Will it Fit? HM7000 21-pin TXS Bluetooth Sound Chip in all my locomotives!

Today Jenny is putting to rest the claims that the Hornby TXS HM7000 bluetooth DCC controls won't fit in most locomotives - by fitting them into every 21-pin locomotive she can get her hands on. If you like the look of these chips and fancy some for yourself, try Arcadia Models in Shaw at www.arcadiarail.co.uk/
You might also like to check out the time Jenny tested the HM7000 TXS decoders in NEXT18 locomotives: • Will it Fit in YOUR Mo...
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[@HamStrains]

That was fun. Always good to see things tested rather than simply relying on opinions. Hopefully they can engineer a different antenna solution and maybe find some smaller micro controllers for the next iteration of the next18 decoders, there's certainly scope to achieve it looking at the specs of what's on the board they are producing now and what is available in smaller form factors that achieves the same functionality. Well worth going on a dive into PCB antennas and drawing out the circuits and choices of components based on photos to work out what exactly they've used and how they've gone about it. It's quite a tidy little PCB with not much room to impove it beyond the two things mentioned above.

[@learn_with_gern]

Thank you so much for this video! I'm one of the ones who asked for this test after the Next18 test. Great to see complete success for this chip, hopefully Hornby has a lot of sound profiles in the works.

[@dionwoollaston2389]

Hi Jenny it’s me you read my name out on your Monday Club every week now I have five of these decoders four 21 pin and one 8 pin type So yes I like how they are workable and how you can easily download the sound profiles but most of the time the profiles do not fully download and you have to keep trying and sometimes have to use another type or style of sound profile to get the full sound working Then after having two decoders that failed I have sent them back to hornby Also I find that if I have a short on any thing my ecos goes into stop mode so I fix the short the press the ecos back to start or go and the three hm7000 fitted locos just start off on there own and don’t stop I don’t know if anybody else is having the same problem or it’s just me Thanks for this video it is quite informative and helpful Cheers

[@modelrailwaynoob]

I tried the 21 pin weeks ago and it fitted easily. The main problem is the lack of sound profiles. It worked ok for me but there aren't many I can fit it in to, with a matching sound profile, so it has limited use for me. I hadn't heard any rumours but then I don't listen to gossip, just evidence. PS I was fab with DOS. I got every bit of memory out of it for my new flight sims. Autoexec.bat and config.sys were my best friends.

[@johnpapworth433]

Exactly. The DOS analogy was wrong

[@PebblesChan]

A great video. Can you do a video showing what’s under Wear Yard? It’d be great to see how it’s all wired up.

[@Flymochairman1]

Great work, Jenny. Quite an endeavour. Good to see, indeed. Cheers now!

[@ausfoodgarden]

Great to see that the 21pin unit is a pretty standard size. I might have to get a couple. I did get a couple of the 8pin units for older locos and had trouble fitting them in but getting any sound chip in some locos is a tough ask. The HM7000 chips are a great unit for folks who don't want to spend the big money that "full fat" sound chips require. They sound good enough for me.

[@derekloudon8731]

That was a very good video for anyone wanting to invest in the Hornby decoder. The next18 decoder threw up some challenges but the 21 pin seems to work well. Thank you!

[@lms_steve6693]

Good video. I'm always a bit worried about damage when trying to fit these larger decoders, so I made a mock decoder up using a piece of softwood. It's easy to see if there's a chance of damage especially if you put a small blob of bluetack on it.

[@paranoidjd1351]

Great video! Really helpful, thank you!

[@gordonhanning476]

I can see a lot of people buying dcc ready locos and fitting these decoders as it will be much cheaper than buying sound fitted ones. Hornby definitely on to a winner.

[@tonyslight826]

very good Jenny well done

[@Decrepit_biker]

I have been wondering how these would cope in an O gauge locomotive, say the Dapol 08, or that lovely Class 26 you have Jenny.

[@JenniferEKirk]

I will be testing some in the Dapol O gauge. However the 26 needs a high power decoder so that rules these out.

[@Decrepit_biker]

@@JenniferEKirk I did wonder. I am keen to try one in my smaller engines in O gauge! Particularly if I use battery power in the garden

[@bulleidboy1]

A great informative video Jenny - should put a lot of myths to rest. I saw on the BETA site that you had done the 21pin test, and watched it straight away. Well done.

[@JenniferEKirk]

Many thanks! I’ve seen so many people online making claims the HM7000 decoders don’t fit most locos, and this proves those claiming this haven’t actually tried.

[@garypalmer7540]

Great video very helpful 👍

[@mels1811]

Brilliant video Jenny

[@stephenbromley2302]

So far I have 5 Hornby locos fitted with these decoders and overall I’m impressed I did have one decoder failure and a couple that I’ve had to relink to the app to get blutooth to work but hopefully with a few more updates to fix the bugs these will be great and far cheaper way to add sound switching them over to Dcc after set up I’ve not had a problem.

[@modelrailwaynoob]

20% failure rate isn't ideal. What happened with the fried decoder? I bought three and ok so far.

[@stephenbromley2302]

@@modelrailwaynoob The faulty decoder was working fine then next day it just made a high pitch noise coming out of the speaker and no motor control luckily I bought it from Amazon so sent it back and got a replacement next day no issues so far all working fine.

[@modelrailwaynoob]

@@stephenbromley2302 Out of interest, was it with a DC controller or DCC when it failed?

