RAF96

The 6000 has an output of 1.25amps shared between the 2 channels.

6010 is indeed their acc decoder.

14 hours ago, Chrisr40 said:

Evening all. Is there any news on the 4vep sounds please ? I hoped they would be out soon after Jenny Kirks video.

Thanks

Chris

Hopefully this week along with an Android app fettle.

20 hours ago, Crosland said:

Cable sold for mains wiring has a current rating, but it's rated such that the voltage drop will be within allowable limits for mains. At the same current in a 15 V DCC system, the same voltage drop would be a show stopper.

I use 2.5mm ring main wires for my bus and 0.75mm lighting flex for my droppers and my RRAMP meter shows 15.4 volts across the whole layout - single garage sized folded-8, twin track powered by an Elite controller on a 4-amp PSU. Absolutely no power issues to date 5 years down the line.

A battery will give unlimited amps within its capacity if dead shorted, so even a little battery can hurt if you are in contact with the metal creating the short.

I saw a spanner drop onto a car battery once. It was smoking hot before someone had the sense to smack it free with a hammer.

You have never been shocked until you have felt HF current try to use you as a path to earth - not to be recommended. There is a good reason why painters and electricians work with one hand in their pocket, the former doesn't touch wet paint and the latter doesn't provide an earth point.

17 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

A cheap digital multimeter, perfectly good enough for most modellers' purposes, is less than £10 on Amazon, probably cheaper on Aliexpress if you can wait a few days. A most useful diagnostic tool. I'm no amateur electrician - still less a 'professional', of course - but it serves me well. 

Screwfix and Toolstation and on occasion Aldi and Lidl sell them for around a tenner. It is worth checking they can cope with up to 10 amps DC current as some meters have a 200mA limit which precludes their use for motor stall current checks.

@melmerby do you have a link file for use with your USB scope to translate the binary commands into text. I wrote one initially but never got it finished.

Apologies for the fuzzy screen grab.

11 hours ago, lapford34102 said:

Hi,

Not certain if this has been mentioned before but have hardwired a Lais stay-alive to an 8 pin sound chip in an 08 and it works fine. However not yet tried to read it via my sprog but will do.

 

Stu

There have been reports of alien stay alives being used successfully, some with plugs and some hard wired, providing they have charging circuitry included.

There does not appear to be any problem with programming as the decoder MCU enables the charging circuit after a time lag which is longer than a programming burst.

Class 73 profile is the largest file so any glitch in the loading process is more likely with this one, whether the download from the Hornby server to the app or the bluetooth transfer to the decoder.

TXS decoders need a load to provide the ACK for programming.

Why should Hornby provide details of their power bank circuit. No one else does. Any competent electronics guy could reverse engineer it anyhow.

As previously stated several times in forum the decoder MCU controls a delay to prevent the power bank charging initially to allow programming, and this is the purpose of the transistor in the power bank. When triggered it opens the charging circuit. The diode and zenner diode are standard circuit design for stay alives and can be found in other makes.

7 hours ago, leonk said:

Can anyone help with which pads are C- and C+ on the 21 pin TXS decoder? 

On the 8 pin they're clearly marked, but on the 21pin nothing is clearly marked.  I can't tell which pads to solder the stay-alive wires to.

pins 16 and 20 according to the famous and comprehensive never read manual.

14 minutes ago, Michanglais said:

I'm sure this has been asked a hundred times before but is there any way of resetting the decoders back to factory settings so that I can sort out the mess I'm in with assigned decoders not running in correct models. 

 

I've tried on the four decoders I've got. I don't really want to write them all off.

 

Any help would be gratefully received!

 

Cheers,

 

Michael

 

Standard reset procedure, write value 8 to CV8 or do it from the app. I can't show a screen grab as I don't have any decoders alive at present.

If the problem is just sound related then value 5 resets the sound but leaves other CV settings as is.

22 hours ago, jonnyuk said:

i fitted a dcc concepts one over the weekend, works really well. Does anyone know what type of connector the hm7000 uses for the stay alive, i'd rather solder a stay live onto a connect than directly onto the decoder.

The JST connector details have been posted on this and other forums several times, so go look, noting that the power bank uses a 3-pin plug with only 2-wires used. The plug and pin bits are readily available, but you need to be very dextrous to assemble them. You can pay a factory to assemble these at some cost. I had a quote at around £2 each for supply in hundreds.

