HM Dcc app - no control

[Joshua-348227]

Hello. Newbie here. Fitted my Hornby Flying Scotsman with HM7000-txs, correct track power all sorted. Using the app I have connected the device as instructed, Bluetooth all good but when I click on the control tab nothing shows, just goes back to set up. What am I missing, a step by step guide would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.

[96RAF]

You can’t have used the HM | DCC (HM7K) app as it hasn’t been released yet. If you are trying to use the HM | DC (HM6K) app that doesn’t operate the locos, it only provides power to the track. Read the caution about that in the decoder manual downloadable from the support section.

[james_nelmes]

To Be fair, if you scan the QR code on the instruction sheet with the decoder, it does take you to the HM DC app.

[Joshua-348227]

Ok so I am confused, I have bought something I cannot use??

[Ighten 1707822464]

Basically yes if you bought it as an introduction to DCC using Bluetooth.

If not it works like any other DCC chip..

If you have no DCC equipment then In essence the hardware has been released before the software.. imagine you bought a pc but have to wait for an operating system.. personally I think it's a bit of a poor decision but remember; it's hornby -the grand plan usually doesn't go to plan.

Good news is if your in apple equipment you shouldn't have to wait too long🙂

[james_nelmes]

No you haven’t wasted your money. The DCC app will be out in the next few days which will make it all work brilliantly. Frustrating but patience required. As someone who waited 3 years for a Deltic I’m ok with it.

[SteveM6]

Just to clarify the position regarding the app, the release version was sent to Apple some days ago. We and Hornby are now in their hands as to when they add it to the App Store.

[ColinB]

Ok, I have bought the decoder, now some relatively simple questions. I have it connected to a DCC decoder tester via an Elite. Now I have loaded the app onto my Samsung phone. Now should this app work like this because occasionally it links with the decoder but more often it doesn't. So will the app work in this mode or do I have to buy the HM controller? All I want to do is update the sound profile. I was hoping for a drop down menu to do this but it appears it is not that easy. All the YouTube videos seen to reference interfacing with the HM controller, I thought the Blue Tooth was supposed to link to the decoder directly.

[james_nelmes]

The app isn’t out yet - sounds like you are using the DC Bluetooth app. Once the apple shop releases the DCC app, you will be able to upload new sound files. TheAndroid app will be a few weeks.

[ColinB]

Can someone also explain to me why Hornby are so obsessed with layouts, I look at the app and it keeps asking for a layout. Some of us couldn't care less about the layout just the control of the locos on it. I don't know if the app is a Beta version but it is definitely not very good.

[96RAF]

Can someone also explain to me why Hornby are so obsessed with layouts, I look at the app and it keeps asking for a layout. Some of us couldn't care less about the layout just the control of the locos on it. I don't know if the app is a Beta version but it is definitely not very good.

 

 

Which are you talking about Colin and where did you get it from. It sounds like you are trying to use the HM6K app which as I already explained is the wrong app.

[ColinB]

Well 96RAF that would explain a lot. All I did was scan the QR Code and it then loaded the app. To make things worse the app says that I am connected to a HM7000_D850 although I don't have one. The "RESUME OPERATION CONTROL" I assume makes it all work but when I press it nothing happens.

[SteveM6]

Colin, like the rest of us, you will have to wait for the HM DCC app to be released on the App Store (or Android idc).

As you have now inadvertently linked an HM7k decoder to the HM DC app (yes there are or will be two apps) you will need to reset the decoder using a reset code.

If you don’t have an existing code they will be available from Hornby Customer Services.

[96RAF]

Colin - I will say this again. The HM6K app will link to the decoder but it cannot operate it. That is why Resume Operation doesn’t do anything.

The scan code has now been fettled so that it takes you to the decoder manual download area of support. The manual is worth a read.

HM7000_D850 is the decoder’s unique ID used by the app to link to. It is the equivalent of a permanent DCC address.

When the HM7K app is released you will link to it and assign that decoder to a loco.

To obtain a reset code please refer to my other post in HM7K forum section about linking decoders to the wrong app.

[ColinB]

Actually it would have been worth putting all this info into the user manual that comes with the item. I think I had better put it back in the box. Why release the thing if none of the supporting software is there?

[LTSR_NSE]

@Colin - No disrespect to you or anyone who feels frustrated, but Hornby would have been criticised the other way too. People who had pre-ordered would be just as frustrated, if the app was available but no sign of their decoders.

Additionally the decoders can be used by those with existing DCC controllers. (That isn’t said with any intent to alienate those starting out or DC users wanting to try the new system.)

Don’t forget that storing items in warehouses costs money, and Hornby stated back in January that the decoders etc. were already ready to go, so there may well have been a financial consideration.

However obviously only those who make the decisions are aware of all the reasons, and they rarely broadcast everything.

Unfortunately the reality is that those without a DCC controller (to experiment with) will have to patiently wait for the app.

