Hornby Class 31 TTS decoder problem

[Peter Beckett]

I recently bought a Class 31 TTS decoder from that well known firm out Widness way. To my dismay it worked for a while then seemed to die although I could program it. So I sent it back and received a new one plus refund of my airmail postage. However for the last week I have had problems keeping my sanity as the new decoder seemed to change polarity everytime I used it. I finally sent an email to Hornby and this is the reply that came back.

 

"Hello Mr Beckett,

Thank you for your email, we do indeed do have a fix in place for the Class 31 decoders, however these will have to be returned to us for the software to be rewritten, If you wish to proceed can you please let me know your full postal address and contact number so we can proceed.

 

Yours sincerley

Glen Richardson

Customer Care

T:+44 (0)1843 233525

www.hornbyhobbies.co.uk "

 

Peter

[Robby S]

There have been a lot of comments about problems with TTS chips.Several ready fitted locos have had  problems. I bought R3394TTS class 20 and separate class 31 TTS and neither worked correctly: they only worked one way round. Phoned Hornby customer care, sent them back, Hornby reprogrammed them and a week later I now have two functioning locos. I also bought A1/A3 TTS for Flying Scotsman and this works fine. Maybe it's only the class 31TTS of the separate decoders that has problems ?

[chriswright03]

Maybe the problems they have come across has led to the delay in releasing some of the others 37 for example.  As I have one on pre-order I hope they sort them as although they may not have all the functions of some of the bespoke ones on offer they will certainly fulfil my needs.

[jamesg]

There's an item on the Hornby website indicating that they're aware of some problems ( https://www.Hornby.com/uk-en/news/Hornby-tts-decoders/ ).  The common problem seems to be the locomotive working when it is railed in one direction but not the other, it sounds like you've encountered another problem.  Do you mean that it is swapping forward and reverse directions?

[RAF96]

The problem was that the decoders worked fine with Hornby kit as tested for production, but the faults only showed up when the TTS decoders were used with other make controllers.

 

Hornby has said it has identified and fixed the problem for future production batches and that existing TTS decoders can be sent back by prior arrangement with their Customer Care guys for a program reload which then allows the decoders to work fine with all the other make controllers they have now tested them with i.e. at least those controllers that were flagged up by users as problematic plus a few more apparently.

 

The problem lies with those TTS decoders on the shelf somewhere either installed in locos or as retro-kits for user installation. You won't know what you have until it works or doesn't with your controller, then you are into the 'send it back' scenario.

 

Rob

[John K]

Hornby TTS decoders are cheap entry level devices.

Do not expect them to perform like Zimo or ESU products.

John

[Ramblin Rich]

Hornby TTS decoders are cheap entry level devices.

Do not expect them to perform like Zimo or ESU products.

John

Maybe not Zimo like performance, but basic compatibility with standard DCC equipment could and should be expected. I can contemplate fitting all 3 of my 31s with these, I could not afford 3 Zimo chips.

The fact Hornby have a fix shows they can do it, a shame it wasn't from the start.

[Peter Beckett]

I sent them off to sunny Kent on Monday with international tracking and they landed and were cleared by customs on Wednesday and delivered on Thursday (yesterday in Aussie time)so it will be interesting to see Hornby's turn around time and delivery back down to Hastings

 

Peter

[Peter Beckett]

Maybe not Zimo like performance, but basic compatibility with standard DCC equipment could and should be expected. I can contemplate fitting all 3 of my 31s with these, I could not afford 3 Zimo chips.

The fact Hornby have a fix shows they can do it, a shame it wasn't from the start.

I agree, Rich. The only real downer I have with the TTS chips is not being able to re-allocate the F keys. I guess I am spoilt having a few Loksound V4 chips

 

Peter

[Peter Beckett]

Chips should be here on Monday and received an email asking did I want a sterling cheque or a gift voucher for the cost of sending the chips to UK. I asked if they could pay direct to my UK Barclays account but apparently they can't do that so I asked for a cheque to be sent to me. The trouble with taking a gift card is that anything I buy direct from Hornby incurs a GBP25 charge to send it to OZ.

 

 

Peter

[Peter Beckett]

Decoders arrived at 11 am by courier and both checked OK.

Considering the time, postage costs (refund on the way), I am very happy with Hornby's response to my faulty decoders

 

Peter

[Pandora]

If the  compatibility fix is a software upgrade by Hornby.

Is there a way of reading the software version loaded into the decoder?

[RAF96]

CV7 gives the decoder firmware ID and CVs 156 to 159 (decoder dependent) supplement this information by adding the specific TTS loco ID.

 

Unfortunately I don’t have a decode table for these, although Hornby Railmaster interogation can sometimes elaborate on them. Obviously keeping the Railmaster database up to date is an ongoing task and what you see depends upon if you have the latest (check day by day) updates installed.

 

E.g. code 10 is definitely a Hornby Sapphire decoder. Each TTS decoder will have its own CV codes combo.

 

As far as I know the factory ‘fix’ is to the TTS decoder basic functionality programming as the TTS sound files once burnt in are not amendable.

 

Rob

[beejack]

CV7 gives the decoder firmware ID and CVs 156 to 159 (decoder dependent) supplement this information by adding the specific TTS loco ID.

 

Unfortunately I don’t have a decode table for these, although Hornby Railmaster interogation can sometimes elaborate on them. Obviously keeping the Railmaster database up to date is an ongoing task and what you see depends upon if you have the latest (check day by day) updates installed.

 

E.g. code 10 is definitely a Hornby Sapphire decoder. Each TTS decoder will have its own CV codes combo.

 

As far as I know the factory ‘fix’ is to the TTS decoder basic functionality programming as the TTS sound files once burnt in are not amendable.

 

Rob

The following info is taken from the decoder profile for TTS decoders in JMRI. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to have been updated since May 2017 so all the recent decoders are not listed, but hopefully should be of some help to someone.

 

Version 1.2, update to include more recent TTS releases and product ID numbers,  May/June 2016

            From now on, product IDs follow numeric form, used by Hornby in their documentation. 

            Code change in JMRI to allow automatic identification on CV159 (product number) added to make use of these numbers.

Version 1.3 - update to differentiate between 2P & 9F, based on a composite productID of CV159(low) & CV158(high).  May 2017

Version 1.4 - update to replace "Hornby TTS A4 4-6-0" with "Hornby TTS A4 4-6-2" (typo). May 2017

Product ID's:

Class 37 = 147   (and "Cl37" label carried over from v1.1)

Class 40 = 151

Class 47 = 149

Class 66 = 153

Duke of Gloucester = 131   (and "DoG" label carried over from v1.1)

Flying Scotsman = 137

Fowler 2P = 2703  (CV159=143, CV158 = 10)

9F 2-10-0 = 655  (CV159=143, CV158 = 2)

4F 0-6-0 = 145

A4 Mallard & Gadwall = 135