ColinB

When I had light bleed on a Lima diesel I painted the inside area around the lamp matt black. I don't know if this will work in your case.

I bought this loco and yes it works straight out the box on DCC. I can't remember whether I updated the software but I don't think I did.

I don't think Hornby has any, Zimo has a little but it is only good for a short period.

I was talking to my Zimo decoder supplier and they were saying on some of the newer decoders that don't shrink wrap them, these being the smaller ones. Most electronics needs a way to dissipate the heat so tightly wrapping them in heat shrink is not going to be a good idea, especially if they are the small variety. It is what you are happy with. I tend to insulate where they are being fitted, most times it only needs to be on one side and if it is an 8 pin variety the PCB side with the hot components uppermost.

Actually I doubt the development of the dongle was that expensive, we had a contractor that we dealt with for radio software design who designed his own. He was a one man show but managed to develop a dongle and produce it on his own with very limited resources. The main investment is in the HM7000 end and the Elite/Select software. The Elite/Select software was already there. Basically the Dongle is just an interface, USB to serial interface with the necessary logic to convert to the Xpress Net logic levels which hardware wise is equivalent to an industry standard. The clever bit is in the App. Either way I don't which way Hornby will go, software resource is limited and expensive and Hornby is a cash limited company. They probably have got a fair bit of their development costs back on the ones they have already sold. Then you have the marketing bit develop the dongle so more people use the App and get used to it, then hope that every one uses HM7000 devices in the future.

Not that I am expert on how Hornby works, but if HM7000 becomes the norm, why would you want to use an Elite? Perhaps Hornby is thinking the same way, if HM7000 works properly then the Hornby future is bluetooth and the Hornby App. Now we all know that most people have a combination of DCC and HM7000 decoders so an Elite or Select is the only way to run both, but perhaps Hornby management doesn't think like that. Therefore there would be some logic in running the design out.

Yes, the good old bathtub curve. In my experience one of the big cause of failures is overheating so covering them in shrink rate is a no. I did have one fail, which I definitely couldn't explain. I had lots of TTS just die, I haven't got enough HM7000 to comment. Trouble is a lot of people that probably use them don't use this Forum.

I know I would say the same. People on this site get very protective when you mention prices.

I only noticed just now. When I submitted it, it didn't look like it had worked, so I thought there was something in there it didn't like but no it appears it was just that it took ages to catch up. It reminds me of working with computers based in the US, in the morning no issues after lunchtime if you pressed the delete key, the computer took so long to respond you would find it had deleted the whole line rather than one character.

I was asking the same question. I have the same connector on my P2s, A4s and A1s. I obviously tested them when they were new but I wonder whether they will still work in 6 months time. The only consolation is these locos only use 4 wires so if the worst comes to worst revert to the old tender connection. With the Black 5 I don't know what you do. I keep meaning to look at my Manor and see if they gold plated their connector to the tender.

I was asking the same question. I have the same connector on my P2s, A4s and A1s. I obviously tested them when they were new but I wonder whether they will still work in 6 months time. The only consolation is these locos only use 4 wires so if the worst comes to worst revert to the old tender connection. With the Black 5 I don't know what you do. I keep meaning to look at my Dapol Manor and see if they gold plated their connector to the tender.

I was asking the same question. I have the same connector on my P2s, A4s and A1s. I obviously tested them when they were new but I wonder whether they will still work in 6 months time. The only consolation is these locos only use 4 wires so if the worst comes to worst revert to the old tender connection. With the Black 5 I don't know what you do. I keep meaning to look at my Dapol Manor and see if they gold plated their connector to the tender.

I was asking the same question. I have the same connector on my P2s, A4s and A1s. I obviously tested them when they were new but I wonder whether they will still work in 6 months time. The only consolation is these locos only use 4 wires so if the worst comes to worst revert to the old tender connection. With the Black 5 I don't know what you do. I keep meaning to look at my Dapol Manor and see if they gold plated their connector to the tender.

Road and Rails are one of the good ones, another sound supplier I dealt with even when I explained my sound decoder had an issue immediately said that it was my loco that was causing the fault. I have worked in electronics for a number of years and it does go wrong, probably more reliable than many mechanical things but it still fails occasionally. Yes, shorting out any of the speaker wires will kill the decoder as it will on a car radio.

I bought two when they originally came out. One was a special from Hattons and the other from someone else. I think both were Heljan special builds. It runs ok, but then I am not an expert. The only issue I remember was it was difficult to get apart to add a DCC decoder, the body was a tight fit to the chassis. So what did you want to know?

