd frame even worse if you are recording something on a box.

@37lover Sorry, to me it was obvious because why was the guy asking the question, he knew what he was doing so, no need to put him down, so it had to be something simple like the Select doesn't have a program track outlet, which RAF96 has perfectly explained. It must be in the Elite manual, which I read because when I started I had not used DCC, if I had used a Select, I probably wouldn't have read the Elite manual. The reason people come on this site is to get the answers to questions they don't know, otherwise they wouldn't bother.

It is difficult to read the number off the IC, but if it is the device I looked up, it is rated at 6 amps, which I find very hard to believe. I suspect that is only for a very short period. I have got two of these devices that came with my Elite. I have about 40 plus points so DCC is not really on, perhaps in the future, so they have sat in the box. My Heljan turntable works directly off DCC using the accessory commands, that is impressive and so incredibly quiet. I might use the Hornby accessory modules to power latching relays to power the turntable outlets, so the power is applied after the turntable moves to the position. I think with my Fleishmann you can set events to daisy chain commands, reading the manual I think the Elite can do it as well, you probably know better than I do.

Ok, this is a long shot but you haven't spilt anything on the Select that could have got in the keys? I have had things where the key actually gets stuck, so although you press another key, the stuck one takes precedence. As I say it is incredibly rare, but it happens.

@37lover Obviously, the Select doesn't, so the guy when upgrading just assumed the Elite didn't. Actually wireless wouldn't work either you would need something to convert it back. Anyway, I had already answered the question.

If you work out the maths the wattage is 0.1 watt at 12 volts. So at 16 volts a 1/8 watt would be good enough. As I said in my post an SIL resistor pack or the ready made PCB work just great, I have used both. The same guy that does the SMD board also does a DCC socket board that contains a connector so you can wire the lights, such that you can disconnect the body electrics when you do a service.

I can see your issue, none of the normal Suppliers have the spare parts. I recently updated a couple of 0-4-0 locos, I found it easier to source the whole chassis with wheels off EBay and it was cheaper than just the motor. Failing that I think it is the same motor that goes into scalextrix, it definitely looks the same. I did a quick check on the Hornby parts website and it looks like there is a later part X8966 for the motor. On this site people kept telling me that on later models they changed the gearing to slow the thing down. When I bought the latest chassis what I found was that Hornby didn't do that at all, all they did was put a resistor in series with the the motor to lower the voltage and slow it down. So have a look at the later 0-4-0 Service sheets and see if the part numbers have changed. Unfortunately, Hornby don't have a numbering system that tells you what the updated part is (although it is the same).

Yes it does. I don't have a Select so I cannot tell you the difference but yes with the Elite when you program, the piece of track you are going to program on has to be connected to the program connections. It must be in the manual somewhere, for me to know.

I checked those TTS decoders you mention and even from a cold start I get no whistles when they start up. So I suspect it is your controller. I let someone else comment on that, unfortunately I don't have a "Select" to test it on.

I assume although you don't say it that you are using the controller that came with the set, so the controller light, lights up to sav that there is power being fed to the track. Did it move far when you pushed it down? So if it moves a bit that means the track has power. Its is either the loco pickups are not working properly, or when you push it down it forces a connection on the track. You could try just laying out a couple of pieces of track , put the power on it and seeing if it works. The other thing could be a dirty track where it has been stored.

Weird, mine definitely don't I would have noticed that. Perhaps it is a function of the controller, I use an Elite or a Fleishmann. What TTS decoders were they? I get lots of noise when they start up, normal steam sounds or diesel noises, definitely no whistles.

I think you will find the 800 mS is probably to protect the R8247 rather than the solenoid, I took mine apart and looking at the driver there is no heat sink and is being driven by a huge charge bank, so I suspect it cannot carry much current for very long. That is probably why Hornby only recommend driving one solenoid, just in case the user has a Peco PL10 point motor attached.

RAF96 ok, thanks. I just assumed it altomatically did it with the paste function. I can see now it is a separate menu option.

Well I can't help that, I just did the search, I even checked on the date. Now to you and me we know it is the wrong one, the average person doesn't and proberly if Hornby had made it, it might have would have worked in the Prodogy if you were allowed to load the right driver, all it is doing is passing serial data. As I say I am not particularly bothered, you obviously are. As I said, to me, the subject is closed. The one good thing that has come out of this is I have done an awful lot of research on loconet, I suspect the link between my turntable and controller is such. Funny I used to have a lot of respect for your opinion, I though you were one of the good guys.

blwtechnical services does a pcb version of this for £1.50 on EBAY + £0.99 P&P. They are 1 k pull up resistors. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DCC-LED-lighting-resistor-PCB-New-UK-stock/192653408416?hash=item2cdb09b8a0:g:KuAAAOSwzFxa4yNm

Well when I did the the search on the Gaugemaster site that is exactly what I saw. Here is the link: https://www.gaugemasterretail.com/magento/catalogsearch/result/?q=select-a-link So obviously they were originally going to sell it.

