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Help with fitting Hornby decoder X9659 into a Hornby Peckett


Craig85
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Just a quick cry for help regarding fitting one of Hornbys X9659 4 pin decoder into a peckett loco as I have being trying to fit the dam thing in, but no matter how I try I can't reattach the loco back to its chassis with the decoder in place. Any pointers or alternative suggestions greatly received. 

 

Cheers

Craig

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  • 4 months later...

Craig

 

I have just fitted a decoder to my latest Peckett

 

post-29932-0-92542700-1532950019_thumb.jpg

 

First remove the body.

post-29932-0-11454400-1532950085_thumb.jpg

 

This is the chassis with the blanking plate note the 2 prongs on the front these hold the decoder in place.

 

post-29932-0-95094600-1532950415_thumb.jpg

 

Remove the blanking plate

 

post-29932-0-26164100-1532950638_thumb.jpg

 

Hornby have their own 4 pin decoder for this loco though other small decoders could be hardwired.

 

post-29932-0-46265500-1532951227_thumb.jpg

 

post-29932-0-30508000-1532950809_thumb.jpg

 

Plug in the decoder.

 

post-29932-0-18659700-1532951585_thumb.jpg

 

The plug sits alongside the motor where the blanking plate had been located the decoder is held in plaice by the 2 prongs Note the decoder will only fit in one way as on one side of the decoder there is a component that fouls the holding prongs also be aware it is very easy to trap the wires between the body and the chassis.

 

 

 

 

 

post-29932-0-95643800-1532951331_thumb.jpg

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This may not be of any help, but I couldn't be bothered with Hornby's own decoder (I don't like theirs much), so I wired a TCS M1 decoder into the 4-pin 'blanking' plug. The M1 is much smaller than Hornby's own decoder, and more robust. I did this with all three of my Pecketts, and with a Sentinel diesel as well. Even so, I got careless and did manage to trap a wire on one of the Pecketts, severing it completely! Still, it was easily fixed and the bodies all went on properly.

39295528970_0dcc0d1c23_b.jpg
Hornby Peckett with TCS M1 Decoder Installed - 1 cropped by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr

Edited by SRman
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  • 2 weeks later...

How do you get the body off the chassis ? 

I have removed both screws and tried wriggling, prising, easing, cussing and I simply cannot ease the body upwards or the chassis downwards. I have even tried a screwdriver between the top of the cylinders and the running plate but no joy. It is almost as if the chassis is glued in.  Has anyone else had the same issue ?

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How do you get the body off the chassis ? 

I have removed both screws and tried wriggling, prising, easing, cussing and I simply cannot ease the body upwards or the chassis downwards. I have even tried a screwdriver between the top of the cylinders and the running plate but no joy. It is almost as if the chassis is glued in.  Has anyone else had the same issue ?

 

Fresh look in the morning !!!

There is another screw just to the firebox end of the coupling screw. Once that was removed the mechanism just fell away. Great

Decoder installed and I have to say the performance is as smooth quiet and slow as I could wish for. By contrast, the Hattons 16" AB which i thought was a nice model is rather the poorer cousin, nice though it really is. 

 

This Hornby product has certainly knocked my socks off and I am now ready for the LNWR 2-4-2 tank and the motor train coaches as well as the Stanier / Lemon 0-4-4 tank !!!

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  • 1 month later...

I've just bought a Peckett and a Sentinel, and was wondering about which decoder to use and how to connect it. I want to use Railcom which rather rules out Hornby's own "4 pin" version of their standard decoder.

 

I've read that some have connected the blanking socket to their decoder, as "SR Man" has done but I wanted to keep that intact just in case I decide to sell the locos at some point in the future. Hornby do have a spare part number for the blanking socket, X6623, but their website shows it as sold out and it won't be replaced, and no one else seems to have any either.

 

However, the blanking socket is clearly a bog-standard 2mm pitch PCB connection that should be available to buy over the counter from any decent electrical component supplier. So a quick bit of searching the internet revealed that you can buy the 2mm pitch SIL 4 way socket housing off the shelf from RS Components, unfortunately packs of 10 seem to be the minimum order quantity, and the metal connector sockets in packs of 100 MOQ, so that you can fit your own connector to your own choice of decoder.

 

If anyone is interested, the RS part numbers are 842-731 for the housing, and 547-3245 for the metal connector sockets that you have to put in it after connecting the wires from the decoder to them. Not a cheap route, but having bought them, using the 2mm SIL housing with 2mm header pins could be a cheap way to create your own compact interface in older locos or electrically link coaches in a way that lets them be easily uncoupled. I'm sure that Farnell and Conrad amongst others can also supply these components.

Edited by GoingUnderground
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As with far too many Hornby locos the simplest is to remove 80% of the factory fitted wiring and decoder socket and hard wire a decoder in place. Its often amazing how much space appears for a decoder once those are out of the way. For Railcom TCS M1s fit in these models - note on the Sentinel a capacitor is buried under the motor requiring a complete dismantling if you want rid of it. One day they will grow up and fit 6 pin sockets (which they do on the Hornby International range).

Edited by Butler Henderson
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As with far too many Hornby locos the simplest is to remove 80% of the factory fitted wiring and decoder socket and hard wire a decoder in place. Its often amazing how much space appears for a decoder once those are out of the way. For Railcom TCS M1s fit in these models - note on the Sentinel a capacitor is buried under the motor requiring a complete dismantling if you want rid of it. One day they will grow up and fit 6 pin sockets (which they do on the Hornby International range).

Thanks for the info, but my personal preference is to change as little as possible and keep as much of the OEM wiring in place as I can - if it ain't broke, don't fix it - and make sure any changes are easily reversible as not everyone is in to DCC. I'll probably fit ESU LokPilot Micros or Nanos, or possibly go sound with Zimo even though speaker choice and positioning will be very tricky. I'd prefer LokSound Micros but can't find Sentinel or Peckett sounds on LokSound.

