WARNING Hornby Schools DCC Ready Shorting

[StJamesStation]

I have just received the Hornby Schools Class DCC Ready loco from Hattons and it has a major problem.
The TCSP-EE02 blanking plate that is fitted to the 8 pin connector shorts out the layout.
Luckily the NCE EB1 circuit breaker which I have fitted on the layout saved the day.

The solution is to remove the blanking plate and replace it with a DCC Chip or another blanking plate.

There is what seems to be a very small capacitor on the plate and that is creating the problems. All of the Hornby locos I have bought, have never had this type of plate so one can only assume that it is the culprit.
I'm not the only one to have had this issue , there are two other members of the club who had similar problems. The worst case while running on DC was  there was so much heat being generated from the short that it melted the tender sides.

I cannot believe that Hornby would ship this out to it's suppliers in this state. It is clearly not a one off problem.
 

[MGR Hooper!]

I have just received the Hornby Schools Class DCC Ready loco from Hattons and it has a major problem.

The TCSP-EE02 blanking plate that is fitted to the 8 pin connector shorts out the layout.

Luckily the NCE EB1 circuit breaker which I have fitted on the layout saved the day.

The solution is to remove the blanking plate and replace it with a DCC Chip or another blanking plate.

There is what seems to be a very small capacitor on the plate and that is creating the problems. All of the Hornby locos I have bought, have never had this type of plate so one can only assume that it is the culprit.

I'm not the only one to have had this issue , there are two other members of the club who had similar problems. The worst case while running on DC was  there was so much heat being generated from the short that it melted the tender sides.

I cannot believe that Hornby would ship this out to it's suppliers in this state. It is clearly not a one off problem.

 

Sorry to be a spoilt sport, but just because 3 people have had that problem, doesn't necessarily mean the whole batch did (there could've easily been a mix of batches in the blanking plates). Secondly I know you mean well, but what kind of a warning is it if you fail to provide atleast the product code? Do you mean to say that you assume every Hornby Schools Class ever made and those that will be made suffer from this?

 

I think if you'd like to WARN people, please give them a product code atleast, then we'll know what to look out for.

[Kiwi]

Thanks for the warning, but have you:

Notified Hatton's?

Notified Hornby?

 

If so what are their responses?

If not, why not?

 

Have you asked if the plate was fitted by Hornby or Hatton's? Your own comment "All of the Hornby locos I have bought, have never had this type of plate" would suggest perhaps not Hornby?

You appear to be saying these are new items, but can you confirm. Hattons also sell second-hand.

[StJamesStation]

Sorry to be a spoilt sport, but just because 3 people have had that problem, doesn't necessarily mean the whole batch did (there could've easily been a mix of batches in the blanking plates). Secondly I know you mean well, but what kind of a warning is it if you fail to provide atleast the product code? Do you mean to say that you assume every Hornby Schools Class ever made and those that will be made suffer from this?

I think if you'd like to WARN people, please give them a product code atleast, then we'll know what to look out for.

Ok so it's the Hornby SCHOOLS R3208.

It's a loco drive with the tender containing the DCC plug and pickups.

If you want to assume that all Hornby Schools ever made are faulty that's fine by me, but if you read the first line of the post you would see that I was specifically talking about the DCC Ready loco. I'm not Brand bashing I'm just using the forum to let people know that they may have an item that is faulty so they don't have the same experience as us.

[StJamesStation]

Thanks for the warning, but have you:

Notified Hatton's?

Notified Hornby?

 

If so what are their responses?

If not, why not?

 

Have you asked if the plate was fitted by Hornby or Hatton's? Your own comment "All of the Hornby locos I have bought, have never had this type of plate" would suggest perhaps not Hornby?

You appear to be saying these are new items, but can you confirm. Hattons also sell second-hand.

I've sent an email to both Hattons and Hornby and am awaiting a reply.

The blanking plate is fitted by Hornby as part of the DCC Ready process. Hattons would have no reason to fit a blanking plate.

The item is Brand New, not secondhand. It's a fair comment you make though.

Anyway the moral of the story is double check locos before running them on a layout.

It's entirely feasible that the loco was checked in China on an analogue test track and passed as it wouldn't be on there for long enough to trip any circuit breakers that probably aren't even fitted.

[RFS]

Perhaps the blanking plate is one of these where the interference suppressor is on the plug and not in the wiring. 

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/104041-new-style-Hornby-dcc-blanking-plug/

[Kiwi]

I've sent an email to both Hattons and Hornby and am awaiting a reply.

The blanking plate is fitted by Hornby as part of the DCC Ready process. Hattons would have no reason to fit a blanking plate.

The item is Brand New, not secondhand. It's a fair comment you make though.

Anyway the moral of the story is double check locos before running them on a layout.

It's entirely feasible that the loco was checked in China on an analogue test track and passed as it wouldn't be on there for long enough to trip any circuit breakers that probably aren't even fitted.

Thanks for those clarifications, much appreciated. I'd be keen to hear what if any reply you get from the emails.

[tender]

Perhaps the blanking plate is one of these where the interference suppressor is on the plug and not in the wiring. 

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/104041-new-style-Hornby-dcc-blanking-plug/

 

Difficult to tell without having one to hand but:

If the blanking plate is the same as shown in the link and they are diodes on the board maybe it was just plugged in the wrong way round. 

[MikeParkin65]

Thanks for the warning and sorry that some posters seemed to get a little brusque in their requests for clarification. I have had the odd issue with blanking plates from various manufacturers over the years - usually shorts caused by bad soldered connections. A loco that gets hot enough to melt plastic on DC is obviously a cause for concern and one I should hope Hornby will ask for full details of.

[Crosland]

Why was the loco even put on a DCC layout, without a decoder, in the first place?

 

Whilst some systems, for historical reasons, still support a single unchipped loco, it is certainly not recommended practice these days.

[StJamesStation]

Why was the loco even put on a DCC layout, without a decoder, in the first place?

 

Whilst some systems, for historical reasons, still support a single unchipped loco, it is certainly not recommended practice these days.

NCE has this to say on the matter. Of course it doesn't apply to locomotives that have been wired incorrectly by either manufacturers or individuals.

 

https://ncedcc.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/204481255-DCC-DC-Mixing

[RAF96]

Several manufacturers state that their controller does not support analogue locs and/or that their decoders will not support analogue running.

[Andy W]

I think the original poster perhaps doesn't know that Hornby have been selling Schools class locos as DCC ready for several years now, ever since they moved from having the motor in the tender to having it in the loco.[Edited to add - first DCC ready version went on sale in 2008]

During this time they have offered a large number of different livery and name/number combinations. Each of these was produced as a fairly small separate batch, and has a different model number (R number). They've also been made in two entirely different factories by two entirely different contract manufacturers.

Even more confusingly there are two distinct model designs - the standard range models and the more basic Railroad range ones.

As a result other members were anxious to find out precisely which batch of models was affected - they can't all be because lots of people would have noticed by now, and whether the blanking plug being complained about was fitted at factory or had been fitted by the dealer. It isn't unknown for dealers to remove factory fitted decoders, especially sound decoders, and replace them with a blanking plug, then selling the model as DCC ready (which it is, of course) and selling the decoder as a separate item, getting a better total price that way.