I didn't follow your link, I went onto the Gaugemaster site and did a search. It tok several search attempts but eventually I found the reference to it and a nice picture with the Hornby logo on it. I was surprised, I was led to believe that they made their own, also it was a lot lower priced than what I was led to believe. It wasn't much more expensive than what I paid for a decent USB to RS232 for my Fleishmann. You have to be very careful with USB to serial comms leads, quite often the drivers don't work very well with every PC, especially the cheap ones from EBay/China, but as I say, they said they were out of stock. As I said I was only trying to help. In my case it is a bit academic, I run a Fleishmann twin track on my layout and an Elite to do my programming and general testing, I have no need for a Select. The only thing I would like is a means to switch DCC on and off remotely via a wireless/bluetooth link, so that when I am fixing a derailed loco, I can stop everything without having to go backwards and forwards to the control box and the fear of falling over a trailing lead. I have followed that link, that is what I would expected and nearer the price. What they have done is bought the module you can get from RS (they do it in several serial comms formats) and then attached the loconet cable to it. If you wanted to do some soldering the RS option is about half the price. The RS comms module is about £20.00 plus vat, I assume a loconet cable is a couple of pounds.

No surprise to me, read the posts on this site and I am sure I have seen this before. One thing I would check that you haven't got any reverse loops on one of you tracks. So play around with any points on the track you are testing and see if the fault reappears.

I have about 4 of these decoders, I must admit I have never seen this. They reset themselves a lot if they get a poor signal. Sometimes if you have previously selected whistle once, then turn the sound off (F1) turn the sound back on, then you get a whistle but nothing like you mention. Do all your other locos work ok? It is just I have had issues recently with a DCC turntable doing weird and wonderful things which I eventually traced to one of the DCC wires not working properly. So the turntable was only getting half the DCC signal. I suppose they could have not programmed it properly but I doubt it. It sounds like a call to Hornby. Even if it was a switch bounce issue with your Select, it sounds too consistant to be that. I suppose there could have been an issue with your Select when it got upgraded, but again that seems a bit far fetched. Does it do it on any of your other TTS decoders. I don't know if you have tried this, but try it on a single length of track just in case something on your track layout is doing something weird.

I am not surprised a R8247 does not operate two points together. I had issues with my analogue system not being able to do this reliably, sometimes it worked sometimes it didn't. So I then bought some Peco low energy point motors and the same thing happened although not so often as with the previous normal Peco point motors. Maybe if I had increased the CDU capacitor size it might have got better, but I decided to use separate switches. I would imagine the R8247 has less power than my CDU unit, and the whole idea of the R8247 is to power them separately and switch them one after the other. I think the Seep point motors use about the same current as the low energy Peco ones. I am not an expert on inductors, but I assume it is something to do with the coils differing slightly.

The thing to check is that the header is pushed fully home. Some of the decoders have thinner than normal pins so they don't always make connection. The DC headers seem to have thicker pins so always work and of course the thicker pins of the DC header it was shipped with has now opened up the holes, making it worse. The other thing to check is the socket, sometimes one of the individual sockets loses its grip and so does not connect properly. The good news is you haven't blown it up, because that normally results in a short circuit and you can smell burnt components. Other than that it sounds like it is duff. If you have another a loco you could try it in there just to check it works. The other thing it could be is that the socket on the J15 has a soldered connection that is not making contact, that happened to me on a brand new King Loco. I got so fed up with having these sort of issues, I had a lot, I bought a decoder tester, so I could check them before I fitted them. The decoder will work either way you insert it, if you put it in the wrong way the lights won't work and the motor runs backwards, so on your J15 not really an issue. You know it is covered for a year by guarantee, although sadly at the moment it might take that long to get it back.

I actually added separate red and white leds, it looks more realistic, it does mean pulling out the lens, but on old locos they are usually a bit loose. I used tower leds they are smaller. For the resistors you can make it a bit easier by using a single in line commoned resistor pack (you can get them off EBay). For the dummy end, as you are only driving lights, I used one of those really cheap LaisDCC decoders. I don't know if you know but Peters spares was doing the later non powered bogies, with the extra pickups. Also I found the weight in the Dummy car wasn't needed, I removed it as it made the dummy car equivalent to about 3 extra coaches. Some of the later Virgin ones have 5 pole Ringfield motors. Hope it is of some use.

Actually, yelrow you seem to have a bit of an issue reading, where in my last post does it say I worked in computers. It says comms (communications), it says electronics, it says software but it doesn't say computers. I used to work in embedded software and hardware, look it up on the web, it is a bit different. As far as I am concerned subject is closed, for me some of you have shown your true colours. I suppose I should have known when I suggested point covers to cover the hole you cut for the point and got told to make some out of cardboard. I gather the guy that makes them for me with 3D printing does good business, so obviously not such a stupid idea. Anyway as I said subject closed.

Well why can he not do what I do search the web find the technology and then come up with a logical conclusion rather than criticise. As I said I was just pointing out it could be done with commercial components and yes I do find him rude, obviously you don't, there was no need for that rant. I see many stupid ideas on this site but I just let them pass. Incidentally GM doesn't have the leads anyway and looking at the picture they were the Hornby product. Obviously he didn't think I did know what I was talking about, surprisingly in electronics the devices get cleverer and faster, as I say I have been working with comms for years. If I had a Select I would try the idea out, but I don't have one and to be quite honest I have no need. Obviously, you are not like me I like to learn new things, as for my background then you shouldn't treat me as an idiot. I don't do to you, but I suppose you don't understand that. Actually, I would have thought some of my electronics and software knowledge would have been quite useful to you, but obviously not. If you don't want me to post I won't bother.

After reading this, I rest my case. It appears I was completely right. https://www.modelrailforum.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=498 According to this article, you just need to add the 6 pin socket to an existing lead RS485 lead, the extra pins carry the 12 volts to power the walk around devices, but I doubt for serial communications they are used. Hornby obviously designed their own, RS do one with the more usual FTDL chip in.