JST

As an experiment I tried 2 metres of 7/02 wire from the decoder to the motor and it fired just fine.

I am not sure I like the look of the wiring connection to the ADS decoder. It looks (but photos can be deceptive) as though the white wire has a deal of excess exposed non insulated wire. If any of that has touched the green wire input it will have blown the solenoid output. The clicking you can hear may be the frog power relay which will be unaffected. Trim the wires so no bare wire remains exposed and try another of the solenoid ports. Turn the decoder off and press the CDU discharge button before doing anything. I have a lot of these decoders and they are great but they do not like "shorted" wires. I found it incredibly difficult to get the recommended size wire into the terminal blocks so I tried 7/02 dropper wire and it works just fine as long as you keep the cable run to a sensible length.

I don't use cork underlay - the track is flat on the baseboard. I find underlay deadens the sound too much for my taste. I guess the 16mm chipboard I use for baseboards soaks up some sound anyway.

The 18mm is from the baseboard up and the track is code 100. I thought about the recess but I was cutting the platform from pine board and my carpentry skills being what they are I was not sure about getting the recess in the right place! However, I am happy with it as it is. I think that in another thread somewhere, someone posted a picture of Banbury where a great chunk had been cut out of the platform by way of a recess.

I am in the process of building a GWR BLT and have set the platforms as per Harlequin's advice. Very pleased with the outcome - even with the cross over run around ( Peco medium radius) in the platform a Grange class buffer beam barely brushes the platform edge. The platform is 18 mm high which works out about right.

I can only speak from experience. I have about 60 Peco solenoid motors and there have been no failures yet. Seep motors have built in frog switches but you don't need that if you use ADSXs. As an aside, solenoid motors are noisy and I run my layout with Railmaster which sets all the points on start up - the sound of Peco gunfire everywhere!

Good point. I have a couple of old locos on my layout but the motors have had the armatures re-wound and the magnets re- magnetised. Worth the effort as it pulls the stall power down.

I use ADSx decoders and am very happy with them but there are a couple of things you need to bear in mind when using them. Firstly, although the ADSXs do not use much power when idling, they do take quite a bit to power up at start up. You can get round this by designing things so you can switch the decoders in gradually. I have about sixty sets of points powered by ADSXs and is they are all switched in at once, they trip my 4 amp controller. I have now got a second 4 amp unit which runs as a "booster" and powers the decoders via an accessory bus (but still switched in gradually). This brings me to my second point. The ADSX decoders must get a command from the controller to change points. If you use track power, that is fine, but you cannot use a separate transformer which is not acting as a booster i.e. is not receiving the commands from the controller. Hope this makes sense.

Horses for courses. My layout is 30ft long and I have about 60 sets of points on it so I use Railmaster, a wireless mouse, monitor screens at three locations and an office chair on wheels so I can operate the whole layout from multiple locations! Works for me! On a serious note, all the points have their number written next to the motor on the underside of the baseboard as do the associated decoder ports.

Just a bit of an update to show I have not been totally idle. I have done some work on the loco shed area (still loads to do) and the approach to Fernhead out of the tunnel. I have managed to squeeze in a level crossing for the road going to the goods shed. In the other direction it goes into a road tunnel behind the loco shed. As far as the place where I could not mount a points motor below the base board goes, I opted for a Hornby motor and one of their "sheds" to hide it. Needs painting but it is OK. I built the Ration signal box but didn't like it so "kit bashed" into a ramshackle coaling stage. OK, so it's not great but I love it. Awaiting the return to work by Metcalfe to I can have one of their small GWR signal boxes.

The whole issue is now sorted. I have Railmaster running the track via the Elite and the accessory bus via the eLink with an Elite 4 amp power pack and they all play nicely together! It is a shame I could not get the Alphabox set up to work but the Elite and the Alphabox clearly did not like each other.

