Hornby 2023 - Bluetooth decoders and control system

[RAF96]

Doesn’t anyone read these posts or follow other associated forums. There is a known glitch whereby the app is not writing across long addresses correctly. After reloading a profile or performing a reset the long address has to be over typed in the app and a check made of CV17/18 values to see if they accord. If not then write the address from your controller. You will only be using a long address in DCC mode so you must already have a controller.

[RHF9019]

Having bought an 8 pin TXS to try, I fitted it to a Hornby 37 yesterday using the supplied speaker. 

The app is extremely intuitive and takes you through each step. Firmware updates took a couple of minutes and sound download was about 15 minutes. Then it was time to test. No problems found. The sound, whilst not top notch, is acceptable. I expect a speaker upgrade will help but that is something for the future.

Overall, I was impressed at the ease of the process and the results. As a result, I am now considering fitting another couple of locos.

As feedback for those involved in testing, I am running the app on a Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G without any problems. 

[Chrisr40]

9 hours ago, RHF9019 said:

Having bought an 8 pin TXS to try, I fitted it to a Hornby 37 yesterday using the supplied speaker. 

The app is extremely intuitive and takes you through each step. Firmware updates took a couple of minutes and sound download was about 15 minutes. Then it was time to test. No problems found. The sound, whilst not top notch, is acceptable. I expect a speaker upgrade will help but that is something for the future.

Overall, I was impressed at the ease of the process and the results. As a result, I am now considering fitting another couple of locos.

As feedback for those involved in testing, I am running the app on a Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G without any problems. 

Bure Valley models appear to have the most competitively priced stock if you are looking to buy more. No connection just a satisfied customer.

[ColinB]

On 05/11/2023 at 08:25, RHF9019 said:

Having bought an 8 pin TXS to try, I fitted it to a Hornby 37 yesterday using the supplied speaker. 

The app is extremely intuitive and takes you through each step. Firmware updates took a couple of minutes and sound download was about 15 minutes. Then it was time to test. No problems found. The sound, whilst not top notch, is acceptable. I expect a speaker upgrade will help but that is something for the future.

Overall, I was impressed at the ease of the process and the results. As a result, I am now considering fitting another couple of locos.

As feedback for those involved in testing, I am running the app on a Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G without any problems. 

I fitted one to a West Country and wasn't impressed so I moved it to a P2. It works really well in that loco and the 9f I bought, already fitted with one. I suspect it is because both of these locos have lots of wheels and pickups. I found the sound was pretty good in both these locos but they have pre fitted sound enclosures which helps a lot. 

[Johan DC]

57 minutes ago, ColinB said:

I fitted one to a West Country and wasn't impressed so I moved it to a P2. It works really well in that loco and the 9f I bought, already fitted with one. I suspect it is because both of these locos have lots of wheels and pickups. I found the sound was pretty good in both these locos but they have pre fitted sound enclosures which helps a lot.

Same here, they work fine in my large Pacifica and Mikados, but I needed a stay-alive for my A5. 

[D3489gibson]

2 hours ago, ColinB said:

I fitted one to a West Country and wasn't impressed so I moved it to a P2. It works really well in that loco and the 9f I bought, already fitted with one. I suspect it is because both of these locos have lots of wheels and pickups. I found the sound was pretty good in both these locos but they have pre fitted sound enclosures which helps a lot. 

 

What generation of WC was it you fitted it to out of interest?? I've got one fitted in my loco drive tender socket rebuilt bulleid, and it has all the gubbins inside, speaker, decoder, and powerbank, and runs superbly! (Just look on YouTube for Gordon's Lane, over the past few days as I've had it running on there) 

 

Nathan

[ColinB]

2 hours ago, D3489gibson said:

 

What generation of WC was it you fitted it to out of interest?? I've got one fitted in my loco drive tender socket rebuilt bulleid, and it has all the gubbins inside, speaker, decoder, and powerbank, and runs superbly! (Just look on YouTube for Gordon's Lane, over the past few days as I've had it running on there) 

 

Nathan

It was the rebuilt Elizabeth the purple one (only because it has a 21 pin socket). Yours has the powerbank which makes all the difference, my one initially didn't have one. When I fitted the powerbank the decoder died so I gave up at that point and added the powerbank to the HW7000 on my P2. When I got a replacement from Hornby, I fitted it on my other P2 (Prince of Wales that I got really cheap off Jadlam) but without the powerbank. It runs just fine but on a P2 it has 8 power pickups verses 6 on the WC. Similarly the factory fitted 9F with sound it behaves perfectly without a powerbank, but again more pickups. The powerbank makes an enormous difference.