Yes that is what was implied when it was first released. I have spent ages trying to figure out how they could do it with only two wires. I am a bit rusty with electronics since I retired, but the fundamentals don't change. Perhaps originally they were going to do it, hence the 3 way connector but decided not to and then came up with a suitable excuse for the missing wire. It happens in Industry all the time. Sometimes you add an extra pin for future expandability, if you are going to design a pcb you add all eventualities. Either way it doesn't matter anymore, it does mean though you might be able to find room for "stay alive" if the Powerpack won't fit.

Go on EBay it is a LaisDCC, they do 5 sizes, I have just ordered 2 (I use them for all my 0-6-0 locos without tenders). Alternatively Digitrains do them as well. The guy at Digitrains recommended them. He generally uses them or the Train o Matic ones. The LaisDCC ones are smaller. Yes, Sam is running the decoder in DCC mode, most of us do, why not if you have a decent DCC controller. The thing that surprised me was that we were all told that the Powerbank was specially designed to go with the HM7000, now it appears it is no different. I did wonder as it only has a two wire input, to vary the charge rate you need 3 wires, as in the case of the Train O Matic one.

Interesting, I have used the Powerbank on the HM7000 and the LaisDCC with Zimo decoders, there wasn't much difference in time. Obviously a lot is dependant on the motor current. I fitted one to a really old Hornby GWR Pannier 0-6-0 Pannier tank with the Scalextric motor and definitely that one didn't last as long. It doesn't happen with HM7000 but decoders like Train O Matic and Zimo have a CV which defines how low the loco will run without a valid DCC signal. Actually I doubt Sam is worried about Warranty but generally you save the bits you cut off and resolder them back on if there is an issue. I would have fitted a socket, but normally I fit a 6 pin one but that would have been useless for HM7000 as Hornby don't make a 6 pin HM7000. To be honest it only needs to last a couple of seconds, just enough to get over the dead parts of a point or crossing.

You obviously didn't see his top ten products from Hornby, HM7000 was quite high.

I am sure they watch them so they can criticise. I am not even sure they watch them to the end, just the headlines. I thought it was quite a good video, how to make a rubbish loco work a lot better. He should have bought some cab detail off Peter Spares to make it look a bit better. The irony of it is, I only realised what good "stay alive" can do, when I bought a Powerpack for a loco with HM7000 in it, the previous iterations I had tried from some manufacturers were rubbish.

Anyway what is this doing under TT120? Sam was testing an OO loco with a HM7000 decoder, it either should be under General, HM7000 or DCC. It has nothing to do with TT120. Mod Edit: TT120 is where the thread started.

I watched that video and your analysis was totally unfair. To those of use that convert locos to DCC it was pretty obvious what he did, red and black to track, orange and grey to motor. Easy when you know how. As to insulation he doesn't need to, other than the bit that touches the motor, the body is plastic. In fact with insulation you have to extremely careful because of heat dissipation. As to slinging the "stay alive" under the chassis what is the issue it is insulated and he used the LaisDCC so it fits. On the subject of insulation how do you know what he had done it was all wrapped up. I must admit I would have done it much neater but he was just trying it out, to prove that it could be done. As to the loco I thought he was quite positive about it, it is what it is. I have done the same with two of my old locos, admittedly with Zimo non sound decoders and LaisDCC. It converts a rubbish loco into something quite useful. So please stop being so negative, you obviously don't like him but leave you responses to facts. At the end of the day if it encourages someone with little money to invest in a cheap loco, so where is the harm, Hornby is never going to sell those locos to true modellers. As to profile, or course Hornby aren't going to provide a profile, they don't even add a DCC socket in these locos. His attitude is the 0-4-0 is a current Hornby product so why no profile, simple logical question. They probably make more profit on these locos than the more detailed ones, so they need to sell more.

If you watch Sam's latest video he actually fits a LaisDCC "stay alive" to an HM7000 decoder and it works properly. That does explain a lot, sadly I was not brave enough to do it, but that does explain why I couldn't find any differences in the circuits.

Absolutely correct, that is why I used to pre order with Hornby. I may be wrong but unless we get hyper inflation and Accurascale and Cavalex go bust, Hornby is probably at the limit with what they can charge. At the moment unless it is something you obviously can't do without, then wait for the bargain basement. Yes I ordered a Black 5 at that discount price, I thought at the time that Hornby had miscalculated.

Who knows? Accountants are very good at manipulating accounts, MRON and Carillion were posting profits just before their amazing crashes. The thing is Hornby is more than model railways.