ColinB

Well I have just tested the v2.0 release on my P2 and it looks like you have it cracked. It performs perfectly no stopping like it used to. So well done. Actually I hate to say but I was quite impressed. Obviously the original poster needs to try it and see if it does fix his issue. It did stall on one of my bits of duff track where I haven't got round to wiring the frog but it recovered whereas previously it would have had issues.

I suspect it is because the only people that can fit them are TT120 owners, they are too big for most of my Next18 locos. Sorry 96RAF either Hattons are getting chummy with Hornby again, or Hornby is putting them on the open market for Hattons to buy them. It is probably part of that excess stock we hear a lot about. TMC must do the same as they have had some really good bargains lately.

I pointed this out when these devices first came out, I fitted it to a Queen Elizabeth, yes that mega expensive one (well not to me) it was the only 21 pin loco I had. The screws holding my 21 PCB with the socket on, were round headed ones, I replaced them with countersunk ones and the 21 decoder, although not perfect sits better. Now on a P2 which I eventually moved the TXS decoder to, the decoder is upside down so the connector is not an issue.

Fishmanoz I must admit when I first read this post I thought "but you can do that with bluetooth" it was one of the advantages. So I was surprised about the rest. I just assumed I had missed something along the way. As you probably know I have three DCC controllers and the Elite is the easiest for doing this sort of thing but then that is £250 plus. A lot of the others you are into hexadecimal for this kind of register, yes someone of them do, which is not always that easy to understand. I fitted a sound decoder for someone, sent it back and the guy was really struggling to get the address right, to the point where he sent it back to me to program it. His system was great for running the locos not so for setting them up which is the same with two of mine.

In that case 96RAF he should send it back to Hornby for a fix under guarantee. I am quite often a critic of Hornby but I find it hard to believe they would get that wrong and in all the locos I have bought off them in the last year about 10, they have all been correct but then mine are all OO gauge. Either way he should return it, fixing it via software means he will have to do the same fix every time he does a reset on the decoder.

Ok why is it round the wrong way anyway, every loco I have bought off Hornby they get that absolutely right, it is probably in their "sign off" sheet. In fact on the Hornby program the guy that fixes them knew immediately that it was wired the wrong way round, so has it already been reworked by someone. If you have to go down the change the CV route I assume the Select option is the cheapest and easiest for changing CVs if it is roughly the same as Elite then the menus will be easier. Either that or send it back to Hornby telling them it runs in the wrong direction, so they will fix it properly or your loco model shop that does repairs. Buying a DCC controller should not be a rushed decision, there are some really nice ones out there and find one you are comfortable with.

Well the simplest solution is to take the loco apart and turn round the motor connections. If you change a CV when you do a reset command it will go back to what it was. There again looking at your post you say it is TT so I don't know how easy it is to get to the motor.

I don't know, does it?

Just a simple question as each one of these profiles is updated, is there a part number or software number that gets updated. I noticed on the information page of the app there was a ton of part numbers, so if lets say if I load a P2 profile with a new released version do those numbers get updated? Long term you could check the part number in the profile library with what you have loaded and work out whether you need to update it. Perhaps you can do it already I must admit I haven't checked, but it is a way to know whether you have the latest release.

Actually SteveM6 no it wasn't meant for you, in a funny sort of way you have educated me in a lot of things and by your odd comment I have managed to figure out why Hornby have done things the way they do. By experts probably I mean Hornby, lets face it he returned the loco to them, it is not like at a large firm where most people don't know what other people are working on. Looking at a a lot of the posts it appears many of then are related to the same fault, so perhaps just a "yes we know about that one and are working on it" response would solve all the aggro. Anyway I am glad you managed to join the dots and come to the same conclusion.

You do see some really old boxes on EBay, there is usually a lot of sixties Hornby Dublo. Issue is usually price, sometimes people want more for the box than the loco. I know because I am regularly looking for boxes for the locos I have built from bits. On top of that it usually costs about £5.00 plus to send it. If you keep scanning EBay you might be lucky, then of course there are Toy Fairs which I suspect will be cheaper.

