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Problem with TTS A4 Gadwall

Mukherjee

By Mukherjee
in Hornby DCC

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Mukherjee Newbie

Mukherjee

Posted
Posted

Hello forum elders!

I am from India (Calcutta,actually).I have recently started on the model railway hobby (in whatever spare time I get out of my hospital). Picked up a Hornby mixed freight dcc set and have added up a few locos and rolling stock which include an HO gauge Bachmann SD 40-2 and few HO wagons, a Hornby Class 92 MarcoPolo chipped with Hornby DCC chip, and this TTS Class A4 Gadwall. 

The Gadwall worked fairly well with the select controller, though I could not select more than F8(obviously). Occasionaly, it would stop responding until programmed to a new loco address(did this 4/5 times, if I remember correctly, since March ).

Recently I gifted myself a NCE Powercab DCC controller and then everything went south.

1. The locos now ran slower( maybe due to 12V output of powercab vs 15V output of Hornby Select)

2. The Gadwall TTS refused to play any sound whatsoever, though it ran. Tried disabling and enabling F1, F2...F8 multiple times to no avail. Then all of a sudden, F3-F8 sounds started running. But no background chuffing(F1) or long whistle(F2) till now. Have lost quite a bit of sleep over this, scoured the web in my free time, but to no avail.

Please help me out. Please do consider that I am from India, and hence sending the loco back will be the last(and the most expensive) option for me.

Thanks in advance.

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  • 2 weeks later...
james_harper Rookie

james_harper

Posted
Posted

Hello forum elders!

I am from India (Calcutta,actually).I have recently started on the model railway hobby (in whatever spare time I get out of my hospital). Picked up a Hornby mixed freight dcc set and have added up a few locos and rolling stock which include an HO gauge Bachmann SD 40-2 and few HO wagons, a Hornby Class 92 MarcoPolo chipped with Hornby DCC chip, and this TTS Class A4 Gadwall. 

The Gadwall worked fairly well with the select controller, though I could not select more than F8(obviously). Occasionaly, it would stop responding until programmed to a new loco address(did this 4/5 times, if I remember correctly, since March ).

Recently I gifted myself a NCE Powercab DCC controller and then everything went south.

1. The locos now ran slower( maybe due to 12V output of powercab vs 15V output of Hornby Select)

2. The Gadwall TTS refused to play any sound whatsoever, though it ran. Tried disabling and enabling F1, F2...F8 multiple times to no avail. Then all of a sudden, F3-F8 sounds started running. But no background chuffing(F1) or long whistle(F2) till now. Have lost quite a bit of sleep over this, scoured the web in my free time, but to no avail.

Please help me out. Please do consider that I am from India, and hence sending the loco back will be the last(and the most expensive) option for me.

Thanks in advance.

Hello Mukherjee,

I'm afraid that I can only offer some moral support to your problem.  I've had no end of problems with the Gadwell TTS, never heard a peep from it, even after it was replaced by Hornby and long discussions by 'phone; I'm still waiting on their call back to me.  I was using a 'Select' controller which had the software updated by Hornby, no result, I've now considered it as junk and after 2 years of modest use I've bought an American model controller which runs all my locos, including American sound and lights locos but still no sound from the Gadwell TTS, it just operates normally but with no sounds.  It has all put me off buying any more Hornby TTS, which is a great pity.  When I get the motivation, I'll try and troubleshoot why the Gadwell TTS doesn't fully operate with my new American controller.  I'm just moaning a bit here, hopefully some more experienced boffin will be able to help us out here.

 

 

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The_Seagull Collaborator

The_Seagull

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evening all....i too have an issue the same loco, using my bluebox dynamis controller.....when going down the speed scale, that is from 16 down to 4, the sound goes off momentarily every time you kock the lever down......dont know about you, but dont seem rite to me............

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96RAF Grand Master

96RAF

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It is essential to have the controller set for 128 speed steps for proper TTS sound control. Other controllers than Hornby may be set away from this as default.

