Accurascale's First Steam Locomotive; GWR Collett 78xx Manor Class!

[IamDaniel]

22 hours ago, didcot said:

@IamDaniel

 

Not alone. Returned my sound decoder a month ago. Replacemant supposedly sent out last Friday after I enquired about it. Still not arrived.

All sorted now. 

 

Hmm. To be fair to Key, arrangements were made very quickly to return the faulty loco (within two days) back in August, but as I say, I haven't heard anything since and on the occasions that I've phoned I've been told someone is looking into it and will email me in due course. As I say, my patience is wearing a little thin at this stage, seeing as A/S quote a month's turnaround to repair faulty locos. 

[Devonauto]

Granville Manor arrived yesterday and running well, after an exciting delivery by DHL . I received notification from DHL that parcel had been delivered and signed for by myself.  No such thing. Later retrieved parcel from an address about 3/4 mile away where it had been left on the doorstep. Looking back a couple of weeks, 7812 also said to have been signed for by myself, but I was not at home at the time of delivery. Parcel found on the doorstep by my wife after she noticed someone disappearing down the drive. DHL's signed for service apparently leaves much to be desired, at least from their Portsmouth Depot

Accurascale are taking this up with DHL, but it might help them to learn of the experiences of others

[Mallard60022]

1 hour ago, Devonauto said:

Granville Manor arrived yesterday and running well, after an exciting delivery by DHL . I received notification from DHL that parcel had been delivered and signed for by myself.  No such thing. Later retrieved parcel from an address about 3/4 mile away where it had been left on the doorstep. Looking back a couple of weeks, 7812 also said to have been signed for by myself, but I was not at home at the time of delivery. Parcel found on the doorstep by my wife after she noticed someone disappearing down the drive. DHL's signed for service apparently leaves much to be desired, at least from their Portsmouth Depot

Accurascale are taking this up with DHL, but it might help them to learn of the experiences of others

I know it maybe a little more expensive but Royal Mail Signed For where I am is 100% and strict too.

P

[Ian Hargrave]

1 hour ago, Devonauto said:

Granville Manor arrived yesterday and running well, after an exciting delivery by DHL . I received notification from DHL that parcel had been delivered and signed for by myself.  No such thing. Later retrieved parcel from an address about 3/4 mile away where it had been left on the doorstep. Looking back a couple of weeks, 7812 also said to have been signed for by myself, but I was not at home at the time of delivery. Parcel found on the doorstep by my wife after she noticed someone disappearing down the drive. DHL's signed for service apparently leaves much to be desired, at least from their Portsmouth Depot

Accurascale are taking this up with DHL, but it might help them to learn of the experiences of others

That’s scary.Hopefully incidents of this kind are confined just to one delivery depot. So far I’ve not experienced this with Accurascale deliveries via DHL.

[gwrrob]

2 hours ago, Devonauto said:

Granville Manor arrived yesterday and running well,

 

Any chance of some photos of this GWR version please @Devonauto

[McC]

18 hours ago, IamDaniel said:

 

Hmm. To be fair to Key, arrangements were made very quickly to return the faulty loco (within two days) back in August, but as I say, I haven't heard anything since and on the occasions that I've phoned I've been told someone is looking into it and will email me in due course. As I say, my patience is wearing a little thin at this stage, seeing as A/S quote a month's turnaround to repair faulty locos. 

 

we have recently added Royal Mail to the warehouse so at checkout on parcels up to 2 kg. You can now choose either DHL or royal mail both for free.

Edited October 21, 2023 by McC

[ERIC ALLTORQUE]

13 minutes ago, McC said:

 

we have recently added Royal Mail to the warehouse so at checkout on parcels up to 2 kg. You can now choose either DHL or royal mail both for free.

Probably a good move as most of us i guess know our local posties,he pops my parcels here first if im waiting for specific things if they are expensive,im no fan of the faceless giant delivery companys.

[Mallard60022]

29 minutes ago, McC said:

 

we have recently added Royal Mail to the warehouse so at checkout on parcels up to 2 kg. You can now choose either DHL or royal mail both for free.

Thanks for that as I have a similar arrangement with our local Posties and Sorting Office about delivery for Signed fors etc.

Phil

[geoffers]

1 hour ago, Ian Hargrave said:

That’s scary.Hopefully incidents of this kind are confined just to one delivery depot. So far I’ve not experienced this with Accurascale deliveries via DHL.

Likewise - DHL around Norwich have been excellent so far,

[geoffers]

Met up with Accurascale reps today at Great Eastern Models this morning, Richard and Paul, and various upcoming models were on view. Tasty!!! They also investigated the stay-alive issue on 7800 "Torquay Manor" I have mentioned on here earlier and the consensus is that it is a duff capacitor pack. So they have persuaded me to return the loco, via GEM, to them for repair. Fingers crossed. I shall miss the loco whilst it is away in the shops. Very much enjoyed chatting to them.

Edited October 21, 2023 by geoffers
spelling.

