David-P

Thanks for the link to DCC-Ex; it's not something I had come across before. I'm not sure if I will go that way as it still seems like a lot of effort to create a sticking plaster for missing HM7k functionality. I suppose my other choice would be to buy an Apple device of some sort, but I don't much fancy that either. I will certainly investigate DCC-Ex further before making any final decisions. Thanks again for the links!

Thanks for the info. I guess I will just have to hurry up and wait some more. I'm also waiting for the non-sound decoders to be made available, but that's likely to be late Q2 next year. At least I can do some multi-tasking and wait for both in parallel. Cheers.

Just to confirm the answers that Steve gave to Rob's questions: Lights are in steady "on" only and I cannot have any other option if I wanted them. However, for what it's worth, the brightness settings do work. Similarly for auto-cal, it's stuck at 2 and I cannot "arm" it no matter what. Therefore I cannot auto-calibrate the control settings to that loco/motor. That's something I would like to be able to do. For info, I do not possess any kind of DCC control system and am trying to move directly from DC to Bluetooth. Thanks for your help.

I'm using a Galaxy S8 phone running Android version 9, connecting to an 8-pin decoder with a recent V2 sound profile. I believe the Android app auto-updates - it claims to be v1.1.1 (B44.1A). Almost everything is great, except that I've found a couple of CVs with greyed out options, so I can't use them. So far, it's the two lighting options (see example CV53 screenshot below) and the auto-calibration primer CV149 (screenshot below); I haven't done an exhaustive search for others. As the options are greyed out, they can't be used, which is rather annoying. Is there anything wrong with my setup/versions ? I was at GBMRS over the weekend and managed a short chat with George (great to meet some of the Hornby team) who thought everything should be enabled and it wasn't that it was just "in the queue" for a later Android update. Has anyone else seen this? Thanks for your help, Dave

Returning to first principles - thank you John (Britannia Builder) for pulling the pertinent information out of the manual. If the total charging time is 120secs, then the time constant (RC) must be approximately 90s (time to 63%). If RC = 90secs and C is 0.333F, then the series resistor is 90 / 0.333 = 270ohms (give or take). Assuming a 15V supply, the maximum in-rush current is 15 / 270 = 55mA. Got there in the end - an engineering approximation at least.

A few mA doesn't feel quite right. Please check my sums (approximate numbers only): If the PB can power a 500mA motor for (say) 5s, but is charged at 10mA (one fiftieth the current), then it will take fifty times longer to charge up at that current, which is over four minutes. Maybe it just does take a very long time to reach full charge.

This thread has rather gone off topic - apologies for not being more specific. I was asking about the inrush current to the Power Bank; I only switched to the 20A power supply as a quick test - it's not what I normally use. However, Hornby's change to charging Power Banks at startup does link nicely to short-circuit detection in the power supply. For a decent sized layout with (say) 20+ locos all charging up their Power Banks shortly after being switched on, isn't there a chance that the power supply will confuse this with a short circuit and shut down again? Which leads nicely back to the question of how big the inrush current is.

That still makes the assumption that the track power source is the weak link, unable to supply sufficient inrush current. That's why I swapped over to a 20A supply - to remove the "weak" link.

I wondered if anyone knew what the peak inrush current is when an empty Power Bank starts charging - usually this occurs when the loco is first moved from cold and always causes a reset of the decoder for me. I'm assuming there is something on the decoder itself that can't handle that peak current. Once it's been charging for a few seconds all is OK. I believe I have ruled out the supply to the track as I switched to a power supply capable of delivering 20A and I still had a decoder reset. I also run Live Steam, so all the tracks themselves are wired for 10A. Hence why I am suspicious of the decoder itself. I can live with it, but I'm just curious.

Everyone wants their own custom functions, but it's no feasible for Hornby to create them all; why not provide a "user code function" (or two). The user has to write the code for the function, which is then compiled and linked in to the rest of Hornby's code on the decoder. Obviously, it would need to be fairly restricted and would require some extra words in the manual, but then there would be no more requests for functions, as Hornby would be able to say "write your own". I'm guessing at least half of the target audience are familiar with either Arduino or Raspberry Pi, so it would sit fairly comfortably with most users... Just a thought.

Thanks for the answers. It seems as though these are not yet available through the Android App. I do not possess any kind of normal DCC controller; I only have the Android App, so it looks like I will have to wait for an update. Cheers.

I'm new to this DCC/CV game, but I have found a couple of instances when the options for a particular CV are greyed out leaving me with no option at all. This is using the 8TXS flavour with Android on a Galaxy S8. Am I missing something or do I need to wait for some updates? For example CV51 (and same for 52, 53 & 54): Similarly for the auto-cal, CV149, only a value of 2 is allowed. Am I doing it wrong? David

Suggest you directly connect power underneath the tender. Either make your own lead or buy one from OO Live Steam club. Screw connection under one of the small screws under the tender on each side (rearmost is easiest) and you then avoid all the potential problems of rolling roads and high currents with the wheels/pickups etc.