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The new Hall TTS, a good move by Hornby?


Tallpaul69
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Hi All,

I was pleased to see GWR Hall TTS chips are now available.

I shall be buying a few of these promptly as I think they will be popular.

Especially if many folks follow my example and fit them in other GWR two cylinder locos.

I am thinking of trying them in a Grange, County ,and 61xx, as well as of course in Halls! If they are good in the other types I might also try them in 28/38xx and when they are produced the Dapol 43xx and Manor!

 

I need sound fitting in all the above for my Lower Thames Yard layout, and I think the saving of £60+ per loco, is worth the downside of performance with the beat maybe not in sync with the wheel revs.

 

It seems to me on my layout where the above locos will in the main be running through at speed rather than doing slow starts and shunting or depot movements, will minimize the downsides and the fact that all are 2 cylinder locos with 5ft 8ins-6ft wheels (apart from the 4ft 7.5 ins wheels of the 28/38xx), I think helps?

 

What do other folks think?

 

Happy Modeling!

Cheers

Paul

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I have one, thanks to Kernow for the very prompt delivery, and will be trying it out in a Grange this week. Slightly worried by the box, which has an end label saying Hall/Harry Potter. I was afraid some of the sounds would include spells being cast and owls hooting. Luckily the list of available sounds is entirely normal for a GWR loco.

 

Edited to add: Having removed the body, I find that my particular Grange would require an amount of modification to take a TTS chip and speaker, as it is older production. On balance I think trying the chip in a different 2-cylinder GW design model might be better, if I have one which will accept the setup without alteration. Then I can get a higher-spec chip and speaker for the Grange which would justify the work of fitting it.

Edited by Andy W
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I have read that the TTS chips are not as good for the steam models, as the sounds are not synchronised as well as they could be. Is this something that has been fixed in the latest models? 

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39 minutes ago, JohnR said:

I have read that the TTS chips are not as good for the steam models, as the sounds are not synchronised as well as they could be. Is this something that has been fixed in the latest models? 

 

No & it never will be.

 

Loksound & Zimo can detect to the pulsing of a motor. This allows them to react to it to control their exhaust beat speed.

Hornby's TTS is a cheaper alternative because many features of 'full-fat' decoders are missing. The ability to react to a motor's pulsing is one of these.

 

So don't expect TTS to suddenly be able to provide sound in sync with speed. It is simply not possible.

I do not mean this as a criticism though. By taking away a lot of functionality offered by more expensive products, they have made sound available for models at a fraction of the cost.

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On 28/07/2020 at 09:14, Andy W said:

Edited to add: Having removed the body, I find that my particular Grange would require an amount of modification to take a TTS chip and speaker, as it is older production.

 

Replace the speaker with an 8 ohm sugar cube 15X11X9 speaker.  You will need to remove the 8 pin socket and file down the two supports and hard wire the decoder.  The 8 pin socket support block is held in place by one screw.  Remove this for easy modification.  All enables you to fit the decoder in the boiler and the speaker on the prepared platform.  The sound emits from the loco and not the tender.  Much more realistic, I have modified all my older Hornby locos in this way.  H.T.H.

 

Mike

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1 hour ago, Pete the Elaner said:

 

No & it never will be.

 

Loksound & Zimo can detect to the pulsing of a motor. This allows them to react to it to control their exhaust beat speed.

Hornby's TTS is a cheaper alternative because many features of 'full-fat' decoders are missing. The ability to react to a motor's pulsing is one of these.

 

So don't expect TTS to suddenly be able to provide sound in sync with speed. It is simply not possible.

I do not mean this as a criticism though. By taking away a lot of functionality offered by more expensive products, they have made sound available for models at a fraction of the cost.

I have also noticed on the TTS St Germans I have the steam chuff increases in stages, very noticeable stages unfortunately so not only is there too few chuffs at low speed or setting off it suddenly gets faster even when the Loco is seemingly at a steady low constant speed, very odd.

 

But they are good value for playing trains.

 

 

Edited by boxbrownie
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3 hours ago, Chrisr40 said:

If it's the same chip as was in the train set version of Ketley Hall then it's as below. I like mine but upgrade the Hornby speaker.

 

Having listened to this video, I think that these Hall TTS are worth a go.

I would not want to use them on a one engine in steam GWR branch, where there will be much more concentration on an individual locos performance, but then those branches rarely saw a Hall.

However I think in the situation of a main line model such as mine will be, with a number of locos on the go at the same time, they are just the job.

I have TTS already on several of my GWR steam locos, and will want to use them as widely as their suitability for my loco fleet permits, except for the shunters and some of the local train locos which will move slowly right in front of my eyes where I feel the expense of higher specification chips are justified.   

 

Cheers

Paul

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3 hours ago, JohnR said:

I have read that the TTS chips are not as good for the steam models, as the sounds are not synchronised as well as they could be. Is this something that has been fixed in the latest models? 

 

You pay for a Rolls Royce, you don't expect a mini!    That said, I was more impressed with Hornby Black 5 (R8114) TTS decoder than a well-known decoder costing in excess of £80.00 more!!    At the last count there were eight (!) whistles (R8114) and the sound wasn't too bad, especially through a Hi-Bass speaker...or two!

 

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7 hours ago, Heiter said:

 

You pay for a Rolls Royce, you don't expect a mini!    That said, I was more impressed with Hornby Black 5 (R8114) TTS decoder than a well-known decoder costing in excess of £80.00 more!!    At the last count there were eight (!) whistles (R8114) and the sound wasn't too bad, especially through a Hi-Bass speaker...or two!

