[dennis1]

just entering the world of dcc, and have purchased a basic hornby controller, having purchased a bachman diesel I have a slight problem when entering the loco. ~At first it doesnt move then it wll move off without lights and carries on moving with the controller speed turned to zero. I discovered that if I hit the red button to stop everything the lights come on and then the loco performs normally, then is perfectly ok. Now each time I switch on I have to go through this procedure. Could any one explain please ?Another loco behaves perfectly normally

 

[Richard Johnson]

***The probelm is the basic hornby controller. It has a very poor DCC waveform and an unstable unregulated power supply section, and has no filtering during the start up phase.

When it is turned on, for a few seconds it is sending rubbish information to the track. This confuses some decoders and can also be slightly destructive. This is why your Bachmann loco which has a properly conformant decoder has issues at the start.

Try ading an on-off switch between the controller and track. Turn it off when the system is turned off. Then, when you restart the system, wait for about ten seconds after turning on the Hornby DCC before turning it on. This will give time for the output to be a little more stable before it is allowed to go to the track.

Regards and Merry Christmas

Richard

 

[16A]

Or better still.... Chuck the controller in the bin before it does some damage and go buy something else, anything will do, just remember my rule of thumb - don't buy any electronics gear that says 'Hornby' on the packaging, or you may live to regret it, (as you've already discovered).

Mike

 

[upnick]

Hi Dennis 1,

Welcome to the forum

If Richards advice doesnt solve the problem and you are considering a differnt system take a look at the NCE powercab for its features and flexibilty at an economical price compared to other systems it will provide a far superior performance and is upgradeable should you wish in the future.

If you can take the Hornby back to the retailer for a refund it will go towards a new system.

 

[dennis1]

Hi, Guys, thank you for your replies, most informative, as I have not had the system very long I must persivere with it for now, but the intention was to try out dcc before progressing to something better. I intend to carry out the modification sujested , Thank you all for your comments