ColinB

Have you thought that there might be something wrong with the USB on that particular unit. I don't remember it being that difficult. If you have done two before with the same equipment, then that tends to indicate something wrong with that particular one. As RAF96 says, does it still "boot up" with a display? When I managed to "brick" my one I remember it wasn't that difficult to restart the process. It could be the USB on the pc. If you are using a desktop use the USB slots at the rear of the unit, not the ones on the front (the ones at the rear have a slightly higher voltage). Check on the PC via Device Manager and see if the USB slot actually has a driver, check it is the "Hornby Driver". Remove USB cable and see if port disappears from port, put it back in and check it reappears. You probably know how to do all this, but just in case you don't. I do remember one the issues I did have, was the PC picking up the Hornby driver, rather than the generic "windows" one. Unfortunately, if none of this works it sounds like a return to Hornby.

Yes, I eventually bought one off EBay with a DCC decoder fitted from new. I was very pleased with it and I got it for a reasonable price. I will sell the old one.

From when I updated mine if I remember correctly, the program runs and deletes the previous version and it was after this that I had the issues. So firstly has the program deleted the previous version of Elite? If not then you probably have a genuine comms issue, so then you have got to go into windows and check that the USB channel is setup correctly. If the previous version of Elite software has been erased and you now have what in the automotive trade is called a "brick" (a module that has no application) and then the USB comms fails then it is an issue with the download of the new software. That is where you have to play around with the PC values. In software terms the Elite is a very old design and the bootloader (the software in the Elite that reprograms itself) is very old and it relies a lot on software timings from the host PC. I used to write bootloaders as my job, I could write a book on all the issues you get. The trouble is once you have written a bootloader you are virtually stuck with it for the life of the product, otherwise previous versions of the unit cannot be reprogrammed.

I suppose I have a different attitude, I just assume that every time I sell something I might have issues, that way I am not disappointed when I do. I usually make enough from the ones I do sell, to offset the ones that are an issue. I have sold a load of motorcycle parts on EBay (my other hobby is building Classic Bikes) and so far no real issues. I must admit I always post "signed for" which reduces the risk. There will always be 5% of people that are a pain, but if you are making more from the other purchases then although it is not ideal, overall you are still making more than selling to a Dealer. As I say it is entirely up to the individual, my mate pays for insurance on every new appliance he orders, I just assume that if the appliance goes wrong outside the warranty period I will either fix it or get someone in of my choice. So far I have saved a lot more than he has, but he is quite happy to pay for the insurance, so I leave it to him. As I say if you don't like selling on EBay then don't, EBay is just an electronic Swapmeet or Autojumble once you accept that then there are no issues.

I must admit for a 100, it is a bit of a pain. I tend to do 3 at a time, so not a big deal, for packing I just use the loco boxes that my new locos came in and the associated bubble wrap, but each to their own. I have about twenty to get rid of, so yes it is going to take a bit of time. As for sending them, copy and paste address into "word" print on adhesive backed paper and a trip to the local Post Office when I go shopping for food. It is entirely up to the individual. I must admit it does take time but then that is why the rich get richer because most people can't be bothered. Remember Lord Sugar started off selling car radio aerials from the back of his car.

I am slowly selling all my ringfield based steam locos on EBay. It is a lot of work, taking the pictures and writing suitable text and in my case making sure I am being realistic and don't rip people off. The trouble is I don't know what Dealers offer, so it is hard, to work out if I get more money selling privately. I seem to get between £30.00 and £50.00 per loco, of which, the ones I have sold far, have been mint in the box with original instructions. I did get some stupid offer prices on EBay, which I assumed were Dealers, lower than my starting bid. I must admit so far, I am pleased with the results. I use the money to buy new locos or sound decoders. I generally scan EBay to see what other people are asking for a particular loco (with Hornby models it is easy), wait for that auction to finish and then list mine for a price I think is fair, generally a bit lower than what it sold for.

If you are into electrics, what I did with one of mine was to make the loco pickup on both wheels and then put a two pin connector between loco and tender. Depending on the release date of your Flying Scotsman you might find it is quite easy. If you are interested I can post the details.