Note also that any alien stay alive whether shop bought or diy needs charging components to work with the 7K decoders. The Lias one carpet-boy used is listed as having these. His 2-3 second run on for the motor is about average for the type, so not as amazing as he declared it to be.

edit - his 8-pin decoder has the C+/C- pads to solder to but not all variants have these - look at the decoder manual where each variant is shown from both sides.

A simple switch on the points such that when the point throws it lights an led. That way it matters not how the points are motorised, and you get a true indication of point position. The switch-led circuit is a basic light switch -i.e. power - switch - device.

Talk about doom and gloom. 

9 hours ago, BrakeCoach said:

Has anyone put one of the sound versions into the Hornby Railroad Duke of Gloucester?

 

Thinking of getting a few of these for my models but not sure if the old ones without tender circuit board housing would fit. I would have to put both the decoder and the speaker into the boiler.

My DoG TXS installation was a straight swap for the previous TTS instal. Originally used a Brit profile, then loaded DoG onto it.

I have TXS in a MN with the decoder in the smoke box and the smallest enclosure sitting on the chassis step.

55 minutes ago, JSpencer said:

TXS ..... But takes up less space than TTS

TXS was slammed for being larger than NMRA spec, so unlikely to be smaller than TTS.

3 hours ago, NotofthiscenturyTim said:

Disappointing but classic Hornby. "Let's develop a product which is 99% compatible with an existing standard, but cripple the remaining 1% and limit it to the Hornby faithful." 

I've also been using the dongle with a Lenz LZV100 with v3.6 of the software. In terms of loco control the only thing that doesn't work for me is Functions 13-26. Functions 0-12 and, bizarrely, 27 and 28 work fine. Support for functions 13-28 was added to the XpressNet specification 3.6. Maybe the Select and Elite implement those functions in a way that's non-compliant with the XpressNet spec? Probably a pretty straightforward problem to fix in the dongle firmware, but as we've seen, highly unlikely that Hornby will bother. 

As the ease of triggering functions from the app is one of the main attractions of the dongle, this is a deal breaker.

Haven't tried points or accessories yet. 

Try setting the Elite-Select switch in the dongle settings screen to each option, as these settings affect the way higher functions are implemented.

Hornby has replied that of their 3 x LZVs in hand, one is at rev 3.6R hence they will look up their testing notes next week and let me know.

I think George meant they wouldn't be looking at supporting other protocols e.g. Railcom, etc

10 hours ago, JSpencer said:

 

Thanks Jenny. I have just a couple of questions if I may please.

1/ Is there a compresseur sound? (very distinctive on these EMUs coming on almost after every braking action)

2/ The sound seemed a little off (tinish) to my mind, could that be the recording? Or wires taped to the top of the speaker (not sure if this has an effect)? 

2/ - Function list here - https://d63oxfkn1m8sf.cloudfront.net/8917/0868/1362/SD027_-_4VEP_Function_List.pdf

21 hours ago, newbryford said:

If you could escalate the issue, that would be most appreciated.

I can escalate the report I have already made to the Tech Team, but you could simply address the matter direct to George at HM.customercare@Hornby.com who is the project engineer for the app, decoders and dongle. He will be able to respond direct to you with how the fettle is going.

I know the Tech Team were looking at getting their LZV updated so they could try emulating the problem. Their problem may be finding someone with the update chip in stock.

You are correct about not being able to read and write legacy decoders over the air via the dongle - the loco has to be on the programming track under a DCC controller service mode programming conditions.

21 minutes ago, letterspider said:

Thanks I already know about the UK locomotive profiles and enjoying the use of them but

I am after sound profiles for continental models and

I am assuming there should be some somewhere as Hornby are selling TXS sound decoders on their Rivarossi and Jouef websites (with advertising in the native language).

 

I am sure there was a comment on the Hornby forum that the sound decoders in the International models were ESU not TXS but the 2024 international range launch did ref to TXS fitted locos. A question for Hornby tech to confirm-deny. SD500 is the only one listed so far (for Rivarossi E656 FS). It is presumed the Hornby sound  Tech Team schedule will be driven by the International Teams demands - if and when issued.

@simons9 at present the app only support dcc and bluetooth switching of accessories by way of the HM6010 module which is essentially a bluetooth version of the Hornby R8247 acc decoder.

