ColinB

Thanks, I will have a look at that.

Eventually found the fault one of the rotor windings was open circuit.

I have an apology to make, it appears on some Bachmanns they do work. I bought a Bachmann class 66 loco and I had a spare TTS decoder from a replacement that Hornby gave me. On the class 66, because of the roof profile it does indead fit, there is just enough space because of the peaked roof. The thing they also don't mention, if you want aux1 to work, you need to bridge two pads on the adapter. It actually tells you on the PCB, I only noticed when I was trying to work out why aux1, didn't work.

I know, but reading the manufacturer id tells me that the device is working, without putting it on the main track, where a fault would blow it up. It was a technique recommended by DCC Concepts and it sounded great. When I used to design CAN circuits and write the software, first thing you did was see if you could read a few register values.

Great, that explains a lot. The reason I was reading the CV 8 was to check that the fix I had done to the module had not adversely affected it, hence why I was using the programming setup.

Has anyone tried this fix? I tried it and in programming mode could not read the Manufacturers id. Disconnected the "Keep alive" capacitor and it worked ok.

The wattage of the iron doesn't matter if it is temperature controlled and a lot of the modern more expensive irons are. Also the size of the tip and the size of the solder make a huge difference. If you can find a second hand Weller, temperature controlled one, they are really good. Unfortunately, new they are mega expensive.

I noticed Peters Spares does the additional Lima pickups, and the really good thing is Lima uses plasic bogies, so you can screw it to the bogie with a couple of small self tapers. For 4 wheel bogies I found a Hornby Dublo pickup works. A guy on that popular auction site sells new ones. For my class 37, I used a late Hornby class 37 pickup ( I bought it before I found out about the ones on Peters Spares).

I have just done this, so assuming you don't mind wiring it is quite easy. What I did was buy 2mm tower leds in clear and red (relatively cheap on popular auction site). The advantage of these is you can file down the tower part. Now what I did was use the holes that hold the front reflector in, to house the clear headlights, and then drill a 2mm hole to the side of these for the red reversing lights. Remove the headlight reflector locators by cutting them off and filing flush, and permanently glue the reflector on. File the leds to fit behind the reflector, test before glueing in place and then wire up. You may need to trim the front of the chassis to miss the leds when you put it back together.

From what I gather from my local model shop, how can you compete with mail order, where prices are much cheaper. In some respects I can see their point, but on the other hand who wants to pay £20 or £30 for the same model, by buying it from your local model shop. The other issue I get, is my local model shop is about 5 to 6 miles away and although I like to look around there, it normally doesn't have much stock. Quite often they don't have what I want, so why waste the petrol when I can buy it off a retailer in the Isle of Mann and have it delivered next day. Sad but that is the reality of the age we live in.

I assume Hornby is only going to provide TTS decoders for the locos in its current range. That is sensible, but currently there are a lot in its range that are not supported. I assume a lot has to do with quantity of orders and resources to program them. Now for the technical bit, I doubt that they are really "worm" devices, as that would mean that they use ROM (read only memory), virtually everything these days is Eprom based, so I suspect that they program them and "lock" the memory so that they cannot be rewritten, so if they wanted to, they probably could make them so they could be written again, but I suspect that this function is "outsourced" so it is up to the Supplier. I assume the difference between a TTS decoder and a more expensive type is probably the power of the processor in them and the amount of memory available, hence why some of the the TTS sounds are not as good as the more expensive types. I must admit, although I have had issue with the relability of some of them, I think Hornby does a good product for the price you pay, they are not much more than a decent decoder.

Thanks jane2, I will try that.

I think I have found them on EBay, off the same person I got the ones for the Wrenns, so I will give them a go.

Thanks RAF96 that was the sort of advice I wanted. I will try the neo route, I know on my Wrenns they made a substantial difference. Where do you get them?

Yes, that is the exact issue, it is running slowly.

I have just converted my old Hornby HST to DCC. I have had it a long time and I cannot remember how well it ran. It runs ok, but struggles with more than one carriage. I have changed the traction types and added a bit of weight to the rear of the carriage with the motor in and updated the wheels on the carriages. It runs OK, but not very fast. Do these ringfield motors ever need remagnatising? Could it also be that the armature has lost a few windings? I noticed from the service sheets Hornby modified the design in line with that of Bachmann DMUs, which run really well (I have 170 DMU). So is it that the Ringfield design was never that good?

I have found it is a really good idea to buy the Hornby nut spinner/runner. It is a great help in tightening up those small nuts.

Great, thanks for the info, that is quite a bit of difference. I would imagine that they would sound different.

I have bought a Hornby class 59, other than the central headlight being smaller than the class 66 they look the same. I assume that the real ones are the same but with a change of powertrain (engine drive etc). So my question is do they sound the same. If so can I use a class 66 TTS decoder in it?

Well unfortunately, he may be, but in this case he got it wrong. I probably could say the same having been a digital design engineer for a great deal of my life. How then did he did stall current mixed up with short circuit current, one invovles resistance the other the resistance is zero. As I said in my original post, I did contact another Supplier whom I buy a lot of modules from (they are very good ones) and that is where I got the info from. I doubt there is enough circuitry to do "foldback" current limiting and as I said it is expensive to impliment. I don't know about Lenz modules, perhaps they do.

Having had so many issues with DCC decoders and damaging them when I put them into other locos to test them, I splashed out on a tester. It is wonderful, I had a LaisDcc decoder that I was using as a function decoder, when it stopped working. Put it on the tester in programming mode and it did exactly what I wanted, the one I have ( LaisDCC, no association with the Company) flashes a Led to tell you something is happening, and it is easy. Best thing I spent my money on.

I converted my Mainline locos and found that the DCC current was an issue. I used a 6 pin connector as this was the smallest. Wired in the 6 pin socket and initially used DCC Supplies 6 pin decoders. These failed in one way or another. Replaced them with Bachmann 6 pin right angled ones and it was perfect. I checked with DCC Supplies and they suggested it was over current that damaged their devices, so perhaps with the Hornby you are near the current limit. I am pretty sure it is the motor statup current that is the issue.

When I do it, I put in an 8 pin socket which allows me to use any 8 pin decoder, it also allows me to check it on DC once I have finished. I buy the proper Hornby 8 pin PCB, but you could make your own out of veroboard and two lines of 4 pin socket Also with the Lima bodies, it is quite easy to add lights as they do seem to have any cab detail..

Stall current is totally different to a short circuit and they can definitely cope with that (the motor has some resistance). In the specification is also says that they are short circuit protected, which I think they are. I suspect that this is only for a short time as they tend to heat up, so probably for about 30 seconds you are ok. I checked with another manufacturer and they said roughly the same, they don't have "fold back" current limiting (the comment was there is only a certain amount you can achive on electronics this small and I assume cost). As for the capacitor going short circuit, I have worked in electronics for about 30+ years and I have nver known it happen, but then I always used decent capacitors with a voltage rating way in excessive of the expected running voltage. I never used disc capacitors, as I remember reading once, that they were not reliable. Unfortunately, the one I removed was a ceramic disc.

Well, if you read my posts, on my 6 month old class 66 the suppression capacitor failed short circuit and took the TTS decoder with it. Thinking it was the TTS decoder gone wrong, I managed to damage another TTS decoder before I tracked it to the capacitor. On the Hornby class 66 it is hidden on the side of the motor within the bogie, so I could not even see it. Neadless to say, I now remove them.