Mr. V's Webpage:
Mathematics of Translation Between Postional
Counting Systems of Different Bases

Here, you can watch a video on how to convert a number from another base system to the decimal system. So, you can see that converting back and forth between counting systems only requires multiplying each digit of the number by its given base raised to the power of its position in the number, then summing the result. The following applet includes an activity in geogebra for learning to translate numbers from one base to another. Original Geogebra Applet: Modulars and Bases