Yes Fishmanoz, very funny most of the guys on my degree course had sat the English O level several times, surprisingly I passed at the first attempt. I notice your post that highlights a very similar fault. Looking at the description of the other fault it appears the latest software might fix this issue. To give credit to you you did say the new software might fix the issue but you didn't highlight that it was a known fault. So you can lock the thread.

Isn't this the same set of faults that the other post is talking about, the one that has sound but no motion. It is awfully similar. Now I know Fishy you said the new software would probably fix it, but why did the so called experts not tell the guy earlier and more importantly why didn't Hornby. His loco went back for repair because of the issue. It wasted his time and more importantly Hornby's. I don't mind doing checks to see if I can reproduce the fault, but it does not inspire confidence.

As I said in my post, he can do a few things. See if he has a capacitor in his feed, change his wiring so it is as a star or sections (you should split it up anyway as it can become a big arial) or buy Hornby "stay alive" and fit it. Personally I think the "stay alive" should work. I did do a back to back test with my two P2s one with the Zimo sound decoder in, the other with the HM7K. They both stuttered on my piece of track which is not surprising as it is a frog I haven't got round to wiring up properly, but the Zimo recovered, the HM7K occasionally came back with a bit of movement then sound but no movement. Now it could be me, it appears you all think so, but that is what I observed make of it what you want. My Accurascale class 37 with sound and decent "stay alive" didn't even notice it, but then it seems to retain power for about 10 seconds so why would it. If there are any English mistakes it is not because I am dyslexic it is because I am an Professional Engineer more used to solving complex issues rather than writing English. Never mind it will raise a laugh at the pub.

Are you sure about the buffers Mikey on all of mine they are part of the chassis as I said in an earlier post. Definitely for a class 47 and I think a class 60 but not so sure, I know I took another one apart that had that arrangement. I think the front and back glazing is stopping it coming out, I have had that issue on a lot of locos that clip together.

So 96RAF what you on about, I try to help someone and get a load of abuse from you and your mates. I am not dyslexic, just very lazy when writing things down. It is no wonder there is a shortage of decent posts. I don't care whether it is a bug or not, it doesn't affect me, I don't run my locos at that speed and I decided long ago not to buy the product, but I have one so I can test things out which I did in this case. Ignore it if you want, if it becomes an issue for me which I doubt it will, I would report it directly to the manufacturer as I did with a fault on the new Zimo decoder. I do find it quite amusing though. About time to lock the thread.

No, not dyslexic, but thanks for the compliment, I think seeing I spent most of my life writing technical reports someone more important than you would have noticed. Plus I had to do a dissertation for my CEng so I think they would have noticed too. I probably hit the wrong key or was too busy trying to get the content down plus I figured you would all know what I was talking about. I probably forgot to proof read it. To be quite honest does it matter but I forgot to you it does. Thanks for the concern though. So lets get this straight you criticise HM7000 instead of HM7K, and a W instead of an M and you wonder why there aren't many people posting. I am seriously thinking why do I bother? Have a nice evening.

Yes, it is a bug got the effect going forward, loco making lots of noise but the wheels aren't turning, in my case it happened just after a dirty piece of track where it reset itself and then go confused after it had moved a little distance. I would suggest adding a "power pack" which I think will probably fix it. So it could be low signal, I will try the same test with my Lord President fitted with a Zimo decoder.

So correct me if I am wrong HM7K = HM7 * 1000 = HM7000. Anyway what I did was put my HM7K into my Thane of Fife and reprogram it with the P2 profile, I think I got the same result. Sound but no movement, pushed it along a bit and it sorted itself out. I will do a lot more checks in case there is something else causing it. It was at really low speed in reverse. Trouble is the P2 has really large wheels and weird geometry on the wheels so it is pretty easy for it to get stuck. Incidentaly, I checked the timings, 20 seconds to move the file from webpage to phone, about 26 minutes to load the profile as it indicates SPIROM with a bar graph. Unfortunately did it twice because it is so easy to hit the wrong soft key, and the the timings repeated themselves. Right a question for you on the information pages there a list of software versions, does this change with each software profile that is loaded. I can probably check but I can't be bother to wait another half hour to load another profile. He could well have a capacitor clip but he can check it, as he is using a Select I imagine he is using the clip that came with it. Personally I solder directly to the rails.

