Class 08 and 6 pin decoder

[Skelton Junction]

Just for quick piece of mind, I’ve pre ordered the above in the belief/hope they’re HM7k compliant in due course (spring ‘23. Expected).

[david_watts1]

All new Hornby and Arnold locos are HM7000 compatible or will come with HM7000 chips installed. However sound is not an option in the smaller locos.

[Skelton Junction]

All new Hornby and Arnold locos are HM7000 compatible or will come with HM7000 chips installed. However sound is not an option in the smaller locos.

 

 

thank you David, much appreciated and, as hoped for, speedier than emailing the very busy folks at Hornby

[Rallymatt]

If you have ordered the HM7000 6 pin decoder from Hornby then it is by default HM 7000 compliant however any other 6 pin decoder will not have Bluetooth so is only traditional DCC compliant and won’t work with the HM 7000 app (except via a Dongle in the ExPressNet port that some non Hornby DCC systems do not support) hope that makes sense

[Skelton Junction]

If you have ordered the HM7000 6 pin decoder from Hornby then it is by default HM 7000 compliant however any other 6 pin decoder will not have Bluetooth so is only traditional DCC compliant and won’t work with the HM 7000 app (except via a Dongle in the ExPressNet port that some non Hornby DCC systems do not support) hope that makes sense

 

 

yes, makes sense, thank you. Double checked my (pre) order and it’s R7321

 

 

[Fishmanoz]

To be specific on Paul’s above - if you bought the HM7000-6 decoder (R7321).

I've ordered that decoder in anticipation of the 08 I’m yet to order.

Edit - Al posted while I was typing.

[Skelton Junction]

Copy that, fishy.

[Too Tall]

If the HM7000 is Bluetooth, surely its not that much of a job to enable the loco sounds to be played back via your phone/tablet/pc (if its pc compatible) ?

That would avoid the need for finding space for speakers, and if you had your device connected to an amp or powered speakers , it would be a much more full bodied sound.

[96RAF]

Unlike the HM6K app the HM7K sounds are stored on and played by the decoder into its speaker. It has no facility to broadcast sound.

The bluetooth is used to pass commands from the app to the decoder and to read and write CVs.

To achieve what you are describing would require each loco to pair not only with the app but with one or more layout speakers and that multiplicity is not possible.

[Too Tall]

Its already paired to the app on your phone/tablet, and you had speakers connected to the phone/tablet, that is what I was getting at.

But from what you are saying, I guess the HM7000 is receive only.

[Rallymatt]

One consideration is that in reality an 08 makes very little noise and you probably wouldn’t hear it over the noise of other operations in most circumstances. You could set up an entirely separate sound file on a device to play Wagon brake/wheel squeal to create some ambiance

[Fishmanoz]

TT, might I put your question another way, then answer it for you:

• Question - does the HM7000 allow a decoder (or indeed the App itself) to broadcast via Bluetooth the sounds it generates, such sounds being generated from the sound file downloaded to the decoder via the App on initial setup?
• Answer - no, it doesn’t. The decoder can only play those sounds through its internal amplifier to the connected speaker in the loco. And it does so, up to 3 at a time, via DCC CV/function instructions sent to it by either the App or a conventional DCC controller. The App has no capability to play sound at all.

Would it be technically feasible for the system to have such capability which currently it doesn’t have? Well, yes it probably would but not without turning it into a hifi system like the one that sends your music to speakers all over the house.

For now, given we have no firm release dates and no App to download from your operating system store, it might be concluded they are having enough trouble getting it to do reliably what it is supposed to do, let alone this as well. And that even for the non-sound decoders.

I trust that putting it this way will help clean the mud out from our understanding of this new system.

[Too Tall]

Indeed, all clear.

Given that, and the fact I will be using a controller not an app, I'll order a Gaugemaster 6 pin chip to fit the Class 08 slightly_smiling_face

[Fishmanoz]

Your choice TT, and perfectly valid too.

My choice, given I am ditching all of my OO models and running only new TT models from here, is to only fit HM7000 decoders, whether sound or non-sound.

The premium I will pay over non-HM7000 decoders on the market is more than made up for in my view by the greater capability and flexibility built into these new decoders and available via my existing DCC controllers or via the App.

And that’s the case whether the loco and decoder are 6-pin or Next18.

[96RAF]

Note that whatever you do the 6-pin decoder is non-sound only.

[david_watts1]

For ambient sound and loco sounds that are too small for a speaker you could have an under baseboard bluetooth speaker. they aren't expensive and play sounds from a phone/tablet or laptop that way.

[Too Tall]

I have to say, hornby design team obviously need to put more thought into it.

I mean if Graham Farish can get sound dcc into an N gauge class 08, A TT should be a given ?

Bachmann Europe plc - Class 08 08818 BR Blue [W],Class 08 08818 BR Blue [W]

[moawkwrd]

Yeah it’s a no brainer with a new range to make them all Next18 and sound capable.

Shooting themselves in the foot by already making some locos less capable.

[96RAF]

Hornby has already said live on air that they couldn’t get a Next18S decoder and a speaker into that model. Regardless of what other manufacturers have done, Hornby hasn’t been able to with their new 08 chassis and mechanism. I have seen Z scale live steam but it hasn’t gone mainstream on the back of that one off.

[Old Kent Biker]

Not exactly a cheap option, but for a shunting operation, perhaps you could get a HM7000 sound decoder as well as the 6-pin version for the loco, install the second chip and speaker statically near the shunting yard, then run the two on the app as a consist? Just an idea...

[Fishmanoz]

You’d have to convince Hornby to provide the sound file. If they say it won’t fit in the loco, they wouldn’t be supplying it otherwise.

Edit following discussion on next page: a TT sound file, if it were available, would be different to an OO sound file due to the included motor CVs being different between TT and OO.

[Rallymatt]

The 08 debate is pretty inconsequential, they hardly make any noise. I’d rather have good loco performance, sound is great but it’s secondary

[Old Kent Biker]

You’d have to convince Hornby to provide the sound file. If they say it won’t fit in the loco, they wouldn’t be supplying it otherwise.

 

 

There is a class 08 TXS sound file already (or very soon) available - it's used by the OO scale 08

[96RAF]

Where applicable there will be both OO and TT sound profiles. Each profile not only provides the sound but also sets CVs for best motor performance, etc. Obviously Hornby will provide the TT profiles as and when the associated locos are made available. Nor would I expect all those locos in the current TTS range to be provided immediately in TXS but to be launched on a rolling auto-update of the app basis. The beauty of the TXS range is you can reload any sound profile you like as and when you like - all free of charge.

[New08]

So to clarify, having just pre-ordered a blue 08, it takes a 6 pin chip?

I have managed to get DCC sound into the previous "new" Farish 08 model (i.e. the one before the most recent one) and am pretty used to squeezing a decoder and speaker into N models. If this TT120 model is 6 pin DCC ready, presumably it must be possible to fit the tiny Zimo MS500 sound chip and a modest sugarcube speaker without too much hassle?

Roy