Kaput

Lenz Silver Direct is about the best direct fit one available.

TTS decoders don't have any CV's to adjust the brightness.

Considering the awkwardness of the ordering system at Olivia's thats unlikely

You read CV29 and the result into the backcalc box in the above CV29 calculator. That tells you whether the decoder is set to 14 or 28/128. Thats all you can do without identifying the specific decoder. Generally speaking ESU decoders default to 14 out of the factory (most sound project makers alter the default to 28/128) and everything else I've ever used defaults to 28/128. Choosing between 28 and 128 on a decoder with CV29 set for such is done on the controller and is usually down to personal preference.

Strikes me thats it a bit of a pity the Hatton's shop/showroom is still closed. With all the issues the 66's have had it would probably make people feel a lot more confident buying one if they could go to the shop and test it before making the purchase.

I suggest you pick up the manual and have a read. http://www.esu.eu/en/downloads/instruction-manuals/digital-decoders/

Anyone fitted a stay alive to these little beasties yet? If so, where did you put it and how did you wire it up?

Does feel a bit like it was an age ago the order book closed and they went off to be produced...

For your money you get a decoder that can be picked up for £10 + p&p (Dapol Imperiums are rebadged LaisDCC) and it fitted to a model thats designed for easy DCC fitting. You also get the added bonus that your new model gets removed from the packaging at Dapol HQ to have the decoder fitted, potentially damaging detail in the process then repacked to send to your or your retailer.

CV57 is basically to manually tell the decoder your track voltage. I.E. if you know your DCC system puts 14V to the track then set CV57 to 140 instead of letting it try and guess. Not sure if it will make any real difference but can't do any harm.

Reading far too much into it. If it actually progresses beyond the CAD stage I'm sure there will be plenty of discussion here and on the Hattons website.

Worth remembering that Dapol factory fitted sound usually means fitted in their UK factory and not at manufacture in China. Which kinda makes the state of that wiring even more depressing.

The Imperiums aren't the most high quality decoders around so I'd agree with the above, remove decoder and test on DC and see how it goes. If its fine on DC I'd get a £20 Zimo decoder to replace the Imperium. If its not fine on DC then back to the shop it goes for replacement.

Manual is available from the ESU website. Has the required information on which solder pad is which.

The decoder will have plenty of functions available for full directional cab lights (and independant tail light control). Its just a matter of actually wiring the lights to the function outputs separately.

Cab lights on Bachmann 37's are physically wired together. Only way to make them directional is modify the wiring.

I believe Digitrains ship their PowerCabs with a slightly higher voltage power supply than the standard UK one which might be worth the higher cost.

DCC90 is only 2 functions, need at least a 3 function decoder to have directional lights and interior lights.

What decoder have you actually fitted?

Seems to be a common theme with some of Heljan's releases.

I was so tempted to relieve them of it last week when I was in....

I know there is many other retailers but most of them aren't really big enough to be considered box shifters, even calling Kernow one is pushing it really. But yes the general jist is lots of the smaller retailers will do well out of this although the sad question really is can the hobby/industry really afford retailers and manufacturers falling out long term.

Get the feeling Kernow will do well out of this since they are the only "box shifter" left on good terms with both Bachmann and Hornby (for now).

Can't tell 100% from the pictures but it looks like the actual wiring to the PCB is unchanged from the factory therefore the easiest and most straight forward option for a DC user is to unsolder all the wires from the DCC socket and fit a blanking plug. However if the previous owner done all this as an attempt to mod the lights for independant control then the actual PCB connections might have been altered meaning the above idea might not work. Note: unsoldering the wires doesn't really require soldering skills, just a soldering iron and a reasonly steady hand. If unsoldering is completely and totally out of the question just cut the wires as close to the PCB/socket as possible with the smallest cutters you can get.

Used a Lenz Standard v2 in mine until it was sound fitted. Never had any issues.