RAF96

From what you have said the sound is set up within the decoder as a one shot, but speed dependent, so it will, as and when it thinks it should, upon a press of F10 play a short squeak. Just to clarify the Elite functions. You can either press on, then press off, like an on-off toggle switch or press and hold on until release like a sprung off switch. The Elite accepts the button handling automatically according to long or short press. What the function itself does obviously depends upon the decoder set up.

Correction: when 1 is pressed from the Elite F10-19 screen you will get F11. for F10 you press 0. Always wise to install the latest Elite firmware update as well, free download from the Hornby site. Hornby don't list a Class 70 so it won't be a TTS decoder, which has flange squeal down as on/off, i.e plays until you select it off, but brake squeal down as one shot, i.e. plays once and stops. In which case you need to refer to the sound decoder documentation to see what is what and how it is switched.

For track that is less than obvious which rail is which I always use the wagon and sticky tape method. Push the wagon round the track and check the taped side matches your chosen wire colour for that rail. If at any point you get back where you started from and the tape is on the wrong side then you have gone through a reverse loop which requires special switching (manual or automatic) to reverse the track polarity (even on DCC).

Metal wheel sets must have an insulator somewhere in the axle to wheel system else you would get a short. Either one or both wheels will have an insulating sleeve or the axle will be in two halves with an insulated joiner. In any case 'glue' a piece of resistance wire across the 'break' using conductive 'paint' or per your video instructions.

Try this guy http://www.stable-cottage-potterne.co.uk/HM3000index.htm also this guy (navigate to his home page also) http://www.scottpages.net/ReviewOfControllers.html

The run it in on DC mantra comes from the old adage that a loco must run well on DC before you convert it to DCC or chances are it will not run any better and may well be worse. For a DCC fitted loco then you can run it in on DCC or DC providing DC running is enabled. No need to remove the decoder at all for DC running. The point of the OP was do I need to buy a DC controller - not unless you want to carry out more than basic DC checks. As stated a 9v brick battery across the wheels will check if a loco will run OK in both directions, ... and also as stated subjecting a DC loco to the torment of DCC voltage is cruel.

I presume a potentiometer has a fixed stop at each end of the range and an encoder,just keeps going round and round and dependant upon the way the rest is built it can be rate dependant i.e. turn slow get a small output, turn fast and get a big output. I would expect only the encoder to pass existing control across handset to handset and the pot to require setting to match speeds before taking control.

I bought one of those combo volts/amps panel meters to monitor my DCC track and when comparing its reading to my two DMMs they were all well different. Much depends upon the sampling rate frequency of your meter as to the reading seen. Check your meter specs for frequency range on AC. As already stated by others reading DCC voltage as AC only gives a rough reading which for comparative purposes is usually enough. Google RRAMP meter which will read DCC properly, but again these are not pocket money items.

Soldering 101: 1. surfaces to be soldered must be squeaky clean, I find a fibreglass pencil is as good as anything for the task. 2. use resin cored real solder - it works for 99% of my soldering jobs. Solder paste for hot air gun work and smd soldering. 3. if 2. doesnt work use separate flux, either liquid or paste. This will help solder flow whilst protecting against oxidisation of the joint. 4. use a solder which is suited to the task - there are many varieties. I got several boxes from Lidl for various uses but generally use the everlasting reel of 3-core solder I pinched from 'stores' 40 years ago. 5. use an iron which will heat the job adequately. Too big an iron can melt sleepers, damage electronic components, too small an iron will never make a decent joint. 6. apply solder to the iron and it will flow into the joint when it is ready. 7. practice joining any old bits of pcb, wire, rails, etc together until you get the hang of if. Summary - clean, heat, apply solder, watch for flow, remove iron and admire the result. Which iron do I use... I have a hefty Weller gun for soldering droppers to rails, a battery operated highlighter sized iron for soldering to decoders, a hot air gun for soldering smds to pcb and an Antex 15W general purpose iron for everything else. In the toolbox - One for the old guys - I have an ancient Mox soldering iron but no fuel pellets unfortunately.

One of our test jobs in brats training was to solder together the eiffel tower using bits of wire and various melting point solders. Object of the excercise was to plan the task so as to get the individual bits together into parts then assemble these parts together into a whole. Hence bits were soldered together with higher melting point solder to make parts and parts were soldered together with lower melting point solder to make the whole tower. If you got it wrong then it self dismantled so you could start again. Soldering is simply the use of good tools, selecting proper consumables for the task, adopting good methodology and plenty of practice.

peters spares and new railway modellers shop stock 0-6-0 chassis and motors, though finding exactly the right one can be fun.