[gwrrob]

6 hours ago, gwrrob said:

 

Any chance of some photos of this GWR version please @Devonauto

 

Photo courtesy of @Devonauto shewing Granville running on his rolling road. Looking forward to receiving mine anon.

 

[Cofga]

I found the answer as to how to turn the factory installed PowerPack stay alive on and off when using decoders other than the factory installed LokSound one. This gets a bit technical so hopefully it will be useful for you. Basically it comes down to knowing that pin 13 on the Next18 decoder socket/plug of the Accurascale circuit board is what is used to control the PowerPack. By default under the NMRA standard this is identified as Aux4 which is a logic output. In the LokSound decoder pin 13 is automatically turned on and off when required so you don’t need to do anything.

 

When using a different decoder all you need to do is find a way to turn pin 13 on to activate the PowerPack. In my case I was using a SoundTraxx Tsunami2 steam decoder. I contacted their tech support folks who were able to tell me that by pressing function button F27 I could do just that. And sure enough it works now. However I will need to turn it off and on manually when programming the decoder and at other times should the function get turned off, if for example the command station is shut down. LokSound USA have for several years recommended that the PowerPack be turned off during programming to prevent damage to decoders.

 

But what about other brands of decoders. I asked ESU about the LokPilot 5 and was told function button F6 will turn it on and off. Unfortunately there is no comprehensive listing I could find of these settings. Consequently you will need to check with the tech support  folks for your decoder. Also there may be decoders for which there is no function assigned to control pin 13. But you may be able to change the function settings and map it to a specific function button. The important thing to remember is pin 13 which is by the standard Aux4. Good luck with your specific brand of decoder—Larry

Edited October 22, 2023 by Cofga
Update

[BR Blue]

2 hours ago, Cofga said:

I found the answer as to how to turn the factory installed PowerPack stay alive on and off when using decoders other than the factory installed LokSound one. This gets a bit technical so hopefully it will be useful for you. Basically it comes down to knowing that pin 13 on the Next18 decoder socket/plug of the Accurascale circuit board is what is used to control the PowerPack. By default under the NMRA standard this is identified as Aux4 which is a logic output. In the LokSound decoder pin 13 is automatically turned it on and off when required so you don’t need to do anything. During programming the PowerPack is turned off then back on again when done.

 

When using a different decoder all you need to do is find a way to turn pin 13 on to activate the PowerPack. In my case I was using a SoundTraxx Tsunami2 steam decoder. I contacted their tech support folks who were able to tell me that by pressing function button F27 I could do just that. And sure enough it works now. However I will need to turn it off and on manually when programming the decoder and at other times should the function get turned off, if for example the command station is shut down. 

 

But what about other brands of decoders. I asked ESU about the LokPilot 5 and was told function button F6 will turn it on and off. Unfortunately there is no comprehensive listing I could find of these settings. Consequently you will need to check with the tech support  folks for your decoder. Also there may be decoders for which there is no function assigned to control pin 13. But you may be able to change the function settings and map it to a specific function button. The important thing to remember is pin 13 which is by the standard Aux4. Good luck with your specific brand of decoder—Larry

Many thanks Larry. Very interesting. You have done a lot of digging on this one to provide some very useful information. 

[geoffers]

"....But what about other brands of decoders. I asked ESU about the LokPilot 5 and was told function button F6 will turn it on and off...."

 

Gosh!!! Is it really as simple as that.....!!!!!!! Great discovery - thanks for that.

Sadly I cannot try it on my Manor as it is now out of my hands on the way to Accurascale but I guess they may try it. 

[Darius43]

Packaging repurposed 😀

 

 

Cheers

 

Darius

[jonnyuk]

18 hours ago, geoffers said:

"....But what about other brands of decoders. I asked ESU about the LokPilot 5 and was told function button F6 will turn it on and off...."

 

Gosh!!! Is it really as simple as that.....!!!!!!! Great discovery - thanks for that.

Sadly I cannot try it on my Manor as it is now out of my hands on the way to Accurascale but I guess they may try it. 

am i the only one to find this completely bonkers. the model is sold as having a stay alive but unless you buy their decoder (which i might add is not disclosed), off their site you can't use the stay alive out of the box with your own decoder (unless of course you happen to have done some serious digging as above and then it relies on the tech support of the decoder company, if it can be done).
this is the first time i've ever heard of a stay alive been specific to the chosen decoder of the maker.

[MikeParkin65]

2 hours ago, jonnyuk said:

am i the only one to find this completely bonkers. the model is sold as having a stay alive but unless you buy their decoder (which i might add is not disclosed), off their site you can't use the stay alive out of the box with your own decoder (unless of course you happen to have done some serious digging as above and then it relies on the tech support of the decoder company, if it can be done).
this is the first time i've ever heard of a stay alive been specific to the chosen decoder of the maker.

AS have been very open that Loksound are their decoder partners. I suspect cock up rather than conspiracy in s much as the stay alive has been designed to work with the decoders to hand. Who knew there were different operating protocols, I didnt! Personally I'm surprised how many think they need Stay Alive on such a well weighted multi wheeled loco with pick ups on loco and tender. The J69 will need it but bigger loco's shouldnt.