 

 

That the wrong way around!

Surely you mean you pay for a mini so you can't expect a Rolls Royce?

 

I agree about the sound though. Once the speakers have been upgraded Hornby's offerings sound rather good. They lack other features though.

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As this is my thread, I am going off at a tangent!

Just taken delivery of a sound fitted (not TTS!!) Bachmann class 121.

This has prompted me to get a move on with making one circuit round my test track called Lower Thames Goods Shed (based on Maidenhead) useable as I had nowhere to test run it!

So now I have got the Wycombe branch through Branch platform circuit works although there are a couple of places where a loco stops more often than it runs through so tomorrow I hope to sort them out.

As well as testing the 121 I want to compare it with my Dapol version and my Hornby version of the Lima 121.

If all goes well I may manage to post a video comparison of them in a few days!

 

As well as running them singly I want to test them with my driving trailer and a set of non motorized Lima 117s, as both these combinations are trains I want to run eventually on Lower Thames Yard, and I need to decide which 121 runs best with the driving trailer and the 117.

 

Meanwhile, happy modelling!

Cheers

Paul

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Can I ask readers to refrain from re runs of the TTS v full price Decoders debate on this thread, which has been done(IMHO) to death previously elsewhere!

 

I  think that neither camp are going to convert many in the other camp to their way of thinking, and life is too short to spend ages wading through all the arguments (and prejudice!) yet again!

Many thanks.

 

Meanwhile, I have found some useful information on South West Digital's web site, which suggests which locos in each of the four Grouping companies and BR loco fleets can be replicated by the same sound files.

So for instance, it backs up my decision to use the newly introduced Hornby TTS Hall decoder in Counties, Granges and  28xx class locos!

Once I have got by head round the relevant GWR data, I will post a distillation of it here.

 

Aagh!!

It has just started tipping it down here in south Bedfordshire for the second time today, so it looks like I shall not be venturing down the garden to my Model Room again today.

Best regards

Paul  

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Hi there,

I promised in my last post  that I would post a distillation of the information from the South West Digital site that relates to decoders for Great Western/Western Region locos.

So here goes:-

South West Digital have divided the GWR/WR steam locos into four groups. each of which it has assigned a particular decoder to.

Group 1 comprises all panier (and saddle) tanks plus the Dean Goods.

Group 2 comprises the small prairies and 2-8-0/2-8-2 tanks plus 0-6-2 tanks, 15xx Panniers and the 38xx 4-4-0 tender locos (Counties)

Group 3 comprises Counties, Halls Granges, Manors, Dukedogs, Cities, all 2-8-0 tender locos, all 2-6-0 locos, 2251 0-6-0 tender locos, and all varieties of Large Prairies.

Group 4 comprises Kings, Castles and Stars.

 

I think that I will be using these Groups and fitting full price decoders to my models in Groups 1 and 2 , Hornby Hall TTS to my locos in Group 3, and I have already have Hornby TTS decoders in my Kings and Castles.

This may not work for locos with non 8 pin sockets, but there are a number of Hornby and Bachmann locos that are 8 pin. So the choice may be between 8/21 pin adapters, which there may not be room for in some locos; hard wiring 8 pin decoders, full price 21 pin decoders, or non sound decoders.

fitting non sound decoders in some cases will help to offset the full price decoders. I may not be able to make decisions on non sound decoders until I have completed my loco allocations to trains and see if there are any that will be used on perhaps one run in a day's timetable where the lack of sound will not be too noticeable!

  ,

I don't have locos in all the types detailed above as locos that were withdrawn before 1960 are not relevant to my layout. So the Dean Goods, saddle tanks, Cities (except Truro), Dukedogs, RODS (in the 2-8-0 category), 38xx Counties and Stars are not for me!  

 

In future posts I will detail the site's similar details for SR, LMR, ER, and BR locos plus BR Diesels and Units. It will probably take three more posts to cover these areas without blowing the readers minds with too much detail in one posting.

The sites listings in some areas are not as comprehensive as their GWR details above, but they say they will be expanding the lists as they develop sound files for more Locos and Units.

 

I hope this information is of use to others?

Best regards

Paul  

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Hi Folks,

This afternoon I am going to take a look at Southwest Digitals analysis of SR loco decoders into which I am adding my own thoughts. I will make clear which are my own inputs!

 

Southwest Digital's analysis of SR loco decoders is not as tidy as their GWR version as they have 6 groups.

So for ease of comparison with their GWR analysis I am reversing the order of the analysis on their web site, and reducing the groups to 4 in number plus an additional group for the modified draughting locos:-

 

So what I am calling SR Group 1 comprises Terriers, P class and  other small tanks to which I am adding small 0-6-0 tender locos such as the C Class

 

In SR Group ,2 there are 0-6-2s such as the E4s, 0-4-4s such as the M7, Adams 4-4-2 radials, the T9s, and the 700 0-6-0s.  I would also add the small 4-4-0s (Ds, Es, etc.)

 

In SR Group 3 there are the various 2-6-0s such as the Us and U1s, the 4-6-0s such as the N15s, H15s and S15s. I would add the large Tanks such as the H16s, Ws, and Zs plus the original Schools

 

In Group 4 there are the West Country, Battle of Britain and Merchant Navy classes, both as built and rebuilt.

 

I feel an additional class, class 5 is needed for the Le Maitre/ multijet fitted N15s, Lord Nelsons, Qs, Q1s and Schools.  

 

Now I am not an expert in SR locos and their sounds, so If anyone thinks I have got it wrong, please say!

 

Cheers for now,

Paul

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