Midnight-Freight

Yeh that makes sense. I ignored cab lights as not bothered about those and only allowed 1 for fans. I'd hoped it was just a case of playing with cv's to assign the correct functions to the appropriate feature but I'm not too clued up on all this so I guess it's not that simple.

I don't know, hence my question whether it could be used for the 6 functions it supports.

This is what I was questioning a little earlier in the thread. I have a Hattons decoder taken from my factory fitted dcc fitted class 66 which I believe is 6 function. I only have working headlight and marker lights which is presumably 3 functions so if there's a way to assign the remaining 3 to tail lights and fan that would be ideal but I'm unsure if/how to do this.

Sorry, maybe I've misunderstood. I'm not too worried about full control. I'd be happy with the tail lights working

Ok, I must have missed that info when I pre-ordered. It does make the £189 DCC ready option seem a bit pointless if you then have to buy a separate decoder to get something as basic as tail lights to work though.

I've just bought a DCC ready version and understand there are issues with the lighting when using other decoders. I've fitted mine with the Hattons decoder that came with their 66. At present I have headlight and marker lights working but no tail lights, fans or cab lights. Given the extra lighting functions the Hattons 66 had am I likely to be able to get the remaining functions working and if so could anyone offer any advice on how to go about setting it up?

Well I'm not sure what I had done wrong but went over everything again and double checked all settings and it's now connected. Will have a play around with it later. Thanks for all the help.

Already tried that to no avail. I'll try a new ethernet cable tomorrow, although mine appears to work one of the connections isn't great.

Yes I get an immediate response doing that

Ok, I'd sort of come to the same conclusion after a bit of reading. I've changed the IP address to the one above but every time I try to ping the z21 IP address it comes back as destination host unreachable. Maybe my laptop is just too old (about 12 years) to be compatible

Thanks for your response. I had already tried disabling the firewall and have checked it's not blocking it. Autoconfig IP address of my laptop is 169.254.127.89 is that ok or do I need to disable autoconfig? I'm not sure what to check regarding port 21105?

I'm trying to establish a connection between my laptop and z21 start to update the firmware but can't get them to communicate. I've followed the instructions in the manual to set the IP address but keep getting the "Could not communicate with digital switchboard" error whenever I try to connect. My laptop is quite old and slow but is running Windows 10. So far I have: Established a wired internet connection to my router so know the cable and ethernet port are working Tried disabling Windows defender and checking the z21 programme is allowed through the firewall Lan port on the z21 is showing a green light Checked for Windows updates and updates for the ethernet controller Tried to ping the IP address but get no response Checked network settings, the laptop recognises that an unknown device is connected I'm not sure if there's more to setting up a static IP connection than what's in the z21 instructions and I've missed something but any suggestions welcome.

I have a Bachmann class 66 with a Hornby tts chip in it. At the time of buying I also bought an I phone speaker as an upgrade on the one Hornby supply. I know the tts sounds aren't supposed to be premium but the 66 isn't too bad I don't think. I don't need more volume, and bass isn't the issue as they aren't really a bassy engine sound. Just thought there might be better options out there now as this was a few years ago.

If I was to try and install the sound decoder into a Bachmann non-dcc ready class 08 would I be best off fitting a 8 pin socket and using the 8 pin decoder or can it be hard wired? I'd like to add the power pack as well and not sure how easy it would be to fit everything in.

It would be a shame if there wasn't another run. I was fortunate in that the one I bought was a goodun and I love it. With Bachmann updating their 37 and 47 I wonder if they're already working on a new 66. Hopefully Dapol's 59 will be a decent alternative.