Hornby DCC Sound issues

[60002]

Hi,

This is my first post so please bear with me! I recently purchased a Hornby 'City of Sheffield' from my local swapmeet. My layout is currently set up for Analogue DC Control. A couple of months ago, I also purchased a Herring Gull model, which I must admit to my surprise, worked with sound on conventional DC. This model is great, and still works well. However, returning to the City of Sheffield, when I got the model home I found that there was no response on DC - literally nothing. No sound, or movement. I then went about looking into the problem to see if it was a simple fix. I replaced the decoder in CoS with the decoder from HG, and I found that the loco performed without a fault. I had full sound and movement from CoS, albeit sounding like an A4. Similarly, I placed the DCC Chip from CoS into HG and I recieved no response from the model, as with CoS.

 

I can therefore pretty accurately deduce that there is an issue with the decoder. Unfortunately, I am not really very knowledgeable on DCC and I dont have a DCC Control at home at present. Has anyone else came across this problem, where there is literally no response form the decoder on DC? I noticed a thread which talked about setting up a DCC sound decoder for DC control, however if this decoder was not set for DC then would this cause absolutely nothing to happen? I would have thought that, at the very least, the loco would have moved or I would have seen some response, but it is if no power is being output from the chip at all.

 

I am grateful for any responses to help with the problem.

 

Best Wishes,

Wilson

[Guest 838rapid]

Welcome aboard to RM Web 60002.

 

There most likely is nothing wrong with the decoder.

CV 13 controls the sounds on dc/dcc mode.

 

CV29 Controls the chips functions

 

First off i would change CV13 to a value of 1 And CV 29 to a value of 6.

 

The decoder sounds like it has had dc operation swithched off.

 

There are people that are for and against decoders using dc current.

 

So it might have been switched off.

 

If you have access to a local shop/model club people there should be able to sort this for you.

 

Dont worry it seems like dcc is a dark art,but there are always people here that can help

[johnd]

Hi,

This is my first post so please bear with me! I recently purchased a Hornby 'City of Sheffield' from my local swapmeet. My layout is currently set up for Analogue DC Control. A couple of months ago, I also purchased a Herring Gull model, which I must admit to my surprise, worked with sound on conventional DC. This model is great, and still works well. However, returning to the City of Sheffield, when I got the model home I found that there was no response on DC - literally nothing. No sound, or movement. I then went about looking into the problem to see if it was a simple fix. I replaced the decoder in CoS with the decoder from HG, and I found that the loco performed without a fault. I had full sound and movement from CoS, albeit sounding like an A4. Similarly, I placed the DCC Chip from CoS into HG and I recieved no response from the model, as with CoS.

 

I can therefore pretty accurately deduce that there is an issue with the decoder. Unfortunately, I am not really very knowledgeable on DCC and I dont have a DCC Control at home at present. Has anyone else came across this problem, where there is literally no response form the decoder on DC? I noticed a thread which talked about setting up a DCC sound decoder for DC control, however if this decoder was not set for DC then would this cause absolutely nothing to happen? I would have thought that, at the very least, the loco would have moved or I would have seen some response, but it is if no power is being output from the chip at all.

 

I am grateful for any responses to help with the problem.

 

Best Wishes,

Wilson

 

First of all welcome

 

Without access to a DCC system you may have a problem. What has probably happened is the previous owner has altered one of the Configuration Values ( abbreviated to CV). The one in question being CV29.

 

What you need to do ,if anybody can help you is to read what value CV29 is. Then alter it by adding 4 ( a person with knowledge of DCC should know how to do this)this will enable it to operate on a DC system.

 

Your problem is probable solved, just make sure you are not using a High Frequency track cleaner to keep your rails clean.

 

Regards

[60002]

Thanks for both replies. I will indeed take my model to my local model shop to see if I can change the CV's as suggested. Hopefully it will be a simple problem that can be resolved relatively quickly. Unfortunately, at present I do not have a DCC control due to the sheer number of locos that I have and the process of chipping each, but I am planning to purchase one in order to use for DCC Sound models. Would it be possible to use Bachmann's 'Dynamis' system to change CV's? I have had a brief look and it appears that the 'lower' end DCC controllers do not allow you to change CV's - otherwise I would look at a Hornby 'Select'. I found a review on the 'Dynamis' which stated that:

 

'The other drawback is that you can't read the CV's from the decoders on the layout, although I believe that this will be a function of the Pro unit when that is released.'

Would I need to purchase the 'Pro' add-on pack in this case in order to change the CV's for Hornby/Bachmann sound models? If so, I would consider a more cost effective model (such as Hornby's 'Elite'). However, it seems that otherwise the Dynamis is the most cost effective control to do the job and that would probably be the one that I would go for.

