[Gary]

Hornby are to submit their Elite digital console to the NMRA for conformance testing and conformance certification. Hornby do have plans to offer Hornby digital worldwide and they must recognise the advantage that NMRA conformance offers as part of their worldwide marketing strategy.

Happy modelling
Gary

 

[dwb]

>Hornby are to submit their Elite digital console to the NMRA for conformance testing and conformance certification
That's good news. I hope they are successful.

David

 

[hildo]

Glad to hear that hornby are going to apply for the NMRA conformance warrant, it would appear they have learned from the problems in the select and decoders launched in dec 2006, at least they have taken note of the concerns raised by people on this and other forums that hornby dcc should be compatable with
lenz,digitrax ,gaugemaster and others , failure to do this will cost hornby sales.

 

[dwb]

>it would appear they have learned from the problems in the select
It wouldn't surprise if they had always planned to have the Elite certified. The Select is fine for a small layout and for anyone with expansion plans it can be used as a "satellite" controller with an Elite, so you have an upgrade path.

David

 

[Doug]

I was part of a group of people testing the Scalextric Sport World system. A sort of hybrid digital and analogue system that connected the track to the internet.

We were sworn to secrecy whilst testing the system, but when it was released, we were allowed to talk about our testing and we were able to help first-time users understand some of the complexities of the system.

Because the testers were from all over the place, we were able to test it in a variety of conditions and with a variety of computers and other variables.

I'm finding it hard to believe that the Hornby DCC system was tested sufficiently before release to the market. Any DC expert would have tested the components with a variety of other systems and would have identified the need for some sort of compliance warranty.

In 2004 we were eagerly watching the NMRA conformance warrants for any news - to try and get an idea on what the Hornby system was going to be called for one, but it's now obvious that Hornby are only now starting the process of getting any compliance warranty.

Likewise, we watched every update of the DCC Manufacturer ID list to see when Hornby would be added. The list was updated a week ago and Hornby are still not on the list. Some of the Hornby divisions are there: Arnold, Rivarossi. Sanda Kan Industrial, Ltd. are there so perhaps it is their ID that will be on the decoders if they are making them.

We haven't heard anyone publicly stand up and say that they were helping to test the Hornby DCC items, so unless they are still sworn to secrecy, it seems evident that testing was only done in-house.

 

[Peter_Harvey]

hasn't the horse already bolted ?

Its good that they are doing it though.

Pete