hendom Posted March 3, 2022 Share Posted March 3, 2022 Purchased Hornby Thompson O1 and fitted Hornby J36 sound decoder today. It trips out on most Peco insulfrog points (with Seep pm2 point motors), and has to be reset (usually by running on separate analogue track for a few seconds), or restarting eLink. My 3 other Hornby/Bachmann locos with Hornby sound decoders don't have this problem. Don't know if it's the 2-8-0 wheel configuration or the 6 tender wheel pick up points. It seems to be the same points causing the problem, as 2 or 3 others points doesn't seem to cause a problem, and all other sound chipped locos have coped with crossing all my layout points for 5+ years. Any suggestions please? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishmanoz Posted March 3, 2022 Share Posted March 3, 2022 Given it’s specific to this loco, I’d be checking out the wheel back-to-back measurements. Check all but start by looking at exactly where the loco is on the points for a clue as to which pair it might be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
96RAF Posted March 4, 2022 Share Posted March 4, 2022 When you say reset it appears to be the loco decoder you are referring to not the controller as you mention the eLink as a reset method.What exactly is happening when the ‘trip out’ happens. Does the decoder just become unresponsive or is it taking the track power out by shorting on the points.It sounds as if rebooting the decoder by either method is correcting the problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColinB Posted March 4, 2022 Share Posted March 4, 2022 It has got to be something wrong with the 01 loco. I have one of these and out of all my locos is the most reliable, I have a Zimo sound decoder in mine. It could be something to do with the wheel base perhaps as someone said the back to back spacing is slightly out, this would show up more because of the 8 wheels. I had this issue with large radius electrofrog points until I isolated the frog and powered it separately, so I wonder if it could be something like that. The back to back spacing is my favourite. The other thing to check is the pickups on the back wheels near the cab, on some A1/A3/A4 locos I found as the back wheels went round curves these wheels moved in and the pickup touched the chassis causing a short. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hendom Posted March 4, 2022 Author Share Posted March 4, 2022 @96RAFThanks for your reply. When the loco trips out the rest of the system is unaffected. No indication 'on screen' and the rest of the circuit behaves as normal. The loco will still run O.K. if placed on an adjacent analogue track, after which it usually will resume normal operation when returned to the DCC layout. Shutting down and restarting the eLink (i.e. removing all power and re-powering up seems to reset the decoder too.) If I push the loco beyond the points to a live section of track it still needs to be 'reset' before behaving correctly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hendom Posted March 4, 2022 Author Share Posted March 4, 2022 I've run the loco on the 'small radius' sections of my layout now (which I'd avoided as per the Hornby O1 instructions for this wheel arrangement) and it runs fine forwards and reverse which ever way the points are set. I'm thinking now that the problem is with the only 2 points which the loco encounters on my main larger radius circuit. The 'tripping' is consistent no matter what loco direction and speed, never intermittent, so I'll address the trackwork! I can run the loco avoiding these points for now, and Hornby have produced a great model here, which will look even better with a bit of weathering. Thanks everyone for your comments which are much appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColinB Posted March 4, 2022 Share Posted March 4, 2022 Yes the 01 is a superb loco, runs really slow and the valve gear action is really good. I bought one after I watched a review from Jenny Kirk, I would never previously considered it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
96RAF Posted March 4, 2022 Share Posted March 4, 2022 @hendomI would say that your corrective actions are simply rebooting the decoder. Why the decoder is crashing in such a manner is beyond my skill set, but obviously induced by those points. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim-R855 Posted March 5, 2022 Share Posted March 5, 2022 Try gently pushing the loco through the trouble points, if you feel resistance as a wheelset goes through the frog you will need to adjust the back-to-back distance on the affected wheelsets. Peco points have less tolerance on the gauge than Hornby points, my guesses are either that some wheels are touching where they shouldn't on account of being too tight or if they are really tight and stalling the loco and motor it might be causing the decoder overload protection to cut in/out which ever way you perceive it. The first situation usually makes my e-link cut out. Several companies make back to back gauges, mine is from DCC concepts and I have used it a lot getting older Hornby locos and stock to traverse Peco electrofrog points without slowing or stopping - some were literally too narrow to run through the check rails.I'm really happy to be reading some generally great reviews of the Hornby O1 in this thread though, one ended up in my shopping basket on Thursday evening... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sir john Posted March 12, 2022 Share Posted March 12, 2022 I have one of these locos mine was doing the same on points I found the problem to be the tender to loco connection was too tight slightly loosened the screw now runs smoothly Regards John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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