Come on Hornby, get your fingers out!! Yet another delay from them and they wonder whats happening to their sales!!!
Had an email from Hattons today saying some TTS decoders would be in stock from Mon 4th September,I'm after an A1 for my B1 loco!
I seem to recall a 4F chip being announced as in the pipeline. I'd have one to fit in my 1F tank when it gets built. Fingers crossed it won't be too long. Cheer's, Pete.
If it's this one Ron, you could get it direct from Hornby with no shipping costs, Hattons will probably charge £4. https://www.hornby.com/uk-en/shop/power-control/tts-sound-decoders/tts-sound-decoder-a1-a3.html Ed
About the same Ed, Hattons £36+£4 post and Hornby £39.99, still to decide which one to get for the B17, need to do some research first..
I've had a 'newsletter from 'Rails' telling me they are taking pre-orders, delivery expected shortly! Keith.
My A1/A3 decoder for my V2 will hopefully arrive next week. The 4F is not on the pre-order list yet :-( I'd want a couple of these - 1 for my Lima O gauge 4F, and another for an old Airfix 4F - I have a Perserverence Chassis kit which could do with building. Paul
Just throwing my ten cents worth in. I would have a look at the Zimo or ESU chips. The TTS chips are quite limited in what you can do in terms of sounds. You can only play two sounds at a time and the recordings are pretty average. Also the reason they are going cheap is they have poor reliability with it being quite common for them to blow. Buy the models just for the locos then get a different brand sound decoder and ditch the cheap Hornby ones. That makes for. Good deal.
I see where your coming from Steve. I was thinking about purchasing the Merchant Navy with TTS sound, but after hearing it, well..., I reconsidered my purchase. I was not all that impressed with the sound from it at all. I think I'll save my pennies and purchase a DCC ready MN or BoB and use another suppliers sound. Cheers, Gary.
I refer to post #1 "Cheap sound chips anyone ?" Don't really think they're supposed to be of the same quality as the more expensive versions from other manufacturers Ed
When I came back to model railways nearly 4 years ago, I recall while researching (as I usually do before jumping in!), a magazine article which stated not to buy any electronics from the big model manufacturers since, although they were good at making models, electronics was not their forte and should be avoided, buying instead from the specialist electronics manufacturers. Anyone with, for example, experience of Hornby's DCC decoders as compared to the likes of ESU, Zimo, Lenz etc. will know the validity of that advice. 'Nuff said! Keith.
Does anyone in the UK off a 'reblow' service for these decoders (as with ESU?Zimo), Ron or is it a fairly limited range of available sounds? Keith.
If I remember correctly Ron, you own a US model with Soundtraxx sound...?? The sound files are still fairy basic as opposed to Zimo, ESU, Lenz etc, but they still do the job. The decoders Soundtraxx use (Tsunami) are a lot better than Hornby offerings. Cheers, Gary.
Gary wrote: Hi Gary, if you do get a MN and want an ESU V4 fitted I can load it for you as I have a lokSound programmer with the projects from here.... http://projects.esu.eu/projectoverviews/1?type=all&order=date&country=gb If you click on the file you can listen to it, not a bad sound file, I've done several now.... For any one else, there's a few British sound files available now which I can do... Kim
Kim are you able to do smoke effects with the ESU V4.0 chips? I know the Zimo can but I think it comes at a small price.
With regards to purchasing a DCC Ready loco, I don't think it makes any real difference, given that mostly when installing a sound chip the first thing you will do is remove the 8 or 21 pin socket and throw it in the bin. Especially if it is from Hornby as it will most likely be faulty, cause a short and potentially cook your chip, which is fine if you are having vinegar and some fish with it, but not fine if it is purely for reproducing the sound of a locomotive. See also my comment above regarding the realistic smoke effect that results from said shorting and subsequent frying of the chip.
