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Hornby TTS Queries


ronnie thommo
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Hi Guys,

 

First of all apologies if these queries have been addressed previously, but there are loads of pages aren’t there on the subject ?

Last week, I took the plunge, and purchased a  Hornby R8121 Class 66 TTS Sound decoder.

I figured, that for £40, it was worth the risk. If it was no good, it’s not the end of the world !

Having done some homework on these, I ditched the speaker which comes with it, and purchased a Rail Exclusive Big Boomer speaker.

 

Now for the paranoia !

I read a report from someone somewhere, that these decoders get warm. 
‘Now I’m not in the habit of feeling the tops of my loco’s, however having done so on this occasion, I’ve noticed the top is warm, not alarmingly, but warm non the less having been run for a couple of minutes, and stood stationary for 5ish minutes.

Is this normal behaviour for sound decoders, I can’t say I’ve ever noticed this before. 

 

I have to say, I’m pleasantly surprised by this decoder.

I think it sounds really good, especially with the speaker change, and Hornby have captured the distinctive Class 66 sound very well. I think they need to be congratulated on bringing sound to modellers that can’t afford the £118 decoder that DC Kits produce as an example ( I’m not knocking the Leggomanbiffo examples, they are awesome )

 

For the record, I have ordered one of the new Bachmann 66’s from Hattons with sound that has been captured again by DC Kits, for a measly £261 !!

I’m now wondering if the extra £111 for added sound is a bit extravagant when in my opinion, the Hornby sound equivalents have cost me £52 including the speaker change.
 

I am well aware, the DC Kits decoder will be far superior to the Hornby example, but there is a £49 saving here.


Can anyone advise on the heat issue, and I would be very interested to hear of your own opinions on these decoders

 

Thanks guys

Ronnie

 

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Better wait until someone who knows what they are talking about answers this before running the loco again. This is because there may (or not!) be an issue with the impedance of the speaker you have fitted not being matched to the TTS decoder amplifier.

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The speaker needs to be an 8ohm type, which the rail exclusive big boomer is, so no problems using that speaker.

 

Do TTS decoders get warm, yes they do, Hornby recommend not using a heat shrink or covering them with tape, just use some tape underneath to insulate from the chassis and a thin strap of tape to hold it in place.  I use Kapon tape

 

Remember there is a difference between warm and hot, warm can be ok, hot is not, I have seen them get hot enough to shrink un shrunk heat shrink

 

Its also a good idea to fit a current limiting resister in the middle of the blue wire if you are not using it on a Hornby Loco, using it with a Bachmann diesel may overload the lighting side without the small resistor, 500ohm should be fine.

 

Paul

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Thank You both for your advice. 

Just  to reiterate JST what Paul has said, the speaker is an 8ohm example, thanks for the good advice !

The loco the decoder is in is a Bachmann 66 ( 779 )

At this time it sits in a loose bit of heat shrink to keep it away from the circuit boards, but I’ll take your advice Paul and use your tape example. 
Just as a matter of interest, the loco judders quite a bit at crawling pace. It’s ok when you notch  up a bit, but that is quite annoying. Have you found that issue at all ?

What is your opinion of these Hornby TTS decoders guys ?

Do you like them ? I must admit I think they’re pretty good for £40 

 

Cheers

Ronnie

 

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43 minutes ago, ronnie thommo said:

Thank You both for your advice. 

Just  to reiterate JST what Paul has said, the speaker is an 8ohm example, thanks for the good advice !

The loco the decoder is in is a Bachmann 66 ( 779 )

At this time it sits in a loose bit of heat shrink to keep it away from the circuit boards, but I’ll take your advice Paul and use your tape example. 
Just as a matter of interest, the loco judders quite a bit at crawling pace. It’s ok when you notch  up a bit, but that is quite annoying. Have you found that issue at all ?

What is your opinion of these Hornby TTS decoders guys ?

Do you like them ? I must admit I think they’re pretty good for £40 

 

Cheers

Ronnie

 

Definitely remove the heat shrink - just use a bit of sellotape under it to keep it from touching the circuit board. TTS decoders like air around them!

 

I've fitted lots of TTS decoders into Bachmann locos.  They all needed CV150 set to 1 (instead of the factory setting which is 0) to cure the slow speed judder.

I then change CVs 3 and 4 for smooth starts and stops.

 

As an example, these are the CVs I used for my 47's:  CV3=35, CV4=20, CV10=128, CV150=1, CV151=8, CV152=16, CV153=215, CV154=0. 

 

I have used TTS for lots of loco classes (but my layout is not modern enough for a 66) and by tweaking the CVs you can get motor control every bit as good as a high end decoder. It's certainly worth spending the time fine tuning them.

 

Check out some examples on my YouTube channel - link below.

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Sorry Ronnie, not sure about changing CVs on a Prodigy as  I'm an NCE Powercab user.  Others will be able to advise you.

 

With my system CVs can be changed on the "main" but I prefer to do them on the Program Track as I like to read back and double check the values as I go along, making notes and keeping them written in a book - the good old fashioned way!  (Even though I have JMRI).

 

Edit:  Don't worry, you won't do damage by changing any CV's;  if things go wrong you just reset CV8 to 8.

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3 hours ago, ronnie thommo said:

Never changed CV’s before though

How do you go about it with a Gaugemaster Prodigy 2 please ?

 

 

Hi Ronnie.

Ever heard the expression "RTFM" ?  ;) :D

 

It's all in here.....

 

https://www.modelrectifier.com/v/vspfiles/resources/trainSound/0001414.pdf

 

Sections 2-5 to 2-10

 

 

 

.

 

 

 

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Hi again Guys,

 

Seems pretty simple to me, i'll have a play around with it later today

I think i'll set it up as you have Cravensdmufan

 

Now then RonRonRon, you have won tonight's star prize. I wondered who would tell me to refer to the manual first In a sarcastic fashion.

Not sure what the F stands for though, shouldn't it be RTTM ? ;)

 

I was struggling with a camera I bought once, so I RTTM'd

I was even more bamboozled when I'd read it than I was before, hence my dislike for them

 

But as can be seen above, several helpful comments above have simplified matters. 

Simples, as the meercat would say !

 

Anyway, back to the subject in hand.

I'm contemplating putting these decoders into a recently purchased Hornby Scotrail HST .

By my calculations, to do it the DC Kits way would be a costing of around the £260 mark with decent speakers, as appose to around the £100 mark with TTS

 

Once again, I know the DC Kits sound will be awesome, but that's a hell of a saving

Can't get away with it for my 68 though. They don't do one for a 68, however I'm being advised to use the Class 67 example

Same engine by all accounts

 

Cheers guys

Ronnie

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