Dad's Christmas Present - Questions about DCC

[Rsair]

Hello,

I'm looking to buy my Dad a Locomotive for Christmas. From short talks with him earlier in the year, I've managed to discern at least some sort of specification. It has to be Steam, OO Gauge, and he intends to use DCC (I think he already has a controller) - he's also mentioned he's not a "purist" and is fine with running locos from different lines or slightly different eras on the same track.

With this information I've arrived at the "BR 4-6-0 'King Richard II' 6000 Class with TTS Sound", its DCC fitted.

My question is: will the DCC Decoders fitted by Hornby on this model work with any DCC Controller? Or are they specifically only for use with Hornby's Controllers? I don't think it's a Hornby controller that he has, and I'd hate to buy him something he definitely can't use. Additionally, will the TTS sound still work properly on a different brand Controller? 

Thanks.

[Rog RJ]

There is no absolute guarantee of compatibility with other controllers but it certainly should work.  I can't remember anybody reporting problems with other systems.

[Rsair]

Thank you very much Rog, sounds perfect then!

[mjb1961]

Hi Rsair,,,,,Without a doubt it will work ,I've got hornby TTS locos and I am using another brand of dcc controller ,,,nice present by the way ,lucky dad ,,,,,,mjb

[Fishmanoz]

The point here Rsair is that, with certain exceptions, DCC equipment is all made to conform to the same NMRA specification, so it is all interoperable irrespective of brand.  So any brand of decoder in a loco will operate with any brand of controller.  And mjb has confirmed this for you with his particular setup.

 

That said, there is some equipment on the market known to not conform to the NMRA spec.  The most obvious example in these forums is Hornby's own entry level Select controller.  It cannot be guaranteed to work with other thsn Hornby decoders.  There is also a small possibility that, while a manufacturer intends an item to be fully compliant, in practice it is not quite, and so may not work with some other compliant item. But such cases are likely to be rare and you'd be unlucky if you found this to be the case.