As has been stated - this is in the hands of Apple & out of Hornby’s hands.

[ColinB]

You are talking to someone who used to design software for a living, that is what program management is all about. You write the app check it works then on the day the decoders become available you make the app available to the user by downloading it to the server. We used to do it all the time.

Anyway, surprisingly although the app doesn't work, it is actually linking to the decoder, as when I am connected to it I cannot control it with the Elite, soon as I disconnect the link on my phone I can revert to controlling it with my Elite.

As to delivery I must admit I was incredibly surprised when Hornby told me it was available, when I ordered it I expected there to be a much longer delay given the complexity, it appears I was right. If the current menus in their app are anything to go by, they have an awful lot more work to do to make it easy to use.

[Fishmanoz]

Colin, you’ve said further up that Rob’s advice of the wrong app explains a lot. But now you say there is a lot of work to be done on the menus.

Sorry, but what have the menus of the HM | DC app got to do with the operation of the yet-to-be-released HM | DCC app? They are completely different items, the former for controlling DC layouts using the HM6000 unit to control locos and the HM6010 to control points, the latter to control the HM7000 family of BLE/DCC decoders.

Just disconnect from the wrong app and wait for release of the correct one. In the meantime you have more than one regular DCC controller so you can use it to control your HM7000 decoder in the meantime.

PS. Could you delete your repeated post please.

Mod edit : dealt with

[Ighten 1707822464]

I think your looking at the DC app not the blue tooth app which as everyone keeps saying is not yet finalised for release or is pending release by apple. Android will be slightly later..

The elite will use it as it sees it as a DCC chip.

[LTSR_NSE]

@Colin - Your software experience appears to have no concept of modern App/Play Store environments where:

• developers create apps, submit them to Apple/Google and then wait an indeterminate length of time for a decision.

• (if lucky) they get accepted into the store & app becomes available

• (or if unlucky) they get rejected - sometimes with an explanation, but sometimes not.

The app you are describing (which you have already been told is the wrong one) is the HM-DC app for the HM6000 Bluetooth DC range of controllers - because it works using Bluetooth it detects the Bluetooth in your new decoder - but can’t do anything with it since it wasn’t designed to!

By all means be surprised that Hornby have released hardware without available software - but why are you surprised that obviously incompatible software doesn’t work?

Again the wrong app will display information that is irrelevant and useless to you - because it is wrong!

[Fishmanoz]

Just a note - scanning the QR code in the manual takes you back to the manual although it says it takes you to the app. At least it doesn’t take you to the wrong app.

[ColinB]

Ok here is a radical idea, when you buy the decoder it comes with a QR Code, so why oh why does it point to the wrong app, why not just point to an app which tells you the app is not ready.

For once I read the instructions which pointed me to to wrong app, is it my fault that it doesn't work, I don't think so.

No I am not into releases apps to Google or Apple but then if that is an issue then there is more than one way to inform the user that the app is not available, not every one that buys the product will be on this site.

Yes I am surprised incompatible software doesn't work, you shouldn't have incompatible software, it is something you do in development not on a released product, according to the Yesterday program it was all working in Beta form. As to the Bluetooth obviously Hornby must have designed the commands to be very similar between the decoder and their existing DC controller as if I remember rightly when I wrote software to control Bluetooth on a CD changer it didn't turn the phone off because the command structure was totally different. Obviously there is something seriously wrong if when it does a scan it thinks a decoder is a DC controller so obviously they didn't change the id for the decoder, I assume Hornby couldn't be bothered or the lead time for raising a request for a new id was too long. Either way it doesn't matter, I can wait.

[Fishmanoz]

Colin, if you read the recent posts, the QR code incorrectly taking you to the DC app has been acknowledged and now corrected.

So in the first instance, this wasn’t your fault, it was a Hornby error which occurred quite some time ago before the decoders were packaged. At that time, they were anticipating the app would be available when you received your decoder, but they were wrong.

You need to do more than wait though, you need a code to unlink your decoder from the DC app before you can link to the DCC app next week.

[LTSR_NSE]

Colin are you seriously suggesting that incompatibility in released software/hardware never occurs?

Have you never opened office documents created in different versions and ended up looking at pages of hieroglyphics?

Or never wanted to connect a device to a computer that doesn’t contain the required connection?

Or never wanted to use hardware designed for obsolete OS’ & had to mess around with drivers?

If no to all the above, then I will accept you have fortunately avoided compatibility issues that have been fairly common for the past 30+ years (& less common for a whole lot longer!) - otherwise if yes to any, then suggesting it shouldn’t happen is imho fairly meaningless.

[ColinB]

Yes LT&SR_NSE I have and I accept it because I know that it is because I haven't bought the latest version and generally there is something out there that will fix it. This is an entirely different scenario, the app doesn't work at all and worse still the QR Code links to an install package that is the wrong one and from what 96RAF says can mess things up. Incidentally it isn't an incompatibly issue, the app at the moment just doesn't exist end of story.