[poliss]

I was browsing the NMRA website and found the Hornby R8215 decoder has been added to the top of the list.
http://www.nmra.org/standards/candi/warrants.html

 

[TonyDaly]

I wonder will Hornby offer any help to people who bought the previous crap versions ?

 

[Brian]

Wonder how you tell at the shop counter that youre buying a version 1.3 decoder?

 

[poliss]

As for how you tell if it's version 1.3. I just got a new Hornby decoder today and the little sticker on the back says 'R8215-13-162. The middle figures might indicate the version number.

 

[Brian Considine]

QUOTE (Brian @ 13 May 2008, 13:20) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Wonder how you tell at the shop counter that youre buying a version 1.3 decoder?

Surely these versions will state so on the packaging/in the packaging/in the instructions ?

 

[Martin71]

Well now thats very interesting that they got it. Good effort Hornby. Shame you didnt do it 15 months ago, or you would have had an elite and maybe 30-40 decoders in extra sales. Happy with the products and service I am getting so I see o point in switching back.

Good to hear that the effort has being made.

m

 

[ebaykal]

Is this the "Sapphire" one that was expected ?

Baykal

 

[Brian Considine]

QUOTE (ebaykal @ 14 May 2008, 07:35) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Is this the "Sapphire" one that was expected ?

Baykal
No - this is the "Basic" which it really is - & at a RRP of 10GBP it is far too basic, especially when compared to the 11GBP Bachmann "badge-engineered" ESU one - just look at the specification ;

http://static.hornby.com/files/r8215-loco-decoder-284.pdf

There really are better decoders out there for about the same money, but, of course it will sell.

 

[Martin71]

Hi

Well done Hornby! I just dug out my old Hornby decoder Tech sheet and it is exactly the same. Maybe the have not got around to revising it yet? Dont know. I will be interested to see the spec's on the Sapphire but I think thats where my interest ends. I have also noticed I had posted on this topic last night and now it is gone. Why?

Did I say something that not PC eg I'm not interested in buying their digital products.?

m

 

[poliss]

One of the great advantages of the Hornby decoder for us N Scalers is it's small size. It doesn't matter if another decoder has 10 times the spec. and is half the price if it won't fit inside the locomotive.

 

[Doug]

Would there be any chance of getting old decoders (that don't work on a normal DCC layout) exchanged for new ones?

I've merged the two topics so that we don't loose any useful comment. I deleted a couple of posts that talk of the two topics and are thus redundant.

Just a word about news: Thanks to all those who post news - just remember that anything posted in the news section is vetted before it is published. A news post should be model railway industry news and read like a news story. The News post is published automatically on the portal and to the RSS feed. Other sites read our news feed and you have to imagine someone reading the news from this site by itself when you write the story.

Please continue to post news - those who do - imagine you are writing a news story for a tabloid or magazine - put a title, a header paragraph and some text. Leading images are too important. A good 500 x 320 image shows up well on the portal and RSS feed.

 

[Richard Johnson]

QUOTE (poliss @ 14 May 2008, 20:57) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>One of the great advantages of the Hornby decoder for us N Scalers is it's small size. It doesn't matter if another decoder has 10 times the spec. and is half the price if it won't fit inside the locomotive.

***Nowhere near as small as the TCS M1 though - and the M1 has full adjustability on all CV's, higher power motor drive and better function control - plus a better warranty!

Richard

 

[poliss]

It's also over twice the price. I can buy Hornby decoders for £8.25 post free. It would cost me at least an extra £153.00 to buy TCS M1 decoders for my fleet. Not all of us can afford it, especially when wives object to spending any money at all on the hobby.

 

[Richard Johnson]

QUOTE (poliss @ 15 May 2008, 00:05) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>It's also over twice the price. I can buy Hornby decoders for £8.25 post free. It would cost me at least an extra £153.00 to buy TCS M1 decoders for my fleet. Not all of us can afford it, especially when wives object to spending any money at all on the hobby.

***As long as you are happy with it then thats just fine... Although I must admit that I really don't consider the TCS decoders as expensive. I'd have to say I've fitted very, very many N scale loco's and the M1 often gives a much better final result, as best running for N scale (especially British N scale) can be hard to achieve and really does need help very often.

I should add too that as I've lobbied strongly and worked on the whole compliance with DCC standards thing without letup for a couple of years now, I'm really very, very pleased to see Hornby go from publicly denying and considering the NMRA standards irrelevant to realising their importance and embracing them, and I sincerely hope that this very positive trend continues, as it'll be good for the hobby as a whole to remove the problems of the incompatibility of their earlier efforts...

It'll be nice to see Hornby continue to evolve positively with their DCC efforts.

Kind regards

Richard

 

[7113]

QUOTE (Richard Johnson @ 14 May 2008, 16:22) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>It'll be nice to see Hornby continue to evolve positively with their DCC efforts.

And that is one sentiment I do heartily agree with.

Regards

 

[neil_s_wood]

QUOTE (BRITHO @ 15 May 2008, 02:31) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>And that is one sentiment I do heartily agree with.

Regards
Yep, me too.

 

[Brian Considine]

QUOTE (Richard Johnson @ 14 May 2008, 17:22) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>It'll be nice to see Hornby continue to evolve positively with their DCC efforts.

Very true & certainly a step in the right direction.

 

[john woodall]

It is good for the British modeller who only buys Hornby Product.

Now all Hornby need to do is main stream it so it becomes a standard product (ie all locomotives have a DCC chip in them) which will enduce them to develope further DCC items.

John

 

[Brian Considine]

QUOTE (john woodall @ 15 May 2008, 09:43) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>(ie all locomotives have a DCC chip in them)
They tried that & backpeddled !

Personally (& I say this as a very enthusiastic DCC'er) I don't think it a good idea to fit decoders as standard - many locomotives that we come across do not perform as well on analogue DC with a decoder as without. In fact we have "dechipped" quite a number for customers.

Likewise (apart from factory fitted sound), as a DCC'er I do not want to buy a locomotive fitted with a decoder chosen by a bean counter.

To be honest, these days, especially in any locomotive tooled or re-tooled in the last few years decoder fitting should be easy & take no more than a couple of minutes - no excuse.

 

[john woodall]

Valid points Brian.

Ultmately Hornby are going to be driven by the return on their investment, not what is "best" for the modeller. When you consider that just about the entire world has accepted DCC as the norm, and Hornby are only now embracing it you have to seriously wonder why they spent any R&D on it when they could have rebadged at a fraction of the cost (and from reading this forum the grief!).

I suppose in the ideal world all locomotives would come with a socket preinstalled so that a decoder of choice can be plugged in.

Being a 3 railer, I am lucky I suppose that the sound locomotives that I buy all have loksound 3.5 in them. I will be honest and say it must be a good 10 years since I purchasd a locomotive that did not come with a DCC chip preinstalled in it.

John