ColinB

I assume you put one on the track and program it with bluetooth, then take it off put the other one on and do the same. You might be able to the two together, but I suspect doing them separate is safer. I imagine you are going to program them with sound so doing them separate sounds safer.

Actually I hate to say it but he is using DCC and he already said it was fitted with sound which I assume Hornby has set to the right one. So he needs to do nothing, no logging onto anything with his smartphone. So unless I have missed something he doesn't need to do anything unless he wants to, it will run just like any other sound decoder, I know because that is exactly how I run mine.

Yes you can, that is what I do with HM7000.

If you want to wire to a 21 pin decoder from scratch, New Modellers actually have the very own circuit board that Hornby use as a spare part. The big advantage of 21 pin for a diesel is you can add extra lighting functions, you can also permanently wire the speaker which means you have less dangling wires to worry about. Really easy to wire to, 4 pads plus if you want to two for the speaker and two screw fixing. Alternatively a guy on EBay does a similar part not so good as the Hornby one but cheaper.

Yes, I remember reading that post, so just a capacitor across the output should fix that, but thinking about it, it has got to be more than that.

Has anyone actually worked out why the Gaugemaster controllers damage this device, or did I miss that post. Generally is it too high a voltage or heat dissipation issues. I know from practical experience that old Hammond and Morgan controls damage DCC decoders, but then my old one was designed for a Wrenn or Triang locos. Zimo also have a note on one of their smaller decoders not to use it with DC, again I can figure the reason. The Gaugemaster being a relatively new controller should be ok. Perhaps if we knew the reason we could suggest a suitable fix.

SteveM6 your words "It seems not a simple update of the app rather it’s a change to the profile software itself hence the extra testing that is being done" to me that reads a software update to your HM7000 for each loco with PB. Of course they may have added it as a software command from the app which tells the existing software in the HM7000 to enable it if they were forward thinking enough. Seems pretty complicated seeing as all it does is power the circuit when there is no supply input to the HM7000, perhaps 96RAF can tell us why. Either way does it matter, I was just interested.

Fishmanoz what are you on about? SteveM6 explained it all, I have you saying one thing and P Henry saying something else. If the PB was across the bridge rectifier it would charge all the time, which it appears from all of your posts it doesn't. Then SteveM6 says in another post that there will be a new software release to fix the charging issue when the motor is not running, so to me that means that there is some software element. I assume that they are controlling it from a port on the processor, why I do not know, but they obviously have their reasons. The other suppliers put it across the reference voltage as it comes out of the regulator and ground, but if you did that then it would charge the capacitor up all the time until it reached regulator voltage which according to all your posts its doesn't. So basically you have explained it all to me in your posts so what are you on about? You guys do know what a port on a microprocessor is?

Well I worked in it for the best part of 40 years, so I know a little bit about it and the software to drive it. Believe it or not when you design something the device comes with a big fat manual that normally gives you example circuits which is what most people use. As to the PowerBank, I recently bought a Zimo sound decoder for my P2, it is roughly the same size as the HM7000, with the standard speaker setup there was just no room for the large capacitor that came with it. Similarly with my Duchess and believe me I tried for over an hour. There again perhaps you are better at fitting them than me. I do have the issue that in many of my locos I use larger speakers so perhaps that is where all the space goes. I might eventually buy a Powerbank for the HM7000 I own just to see if it runs better but it is not top of my priority list. Sounds like I would need to update the software to get it to run correctly.

SteveM6 anybody that has worked on electronics knows how they are doing it. They are using a port on the processor to charge a capacitor plus some other circuitry that feeds back to the regulator. I may not know the detail but it is fairly obvious by your statements on the subject. You clarified it when you said they can't fix it with the App, which you can't if they are using a port. They obviously have their reasons for doing it that way, I must admit in my experience any backup power supply which is what this is, you keep relatively simple. You definitely wouldn't control it from the processor unless you had a really good reason which by your last post indicates that they are beginning to realise. Either way I was just interested, there isn't any room in the loco I fitted the HM7000 to, to fit a "Power Bank" without cutting bits out which I never do.

The last post I read on the subject was the circuit diagram which definitely was using the raw powerfeeds. Interestingly before I put the post in I did wonder if they were using a port on the processor to supply the powerbank circuit, but then I though why would you, it is over complication for no notable gain. That is why I asked the question. Now if it was DCC I could understand it. There is also the issue that if the processor loses power the ports default to tri state and charging disappears, so the circuit resets before the Power Bank has chance to save it, unless you put an extra ton of circuitry in. No, I don't follow all the posts. Either way I asked a question which you answered, thank you.

I don't know if you watched that James May program on toys, there was a guy on there that had a Wrenn in totally mint condition and was horrified when James asked him if he was going to run it. There is a crate that does the rounds that contains a Triumph Hurricane motorcycle in "knock down" form as shipped to the US in the 1970s, nobody has ever opened the crate to see if is all there. Generally stuff that is worth a lot of money if when it was made breaks easily or there wasn't many made, that way there is only a few in existence, as Bee said if there are a lot then their price is never going to be high.

Sorry 96RAF I haven't a clue what you are on about.

