Do Hornby offer a TTS decoder for a DMU?

[Will Hay]

I have a Bachmann Class 108 I'd like to add sound to.

Does smoke know if Hornby have a decoder suitable?

I'm not overly precious about an exact match, but don't want to fit a, for example, Class 37 chip in it.

Something relatively close would be nice.

[96RAF]

No they don’t.

 

DMUs used the equivalent of a lorry or bus engine, so a regular diesel loco sound would not be anywhere near a match.

 

Couple that with DMUs have a gear change just like the donor road vehicle.

[Will Hay]

Okay-dokey

[Creeping Jane]

Howes do a nice sound decoder for DMUs, it is made by ESU so it won't be cheap, a shade over £100 I bought some for my class 110. OK so the wrong diesel engine, so not authentic, but I can overlook that.

[96RAF]

If I was paying that sort of money I would want it right. Paying half the price for TTS allows me to accept some compromise on accuracy.

[ColinB]

You are absolutely right RAF96, two of my DMUs have Zimo sound decoders specially designed for them and yes you hear the gear changes on the "Bubble car" which I gather was their characteristic, but they were substantially more than a TTS decoder. Nice units though. I have just fitted an A4 TTS decoder to an old tender driven Sir Nigel Gresley and yes the chuff noise is not properly synchronised but when the loco is on the other side of the layout does it matter. It was a spare unit anyway, I bought it to fit into an old Bachmann split chassis A4 until I did a stall test and found its maximum current was in excess of 500 milliamps. I paid not much more for that TTS decoder than if I had bought a normal decoder, so even though I often complain about them, they are really good value (anyway Hornby have replaced all my duff ones). The Sir Nigel Gresley has been replaced with a 5 pole pole motor hence why it works with TTS.

[TheOldChuffer]

The Ecomani UK Diesel decoder, whilst not as cheap as TTS but slightly cheaper than a Zimo or ESU includes a sound file for the derby lightweight DMU which is not bad.  I've used it in a couple of the Dapol 122's to great effect.

[96RAF]

I shall wait for TTS to bring one out.

Getting Lenz standard decoders in my B’mann 108 DMU pair was struggle enough without having to find room for a speaker. One suggestion seen is to sit a cube speaker in a doorway.