[silver760]

Evening all,

Now here is a novel thing I noticed the otherday.I own a wide and varied selection of old and new Hornby loco's.I have the old Dock Shunters,old class )* and a new (Chinese) class 08 and many more.I have a rectangle of track on the floor that I let them all run round on once in a while to keep the gears/motors moving.

I have used various power supplies from various people to power this oval.I have had an onl H&M minipack,a Bachmann controller,and a USA import Bachmann controller.Thry all ran the loco's much of a muchness,the imort US one having the most punch.I recently bought the HM200,though it does take up alot of room on my desk,it has changed the performance characteristics of all the loco's I have!!Especially the dock shunters.I see in the blurb for the HM2000 that it has control compensation etc,but without a citcuit diagram or ripping it apart I obviously cant see what these are.

Does anyone have the circuit diagram for the HM2000,just so I can see what Hornby are using in there.Does it include back EMF.It has made a big difference to allot of my loco's and I'm just interested,

Thanks,Stew.

Please can you email me your responce as I very rarely come on this site,thankyou.

 

[pedromorgan]

Sorry i have no idea. i am still waiting for hornby to make and H&M controller that FEELS like an H&M controler!!

Peter

 

[Gary]

Is the Hornby controller pumping more power into the track?

I don't know how the ratings compare however big controllers normally mean bigger heat sinks as a result of more heat to dissipate due to increased oomph!

Happy modelling
Gary

 

[Brian]

I wonder too what is inside a Hornby HM2000 etc.
I know that the original HM range - Clipper & Duette etc used resistance mat control for varying the output voltage and brilliant they were at this!
Of course the new Hornby HM2000 range will use electronics and perhaps its this that's allowing more power to reach the track??? I doubt if Hornby units have feedback built in, but this is only a guess!
I suspect your improved running with the HM2K unit over other Hornby and any one elses range of controllers is as already stated, it's a much more up market unit than the rest.
But in my opinion it still doesn't match some other controllers that are available today e.g. Gaugemaster, KPC & AMR etc to name but three!
Of course the ultimate is to change to DCC but that's another story and forum

 

[silver760]

The HM2000 seems to give alot of oomph at low volts,but the output is rated at 550mA,I wonder if the controller uses pulse width modulation PWM instead of just the usual voltage increase from 0-12,that would explain why some of my motors run appreciably warmer than before and sound different.I bet you thats what the difference is.

Stew.

 

[Brian]

Seems the H & M 2K units from Hornby do have some form of feedback control.
For those who like "Techy reads" then this site gives some comparisons - HM report is almost at the bottom of the page
|Controller review

 

[silver760]

Thanks for finding that,that answers all my questions and verifies what I thought,it does indeed use PWM with feedback,unline the linear DC controllers i have been using before.I did notice a massive difference in loco performance and increased motor heating.Not too sure if it is a good idea to run my older models with this transformer,as they were designed for a linear DC controller not PWM.

Thinking about it now,after just picking up my hot Dock Shunter,I will run the older ones on the other controller,the Dock Shunter was veryy "buzzy" at low speeds and doesnt seem to run half aswell as it did on the older controller,but strangely enough the new class08 I have doesnt seem to mid which controller its on,it think it may be due to the main difference that the Dock Shunter is a 3 pol3 motor and the class08 is a 5 pole,hence no buzz at start up/slow speeds,

Thanks again,Stew.