[Guest 838rapid]

If you are looking at buying a dynamis,it might be worth looking at other controllers too.

 

I believe a certain box shifter based in liverpool is selling the Prodigy for around £199.

 

http://www.ehattons.com/stocklist/ProdList.aspx?ManID=45&PrTyID=73&ScID=8

 

Which is as cheap as a Dynamis and a Pro box to alter cv's

 

Might be wiorth a thought

[k9-70]

The Bachmann Dynamis will allow you to change the CV values, but you cannot read back the CV values with the Dynamis.

If you want to read back the CV values you need to add the Bachmann PRO unit.

 

Can't comment on the Hornby Select or Elite as I've never owned or operated one.

 

K9-70

[Sunnysa]

The Bachmann Dynamis will allow you to change the CV values, but you cannot read back the CV values with the Dynamis.

If you want to read back the CV values you need to add the Bachmann PRO unit.

 

Can't comment on the Hornby Select or Elite as I've never owned or operated one.

 

K9-70

 

The best value for money starter DCC system on the market is the NCE power cab. I do not use NCE myself ( lenz/ ECoS for me).

The Power cab has many of the features of higher end systems at a reasonable price. It is also fully upgradable to The NCE Procab if required in the future.

Most serious DCC users will advise to stay away from DCC systems made by train set manufacturers. Specially the Hornby Select. The H Elite is NMRA compliant but very cumbersome when activating functions specially sound decoders.

 

Cheers

 

Ian

[60002]

Thank you for the replies regarding the dynamis and other DCC systems. In the end, I discovered the Sprog II box which I thought looked pretty nifty and was fairly cheap in comparison to other DCC controllers, so I decided to give it a try purely as a test controller. I must admit that, after setting up on my PC, I ended up spending a couple of hours just playing with the sound features on my Herring Gull! I realised thatI had only really heard a fraction of the sounds that the loco has to offer by just using the analogue DC controller.

 

However, I then decided to take a look at the City of Sheffield. The Sprog had quite easily found that my Herring Gull had a loksound decoder fitted - I just had to say which one (3.5, 21 pin). When the Sprog box was automatically determining the chip, there was a 'grunting' noise from the model. This is important because I replaced HG with CoS on the track and tried to automatically search for the decoder here. Unfortunately, I was told that no loco was placed on the track. I believe CV8 came up along the bottom for some reason, then it just told me that no decoder was fitted. Also, there was no 'grunting' noise from the CoS as with the A4. I tried to manually tell the Sprog which decoder was fitted - ie the Loksound 3.5 21 pin as before. However, I then gave the loco a name and tried to run, but I was told that no loco was placed on the track - and as a result there was no output.

 

I then decided to replace the A4 chip with the D one from the CoS model. However, this was to no avail.

 

Unfortunately, while I now have a very nice A4 with sounds to play with, the Duchess does not want to seem to play ball at all. As before, I know that, otherwise, the Duchess is faultless because I have tried the A4 chip in the Duchess and everything works. However, when I try to use the D chip in the Duchess, I recieve no response.

 

Has anyone else had similar issue with a Hornby sound model (in particular, City of Sheffield) or know how I can get the chip working again? I am considering asking Hornby (or Loksound) where the fault lies. I thought that maybe the Sprog unit does not like the DCC Sound chip in CoS, however if this is the case then this does not explain why the A4 chip works faultlessly???

[Photogreycat]

I have a Hornby class 31 sound decoder installed in a loco. Since I operated the emergency stop on my DCC controller sound is no longer produced.

 

I have tried a reset putting 8 into cv 8 and changing the loco address but the sound is still not working.

 

Please can I have some help to solve this problem.

 

John

[Lady_Ava_Hay]

I have a Hornby class 31 sound decoder installed in a loco. Since I operated the emergency stop on my DCC controller sound is no longer produced.

 

I have tried a reset putting 8 into cv 8 and changing the loco address but the sound is still not working.

 

Please can I have some help to solve this problem.

 

John

 

First things first. Check that track power has been restored. Then try pushing F1 on your controller. If nothing happens, make sure you push it again. Then try F8. Again, remember to put it back as it was. Beyond that you will need a Lokprogrammer and that will require a visit to someone so equipped to ascertain what is actually in the decoder. 

 

It is unlikely that an emergency stop on its own would erase the sound. What was the emergency stop about?

[cravensdmufan]

That happens occasionally with my locos that are fitted with TTS and Loksound decoders.

 

I unplug the throttle (in my case a Powercab) wait about 20 seconds and plug back in.  That reboot has always worked for me. I think sometimes the chips get a bit confused - possibly because I don't clean my rails often enough!