I have actually done this with one of my Bachmann class 66s. You need to buy a 21 pin to 8 pin converter. I cannot remember if I had to change the speaker, but I think I used the original Hornby one. Seeing as the TTS is a Hornby product, I assume it must work with Select and Elite. I use an Elite and it works perfectly. On some Bachmanns there is not enough room above the 21 pin socket to fit the 21 pin to 8 pin decoder, but this one was OK.

Yes, you would get that the faster you move the encoder, the distance between the pulse edge decreases. So in 1 revoluition you will get probably all four states, or a multiple of them (4,8,12,16 etc), so the faster you move it, the more pulses you get in a given time. I used to write the software on the radio to read it, so I know about all the issues you get with it. On some of our old radios if you turned it in a certain way the volume would go down instead of up, that is why I had to rewrite the previous software ( you have to be careful; how you read the edges of the pulses)..

I think I have used all sorts of makes of decoders with my Elite and they definitely work as DCC decoders. I assume the issue may come with reading and writing CV values as these are probably critical with timing. I know that the Elite does not always get it right with even Hornby's own modules as if you try to read the Manufacturers id the Elite sometimes reads it sometimes returns a value, sometimes not. So perhaps the reason that there is an issue is that they cannot gaurantee the reading and writing of CV values. Currently all my decoders are set at standard as I am still building my layout, so I have not tried reading and writing CVs with all the decoders. I do know they are all different at interpreting the signal especially over dirty track (the LaisDCC ones occasionally go backwards), but you would expect that as probably the software implentation in them is different. I have a Hattons decoder in one of my A4's it is a 9 pin (yes really old failed standard) so I will check.

I assume it is the same thing as in the radio, as you rotate the dial the encoder produces two square wave signals. So if you look at then at the same time you get two digital signals the software intepretes these to work out whether you are turning the dial left or right, it is called a "Gray code" ( after Frank Gray, according to Wikopedia), because the signal only changes one state at a time, you get 00, 01,11, and 10 for the two signals, so if you read 01 after 00 you know it was turned upwards if you read 10 after 00 then the dial was turned downwards. It only works if you have a microprocessor, you generally use one of the inputs as an interrupt to the microprocessor to tell the micro the signal has changed, or aternatively you can read it every some many milliseconds (no so good) . Potentometers are resistive with end stops, so they may be refered to as endless rotary potentiometers, but they are not really. i think Panasonic used to make ours, but it was a long time ago.

I have never looked at the endoders on my Elite, I just assumed that it was a rotary encoder with a switch. I don't know, but probably someone can help me, but I imagine it is the same sort that we used to use on the Ford Radios I used to design, a "Gray code" encoder with an in built switch. I remember these things were incredibly cheaply made, hence why we used them, so I am not surprised they fail, although these seemed to be pretty reliable on the radio. It annoys me that I select a value on the rotary switch, but changes when I press it but that is because as you press it down the rotary bit probably moves a little. Really what Hornby should have done was to include a separate enter button, but I would have made the same mistake in design as it is not something that you think about. I have got the same issue with my Fleishmann controller when you turn the dial, the value quite often goes up when it should be going down and vice versa. I assume someone like Radio Spares or Farnell does replacements.

I must admit when I was looking for a turntable, I initially bought a second hand Triang one as it looked more realistic, but unfortunately it eventually died and was incredably noisy. I looked at the Hornby offering and I gather they are still virtually the original design of the eighties and they were very expensive. I eventually bought a Heljan as the concept is really great, it uses stepper motors, although their software leaves a lot to be desired. Given how small you can get stepper motors (they even use them in the instrument cluster in a car), I am surprised Hornby hasn't upgraded their one but I suppose it is time and money. When I was at TMC in Yorkshire on holiday, they were weathering some Peco ones, which looked great, now if someone could put a stepper motor on that it would be brilliant.