Surely the charging of the "Power Bank" is not via software, usually it is a direct feed off the power feeds unless Hornby are doing something clever.

The trouble with smart phones is you touch them in the wrong place and they jump to another screen. Then there is the keyboard issue, in that they don't have one. I imagine they are the issues the original poster doesn't like. Then of course the screen goes to sleep. Tablets are better although they still don't have a screen but it is more difficult to hit a wrong button.

I suppose the issue is Fishmanoz that probably you have got the good ones, so you have no issues. My one, last time I checked worked perfectly ok, it could do with a power bank to make it work better but it runs ok. I don't use it that much as it is in the purple Queen Elizabeth that doesn't get run much plus as I have said it is not very tolerant of dirty track. Now if it was the latest Evening Star that I run a lot that is fitted with the latest Zimo MS sound decoder I would notice more. There again I have over 20 if not more TTS decoders, most are ok once I realised that their heat dissipation was suspect, but I did have one or two that had obscure faults. Even more annoying these faults disappeared when I moved them to another loco. Trouble with software it is really easy to write a program, the difficult bit is making it work reliably 100% of the time. My big gripe is Hornby don't seem to have a DCC strategy, their product range is littered with products, they have the Select, Elite, Electro (what ever it is called), Railmaster and now HM7000 which they support. They would be better off deciding on one and have a decent upgrade path for it.

I used to be a software engineer and I suppose I am the opposite, I am so used to installing software packages I just assume that it is right, in development we used to sometimes get it wrong but a major release. I must admit I saw it pointed to an app so I assumed it was the right one, I just assumed there was some special command to get it to work (been there many times). The other thing that annoyed me, was sure I have made mistakes in software but that was really serious and the so called testers weren't particularly bothered, "its Hornby put up with it". Even worse I don't always read the documentation but in this case I read what little of it there was and did exactly what it told me to do. I used to buy a lot of Hornby TTS decoders but the saga has left me with an unpleasant experience. I notice today the testers are saying to some unfortunate person that there is a bug and Hornby are trying to sort it out, so obviously not a very mature product. So I don't know if this thread is a case of someone having a moan, either way it is lost on me.

I totally agree, it annoys me when people belittle people because they are asking for help. The post is probably directed at me because I was one of its fiercest critics, selling a product that part of the community cannot use for 3 months sums it up for me. I bought the product, waited 3 months for the App, tested it and it works after I had to send it back to Hornby to fix the fault caused by their duff software. There are a lot of "gotchas" with it, like on mine it took nearly 30 minutes to load the profile which is far too long and dangerous (people tend to get fed up and terminate the app) and if you watch Sam's video on it, he is basically right.

A lot of them will be never run. I must admit mine runs ok I don't know what all the fuss was about. In a few years time I suspect it will be like that Coronation Mug my mum used to keep in the cupboard. With mine I put real coal in the tender as I buy them to run, so that definitely is not going to fetch top dollar.

So what is the point of this post? By the number of posts in the forum it appears some do, in my case it worked eventually after Hornby had corrected the fault they created by giving me a QR Code that pointed to the wrong app. I assume for most people it works ok, it did for me. It is not as fault tolerant as many other sound decoders but then they cost considerably more.

Peters Spares were selling the actual part fitted to the Hornby locos. This is the better option as it is just two fires, alternatively making your own it is a bridge rectifier(could use two diodes), resistor and led, so it comes on in both directions. The issue I had with an 0-6-0 I tried to fit it to was there not enough room behind the cab, the chassis was hard up against it. That is the DC option, DCC is as 96RAF mentions.

Sorry haven't got that one. I must have taken all mine apart as I fitted DCC decoders in all of them, so I suspect in your case it is either the glazing or liberal use of black tack inside the loco to hold the wires on.

Well Bulleidboy it should do but as I said on City of Winchester it did stick a bit. So exactly which class 73 are you trying to open? I have two proper Hornby ones City of Winchester and GB Railfreight number 73964. If it is the Railfreight one, I will find it and see if there is any difference. I remember buying that because someone was doing them really cheap. They should come apart just like the class 66 but sometimes I think the cab front can get stuck on the front glazing. On mine the buffers are moulded into the chassis so they don't come off.

I suddenly remembered I did buy a genuine Hornby one, yes I know I should have remembered but my excuse is I have been building and not done much on my trains for a year. On my Hornby City of Winchester it has four clips each side that clip into the chassis, these are pretty easy to get off. The glazing front and back has a slot that clips onto the cab ends front and back, these were extremely tight on my one, you just have to gently rock the body from side to side and eventually it should release. Looking at mine there is some black tack holding the wires on, I am pretty sure I didn't add this Hornby were into this at one point. It could be that the black tack is stopping it releasing, so you might have to run a thin knife between the body and chassis to release it, be careful though because you could cut through the wires that run close to the body.

I have got several Lima class 73s that I converted to the latest Hornby chassis. Now unless Hornby changed the Lima design significantly the body just clips off using 4 credit cards as levers. It is the Lima class 47 that have the buffers holding it on. I think that there is another loco that Lima did that on as well. There are no holes in the chassis for screws, well at least not on my one, They may have used clips at the front or back as they did on the HST which are difficult to unclip.