@The Meerkat set the app so that it doesn't drop out along with putting the device into never sleep mode.

C is positive either 12 or 14 v depending upon which 6010 port it is. A and B are switched negatives that can be pulsed or steady depending upon settings in the HM7K app.

I have seen a wiring diagram of a similar signal, where the red and black power the device and the other 3 simply flip the internal electronics direction by way of an on-on toggle switch. There was a caution not to apply external power to the 3-way connections.

I would not use the 6010 for that switching.

This topic refers and has the wiring diagram.

https://community.hornbyhobbies.com/topic/35205-wiring-Dapol-two-arm-junction-signal/#comment-374774

7 hours ago, meatloaf said:

Has anyone tried these AE Models / Dcc Concepts stay alives with the HM7000? 

 

Will using one void any warranty on the deocder?

Only if it can be shown that the unit was the cause of failure if indeed it does cause a failure.

Jenny Kirk has some on test and will be putting the results on her channel.

2 hours ago, john_bicknell said:

Hi 'Meatloaf',

 

Just found your post and thought I'd let you know how I've got on with the Class 11 Diesel.

 

I have successfully installed a Hornby HM 7000 N18 sound decoder into my Model Rail LMS Class 11.

 

1.  The speaker is only held in place by double sided tape so can be gently prised off the PCB and moved slightly after fitting the decoder.

2. The track pick up socket on the PCB prevents the decoder being plugged into the socket due to its extra width. I solved this by removing the socket and purchasing a pack of 1.25mm JST sockets and plugs off ebay at a cost of £ 4.57 including P&P from China (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/225801933884).  I have 19 of these combinations spare so if anyone would like one they can have a pair for the cost of £1.50 by second class post. Contact me by email please.

3. To remove the socket gently grasp the soket with tweeezers or your finger nails and gently use a fine tipped soldering iron to quickly melt the solder on the underneath of the pcb and pull the socket out.

4.  You only need the female part of the connector to solder back into the same fixing holes as the original socket. I cut the wires to about 2 inches in length as shown in the accompanying photos of the pcb after removing the socket and connecting the 'flying' socket. The socket can then be pushed underneath the pcb before refitting the body.

5.  The male part of the conenctor comes in handy to connect LED lights fornt and rear as the LMS version does not have the shunting lights fitted to the other versions.

6.  Relocate the speaker forward of the pcb - I didn't need to use a fresh piece of tape.

 

I installed the Sound profile for the Class 08 from the HM DCC website and all works well including the cab light on F22 but I have managed to shuffle the function keys using the app to get the cab light on the F5 key and swapped the "Automatic Function Control" F28 with the Sound On/Off key F1.

 

One other issue I found was that I had to set CV29 to 3 to get the loco running in the right direction when using it on DCC rather than bluetooth control although this hasn't changed the direction on bluetooth using the app which seems strange!

 

Hope this information is of use.

 

John Bicknell

Lancashire

 

The Hornby speaker plug/socket is 0.8mm pitch.

4 hours ago, Bob83a said:

Each device has a unique ID for each of its interfaces, moving things from one device to another does not change the ID.

The ID is usually a MAC address which is used for Ethernet and Wi-Fi. This ID is used in the pairing of the devices including your phone/tablet and your HM7000 decoder.

 

Therefore moving things with the smart switch would be the same as moving to a device from another maker.

 

 

Apple has shown that moving old to new device takes everything as a clone, hence also carries over exact functionality. 
Whether Android device 'swap to new device' software does that is in their hands. To be proven on a case by case device to device basis.

There is a universal reset code which may still be valid - Reset1234 - case sensitive.

Else use a4c13800xxxx where xxxx is the last 4 of your decoder in lower case for any letters.

The jack plug used by digital kit is 6.3mm x 3mm x10mm. The analogue jacks are standard 5.25mm as used on many cctv systems.

What is important is to keep disparate circuits apart from each other to avoid induced cross talk.

Track Bus, Points and Signals Accessory Bus, Lighting Bus, Loco Detection Sensors and associated circuits, etc.

Twisted pairs is also a recognised way to avoid cross talk.

Where such looms cross try to do it a right angles.

Given that - the underside of my boards is a rat's nest of wires running from A to B as direct as possible, as and when they were added over time. When I move house I intend to rewire it all properly - honest.