Forthcoming TTS chip & speaker kits

[Percybigun]

A few questions on the new range of TTS chip & speaker upgrades, is the release date august 17? Not all hornby tts loco's are having the TTS chip released separately (such as P2, castle, duchess), will these be released later? I certainly hope so.

I've just bought an A4 Tts chip & speaker, good price from a good retailer, its obviously removed from the gadwall tts model. I tried to fit it in my a4 golden shuttle railroad, but it is missing the Tender PCB socket (part no x9804) and extension lead from the loco 8 pin decoder socket to tender pcb socket (part not available separate). The TTS speaker wires are very short so the upgrade is not a plug & play straight fit. This is not the end of the world, i can simply extend the speaker wires. However, my railroad gwr county does have the extension lead and tender pcb socket.

pcb socket x9084 is £6, and i cant find a suitable extension lead but could make one for £3. I am tempted to do this because i could potentially "share" the tts sound tender between my large fleet of lner dcc ready loco's, swapping  the tender top for different coloured loco's. the total cost is still half the price of competitors sound Decoders. Is this "sharing" tts tenders do-able?

last question, on pricing, i'm happly with the performance of hornby tts to upgrade my large fleet of dc analogue loco's (60+), i know competitors decoders have more functions but i cant justify an extra £60-70 per loco for extra trimmings, although i will get a couple of posh ones when i'm flush! I've noticed the competitors have recently increased the decoder prices becuase of the pound/euro/dollar exchange rate, due to brexit, is this financial suicide of the competitors when hornby are soon to be releasing the much cheaper TTS range, surely they should be re-thinking and re-pricing lower to compete with hornby? Ok the posh diesel sound chips sound better than hornby, but hornby's arent bad, but the expensive steam decoders sound the same quality as hornby TTS to me.

 

[Percybigun]

Forgot to say, on the forthcoming tts chip & speaker hornby kits, will they have longer speaker wires, or include the pcb socket and extension lead?

[96RAF]

Percy

The retro TTS kits will be essentially the same as the one you bought extracted by the dealer. They had some on display at the Scottish Show this weekend on the Hornby Stand - you can see them on some of the film from the show.

 

The 4-plug and socket parts you need are available as spares.

 

Take a look here at how I fitted TTS to Mallard including the 4-pin plug and socket, how I got rid of the unreliable drawbar connections, etc.

 

Rob

[Bulleidboy]

Castle TTS decoder and speaker kit is in the list recently released - R8110.

[Percybigun]

Thanks for the replies, my golden shuttle already has the fixed drawbar, but your drawbar conversion will be useful for my great northern a1 which has minor probs with the separate drawbar.

is there an off the shelf part available for the cable from dcc socket to tender pcb socket ? its a 4-pin plug under the socket in the tender. I've looked on a few sites but cant find one, should i buy a 8 pin plug with harnass and fix a 4pin plug on the other end?

if i was to "borrow" this cable and tender pcb socket from my gwr county, would i need a dcc socket blanking plate in the county's dcc socket (for it to still run on DC)?

in your mallard with speaker face-up, sealed and coal-holes drilled, give out much better sound than a standard Lner TTS factory face-down installation? I'm just thinking for my hornby P2, i'll use another A4 TTS decoder but would like it to be noticeable louder than other loco's (or i could just use a louder speaker).

[Percybigun]

I fitted the TTS decoder and speaker to my A4, face down, didnt bother sealing it and its louder than my factory installed scotsman TTS! It also runs better & smoother than the scotsman TTS despite the A4 not having tender pickups?

maybe its because my A4 has done alot more miles and is more "run in".

its a shame the TTS speaker wire is so short, i hate soldering, and have got another 60 loco's to do. 

[walkingthedog]

The moral of this story is make sure you run in your locos and learn to love soldering. 

[96RAF]

is there an off the shelf part available for the cable from dcc socket to tender pcb socket ? its a 4-pin plug under the socket in the tender. I've looked on a few sites but cant find one, should i buy a 8 pin plug with harnass and fix a 4pin plug on the other end?

 

No you have to use the 4-pin plug X- number as in my article soldered to the wires coming from the 8-pin decoder socket. There is no point buying an 8 pin plug harness as it is the decoder that plugs in in the loco and you need that there with the speaker wires extended to the tender via the 4-pin plug. The other two wires on th e4-pin plug are to join the loco pickups to the tender pickups.

 

 

if i was to "borrow" this cable and tender pcb socket from my gwr county, would i need a dcc socket blanking plate in the county's dcc socket (for it to still run on DC)?

 

If you borrowed the tender socket then you would lose the link twixt loco and tender so if the decoder socket was in the tender it would still need a blank plate and the link to the loco.

 

in your mallard with speaker face-up, sealed and coal-holes drilled, give out much better sound than a standard Lner TTS factory face-down installation?

I think so such that one setting 1 it is plenty loud enough for my room, whilst others on setting 1 are less loud.

I hope this helps...

Rob

[morairamike]

 Have ordered an A4 and a Castle TTS sound kits. Looking forward to delivery in the Autumn