elite dcc controller

[Brush 47]

Hello everyone i am thinking of up grading my dcc controller to the hornby elite,are they of good quality,and are they easy to set up .

[P-Henny]

I've had mine for over 10 years. In that time I have upgraded the firmware at home DIY via download a couple of times. It has never given me a single operational issue in that time either. Not quite sure what you mean by 'easy to set up'. There is no setting up to do, apart from plugging in the cables and using it. There is no 'software configuration' to perform out of the box.

Do I regret buying it ...... no.

There might be other controllers that may be easier to use .... I don't know. The Elite can take several consecutive button presses to perform a task.

The Elite used with RailMaster is my only controller brand experience. RailMaster negates the need to use the Elite buttons as it can be controlled from the PC screen. If I was forced to pick on a negative, then I would say .... screen size and that the screen is not programmable like a LED screen could be. It is a fixed icon LCD display. In other words, firmware upgrades have to work within the LCD screen icons that are available as new different icons can not be programmed in.

One big advantage the Elite has over other controller brands, is that it has two controller knobs built in to control two different locos and can also be networked with up to 7 additional Select controllers to provide even more additional locomotive throttles.

[RB51]

I agree with Paul. My Elite is donkeys years old and has never given a moments problem. The two control knobs is a bonus in my view, you don’t see that often. Aren’t they difficult to source now though? R-

[96RAF]

In the course of testing over many years I have broken a few Elites, but nothing that I would call a product fault, mostly user abuse.

I had one overheat because the heat sinks on the power transistors came loose and 2 that have lost their Prog output.

I destroyed one of those trying to fix that problem.

I have had one with a comms fault which works fine but will not talk to Railmaster via USB.

That’s it since 2006. The others are still going strong.

I even converted one to backlight the screen.

[RDS]

Aren’t they difficult to source now though? R-

My Local Model shop had 2 on the shelf last week, (Cleveleys Lancashire)

I have also had mine over 10 years. Very pleased.

 

 

[ColinB]

It depends what you want to do with it. I have an Elite, a Fleishmann Twin Track and a DigiKeijs DR5000. The first two I bought broken and fixed, the third I bought to replace the second. I found to program locos the Elite is great with its easy to use menus, the downside being that you press the rotary controller to get the unit to accept the command which sometimes means it changes the value you originally selected. The other issue I found was controlling two locos at the same time, the Elite looks at first glance that you can do this easily but in reality there is only one display so you have to select between one and the other by pressing one of the two select switches. So I kept the Elite for programming and used the Fleishmann twin track for the layout because it does as it says two independent channels so you can control two locos at the same time easily. Unfortunately Zimo seem to do something to their new range of sound decoders so the Fleishmann didn't always work properly so I moved to the DR5000, which is a windows multitasking system where you can control as many trains as you want it will also do wireless on your phone. Wonderful system but the bad news is the firm went bust, although I am told there is a new firm updating the design and making new units. So as I said it depends what you want, I consider the Elite to be excessively overpriced, many on this site don't.

The other noticeable difference between an Elite and an DR5000 is the function buttons for sound. On the Elite to get say Function F22 that is 3 menu change presses, on the DR5000 all the function buttons appear at the side of the speed setting so much easier to access.

[Bulleidboy]

I have had my Hornby Elite Since January 2009. I have never had a problem with it, and it has been upgraded as and when upgrades became available.

[Yelrow]

i have 3 elites, but only cos the other 2 were sold very cheaply by French owner. I Do not agree that they are expensive, given the service they provide, over many years. I run 2 locos at once, happily with mine. Being able to use with Selects as Walkabout, is a major plus. You will note there is only one negative post.

[Brew Man]

I've had my Elite for about three years and am very happy with it. It does have a fault in that every now an then most of the display disappears but the box still functions. I have to switch it off and back on again to clear the fault. I have narrowed this down to an EMC problem caused by sudden spikes radiating from other devices. When it first appeared it was happening quite frequently which I now believe was caused by a particular loco which hasn't been on my layout for some time. Now it only happens very occasionally and usually when I am doing work on points for instance when frequent switching is happening. It doesn't really bother me much now as it doesn't happen often enough to be an irritant.

In answer to RogerB's query of availability, I don't think there is a problem at the moment. I know Hatton's for instance has had more than 10 in stock for quite some time.