When decellerating the steam sound should go from chuff to coast until the loco speed matches the set speed.

You can do this manually from F17 at any time to simulate feathering the throttle gear on the flat.

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Yelrow Grand Master

Yelrow

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Good Morning, Cyprus, and India. I have 4 TTS, locos, the 2 steam ones, were ok, but have returned Peppercorn for adjustment. The 2 diesels, are great, but sound does not always come on, when loco clicked, and it has been necessary to come out of RM, and go back in, for them to work. The 37, is better than tother for this. The CON, has never missed a beat. Part of the problem for me, is understanding the instructions, in the case of diesels. I cannot make them thrash, or go up and down like RAF does. They start, move of, then sound stops, unlike steamers that chuff. I have been looking for you tube video that demonstrates this, without success. john

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96RAF Grand Master

96RAF

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OK John a quick TTS diesel driving teach in:

Diesel engine sounds are very loosely connected to the wheels, as these are driven by electric motors not directly by the engine through gearboxes, drive shafts, etc as on a car.

 

To move off (in simple terms) the driver asks for power to the wheels. The engine control senses this increasing electrical load (whether light engine or pulling a full rake of wagons) and provides electrical power to the motors, if necessary revving the diesel to provide enough/more electric oomph. There is more to it than that but for our purposes its close enough.

 

Once moving the engine goes back to the lowest revs it needs to continue providing that electrical load.

(Did you ever drive one of those old Rovers or Saab 95s with freewheel. A bit like that.)

 

Now because the driver doesn't need fine throttle control like you do in a car the engine has notch settings - usually only 3 or 4 distinct rev ranges.

 

You can operate these notches manually in TTS locos by pressing F5 to notch up one at a time and F6 to notch down one at a time or you can press F8 to notch up 2 (if there are 2 or more left) to Thrash the diesel. F7 is used to bring the diesel back to idle. All this can be done either on the move (without affecting the loco's actual speed) or with the loco stationary (you may be using it as a generator for trackside work say), so you can play with these functions without affecting what the loco is doing..

 

On the move TTS will look after these notches for you very much like the real thing. If you give it a bit of throttle it will release the brakes, then move off at idle or if you gave it a bit too much it will rev to notch 1 then drop back to idle.

 

Give it more wellie and it will increase speed on track and the TTS will play around with the notch settings to follow the requested throttle and speed - Idle > < N1 > < N2 > < N3 (> back and forth <). TTS has a default setting for each notch kicking in both up and down the speed range - see later TTW.

 

At any speed drop the throttle back a bit and TTS will effectively coast the diesel engine until the speed matches the throttle and then rev it back up to the appropriate notch.

 

TTS even allows you to fiddle about in the CVs to determine when these notch transitions occur within a fixed set of values - but you need to read the book to get the range of values and which CVs to change to make this happen. TTW (throttle transition window) is about the hardest thing to get your head round in TTS diesel if you want to experiment with it, otherwise leave them all set at their defaults. Thankfully they don't have it in steam.

 

Rob

 

 

 

 

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  • 1 month later...
Peter in Oz Enthusiast

Peter in Oz

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I too have a problem with the TTS A4.  The motor control works well, but, so far, no sound.  I have tried it in different locos, have done a factory reset (as per the instructions) but still no joy.  This is the only TTS I have (though I have preordered another) so am disappointed; my other sound locos all work fine (a mixture of different brands of locos and sound decoders).  My system is set for 128 speed steps (I run Digitrax command/boosters) so, going by the advice, it should work.  If anyone has anything else to try, that may work, I would like to hear it. (Sending back a complete loco to get the decoder fixed would negate the cost savings of buying TTS as postage is not cheap).

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NormanQ4 Experienced

NormanQ4

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(Sending back a complete loco to get the decoder fixed would negate the cost savings of buying TTS as postage is not cheap).

 

If you bought the loco complete with sound chip from Hornby then they will refund the postage if you send them a copy of your receipt. 

First you have to get the OK to return from customer care.

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