Hornby Elite Problem

[Luke Palmer]

Hi all,

 

I bought a Hornby Elite controller six years ago now, it's worked perfectly fine, but now it seems that when the controller is on for over ten minutes, the dial to control the locomotives instead of them moving, the controller seems to come up with different digits (123£&45@) like this for instance.

 

Does anyone know what the problem could be?

 

Many thanks

[traction]

You could try reinstalling the firmware.

What version was it on at the minute?

 

The latest is V1.44 as of April 2017

 

https://www.Hornby.com/uk-en/downloads/view/index/cat/9/

 

There may be a gremlin in there, reinstalling the firmware might cure the problem.

 

Cheers

 

Ian

[Luke Palmer]

You could try reinstalling the firmware.

What version was it on at the minute?

 

The latest is V1.44 as of April 2017

 

https://www.Hornby.com/uk-en/downloads/view/index/cat/9/

 

There may be a gremlin in there, reinstalling the firmware might cure the problem.

 

Cheers

 

Ian

Thanks Ian,

 

I think my Elite firmware is on V1.41, that may be the problem then.

 

Thanks again

Luke

[RAF96]

You could try a unit reset from the menus first to see if that restores order, then try the v1.44 firmware upgrade, but the firmware upgrades the operational chips not the core chip firmware that runs the device, if that makes sense.

 

Installing the firmware uses a different dialogue now to cater for slow, medium and fast PCs. Read the how to as you need to wait between power up with the red button pressed, before inserting the USB and again before running the update exe.

 

Then the dialogue will ask you to select a PC type (1-2-3), which you choose will depend upon the pc you are using for the upgrade. Try 2 to start with. If the update takes about 3-5 minutes it will be a good install. It can if you pick the wrong type either flash through in no time and fail, or take forever, up to or even longer than a hour, but it will usually be ok.

 

If all this doesn't fix the problem try this test - power the unit up as you hold the LOCO button. Release when you see Hornby on screen. Now the screen will populate every pixel on screen, then run a diagnostic and tell you if the EEPROM has passed or failed the test. This is the core chip I spoke about earlier. If it fails then its probably not repairable economically by Hornby, although you could ask their HCC. You will need the date code stamped on the bottom of the case, something like 05/10 or 09/13 which is the month and year code.

Rob

 

To clear the test cycle just switch off and on again.

[Luke Palmer]

You could try a unit reset from the menus first to see if that restores order, then try the v1.44 firmware upgrade, but the firmware upgrades the operational chips not the core chip firmware that runs the device, if that makes sense.

Installing the firmware uses a different dialogue now to cater for slow, medium and fast PCs. Read the how to as you need to wait between power up with the red button pressed, before inserting the USB and again before running the update exe.

Then the dialogue will ask you to select a PC type (1-2-3), which you choose will depend upon the pc you are using for the upgrade. Try 2 to start with. If the update takes about 3-5 minutes it will be a good install. It can if you pick the wrong type either flash through in no time and fail, or take forever, up to or even longer than a hour, but it will usually be ok.

If all this doesn't fix the problem try this test - power the unit up as you hold the LOCO button. Release when you see Hornby on screen. Now the screen will populate every pixel on screen, then run a diagnostic and tell you if the EEPROM has passed or failed the test. This is the core chip I spoke about earlier. If it fails then its probably not repairable economically by Hornby, although you could ask their HCC. You will need the date code stamped on the bottom of the case, something like 05/10 or 09/13 which is the month and year code.

Rob

To clear the test cycle just switch off and on again.

Thanks Rob

Much appreciated