Cheap sound chips anyone ? https://www.hornby.com/uk-en/shop/power-control/tts-sound-decoders.html (RRP appears to be £39, but £36 at a box shifter.) Is it worth buying one for my Railroad Class 31? Ed
Not available till August! last month they were looking at June!! Only £10 more than a non sound decoder and 8 pin to boot!! I'll be grabbing a couple!
Hornby may have played a blinder here. Let's see if they work with other manufacturers models as well.
The class 37 TTS decoder works well in a ViTrains class 37. I do need to do a better speaker installation as the Hornby one doesn't fit well, though. The sound is not bad at all.
I am planning on picking up the 31, 37 & 47. I have a DoG with TTS sound and it isn't bad at all for the money. SRMan I plan on using the 37 & 47 for my Vitrains models did you have to alter anything to get them to fit?
The TTS decoders are 8-pin and so is the ViTrains 37. The only really necessary alteration is to fit a speaker or speakers. That's something I'll be experimenting with later - maybe two sugar cube speakers will fit the bill. The class 37 batch I bought (the yellow Network Rail one) had a wiring fault where the lights worked back to front. I chose to fix this on mine by swapping the yellow and white wires on the 8-pin plug, but it was also possible to fix it with a few CV changes. I don't know of any other TTS models that had this fault, only that particular class 37 model.
Hi SRman, I've recently fitted a Vitrains with a sound decoder (ESU)and found the same fault, lights working wrong way round. There was also a dry or possibly cracked joint on the models circuit board which stopped power to the motor. Chris (kentishlad) fitted it with 2x square 20mm speakers with home made speaker enclosures just behind the cabs, works and sound very good. I have also added a hi base speaker to a class 37 railroad with TTS sound, loads of space in this model for a large speaker. Sound volume was reduced from max down to level 1 which improved the sound quality a lot but it's still a bit "tinny" when compared to other sound file offerings fitted on ESU and Zimo. Kim
The Hornby model doesn't have lights, but when the decoder was fitted to one with lights (i.e. the ViTrains model) the lights were reversed in operation.
With recent news regarding Hornby I suspect the August availability might well go back, so I bought a TTS decoder with a Railroad Class 47 wrapped round it. Couple of very brief, bit out of focus, clips before the batteries in the camera gave out. I had to turn the sound down to setting 1, to avoid odd looks from neighbours walking past the open garage door It's OK................... ish, sounds a bit 'tinny' if that's the right word. (Note to self: Might need new speakers) With the sound down quite low, the noise of it just running around the track becomes louder than the decoder sounds once I notch the speed up a bit, but that may well be my bad track laying. Ed
Not bad at all Ed. I have also noticed the release date on the TTS decoders and I have also noticed that the 'box shifter' has A4 Gadwall in Garter Blue with TTS sound for £70.00 and the Flying Scotsman for £85.00and a Class 40 for £74.00..! (all Rail Road models of course). They are all great prices considering the decoders will be priced at £36.00 ! Cheers, Gary.
Agree Gary the TTS models are at great prices One of the members at the train club got one of the TTS sound A4 rail road models and swapped it's DCC with his previously purchased full detail range Hornby A4 I believe he planned to resell the RR model will probably still get good money for it, making it a cheap sound equiped model conversion
Got this one for £79.50 Gary, from the South Yorkshire box shifter. Could have had the same one in Railfreight livery for £10 less, but I couldn't face adding yet another loco to the queue waiting to be painted blue Whichever one you get, if you take off the cost of the decoder your getting a brand new loco for around £50, which can't be bad. Ed