I was told to use about a 1k ohm resistor when I was using a decoder as a function decoder, I assume it is just to turn the output stage on. In the event I didn't bother as I was using some cheap LaisDCC decoders that didn't drive the loco very well, as function decoders. I suspect anything above 470 ohms would be ok.

Great, thanks for all the info. Do you know when I did a search on FleaBay for Green Mallard, I only found the tender driven ones. It looks like I will try and get a secondhand Railroad version one and sell my old one on. I was thinking of converting the old one to run DCC, but I prefer the motor in the loco and it is a lot of messing about putting in all the extra pickups and socket, plus a newer one will work better with TTS.

I thought that they must have produced a newer one as my tender driven one was really old. It appears the latest was 2008 and it was R2784. I think the Railroad version was blue with full valences. The reason I was interested, was I trying to work out whether it was worth updating my tender driven one to DCC ready (I run DCC) and add pickups to the loco, or try and find a later loco driven version.

Am I right in believing that the last Mallard A4 in BR Green that Hornby produced, is the tender driven one?

I sort of agree with Atom3624. Although it annoys me, I can see why a Dealer would want to get maximum return on a product. It is a jungle out there not helped by the "box movers" if you are a small dealer you need to make money when you can. So I suppose they have got to get their profit somehow, as I say I notice it a lot on Skaledale buildings, the pubs especially. If people didn't pay the inflated prices, then they wouldn't happen. It is like Premiership Football matches, people moan about the prices, but I can very rarely get a ticket for my favorite team as they are normally sold out within an hour. So to some people they cannot be that expensive (compared to a rock concert or US ball game, they are cheap).

The thing I find really interesting, when I am converting old locos to DCC I generally use a Hornby 8 pin DCC socket. I used to work in electronics so I know about PCBs. Basically the PCB is an eight pin socket that comes out to holes on the PCB. If you search the Hornby parts suppliers, I have found so far that there are at least 4 different part numbers for the part and the price varies from about £1.50 to £6.60+ for basically the same part. I don't know if Hornby have a patent on the PCB, but I am surprised some Chinese firm is not supplying them for £1.00 seeing as you can get a fully populated relay board for not much more, and they are generally better quality as they use "plated hole" technology.

I know you save a bit of money but surely once you have paid for a decoder plus a TTS unit and extra socket you could probably buy a more expensive unit that would do the current and handle the sound. I didn't realise that TTS uses the back emf to work out the chuffs, thank you for that information.

@cleggy1981 I totally agree with your comment. I have the same dilema. On about Dealers "jacking up the price", there are several Dealers that do that with Skaledale models once they become rare.

Obviously, the place in Sheffield (no names mentioned, but I think everyone knows), where I ordered mine from, must get less orders than the one in Liverpool, as I ordered mine quite late. I didn't pickup the catalogue until about a week after they released it, I then ordered the Rocket next day. I am glad I bought it, as I was a child when they first released it and always wanted one. I must admit I am not disappointed, I think it is brilliant. With a Zimo DCC decoder installed it runs really slowly. Hopefully the people that missed out will be able to pick up the other version, I was undecided which one to get, but thought the presentation box looked better.

I have just fitted a DCC decoder in mine and I think it is wonderful. I can see the issues with fragility and I have issues with whether I want to use it or keep it in the box. It runs wonderfully, the bigest two issues I have is whether to glue the men in, as they wobble when the train runs, but if I glue them in, I damage the model and the chains to link the carriages together (I am using jewellary chain). I think on reflection I should use it, in the past I have bought loads of limited edition models, only to find than unless they are really special, they are never worth that much more.

Just received my Zimo module, fits and works perfectly. I had to snip about 3mm of the 6 pin connector pins so it fits snugly, the only issue is the length of the harness. The harness a bit long, meaning it has to be coiled to fit in the barrel.

I have just received my "Rocket" and the space to fit the DCC decoder is really small (in the barrel). It is a 6 pin DCC socket, and the 6 pin dcc decoder has got to be the sort with a connector and leads, as there is not enough height to fit the one with integral pins. I have ordered a ZImo decoder, which should fit as I like these ones and they are quite small.