Ok, if you are quite competent at changing decoders, take one out of your locos that gives you no trouble, a sound one so it is drawing the same amount of current and see if it fixes the issue. I bet though that all your other decoders are 8 pin, which is why you haven't tried it up to now. The other thing is to buy yourself a 21 pin decoder, Train O Matic ones seem quite good (the wonderful Jenny Kirk recommends them, but in all seriousness they are ok), replace it and see if the loco goes backward. If it does then send the HW7000 back to Hornby and tell them the fault. I did have one Zimo decoder that would only go in one direction it was a fault in the driver blown up by incorrect wiring on a brand new Hornby loco. Hornby could fix the fault in their next software release but if nobody has told them about it they won't have and it doesn't sound like a software fault as everyone would be complaining. The other issue I have had with HW7000 is that the 21 pin decoder doesn't lie flat which means it doesn't sit on the connector properly, which means it doesn't make a decent connection which would mean it would work intermittently. Perhaps when it goes backwards it disturbs it. These are ideas what you could try, you know you layout is ok, if capacitance was an issue none of your other locos would work properly which I assume they do, so it is either the loco, which I doubt especially as Hornby checked it or the HW7000.

From my experience SteelerStu, I have had a lot of issues with the HM7000 with weak signals with the loco stopping on parts of the track that my other sound locos don't, I have mentioned it many times. I normally run Zimo, Loksound and TTS. I don't know if any of the fixes to the HM7000 Hornby are going to fix the issue. The loco that had the issue was a West Country with pickups on loco and tender. My layout is about 16 foot by 10 foot that I split my layout into switchable sections as we used to in the old DC, so it is easier to isolate faults, so I don't know if that is a way forward.

I know that Fishmanoz, but thank you for the advice. I don't thing anyone has implemented programming over DCC although many decoders say you can do it, but obviously not for HM7000 anyway. I think the profile fitted to my West Country is ok, but I will update it to see if it works better.

Fishmanoz, SteveM6 had already covered it, he also said that currently the upgrade wasn't available yet. So in the short term it will run on DCC which is the question I answered, if he wants to use the App, Pendragon has given a nice description on how to do it. The question was can he run it on DCC which he can without doing anything, if he wants to update it he can do it at his leisure. I know fully well that you can reprogram them again SteveM6 identified that, so why are you pointing me to the last paragraph. Reprogramming is delicate task which you only do when you have to, many people have "bricked" their phones where it has failed, now hopefully this app doesn't.

Actually Daedalus I do but I must admit not for this, mine is basically for CAN over vehicle networks where each module has a unique id. So I suppose in this case they are using the unique bluetooth id or one they download to the device. Yes I see now how you can do it accept my apologies I got it wrong. It is effectively working like a script doing one after the other using the unique id to identify which one to program.

Here we go again, I was comparing programming two locos on DCC with doing it on Bluetooth, I am sorry if you can't understand that. So basically if you try to program two locos on the same piece of track whether it be DCC or Bluetooth if one of those locos is not connecting with the track properly you could program one and not the other. You would get a success message because you had programed one but not the other. Can you please read my post again with that view. I also said that you could do the two together but it was safer to them one at a time. As to my assumption I did say I didn't know how Hornby did it it, but again you missed that. I assume the person understands that which you obviously don't. Of course I forgot to add on DCC you can only program CVs whereas with Bluetooth you can program the whole software but the principle is exactly the same only difference is on DCC the track provides both the data and power, on Bluetooth it provides the power. If you want to do both at a time you can, as I also said you can, personally I wouldn't but perhaps you guys do. As you guys do the testing have you tried it?