Brand New Mixed Goods Set with erratic behaviour

[AlanJinty]

I have just bought a Mixed Goods set on a whim, (it seemed a good idea at the time)this was brand new with everything still sealed in the bags etc

 

I set up a length of track and plugged in my Select controller to be greeted with 12 and 30, not 11

 

and 30 as described in the handbook, so before doing anything else I was straight onto this forum and found the firmware was a newer version than my handbook, I think Hornby could have included a slip of paper in the handbook to warn people of this.

 

Next

 

I tried each of the locos in turn (separately) and then removed the Jinty from the track in order to give the shunter a new address, I chose 08 (obvious choice) so far so good, each loco operated individually without problem.

 

Next I tried both locos

 

on the track and this is where the fun starts, sometimes when the Select is powered up (ie switching on the mains) the 08 will start to creep forwards and on one occasion both locos started off at some speed, another problem is I can have both locos running

 

around the track but switching between the two is when the erratic behaviour starts, sometimes the loco will respond to the control dial, other times I have to turn the dial back to the start and sometimes even after returning to the start it will not control

 

the selected loco (the correct address is selected and the display is NOT flashing) it's bad enough having to stop a loco and then restart it but it not responding at all is ridiculous, I did consider that this may be a "runaway" problem but I used the smallest

 

oval I could , 8 curves and two short straights so it's hardly going to be lack of power.

 

Have I got a duff Select unit or is this a common problem?

[Fishmanoz]

It shouldn't do this. As it is new, take it back to the shop.

[AlanJinty]

Tried your suggestions and made sure connections were OK, no difference.

 

What I have noticed is that when selecting a change of locos (either way round) if the newly selected locos last command was to either accelerate or decelerate you have to

 

perform that on the throttle first before it will do anything else, and sometimes then not responding.

 

As for return it was bought online and the seller claims it was sold as seen, although that wasn't stated in the listing, I don't doubt I could get

 

Paypal to refund my money if it comes to a dispute but I really don't want the hassle, I was hoping the problem was something I was doing wrong, think I'll wait for some more input on here and possibly contact Hornby first, It might just be me who'd expecting

 

far too much from the controller.

[AlanJinty]

Have an update on this for anyone with a similar problem.

Tried connecting the Select Controller up to a small oval of track made with Streamline code 100 with soldered feeds on every track section, makes no difference to the way this Controller acts.

 

I've

 

asked the seller to take this back and refund my cash!!!

 

One other thing bothers me, I got chatting to a guy in Hobbycraft earlier today and he reckons Hornby disposed of quite a few Mixed Freight sets to auction houses, given that the (private) seller

 

who I got mine from had two and the fact there seems to be a good number of these about I wonder if there is more to this than rumour, has anyone else heard anything similar?