 

Given the very limited space in both the Peckett and Sentinel, a 6 pin socket would be a bit of a tight squeeze, getting on for 50% wider than the 4 pin interface that they've used, which is all that is needed in most cases given that most folks won't try to fit lights, never mind sound, in a model that small.

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Given the very limited space in both the Peckett and Sentinel, a 6 pin socket would be a bit of a tight squeeze, getting on for 50% wider than the 4 pin interface that they've used, which is all that is needed in most cases given that most folks won't try to fit lights, never mind sound, in a model that small.

That's not the case the Hornby 4 pin socket is far wider than a standard 6 pin DCC socket which has far thinner terminals set on a tighter pitch, 0.05" (1.27mm)

Edited by Butler Henderson
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That's not the case the Hornby 4 pin socket is far wider than a standard 6 pin DCC socket which has far thinner terminals set on a tighter pitch, 0.05" (1.27mm)

Not having a 6 pin plug to hand to check, I was under the impression that the 6 pin was 2mm pitch, not 1.27mm. So thank you for correcting my error. But at 1.27mm pitch, the space taken by 6 pins is 5 x 1.27mm = 6.35m, whereas the space taken by the Hornby 4 pin is 3 x 2mm = 6mm. Add the space for the housing and there's virtually no difference, not quite "far wider" as you were suggesting. But, I do now agree that it would make sense for them to standardise on the 6 pin interface. However, it wouldn't be the first time that a manufacturer had tried to make their products less compatible with their competitors to give themselves a competitive advantage.

Edited by GoingUnderground
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Hello,


 

      

I am now ready for the LNWR 2-4-2 tank and the motor train coaches as well as the Stanier / Lemon 0-4-4 tank !!!

 

 

  Is there something I am unaware of or is this just a personnel wish list?     

trustytrev. :)

Edited by trustytrev
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Not having a 6 pin plug to hand to check, I was under the impression that the 6 pin was 2mm pitch, not 1.27mm. So thank you for correcting my error. But at 1.27mm pitch, the space taken by 6 pins is 5 x 1.27mm = 6.35m, whereas the space taken by the Hornby 4 pin is 3 x 2mm = 6mm. Add the space for the housing and there's virtually no difference, not quite "far wider" as you were suggesting. But, I do now agree that it would make sense for them to standardise on the 6 pin interface. However, it wouldn't be the first time that a manufacturer had tried to make their products less compatible with their competitors to give themselves a competitive advantage.

Just measured them -

A Hornby 4 pin socket is 8.32mm wide, a standard dcc 6 pin socket 7.55mm, might not be a big difference but .87mm can be significant in some small locos when you factor in the size of the decoder as well. Just realised the 6 pin socket lurking in my box of dcc bits came off an Electrotren  (i.e. Hornby International) loco making their refusal to use them on UK models quite barking.

Edited by Butler Henderson
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  • 1 year later...
On 30/07/2018 at 14:01, SRman said:

This may not be of any help, but I couldn't be bothered with Hornby's own decoder (I don't like theirs much), so I wired a TCS M1 decoder into the 4-pin 'blanking' plug. The M1 is much smaller than Hornby's own decoder, and more robust. I did this with all three of my Pecketts, and with a Sentinel diesel as well. Even so, I got careless and did manage to trap a wire on one of the Pecketts, severing it completely! Still, it was easily fixed and the bodies all went on properly.

39295528970_0dcc0d1c23_b.jpg
Hornby Peckett with TCS M1 Decoder Installed - 1 cropped by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr

 

Are the Hornby blanking plugs easy to crack open to wire the chip in?

 

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The connections in the Hornby blanking plug are simply push-in ones with a small tag of springy plastic that engages with a slot in the metal contacts to stop them pulling out again. Lift that plastic tag and pull on the wire for each of them in turn and the whole metal connector will pull out, allowing you to solder the decoder wires to each of them. When done, just push them back in until the plastic tab engages again. You can see the tabs in the photo above, just where the shiny metal shows.

 

Edited by SRman
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On 01/03/2020 at 22:53, SRman said:

The connections in the Hornby blanking plug are simply push-in ones with a small tag of springy plastic that engages with a slot in the metal contacts to stop them pulling out again. Lift that plastic tag and pull on the wire for each of them in turn and the whole metal connector will pull out, allowing you to solder the decoder wires to each of them. When done, just push them back in until the plastic tab engages again. You can see the tabs in the photo above, just where the shiny metal shows.

 

 

Thanx!

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  • 3 months later...
  • RMweb Gold

I've just fitted a 4 pin Hornby decoder to my Peckett. The decoder has been recognised by my NCE Powerecab , I've reset the loco number but it will not move forward or reverse any ideas for a struggling newbie?

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  • 1 year later...

I got similar problem.  For ages the 4 pin decoders have been out of stock so once they were I brought 2 incase one popped.

 

How does it run?  Absolute crap.  Stall, start to move, stall, moves a bit stall.  Pushes it along by hand, starts to get to speed, stall.  Change directon?  Stalls 80%  the time.

 

Utter tripe.

 

Wheels n track were cleaned pre conversion so it isn't them.

 

I've put it back to standard DC where it actually DOES perform good for a wee 0-4-0.

 

Hornby, what are you playing at?  A novelty hard to get 4 pin is bad enough but when it runs this unreliably why even bother, couldn't you have designed things for extra room and a stay alive to be part of the chip?

 

Maybe I and previous poster are just unlucky and others' are working fine, this sort of thing isn't uncommon.

 

Got to find a workaround.  Not fun.

 

Edited by Knuckles
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