Thanks guys but I have now moved on to plan 37B! It occurred to me that Railmaster can have two controllers linked to it and be configured so that one Elite powers and controls the track bus and the other powers and controls the accessory bus. I am therefore (with the help of the Hornby Forum) going to give this a try. My Elite did indeed die but not when connected in any way to the Alphabox. I think that with all the changing around of cables, the track feed wires from the Elite got a bit frayed and may have touched each other. However, I have a new Elite arriving on Friday and the old one is going back to Hornby for repair. I still have an eLink with the Hornby 4 amp supply so that can be used to run the accessory bus pending the repair of the Elite. Crossland, your point on power districts is well taken but due to the size of my layout and the number of things that can be running at the same time I get a bit paranoid when there is a short and am happy for the whole shooting match to shut down. However, I do have switched power districts to help with fault finding.

I have been in correspondence with DCC Concepts who say that the Elite Track Output is the correct one to use to connect to the Alphabox but clearly that is not working. You are right that boosters ought to be simple and I wish that were the case. I fear the Alphabox is going back in favour of a Hornby friendly booster.

It is partly due to the start up but also due to the amperage the system is pulling at rest. I do have a system of switching in the decoders on a district basis. I have 4 ADS8X decoders and 10 ADS2X which once fired up take about 1.5 amps at "tickover". The track without the decoders connected runs at about .4 amps which seems fair enough. I have a fairly large layout with about 30 locos (some of them sound fitted) sitting on the track. I have now created an accessory bus to run all the ADSX decoders leaving the Hornby Elite free to run the trains... if I can get the Alphabox/Alpha Power to run the accessory bus and play nicely with the Elite but this seems like a forlorn hope at this point. I am now thinking of binning the DCC booster system and finding something else that will work with the Hornby Elite. I do not want to get rid of the Elite as I like it and more importantly, run the layout with Railmaster Pro.

Thanks Niigel. It is now cutting out whether or not the USB lead is plugged in. I think you may be right about the Hornby booster. I see they are not available anymore but second hand ones appear on eBay. As a matter of interest how does a Hornby booster react to short circuits/overloads as from what I can see there is no "reset" switch.

Thanks for the warning Nigel. I will check and go back to the drawing board! Any recommendations for a 4/5 amp 15v transformer?

Back to square one! Having connected all the ADSX decoders to the new accessory bus the Alphabox/Alpha Power set up copes easily with the load but as soon as the eLink is connected it shuts down again. DCC Concepts seem pretty certain that the issue is to do with the Hornby 4 amp power pack so as soon as the barrel connectors I ordered arrive I will try powering the eLink with the Lenz TR150. On the plus side, the creation of an accessory bus has stabilised the track voltage and amperage.

A solution!... of sorts. Today I installed an accessories bus and connected the Alphabox/Alpha Power to it leaving the Elite powered eLink to run the trains but linked to the Alphabox for DCC signal purposes. I have thus far only connected some of the ADSX decoders but so far it works without the Alphabox tripping out. I don't know why this works but I am relieved it does! The barrel plug issue now seems irrelevant although I have discovered that I have a Lenz TR150 which I had forgotten about and could power the eLink with.

Some progress! I managed to buy an eLink on the cheap and used the power supply to power the Elite. The system now runs albeit still a bit flakey - but at least it runs! This certainly points the finger at the Elite power supply and adds weight to the "floating earth" theory. I am now awaiting delivery of a barrel plug (see another thread) so that I can make up a lead to power the Elite from the Alphabox. Feeling more positive now!

I had the same issue when powering up using Railmaster via an Elite. It is because the ADS decoders take quite a bit of power to charge up their CDUs. I wanted to retain my ADS decoders so just added switches new my control point enabling me to turn the decoders on in ranks after power up without crawling about under the baseboard. You do not need a switch for each decoder. 1 per each 5 ADS2Xs. Problem solved!

Thanks Brian! I have ordered some in great hope and anticipation!

I agree. However, I bought two of them from RS Components each pack was correctly numbered 909-2244 but had the centre pin. When I was spending ages scrolling through their website and looking at technical data sheets it was hard to find a barrel plug that didn't have a centre pin. I have now resolved the issue by buying a Hornby eLink mainly for the plug but it will serve as a back up system for my Elite which runs via Railmaster.

Yep my fault. Thanks Nigel. Maybe I need to risk another Lenz Silver Mini unless anyone has another possible suggestion.

Yes thanks for that. However, maybe I am being thick and missed it but I couldn't see in the manual the bit about which CV to set for shuttle mode.

Now thinking of moving to a Zimo MX622N but does it support ABC braking?