I have found no problems writing to Hornby decoders CVs 1, 17 & 18 on the main when the normal prog track method was being iffy using Hornby Elite. Other systems and decoders may not follow suit as stated. Edit - is this MTH loco the one with the 468 page manual and very odd 'do this to make that happen' sequences. If so there was a long discussion about getting it to work on the Hornby forum some time ago.

You would need a good decoder if DCC as the quoted 12volt stall current is 1.4 A, although the running load was OK.

@GBOAF There is a world of difference twixt you the hobbyist spending forever carefully taking stuff to bits and an employee rendering spares from scrap models in a business situation where they are employed to make money for the company one way or another. Give me a contract to take models apart for spares and a worthwhile recovery rate and I will do it, but economics says it won't work for Hornby or any other manufacturer. The answer is to schedule adequate spares provisioning at model build initiation. In my mind this would involve taking on board second tier spares retailers like Peters Spares and New Railway Modellers as the outlet to derisk the costs involved.

If you want a half decent enclosure for a 28mm round speaker go for a Humbrol plastic paint tin and chop the lid part off. Fix speaker in place with some tak stuff. This sealed speaker stuff goes back to way before HiFi became the way to go for decent sound. Pure acoustics, nowt to do with DCC sound.

Try programming on the main by writing the address value to CV1, just make sure nothing else is on track including any accessory decoders if you have them for points/signals. You can write to CVs17 & 18 for a long address providing you look up the equivalent values from the calculator on the 2mm.org site.

I bet there is a world of difference between the prices of the OP's box of electric string and the α-box full of electronic gizmos.

On that basis why do so many people make such a big fuss about this or that bit of kit isn't NMRA compliant. Maybe it would be more relevant to proper operation if kit complied with the EMC requirements of EN regs.

I see the MERG box bears the 'train' logo meaning it has been designed to be NMRA compliant but not submitted for testing else it would bear the (american) football logo to show it has an NMRA warrant. I reckon MERG kit is as good as it gets and would probably meet such approval, but due to it being 'a kit' and them having no control over user build quality that may be why.

I use double sided tape to fit old flat steel weights to give my lightweight locos a bit more grip and also replaced the traction tyres wheels with solid tyres. If you can't find room on the chassis for the weights then stick them to the body roof (diesels). Others use self adhesive car wheel balance weights which can be bought in various weights and quantities. Edit just be careful not to overload the motor though.

Complete and utter drivel.TTS decoders work with any NMRA warranted kit and software set to 128 speed steps. The only limitation of TTS is that you cannot change much apart from volume levels and such as diesel notching transition points, not can you match chuff rate on steamers to wheel revs. Apart from that they are good value for money if not as all singing and dancing capable as the full fat sound decoders.

The Hornby springy finger loco to tender drawbar works like this: The clamp arrangement grips the metal tender post and the two fingers should be horizontal athwartships but bent up a tad to bear on the metal plate the tender post is attached to. If the fingers are distorted they can short on the post in a tight curve or if the track is bumpy fore and aft then the clamp can short on the plate part. Either way gets you a short and the controller calls it a day. An insulating washer on the post can help but the fingers need to be over it. I stripped off the contacts from my drawbar and rigged the wires to a 4-pin plug/socket (you only need two pins on a standard rig but I needed two speaker wires as well). The bare drawbar still uses the tender post to pull on but doesn't transmit electrical power across the gap any longer. Rob

I just ran them up on a standard 9v brick battery to see if they worked and how hard they were going at it before putting them to work on DCC.

I got a couple of these from Finland and salvaged a few from DVD drives. Some comments, 1. 25mm diameter DVD Motors are available in two thicknesses, 12mm which is OK for Bo-Bo / 4-wheel bogies and 9.5mm which is OK for Co-Co or 6-wheel bogies. 2. I found the 6-wheelers had a plastic mounting stub for the intermediate gear shaft intruding into the motor housing which prevented installation of the new motor. Chopping this out left the intermediate gear without a decent shaft mount, so job shelved for now. 3. 4-wheelers were a doddle to convert and the supplied plastic gear is holding up for now. 4. All these motors run nice on a 9-volt brick battery and I have pulled the V-max down on DCC to limit the applied voltage and no problems to date. Rob

@post #28 Check that your lights current draw isn't outwith the decoder function output capability. If so bung a 1K ohm resistor in the blue wire to drop the overall functions current. Rob