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Temperamental decoders


david_watts1

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With the Android app just going live last night I tried to fit TT scale Mallard and Blink Bonny with chips. I've had the chips and tablet for over 3 months now and was eager to play with them. I tried 3 times to get Blink Bonny to work with no joy, even trying a different speaker just in case. I moved on to Mallard, this worked first time and I was overjoyed. With my new found enthusiasm I switched out the decoder in Blink Bonny for a different one and that too worked first time. Any one else had issues with temperamental decoders or could it be faulty? The motion works but not the sound.

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These can be a bit flakey.

After a good spell with my four decoders, my Flying Scotsman, after a spell of activity, decided not to function, and even with the Bluetooth symbol show in connected, showed a message saying not.

I finally got it sorted by in assigning, deleting etc.

I had to reinstall the sound profile, which went so smoothly. Result of the update?

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This should be corrected in firmware -

after a short interrupt in pickup the sound decoder will restart, ramp up the sound until its level matches the set speed before the interrupt occurred, and then the loco will start with a jerk. Not amusing indeed, others can handle that better.

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There’s no doubt that these decoders benefit from fitting a Power Bank.

My own experience suggests that a momentary loss of power from dirty track or dodgy point can cause a hiccup in the decoder, resulting in it stopping. Also some locos seem to be prone to creating power spikes which has the same effect (e.g my EFE/Heljan Class 35).

The decoder can be revived, but the full unlink-delete-reset procedure is usually required to get them going again.

I’ve fitted PBs to all of my locos (up to 14 now), and all have run trouble free since.

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