[D3489gibson]

21 hours ago, ColinB said:

It was the rebuilt Elizabeth the purple one (only because it has a 21 pin socket). Yours has the powerbank which makes all the difference, my one initially didn't have one. When I fitted the powerbank the decoder died so I gave up at that point and added the powerbank to the HW7000 on my P2. When I got a replacement from Hornby, I fitted it on my other P2 (Prince of Wales that I got really cheap off Jadlam) but without the powerbank. It runs just fine but on a P2 it has 8 power pickups verses 6 on the WC. Similarly the factory fitted 9F with sound it behaves perfectly without a powerbank, but again more pickups. The powerbank makes an enormous difference.

Interesting! Mine is the older 8pin socket in the tender, and even before HM7000 was a thing it behaved well without the need for a stay alive... Am I correct in saying that the Elizabeth II bulleid has a built in speaker enclosure? 

[ColinB]

1 hour ago, D3489gibson said:

Interesting! Mine is the older 8pin socket in the tender, and even before HM7000 was a thing it behaved well without the need for a stay alive... Am I correct in saying that the Elizabeth II bulleid has a built in speaker enclosure? 

No the Elizabeth II does not have a built in sound enclosure. It is a bog standard rebuilt West Country/Battle of Britain, the only change is it has a 21 pin DCC socket rather than the 8 pin one. It was really good business for Hornby, take a standard loco paint it purple and charge a lot more for it. Even worse once the Queen had died they were fetching a fortune. I actually bought mine off Hornby at the standard price while people were paying the silly money, they had a few left over and I thought it is a good loco so why not. As to the HM7000 it definitely did not work as well without the powerpack. Remembering back I did try it with the powerpack with the tender top off and it did work perfectly. The decoder only failed when I had tidied up the wiring and fitted the tender top back on, why I do not know (the loco was removed from the track and the Powerpack discharged). HM7000 is not bad but I must admit I prefer Zimo sound decoders, for me they are a lot more reliable. If you get the HW7000 off Bure Valley they are good value but if you have to pay proper price plus the powerpack the price difference between that and a Zimo is not that much.

[Richy59]

I'm not sure if anyone can help me or not with the issues I am having with the 8 pin versions of the decoders. I purchased 3 decoders with power banks, two from one shop and one from another. I bought a 21 pin version and two 8 pins. I installed the 21 pin version to a relatively newly tooled Bchmann Class 24/1 and it works perfectly, set up via the app with sound and then transferred over to my DCC system and controlled from there.

 

I cannot get either of the 8 pin versions to work. I have tried them in a variety of locomotives, including Hornby's currently tooled A4, the Oxford Rail N7 and an older Bachmann Class 108. They all eventually seem to get picked up via the Bluetooth and I am able to set up and upload sounds etc, and it app says they are connected, but I get no movement and no sounds fucntion when asked to do so. I can't get them to work with the seperate DCC system either, and keeping a connection via Bluetooth seems to only work one at a time. 

 

I am yet to contact Hornby direct which I will do tomorrow, but I find it so hard to believe that two different 8 pin decoders from two different shops are behaving in the same fashion.

 

The 21 pin worked flawlessly and it s a great system for the price, but it is frustrating the 8 pin versions don't work for me. 

[RedgateModels]

That’s very odd as I almost exclusively use 8 pin, I have 1 21 pin in my home brew DP1, all work well. 

[RAF96]

I have a mix of mainly 8 pin but also 21 pin and they work fine.
Have you tried refreshing the host in manage devices, as that can affect things, depending upon who thinks they are boss of the mesh.

Hornby usually only work office hours but you may get a response on the decoder dedicated support email HM.customercare@Hornby.com 

Edited November 11, 2023 by RAF96

[The Meerkat]

Hi all

 

any news on the class 87 sound file yet?

