Hornby 2023 - Bluetooth decoders and control system

[JSpencer]

On 20/11/2023 at 11:17, BachelorBoy said:

I'm afraid I find reading all 82 pages of this thread rather daunting.

 

So could I just ask a simple question:

 

Is the Hornby Bluetooth system any good?

If your wifi connection is the most perfect in the world, you have enabled positioning on the App (lord knows why that is required now) and you have a perfect DCC output on the rails then set up can happen quite quickly.

Otherwise it is naff. A lot of wasted hours.

 

Chips are either great or have an issue (30% failure rate in my case).

 

So good when it works and excellent value. Useless and frustrating when it does not.

I'm keen to see if Bachmann Kinisis will be a viable alternative this weekend.

[RedgateModels]

If I have an issue with my chips I find 5 or 10 more minutes in the oven, or M&S Ketchup sorts it

[Edge]

Personally, I’ve never had a problem with the Hornby bluetooth system and I’d have no problem immediately recommending it to anyone who wants to give it a go. 
 

as with everything on the internet, one group likes it and the other doesn’t :) if you haven’t invested in anything yet, find out what Bachmann kinesis is before you invest :) just on the off chance that it could be better 

[The Meerkat]

19 minutes ago, Edge said:

Personally, I’ve never had a problem with the Hornby bluetooth system and I’d have no problem immediately recommending it to anyone who wants to give it a go. 
 

as with everything on the internet, one group likes it and the other doesn’t :) if you haven’t invested in anything yet, find out what Bachmann kinesis is before you invest :) just on the off chance that it could be better 

im still waiting to give it ago,  i need the dongle tho as im not changing AS, Bachmann, legomanbiffo etc sound for Hornby sound

[Merlin242]

Interesting to see someone quotes a 30% failure rate with the decoders? My failure rate is Zero with 22 decoders from many different batches. (Bought in ones and twos from many suppliers over months). 

Its hard to reconcile that as chance.

[RAF96]

High mortality rate from any one user generally points the finger back at the user doing something wrong. There is one guy currently reporting that he has had 7 motors burn out in 3 locos. Bad luck or something else??.

[SteveM666]

I have to agree with RAF96, a high failure rate for an individual user that is not reflected across the much larger sample size of all other users, can only point to one conclusion. The common denominator in each batch of failures will almost inevitably be the user and their set up.

[Chrisr40]

1 hour ago, Merlin242 said:

Interesting to see someone quotes a 30% failure rate with the decoders? My failure rate is Zero with 22 decoders from many different batches. (Bought in ones and twos from many suppliers over months). 

Its hard to reconcile that as chance.

It was the same with TTS. Lots of moans that chips went pop but not one of the 15 or so I have gave any trouble. You often found out eventually that they had been wrapped in insulation tape or something else contrary to the instructions.

[JSpencer]

1 hour ago, Merlin242 said:

Interesting to see someone quotes a 30% failure rate with the decoders? My failure rate is Zero with 22 decoders from many different batches. (Bought in ones and twos from many suppliers over months). 

Its hard to reconcile that as chance.

 

1 hour ago, RAF96 said:

High mortality rate from any one user generally points the finger back at the user doing something wrong. There is one guy currently reporting that he has had 7 motors burn out in 3 locos. Bad luck or something else??.

 

Zero failure rate on ESU, Zimo and TTS covering 80 sound chips in service today. Including 20+ for TTS.

 

But here are the failures (ALL issues being straight out the box, not months later):

Chip 1 : would work in one direction only (sounds in both directions) (Loco Dapol class 73)

(I concede that it is possible that this being a 1st batch Dapol 73, there were circuit board issues between them causing the failure, given the stories on the Dapol 73 thread)

Chip 2 : made the speaker hiss and pop as soon as power was supplied. Appeared to charge itself with sounds etc but nothing.  Eventually confirmed as fault by Hornby themselves after several exchanges and replaced (Loco Hornby class 71)

Chip 3: Zero blue tooth signal from the thing. Could be read on DCC but you cannot load sounds onto it without blue tooth. (Loco Bachmann 3MT)

 

The other 6 worked fine.

 

Sound Loading times are long (typically 40minutes to 1hr, using wifi linked to Fibre Internet), but I am abroad not in the UK so maybe a long way from the server. 

Power supply was always a Hornby DCC controller.

 

Edited November 23, 2023 by JSpencer

[roundhouse]

2 hours ago, RedgateModels said:

If I have an issue with my chips I find 5 or 10 more minutes in the oven, or M&S Ketchup sorts it

I like mine well done but hopefully not this weekend🙂

 

I have two bluetooth decoders and both working fine since fitting them back in March. Ok one hasn't been used much but one has done a two day show in October as one of the main shunters. It does have one edge wrapped in tape to protect it but the rest is unwrapped.

 

Both will be with me on the DCC demo stand at Warley.

[RedgateModels]

2 hours ago, roundhouse said:

🙂

 

Both will be with me on the DCC demo stand at Warley.

I’ll have my HM7000 equipped DELTIC on my loco servicing demo stand, plus my Z21 with a prototype something plugged into the Xpressnet socket 😉

[BachelorBoy]

thanks everyone, I look forward to see what Kinesis has to offer too

 

BB

 

[D3489gibson]

15 hours ago, RedgateModels said:

I’ll have my HM7000 equipped DELTIC on my loco servicing demo stand, plus my Z21 with a prototype something plugged into the Xpressnet socket 😉

 

Will have to keep an eye out for you! What stand number???

