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HM7000 Suggestions box for improvements


David-348062

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  • 1 month later...

Hi everyone, I'm currently running HM7000 decoders in battery powered P4 locos and my question is. Are there any developments in controlling the HM7000 through a system like JMRI or your own future app, utilising feedback from track sensors for position and more. I've drawn the layout in the track planner and it sort of suggests that this will be where you're going, is there a plan to do this.

 

Edited by Tom-367316
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7 hours ago, Tom-367316 said:

Hi everyone, I'm currently running HM7000 decoders in battery powered P4 locos and my question is. Are there any developments in controlling the HM7000 through a system like JMRI or your own future app, utilising feedback from track sensors for position and more. I've drawn the layout in the track planner and it sort of suggests that this will be where you're going, is there a plan to do this.

 

A future development of the HM | DCC 7000 app will introduce layout by screen control and there will be loco detection but this is longer term planning at present.

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Does the HM7000 controller interface give the user the option to 'Fade Out' the locomotives sound, (as apposed to controlling the overall volume in settings), or is it a simple choice of Sounds On or Sounds Off? It would be nice if there was a 'Fade Sound Out Button or Slide Bar' activating a gradual transition from 'Normal Volume' to 'No Sound' as as the loco went into a tunnel or fiddle yard and out of sight and not an abrupt sound / silence cut off. May allready do this. I haven't really got up and running yet. Thanks, Ken. 

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4 minutes ago, Kenneth-365689 said:

Does the HM7000 controller interface give the user the option to 'Fade Out' the locomotives sound, (as apposed to controlling the overall volume in settings), or is it a simple choice of Sounds On or Sounds Off? It would be nice if there was a 'Fade Sound Out Button or Slide Bar' activating a gradual transition from 'Normal Volume' to 'No Sound' as as the loco went into a tunnel or fiddle yard and out of sight and not an abrupt sound / silence cut off. May allready do this. I haven't really got up and running yet. Thanks, Ken. 

No fade button - but if you are saying a slide bar would do it then you already have one on the loco settings screen - global volume.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Any news on the near edge of screen poor touch screen detection on android tablets ?

It could be just me, but 2 very different android tablets have exhibited the same symptons, "picking up" control sliders fron near the edge is very tricky, and using buttons like the edit button in the loco profile picture are very hit and miss for me in landscape mode at least.

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4 hours ago, Too Tall said:

Any news on the near edge of screen poor touch screen detection on android tablets ?

It could be just me, but 2 very different android tablets have exhibited the same symptons, "picking up" control sliders fron near the edge is very tricky, and using buttons like the edit button in the loco profile picture are very hit and miss for me in landscape mode at least.

Hi Too Tall,

I purchased a very cheap, none branded, android tablet off Amazon purely for the use of the HM7000 app and experienced the exact same issues you described, took 6 or 7 attempts to get the speed slider to start moving, and several click on the edit buttons as you describe.

I ended up sending it back and replaced it with a Lenovo tab M11 (still fairly cheap, just not as cheap) and it works perfectly, so I'm not sure if this is related to the cheaper android tablets out there or whether its an app issue specifically?

Hope this helps?

Russ

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On 04/03/2024 at 12:24, CaNNoN_1981 said:

Will there be the possibility to have a filter on the profile screen for OO and TT, so you can just see the scale you desire?

Thanks

The apps have been updated so that the profiles screen lists TXS and TTS separately in steam/diesel, etc category's and likewise splits out 00 and TT listings. It is not really possible to have a user selectable 'push button' filter.

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On 11/03/2024 at 16:25, 96RAF said:

The apps have been updated so that the profiles screen lists TXS and TTS separately in steam/diesel, etc category's and likewise splits out 00 and TT listings. It is not really possible to have a user selectable 'push button' filter.

Thats miles better now, love how interactive this is and when providing feedback to the developers the community is actually heard, keep up the good work Hornby.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I have been using JMRI to "drive trains" for a few months (public layout) and  coming back to HM7000 just confirms what a great system it is. And so my Dongle has been ordered so I can use older DCC locomotives.

I have a Select or an Elite I can use with it, so I should be fine for a while. But what if I had a non-XpressNet or incompatible controller?

How about a Bluetooth- and/or XpressNet-only DCC box, HM6000 style? With no controls, up-to-date electronics and a decent heat-sink it should be super reliable. Use the existing Elite power supply. At the right price, I would buy one.

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P.S. apologies if this has already been suggested. I have not accessed the forum for a few months while being distracted by JMRI and layout control busses - so I might have missed it.

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51 minutes ago, Steve-738643 said:

Not sure if it's been mentioned before but I'd like the brake squeal to be automatically added to the engine sound, the same way that the brake release is. 

Its already there as default in auto-functions F28.

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1 hour ago, James-367570 said:

Selling sugar cube speakers on their own would be a really helpful addition for when one fails.

Individual sugar cube speakers have been available for years.

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  • 2 weeks later...

What I've been hoping for is a second style of dongle - but one that acts in reverse - ie from an existing DCC controller - via bluetooth - to the HM7k chip. Something that simply attached to the track output of a dcc controller - and converts the dcc signal into a bluetooth signal, so there is no need for a direct-to-track connection. Of Course it would mean a separate DC adapter to power the track. Maybe this has come up before, and so apologies if I have missed it. 

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54 minutes ago, Brew Man said:

So what you're saying is you want to control HM7k decoders from your DCC controller rather than from the App. Not sure if that would gain much interest, but maybe, who knows.

Yes, but still keeping the benefit of bluetooth connectivity, which I feel offers a more reliable connection and data stream than rails with their inevitable weak points. It may be niche but a lad can dream!

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2 hours ago, GMD said:

What I've been hoping for is a second style of dongle - but one that acts in reverse - ie from an existing DCC controller - via bluetooth - to the HM7k chip. Something that simply attached to the track output of a dcc controller - and converts the dcc signal into a bluetooth signal, so there is no need for a direct-to-track connection. Of Course it would mean a separate DC adapter to power the track. Maybe this has come up before, and so apologies if I have missed it. 

You cannot and will not ever be able to read/write legacy decoders OTA by way of any gizmo, as they need to be on a programming track and addressed in service mode. That is a serial sequence whereas the OTA read/write is via a completely different protocol within the firmware of the HM7K decoders and not present in a standard dcc protocol.

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2 minutes ago, 96RAF said:

You cannot and will not ever be able to read/write legacy decoders OTA by way of any gizmo, as they need to be on a programming track and addressed in service mode.

Thanks RAF - I think I understand that, and if I follow your meaning correctly that is not what I am envisaging. I like the tactile feel of a physical controller - either a slider or a turn-knob. When you do that on any current DCC-compliant controller it creates a signal, which signal is then transmitted through two wires, then on to the track and through this to the decoder, and the addressed loco responds accordingly. 

What I would love to see is some adapter that tricks the DCC controller into thinking its the track, when in reality it is intercepting the signal, recoding it as an equivalent HM7k-compliant instruction, which is then sent over bluetooth to the HM7k decoder in the loco. 

That may be impossible to achieve - or (more likely!!) impossible to decipher my logic - but allow me to dream! 

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4 minutes ago, Johnathan-346380 said:

Is there anything in the planning to allow the editing of the channel names for the HM6010 i.e. rather than just Point/Signal/Light you can actually make it more user friendly and add the location name/building name etc.

It is on the list.

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