[RAF96]

2 hours ago, The Meerkat said:

Hi all

 

any news on the class 87 sound file yet?

The list says Q2 2024.

[The Meerkat]

On 12/11/2023 at 18:05, RAF96 said:

The list says Q2 2024.

 

Thank you

[philpot_holmes]

My video of the Hornby Class 55 Deltic that is factory fitted with the TXS Sound Decoder

Visit my YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@PhilipHolmesVideos Subscribe and Click the bell notification

[jonnyuk]

heard one at my local shop on Tuesday, sounded really really good. flush glazing/lights and its a good model

[cRaZy CrAnKy]

Has anyone else noticed the conspicuous absence of GWR locomotive sound profiles for HMDCC? Has anyone heard if any might be in the works from Hornby? 

[LNERGE]

I’ve finally had some time to myself and have fitted another Bluetooth decoder to a Bachmann 47. All was very straightforward and a few tweaks of cv’s etc it’s settled in nicely.
 

Set to run at full speed it was running behind behind something not going as fast so it would get arrested by the asymmetric brake. With cv27 set to 1 I was able to fiddle with cv’s 3 and 4 with it on the move until it behaved itself stopping reliably at signals etc. Being able to do this is fantastic. Still no absolute stop but I believe this is coming. I have a lift out section protected by signals/asymmetric brake. No nipping out the railway room for a leak or a cuppa with that lurking about lol. It still wanders of on a jolly after being stopped for just over four minutes. 

 

[RAF96]

3 hours ago, LNERGE said:

I’ve finally had some time to myself and have fitted another Bluetooth decoder to a Bachmann 47. All was very straightforward and a few tweaks of cv’s etc it’s settled in nicely.
 

Set to run at full speed it was running behind behind something not going as fast so it would get arrested by the asymmetric brake. With cv27 set to 1 I was able to fiddle with cv’s 3 and 4 with it on the move until it behaved itself stopping reliably at signals etc. Being able to do this is fantastic. Still no absolute stop but I believe this is coming. I have a lift out section protected by signals/asymmetric brake. No nipping out the railway room for a leak or a cuppa with that lurking about lol. It still wanders of on a jolly after being stopped for just over four minutes. 

 

Full stop will be incorp at v3.0.

[LNERGE]

20 minutes ago, RAF96 said:

Full stop will be incorp at v3.0.

Excellent. 

[E100]

I think a major difference with these decoders over the more traditional ones is this ability to continue to update both the software and firmware after purchase. Yes it can be done with some decoders with expensive proprietary hardware but I suspect only a fraction do update their firmware. The key difference is that it's fairly reasonable to expect most to update with this system. as an example Accurascale recently had a quirk with some class 37 decoders where the incorrect firmware version prevented the flange squeal sensors from working correctly. To resolve you had to return the decoder for an update or use your own lokprogrammer. With this kind of system that sort of QA issue can be resolved without returns. Extra features could be added etc for example if they start making a fan module that could be retrofitted a simple OTA update lowers the entry bar to changing CV's.

 

I think the next key step will be for the NRMA/NEM DCC and Decoder standards to update to allow for interoperability. I don't see this happening soon or with this generation of HM7000 but to do so will encourage widespread adoption by ESU / Zimo etc.

[WIMorrison]

4 minutes ago, E100 said:

I think a major difference with these decoders over the more traditional ones is this ability to continue to update both the software and firmware after purchase. Yes it can be done with some decoders with expensive proprietary hardware but I suspect only a fraction do update their firmware.

 

You have always been able to update Zimo decoders easily, especially if you use a Z21 - nothing else needed, ESU decoder are also easy to update. This is hardly a new feature for quality decoders,

[Johan DC]

37 minutes ago, WIMorrison said:

 

You have always been able to update Zimo decoders easily, especially if you use a Z21 - nothing else needed, ESU decoder are also easy to update. This is hardly a new feature for quality decoders,

The feature is not new, but now it can be done with a much lower price tag. 

[stephennicholson]

45 minutes ago, WIMorrison said:

ESU decoder are also easy to update

 Don't you still need their proprietary hardware?