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Hornby R8104 Class 60 TTS


jaguar12

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After a long wait on pre order, I finally today received my new TTS chip and speaker for my non sound equipped Hornby Class 60 loco (R2488).  Seemed great value as it has freed up a DCC decoder I already had fitted, as this is included with the speaker.

The black speaker was provided with a couple of fixing screws, which don't align with anything inside.  Fair enough as it can just sit inside. However when you put the speaker in, the only area it can go within the Class 60, the body won't locate back on as its too tight.  This means that the front and rear light contacts don't connect and the lights do not work.

I didn't really want to start hacking the loco body shell, so I undid the 4 cross head screws and removed the speaker from its black rectangular surround (baffle box?). The bare speaker now sits ok in the loco recess and seems to work OK, along with the body locating correctly.

Is this normal, to have to disassemble the provided new speaker and for it to be just sitting like this inside?

Thanks

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The enclosure is there to make the speaker accoustics work. If you can’t get the provided enclosure in make a tube out of a sticky tape reel or cut the top off a plastic paint tin.

 

The plan is to seal the back of the speaker from the front.

 

The other option is to replace the speaker with an 8-ohm cube speaker.

 

Rob

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Thanks for the quick reply. 

I was wondering whether to put the speaker back in the black surround and extend the two wires so the speaker can sit at the opposite end of the loco, where there is more room in the body shell.

It is a bit frustrating to have to chop things around for such a brand new item.

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The TTS installation instructions give guidance on extending speaker wires, so it is obviously something that Hornby expect owners to need to do in some circumstances. For as many owners who express a wish that the speaker wires were longer, there are probably an equal number of owners who would like them shorter. You can't please everybody all of the time, it's a compromise manufacturing decision by Hornby.

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I queried Hornby about making retro TTS kits bespoke to the Class of loco offered and their reply was that there can be several variants of internal configuration amongst locos of the same type, never mind across all loco types, but the main objection was that it would drive costs up and complicate the production line to no particular advantage.

 

Imagine each kit being made for a particular R number or series of R numbers complete with the correct size and shape speaker and exact length wires. The range would be huge and unmanagable at the present cost of TTS retro kits.

 

The TTS retro kits were envisaged to be a low cost product with installation a basic DIY task for modellers with average skills and in my mind that means adapting what you get in the kit to fit in the loco you got.

 

If you want bespoke kits look at the American scene where the complete PCB is often replaced by a sound version, but at much greater cost than we pay over here.

 

Rob

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  • 1 year later...

I have just bought a TTS Class 60 chip to fit to my R2488 '60026' so was looking for advice as I always do before starting a job like this.

I have used the supplied speaker in the supplied housing and sealed around the interface between the speaker chassis and housing with a very thin bead of black tack.  I have then mounted the speaker facing downwards in the position suggested by Hornby in the Operating Manual in a previous post. The black tack holds it frmly in place.

While carrying out test runs before refitting the body I noticed that running is erratic at slow speeds below speed step 10 (using 128 speed steps).  There is another thread about this where I will continue....

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I have used the supplied speaker in the supplied housing and sealed around the interface between the speaker chassis and housing with a very thin bead of black tack.  I have then mounted the speaker facing downwards in the position suggested by Hornby in the Operating Manual in a previous post. The black tack holds it frmly in place.

The service sheet illustration you posted shows the speaker facing up. Facing down may muffle the sound.

Rob

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The service sheet illustration you posted shows the speaker facing up. Facing down may muffle the sound.

 

I have fitted the speaker upside down so that the sound is pointed down through the chassis rather than in to the closed confines of the body.

Having said that I have ordered two new speakers from Richard Croft - a low profile mega bas and an iphone to wire in series.  It should sound great.

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