Hornby Class 67 with TTS Sound Chip Programing Issue

[Anthony566]

I recently purchased a new Class 67004 Cairo Gorm and it just refused to move so I returned it for a replacement this was easy enough to do so no big issue.

 

Today the replacement arrived and I put it on the track and it's running fine however the lighting at one end did not work so I removed the body checked the small springs at each end and refitted the body and the lighting now seems to work but this loco will not allow me to change the loco address.

 

I think this is the loco I returned and they repaired it or am I wrong about that ??

 

The loco I sent back would also not take a new address.

 

I have no other locos including Hornby 67's that I cannot address.

 

I have an ECoS DCC Controller.

 

Can anyone suggest anything I can try.

 

Also when I go into advanced on the loco setup and use the detect function the loco just goes to full speed and also fails to complete the detection.

[reevesthecat]

Hi

I have a nce powercab and I found it would not allow me to change the address on the programming track setting but would allow me on the main track setting.

Thanks

Mark

[Phil S]

My recent experience with some of these Tts dcc decoders is that they may appear to 'lock out' ... In my case it prevented driving or programming....... but very oddly, if I used my roco Maus2 it Always worked ( but I was limited to 1-99).. But when I used the roco multimaus as master it didn't... Yet timings of the waveforms were identical !

I knew that the maus2 used several programming methods in sequence automatically.. This may have been part of the reason.

The other... Possibly a temporary state that may clear in a few days of not being on the track,....allowing stored charges within it to fully discharge.... Then place onto the track and then power up the track.. And see if the problem has cleared... If so, it's behaving in a similar way to mine. If this is what is happening, then a 'faulty' loco posted back may have cleared the problem itself by the time it reaches the repair place. Identifying the actual cause is a further problem.. But desirable for a long term solution.

( it might be that a charged capacitor onboard the decoder is altering the decoding timing enough for it not to respond. It might be as 'simple' as the time-before-programming that power is connected to the programming track???? ). Are there any tantalum capacitors on board the decoder??? Conjecture at the moment unfortunately

[Anthony566]

Hi

I have a nce powercab and I found it would not allow me to change the address on the programming track setting but would allow me on the main track setting.

Thanks

Mark

Hi Mark I had not tried this but will give it a go later today.

 

Thanks for the responce.

[Anthony566]

My recent experience with some of these Tts dcc decoders is that they may appear to 'lock out' ... In my case it prevented driving or programming....... but very oddly, if I used my roco Maus2 it Always worked ( but I was limited to 1-99).. But when I used the roco multimaus as master it didn't... Yet timings of the waveforms were identical !

I knew that the maus2 used several programming methods in sequence automatically.. This may have been part of the reason.

The other... Possibly a temporary state that may clear in a few days of not being on the track,....allowing stored charges within it to fully discharge.... Then place onto the track and then power up the track.. And see if the problem has cleared... If so, it's behaving in a similar way to mine. If this is what is happening, then a 'faulty' loco posted back may have cleared the problem itself by the time it reaches the repair place. Identifying the actual cause is a further problem.. But desirable for a long term solution.

( it might be that a charged capacitor onboard the decoder is altering the decoding timing enough for it not to respond. It might be as 'simple' as the time-before-programming that power is connected to the programming track???? ). Are there any tantalum capacitors on board the decoder??? Conjecture at the moment unfortunately

Hi Phil,

 

I do have another controller that i was planning on trying out on my test track.

[Anthony566]

So I have tested this loco on my Test track and it seems to work ok although the lighting at one end is a bit temperamental so its going back for this reason anyway ...

 

 

 

However I have found the reason for the addressing and this is it will only allow single digit addressing to be sett which is a bit odd .. so I can give it :

 

127 etc but I cannot address it as 67 for example ...

 

Just odd really ...

[Phil S]

Just a reminder that 100-127 is an awkward range of numbers when swapping controllers as master / swapping central controller....

1-127 is the original (short) addressing range, when nmra dcc started.... Not fully supported by all controllers..at the time.....

