Hornby HM7000 Bluetooth Dongle - HM7040 first look

This is my view on the new Hornby HM7040 bluetooth legacy dongle. This video was filmed to show my experiences of this new product.
I believe that this is a real game changer and makes the Hornby HM7000 system a very much more flexible produce than it was before.

[@dalipparmar6134]

Very nice video and well explained about the dongle set up, go mine yesterday so will have a go a set it up too soon. Thank you for the video.

[@robwallace266]

Nice video. Be careful though. Mine shorted everything out and has now failed completely.

[@Haymarket47]

Little more detail would be useful…what controller are you using? Was anything else damaged. Did you follow the instructions to the letter?

[@stevenhamblin4787]

Hi, thanks for Visio, I got my Donegal a couple days ago and quite easy to set up, but do you know if you can change CV s, on older DCC locos, ones without HM 7000 chips? Thank you,

[@tnxrail]

Im assuming you can only have one loco on track when you first set it up? Got to try mine.

[@coombeviaduct3004]

When I first set it up I had 2 locos on the track. One with a standard DCC chip in and the other had a TXS chip in. As the dongle does not program the chips it should not matter if you have other locos one the track. Once Hornby allow you to program CV's via the dongle this might change.

[@markfrancis8623]

I had 15 on mine when I plugged in the dongle. No issues at all. The logic is this. The Dongle is a type of decoder and the locos are allocated to the dongle with their normal numbers It o it defaults to 3 for the first one, just change it to the address for your loco and off you go. One thing to remember is that if you want to control a loco with txs or the bluetooth decider via the dongle you will need to change the operation of the decoder to dcc otherwise it will operate on bluetooth only.

[@stevenhamblin4787]

Hi fab D video, do you know if you can change CVs on older style DCC locos, the ones without HM 7000 chips in? Thank you

[@coombeviaduct3004]

Hi Steve. At the moment I don’t think that it is possible but I am sure I have heard that it is being worked on. It would be great if you could.

[@MrHipwell1989]

Does it work for accessories? I was hoping to get this dongle for my hornby select which has currently been replaced by dccex. But itd be great if i could use the dongle and select again and control my points using the hornby dongle.

[@coombeviaduct3004]

I just had a quick look and I can't see a way of using it with points unless you only have a small layout and go down the HM6010 route. It would be really nice to see point control added in the future as it would allow for a much improved experience.

[@MrHipwell1989]

@coombeviaduct3004 ah thats a shame, thanks for checking

[@Harp-House-Halt]

Does this dongle only work with Hornby controllers, or can you plug it into any DCC controller with a (what looks like a loconet) socket ?

[@coombeviaduct3004]

I have tried it on my Gaugemaster Prodigy Advance 2 and it does not work. I have heard of other people saying that it does work on Lenz devices however.

[@markfrancis8623]

I have a lenz system and it works very well indeed. It needs a system with Xpressnet not Loconet. these are not compatible network protocols

[@michaelwolak3098]

Do you have to upgrade the firmware on the select or elete

[@coombeviaduct3004]

My select was already running the most recent version of firmware. As I understand it the dongle should work on some older versions but maybe not on the oldest. I don't know about the elite as I still have not found time to try the dongle on it yet.

[@stewartclark1847]

I got my MH7040 today and have run it using my Hornby Select which is v1.2 that I purchased in 2013. Unfortunately here in Australia getting upgrades for the Select is impossible. So I’m happy it’s working as described.

[@azuma892]

Does it work with non Hornby DCC controllers?

[@coombeviaduct3004]

In theory if they have expresnet but I have not tried it.

[@TheWGLOVER]

Did you import the relevant function map?

[@coombeviaduct3004]

Yes I did.

[@JJthrashing]

Will this work with all makes of decoders ?

[@coombeviaduct3004]

There is no reason why it won’t. I have tried it with a mix of sound and non sound decoders from several different manufacturers and have experienced no problems. I have also used it with some n gauge locos and again this works with no hiccups.