Firmware upgrade - Select DCC - International owners

[TimFosterJ]

Hi All,

 

Sorry if this has been mentioned previously.

With the Select DCC, as you cant firmware upgrade without Hornby assistance, how do international customer (Australia) go about this.

 

Thanks

 

Tim

[ff2nd]

They send it back to Hornby for update. Apparently it genuinely is the only way. E-mail Customer Care via this site, to get the process started.

[96RAF]

I suppose there is no reason why an approved local repair station couldn’t do the job if they each had the programming kit, suitable patch cable, the update files and associated software and were trained in the task.

 

Anyone who has dabbled in PIC programming will be aware of the general process involved, whereby you put the chip in a rig and via a software application write the new code to it.

 

For the Select update task this must be done with the chip in situ (as its soldered to the PCB) and not on a programming rig but first the unit has to be dismantled to allow access to the update port for the programming kit patch cable and to reconfigure the write protect jumper. If the Select was USB capable then it could be a different story - ref Elite and eLink updates.

Rob

[Fishmanoz]

In other words Tim, contact HCC then package it up and pay the postage to the UK plus the £15 update fee and Hornby will return it to you updated. 

 

But many on here already know my opinion - put your Select in the bottom drawer and put the $50 odd you save by not sending it towards a real DCC controller, your choice which one. If you don’t have room in a bottom drawer for it, send it to me and I’ll put it next to mine. Hopefully you got it as part of a set so it came relatively cheaply but, in any case, sooner or later you’ll need to write it off as a cost of learning about DCC and unlock full DCC capability with a real one.