WIMorrison

My shed regularly falls to zero (and below) over the winter and I have to leave the stock in the car overnight prior to exhibitions yet nothing has ever suffered from the temperature.

Does the dummy car have any load on the motor pins of the dummy car decoder?

Some excellent decoders at very affordable prices from Tramfabreik. You will get what you want for ⅔ the price of the one that you quote. Decoders (tramfabriek.co.uk) I have used these for a while now, absolutely no complaints about them. They are widely used in Europe, just not known in the UK.

This isn't a totally correct statement. All you need to do to get a programming track for a z21 (and other systems that don't have a separate programming output) is to place a DPDT switch inline with the command station output connected to the common terminals. The main track is then one position of the switch and the programming track is the other position.

Roco z/Z21 app and other systems - DCC Discussion Topics (not questions) - RMweb

The charge only applies to ‘foreign systems’. If you are using the app with a z/Z21 command station then it will have no effect and it will continue to operate fully and without restriction.

Roco have decided to start monetising the z/Z21 app which you have previously downloaded for free from the Apple App or Google Play store. The latest version will now allow you control ONE loco with the free version or your entire current and future fleet if you pay a one off fee for the app which varies by country but would appear to be £17.99 in the UK. I also understand that feedbacks will not work when you are using a foreign system, however they will continue to operate as normal with a Roco Z/Z21. What surprises me is not that Roco has done this, it is how long it has taken them to do the same as all the other app developers who charge for their products.

The HM7000 is cost effective for 3 or less locos, above that it is more expensive than using the Lenz digital starter set mentioned above and cheap decoders, though it will provide you with a form of sound that the alternate solution - and this is assuming that the scale being operated can be fitted with the HM7000 decoders.

Ron do you have a link to this set? I can only find a Lenz starter set at around £350 but would have a use for this simple set - if I could find it 😀

iTrain has a very good forum at https://berros.eu/itrain/forum where you will be able to get answers to this sort of question. When you post the question please ensure that you include your layout file.

@Pete the Elaner Fully agree with you, plus if you buy an OEM decoder from Zimo or ESU then they have large libraries of sound files that can be downloaded, some free but mostly paid for the good projects. Plus with the right command station you are able to load the sound projects on your blank decoders yourself ;)

ASTRAC by GE - The DCCWiki

😇

Not sure that the NMRA DCC ‘standard’ existed when Zero 1 was conceived 😀 just checked and NMRA published their DCC ‘standard’ in October 1993 - which was 14 years after Hornby started selling Zero 1 😏

IIRC it was actually the advertising for Hornby Zero One that used the 'only two wires' statement 😁

Power districts can be, and often are, areas provided with power from a different source that the command station e.g. a booster. They can also be used to bring power up sequentially when there are large capacitive loads. To say that they are mostly used in the scenario you describe is incorrect and misleading.

Yes

It is an area that is, or can be, powered separately from the rest of the layout. It will be separated by a switch, (electronic or manual) or it could be supplied power by a totally separate feed, e.g. a booster.

Place the loco on the programming track and read CV1, this will give you the decoder address. To get the manufacturer read the value in CV8, you can use the NMRA ID for the name of the manufacturer

The 009 Society Sales team has been beavering away pulling together hundreds of unique offerings at bargain prices to tempt your wallet. Amongst the 'normal' items there are many unique locos by some very well known scratch builders, huge stocks of almost all the chassis used by people to build kits and many, many kits for these chassis to fit under. From the commercial suppliers there are locos, rolling stock and kits from Fourdees, Bachmann, Heljan, Roco, Liliput, Peco - all the usual suspects in large quantities and if it is scenery and buildings you are looking for then there will be a large selection of boxed Skaledale or Scenecraft at unbeatable prices! Make sure you drop by to take advantage of many unrepeatable offers for your layouts.

Firstly, why are you using 28 Speed Steps? You should be using 126 these days. Secondly, if you use a Zimo decoder then you can set the voltage provided to the motor independently of the setting in CV5 which allows you to tame excessively fast locos but still get a decent range of speed steps - especially using 126 speed steps ;)

another interpretation of CV123 is that it is a Boolean value i.e. on or off. It may be that 32 switches the dimming on, and that 0 may switch the dimming off. However altering the brightness will not overcome the effect of the camera frame rate. You can see a similar effect with single LED lights in many cars, or around the house. Where a matrix of LEDs is used it may be less apparent. Why do LEDs flicker?

You can try adjusting this value CV123 upwards from 32. The max is probably 254, and that will be very bright.

LEDs flicker when 'filmed' due to the strobing effect caused by frequency of the frame rate on the camera and the frequency of the LEDs. The Mk1 human eye cannot see it because it happens too fast and our eyes have a persistence of vision that cameras do not. It is extremely common, the better cameras have techniques to get around it.

That seems pretty definitive to me, and would be inline with Hornby's previous history of developing something that sort of meets the standards (XpressNet in this case) but when it doesn't they are not really that worried because they want to operate in a walled garden, which for clarity means that they want everyone to remain completely within the Hornby environment and interoperability outside the Hornby walled garden is not something that they will invest time, money or interest in.