Early controllers only offering maybe 1-8, 1-10, or 1-22 and. 1-99 (2 digit display) or the full 1-127 (other displays)

Then the addressing range was extended, requiring a 'flag' being set in cv29 (+32) to identify a range upto and beyond 10000.

So 1-99 are always short/basic/standard addresses.... And this the range advocated by lenz... Which matches displays!

But 1-127 remains the nmra recommendation. Extended address are commonly supported to 9999 matching a 4- digit display, but the maximum number is a bit higher.... And supported by a few controllers such as Massoth Navigator.

 

Lenz, Roco and many other systems AUtomatically use long/extended/4-digit addressing for 100-9999.... But ztc511 although using expressnet uses 128+ as per ' .'nmra'. One make of controller gives the user a choice (allowing 100-127 to be used twice!!!) by using leading zeroes to denote long addresses. Ie 1-127 = short, and 0001-9999 (+??) as long/ extended. Therefore users swapping between Ztc and roco or lenz it is best to avoid 100-127 as lenz/roco and others consider these to be extended/ long addresses, but Ztc calls them up as short addresses.... With no user choice.

 

It is possible that part of the problem lies in the above,or that Hornby do not fully implement the cv29 options... Only direction and long/short and dc mode? Remember that the Tts is 'added' to the basic Hornby chip not the Saphire!!

[Baldy]

Possible suggestion that I have found worked with the same issue when trying to address the odd tts chip. Rather than just putting 67 in and loco not being recognised, I found I had to write 067 to get the number recorded on the chip. (Using railmaster, which I think is great and so will give it a plug here, but others will disagree, and was only required on a couple of tts chips, others had no problem taking a new address withour the need for the zero to be specifically input at start.) Once I had got number changed, the loco can then be called up as normal with just the reference of 67. Worth giving it a go if others have same problem.

[charliepetty]

Possible suggestion that I have found worked with the same issue when trying to address the odd tts chip. Rather than just putting 67 in and loco not being recognised, I found I had to write 067 to get the number recorded on the chip. (Using railmaster, which I think is great and so will give it a plug here, but others will disagree, and was only required on a couple of tts chips, others had no problem taking a new address withour the need for the zero to be specifically input at start.) Once I had got number changed, the loco can then be called up as normal with just the reference of 67. Worth giving it a go if others have same problem.

 

It the 3 X Plungers causing the lighting issue, normally bending them upwards normally solves this issue.   Charlie

[Anthony566]

It the 3 X Plungers causing the lighting issue, normally bending them upwards normally solves this issue.   Charlie

Hi Charlie i did try that but it still didn't fix it so the second one is now on its way back ....

[RAF96]

Try programming on the main by writing the address value to CV1, just make sure nothing else is on track including any accessory decoders if you have them for points/signals.

 

You can write to CVs17 & 18 for a long address providing you look up the equivalent values from the calculator on the 2mm.org site.

[Anthony566]

Thanks for all the feedback ..oncethe loco is returned to me i am going to remove the chip and program it out of the loco.

[tractor_37260]

I found no problem changing 67 004's address via a prog track to 4 digits using a Lenz System.  

 

To my ears, some of the F key sounds are just TOO loud - the whistle for one ! even after adjusting the relevant CV's down to 1. Unless I've missed it on the operating instructions, what's the CV to adjust the overall volume sound level ?  Brake sizzle and Brakes ON sounds are also missing when stopping, and despite numerous F key sounds, there is no F Key sound for Brakes.

It runs really well, and a bargain from Rails recent "flash sale"

Edited June 4, 2017 by tractor_37260

[Nigelcliffe]

Overall volume is CV182   .  Manual says this is "write only", can't be read. 

 

- Nigel

[Hroth]

Bought Cairn Gorm from Rails during the "flash" sale too.

 

I haven't changed the address yet, I normally use JMRI/SprogIII but at present I've only got the Bachmann EZ-Command trainset controller connected so I havent tried reprogramming it...

 

It runs nicely and the lights seem to function fine, but the overall default volume is rather high! Another task for when I restore normal services.