 

Nathan...

[K Hatton]

So far I've had 1 out of 4 TXS chips go faulty (returned to Hornby and replaced with a new chip with no fuss). Oddly enough it was the only 21 pin chip I've tried so far (all the rest were 8 pin) - would be interesting to know how that matches with others findings?

 

Although to add some balance I've previously had a couple of Loksound chips fail/go faulty. All of these have just been thrown away in the end as ESU and the associated retailer/sound supplier(s) just kept sending me round in circles.

Edited November 24, 2023 by K Hatton

[RedgateModels]

1 hour ago, D3489gibson said:

 

Will have to keep an eye out for you! What stand number???

 

Nathan...

 

D38 🙂

[Pmorgancym]

Am I detecting a slow down in development?  The availablensound list I can find on the website seems to indicate no new sounds since April??

[PeterStiles]

1 hour ago, Pmorgancym said:

development

Hmm. Be careful there - "development" means a number of different tasks normally taken by different teams - the team making Sound/function Files will not be the team working on The Hardware/firmware and not the same Team working in the software.

 

Recently we've had/are having a new version of the  firmware (and manual).

[Kris]

1 hour ago, Pmorgancym said:

Am I detecting a slow down in development?  The availablensound list I can find on the website seems to indicate no new sounds since April??

No, that is not the case. There have been many new sounds released but no new ones announced. What Hornby have not done is update this part of their website. 

[SteveM666]

2 hours ago, Pmorgancym said:

Am I detecting a slow down in development?  The availablensound list I can find on the website seems to indicate no new sounds since April??

That is definitely not the case.

There are a whole host of developments and enhancements being worked on by the various teams involved in this project, they just happen to be taking place out of the public gaze.

There have also been a continual stream of profiles and software updates that have already been delivered - for example all sound profiles have been upgraded to ver2.0 and the team are testing the ver3.0 upgrades as we speak. 

I suspect, but don’t know for certain, that the list of scheduled new profiles will be updated between January and June 2024 ie to coincide with the traditional new product launch in January or the passing of the furthest date already on then list.

[RHF9019]

2 hours ago, Pmorgancym said:

Am I detecting a slow down in development?  The availablensound list I can find on the website seems to indicate no new sounds since April??

The up to date list is on the Hornby HM7000 forum.

[scottrains29]

The system seems to be very popular and selling well. I would suspect Hornby are working hard to develop it further.

 

I currently have a Hornby elink and about 10 hm7000 decoders.

As these two systems are not compatible (due to lack of expressnet port) I really hope Hornby release a new tactile controller basically combining all the benefits of a Select type controller, elink/ railmaster pc control and the Bluetooth system. Currently the cheapest way for the app to control standard dcc decoders is by buying the dongle and a (now dated and hard to find) Hornby Select.

[RAF96]

13 hours ago, scottrains29 said:

 

I currently have a Hornby elink and about 10 hm7000 decoders.

As these two systems are not compatible (due to lack of expressnet port) I really hope Hornby release a new tactile controller basically combining all the benefits of a Select type controller, elink/ railmaster pc control and the Bluetooth system. Currently the cheapest way for the app to control standard dcc decoders is by buying the dongle and a (now dated and hard to find) Hornby Select.

ELink is actually compatible with a bit of work. As part of HM7K development an Xpressnet port was installed to eLink. This image shows the mod I did with the prototype dongle attached. All the slots were there on the existing PCB and all the required parts can be found in other Hornby digital products so it was a simple task.

The problem came when Hornby decided not to go ahead with the idea for whatever reason (other stuff in the mill presumably) so the firmware update was never released that would enable Xpressnet comms. A pity as it would have opened up Bluetooth operations to Railmaster and the TGG software package I use.

 

Edited November 25, 2023 by RAF96

[Pmorgancym]

22 hours ago, Kris said:

No, that is not the case. There have been many new sounds released but no new ones announced. What Hornby have not done is update this part of their website. 

Seems odd as it does create the impression of stagnation..

[spamcan61]

21 hours ago, scottrains29 said:

The system seems to be very popular and selling well. I would suspect Hornby are working hard to develop it further.

 

I currently have a Hornby elink and about 10 hm7000 decoders.

As these two systems are not compatible (due to lack of expressnet port) I really hope Hornby release a new tactile controller basically combining all the benefits of a Select type controller, elink/ railmaster pc control and the Bluetooth system. Currently the cheapest way for the app to control standard dcc decoders is by buying the dongle and a (now dated and hard to find) Hornby Select.

Agreed, having read the announcements for the GM and Bachmann systems the one significant part HM7000 lacks is a tactile controller, even though personally I'm happy with the phone/tablet approach.

[Bob83a]

1 hour ago, Pmorgancym said:

Seems odd as it does create the impression of stagnation..

There are 5 sound profiles scheduled before the end of the year. There are 11 more scheduled for the 1st quarter next year and 3 for the second quarter, split over the two scales TT and OO. Some of those scheduled for the 1st quarter slipped from the previously released schedules, so some could possibly slip again to even out the schedule. The current schedule is available on the Hornby site and is dated 4/10/23.

 

Plus there are updates to many of the existing profiles to bring them up to version 3 or 1.3 depending on which version numbering system they are using.

 

i would suggest that more profiles will be announced in January along with new releases. I don’t think that is stagnation.

 

so far according to the app there are already 31 profiles available in the last 12 months.