[jonnyuk]

24 minutes ago, MikeParkin65 said:

AS have been very open that Loksound are their decoder partners. I suspect cock up rather than conspiracy in s much as the stay alive has been designed to work with the decoders to hand. Who knew there were different operating protocols, I didnt! Personally I'm surprised how many think they need Stay Alive on such a well weighted multi wheeled loco with pick ups on loco and tender. The J69 will need it but bigger loco's shouldnt.

possibly a cock up, maybe they should of tested their product with something other than their decoder, that worries me more if that is the case. Either way a key bit of functionality does not work out of the box with other decoders, for non sound loco's i'd throw a spare decoder lying about into the loco and save my self £30, i'm sure i am not alone in this.
 

[geoffers]

"....am i the only one to find this completely bonkers...."

 

It does seem bonkers, but then the world has gone bonkers anyway.

 

[Cofga]

While it might seem bonkers, it is one of the realities of using the LokSound decoders and PowerPack stay alives. These require 3 connections—2 for the power connection and a third to control it. I think Lenz and DCCconcepts also use similar 3 wire stay alives. Accurascale could have designed the circuit board without the PowerPack and just included solder contacts on the circuit board and that way users could install either the 2 or 3 wire stay alive devices depending on the type of decoder to be used. But then users would complain because they would have to install their own devices and decoders. This is one reason why I write about model railroading instead of selling any of the stuff! As someone pointed out the stay alive may be redundant in these models anyway as they may be heavy enough and have enough power pickups  to compensate. John at YouChoos has told me that the Zimo decoder he has used seems to work so it likely has a function on pin 13 that is on by default so check with him and see what he says. And as I related Juergen at ESU told me the LokPilot can control pin 13 using F6 but I don’t have one to test. That should cover about 95% of users and as English poet John Lydgate once said “You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time”—Larry

Edited October 24, 2023 by Cofga

[St Enodoc]

3 hours ago, Cofga said:

While it might seem bonkers, it is one of the realities of using the LokSound PowerPack stay alives. These require 3 connections—2 for the power connection and a third to control it. I think Lenz and DCCconcepts also use similar 3 wire stay alives. Accurascale could have designed the circuit board without the PowerPack and just included solder contacts on the circuit board and that way users could install either the 2 or 3 wire stay alive devices depending on the type of decoder to be used. But then users would complain because they would have to install their own devices and decoders. This is one reason why I write about model railroading instead of selling any of the stuff! As someone pointed out the stay alive may be redundant in these models anyway as they may be heavy enough and have enough power pickups  to compensate. John at YouChoos has told me that the Zimo decoder he has used seems to work so it likely has a function on pin 13 that is on by default so check with him and see what he says. And as I related Juergen at ESU told me the LokPilot can control pin 13 using F6 but I don’t have one to test. That should cover about 95% of users and as English poet John Lydgate once said “You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time”—Larry

Thanks Larry.

 

So, in simple terms, when I receive my non-DCC loco and fit my own ESU LokPilot 59828, what (if anything) will I have to do to disable the stay-alive?

 

BTW I always use Decoder Pro to set up decoders, if that makes the answer simpler.

 

Thanks.

[Cofga]

17 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Thanks Larry.

 

So, in simple terms, when I receive my non-DCC loco and fit my own ESU LokPilot 59828, what (if anything) will I have to do to disable the stay-alive?

 

BTW I always use Decoder Pro to set up decoders, if that makes the answer simpler.

 

Thanks.

Assuming what Juergen told me is correct about the LokPilot, then by simply turning button F6 off the stay alive should shut down and by turning button F6 on again the stay alive should work. At least that’s the way mine now works using a Tsunami2 but I have to use button F27. As I said I have not tested this as I do not have a LokPilot decoder. The ESU USA guys have for several years been telling us to turn the stay alive off when programming the decoder to prevent damage. 

Edited October 24, 2023 by Cofga

[Limpley Stoker]

Hmm , so complicated!   I think I will stick to DC,  I thought I might be tempted to upgrade to DCC if I bought the sound fitted Manor.
My Anthony Manor is entertaining enough on DC ,  all I’m missing are the whistles but then I don’t recall any steam engine whistling in the 50s and 60s. Today is different in preservation - nothing moves without a whistle.

[Mallard60022]

2 hours ago, Limpley Stoker said:

Hmm , so complicated!   I think I will stick to DC,  I thought I might be tempted to upgrade to DCC if I bought the sound fitted Manor.
My Anthony Manor is entertaining enough on DC ,  all I’m missing are the whistles but then I don’t recall any steam engine whistling in the 50s and 60s. Today is different in preservation - nothing moves without a whistle.

No Whistles in the 50s and 60s? Really?  Maybe you only spotted out in the wilds?

P

[The Stationmaster]

11 minutes ago, Mallard60022 said:

No Whistles in the 50s and 60s? Really?  Maybe you only spotted out in the wilds?

P

It all depends where you were.  At some places you'd hear them all the time - even 'in the wilds' but elsewhere they weren't so common.r