Locoman sounds decoder doing strange things.

[ColinB]

This is not a criticism, I am just wondering if anyone else has noticed this sort of behaviour. I bought a sound decoder for my Hornby 8F and it sounds really good but every so often when it starts up there is sound but no loco drive. Change the loco direction on DCC and suddenly loco drive works, it will now work in both directions properly. Now I have noticed that when it does this it does seem to be on a dirty bit of track, but then it is so random that it is hard to tell. Once it is running it works perfectly ok but it is just a bit weird what it is doing. I will add the loco previously contained a Zimo normal decoder (not sound) and I had non of these issues even on the same pieces of "dirty" track. To me it doesn't look like there is anything wrong with the decoder, more like a software initialisation error, so I don't think it is worth sending it back and the sound is great. I just wondered if anyone else had noticed this behaviour.

Every other decoder make I have had issues with it is normally the sound that disappears whilst the motor is running.

[Pendragon Sailing]

Hi Colin, I have the same issue from time to time too.
I usually put it down to dirty track/wheels PLUS the hyper-sensitivity of the Bluetooth connection to power fall-off.  Pressing the “Resume Operation” button seems to help.

I’ve also noted a situation where the Bluetooth connection is lost, but the loco still runs operates with both motion and sound (but no control until the Bluetooth reconnects). There’s no doubt that the Bluetooth connection can be fragile without a Powerbank to back it up when power connection is poor for whatever reason. I guess this is one of the foibles of the HM7000 system 🫤

 

[SteveM6]

32 minutes ago, Pendragon Sailing said:

Hi Colin, I have the same issue from time to time too.
I usually put it down to dirty track/wheels PLUS the hyper-sensitivity of the Bluetooth connection to power fall-off.  Pressing the “Resume Operation” button seems to help.

I’ve also noted a situation where the Bluetooth connection is lost, but the loco still runs operates with both motion and sound (but no control until the Bluetooth reconnects). There’s no doubt that the Bluetooth connection can be fragile without a Powerbank to back it up when power connection is poor for whatever reason. I guess this is one of the foibles of the HM7000 system 🫤

 

Judging by the title, Colin didn't use a TXS decoder on this one.🤔

[Pendragon Sailing]

Ah ! Good spot Steve………but my comments still stand on my HM7000 experiences 😬

[SteveM6]

Fair enough although my experience across 25+ TXS decoders and 90+ others (inc. TTS) points to them being no different to any other brand.

Power banks or any compatible stay alive will improve any decoder's performance.

[Pendragon Sailing]

Absolutely, Steve. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of HM7000 (I have 30 of them fitted now).

I’m just noting that they do have a few foibles (as do other brands), although most can be be overcome with a bit of patience and knowledge of the various fixes out there.

[ColinB]

No it is not HM7000, I am sending it back, it kept cutting out in one direction as it was running but perfect in the other.  I then did a reset CV8=8 and the Elite stopped talking to it. I moved it to my tester and it looked like I had blown it up. fortunately this time I had been super careful so I knew a simple reset can't blow them up. Eventually by wobbling the 8 pin connector it started working.  I suspect it has either a very fine pcb crack or a duff soldered joint somewhere probably on the H bridge but I am not going there. Interestingly it is the first one I ordered off this make. To be honest for all my criticism the HM7000s work ok, I did have one blow up but Hornby replaced that. I suspect that was something to do with adding the powerbank as it failed just after I added it.