[@stephenbromley2302]

@@modelrailwaynoob it was a dcc controller digitrax dcs 210+

[@modelrailwaynoob]

@@stephenbromley2302 OK thx

[@gusshadleythelunaticfromar7125]

Hello Jenny! Great tutorial.

[@little_britain]

The 21 pin decoder is the correct nmra size, whereas the Next18 is larger by the size of the bluetooth antenna, as Simon Kohler has admitted. This compromise was accepted because components were not available to making the module shorter so the decision was made to go ahead with what was available, and make sure new Hornby product (including TT) would fit the new decoder.

[@johnpapworth433]

What classes are currently covered, as I have tried to find a list. Clearly Hornby could make an absolute killing if they cover all the classes with this, but obviously covering the DMUs - with their 110 coming out soon and of course Peaks, 25s, Warships, 58 too.

[@martinpattison1567]

I have only one Delic Locomotive which is DCC Ready. Will the HM7000 Chips hot wire into an earlier Locomotive? That could be an interesting project. Martin. (Thailand)

[@JenniferEKirk]

The 8pin versions can be carefully hard wired in as long as there is space.

[@PaulGarwood]

Hi Jenny would just like to know what kind and where do you get your gap tape from?

[@johnpapworth433]

With the Bachmann Class 47 - did you try the chip in there and run it, because I believe there used to be issues if you used the old TTS chips in non-Hornby locos that you'd have to change CVs or something of that ilk?

[@JenniferEKirk]

I did - It works fine

[@johnpapworth433]

@@JenniferEKirk Ace thanks - looks like they have really come up trumps this time

[@modelrailwaynoob]

I’ve used TTS chips in Bachmann locos. No problems and no need to change CV settings for me

[@johnpapworth433]

@@modelrailwaynoob thank you

[@MistaMatthews]

I don’t think there is a class 37 sound file yet.

[@JenniferEKirk]

It is due soon I believe.

[@modelrailwaynoob]

Correct. In fact there aren't many at all.

[@modelrailwaynoob]

@@JenniferEKirk like the android app 12th of never

[@MistaMatthews]

@@modelrailwaynoob is it still not out???

[@modelrailwaynoob]

@@MistaMatthews As of today, no

[@PeachyTT120]

Great myth busting Jenny 😊

[@modelrailwaynoob]

Where are the myths? I haven’t seen them

[@andrewharrison5983]

Maybe it is only the Next 18 decoders that don't fit into the spaces available in next 18 locomotives!!

[@modelrailwaynoob]

The 8 pin and 21 pin have fitted for me so far. I tried them weeks ago.

[@johnpapworth433]

DOS wasn't a problem, and we still use DOS and/or POWERSHELL

DOS was a major problem for the average person. There’s a reason computers only start becoming ubiquitous in the late Nineties.

[@johnpapworth433]

@ It was never a problem - to average or not. As I said, it is still used to this day and the analogy used regarding DOC in this context was a poor one. GUI-based operating systems were popular in the late 80s - so again that is incorrect. The use as a home machine and utilised in smaller businesses started to become all the more the case with the demise of the popular home micros with the death of Atari and Commodore in those markets and Amstrad just producing rehashed 8-bit Spectrums in nice cases - but again, they went down the route of building PCs and thus increased the PC into more and more markets and uses. You still used alot of DOS even in the last years of the 20th century, and it would be more DirectX that was the change than setting the IRQs and pins on the hardware that made them easier.

@@johnpapworth433 We are going to have to disagree. GUI OSes in the 80’s were incredibly limited. Hell, even Windows 3.11 was limited and I’m absolutely correct that full Windows-only systems from 95 onward heralded easier-to-use computers, with the resulting massive increase in sales. There is a noticeable increase in domestic computer use as a direct result of Windows. Like it or not, average people (not average computer users) got a computer *because* Windows made them easy to understand.

[@johnpapworth433]

@ YOu can disagree as much as you want, it doesn't mean you are right. The differences of GUI in the day were the Apple ones, you had GEM and of course you had Amiga Workbench - along with early Windows, OS/2 etc. GEM was very limited because that is all it was, Apple - I don't care about - but was still flexible, but the others Workbench and Windows were front-ends for their CLI, which meant that you still had a lot to do in CLI than just with a GUI. People STILL use DOS and Powershell to this day. Linux GUIs are developed by developers and are cumbersome, but the whole OS is not popular outside of its fanbase - I too use that, and in some cases - well many cases, it is easier to use the CLI than GUI. Home computer use grew from the 80s, some of us were there for that and saw the rise and fall of the Home Computer whilst seeing them being replaced with the IBM PC and Clones. Even Windows 95 still was a front-end for DOS. People used PCs at work, so they bought what they used as they knew how to drive them at work. One of the jobs I did was convert Instructor Led Training for a certain Govt Body from Amiga to PC - because the Amiga, despite being much more proficient at the job and much faster - was converted because it was mandated to use the PC. Windows being a front-end for DOS, that didn't really change until they went to using the Windows 2000 core for both professional and home-based versions of Windows - and if you used that it became truly stable. So, I think you mistake computer buying increasing with the coincidental change in Windows versions and all the other factors that surround it. You also ignore the fact hardware was cheaper and also became easier to implement which made people of a variety of skill levels have the ability to update their PC, that attributed to DirectX to manage hardware configuration which put off a lot of people using a PC. Then of course True 3D with the old Orchid cards. Cost - cheaper to buy IDE or SATA that SCSi-devices. Intel/Cyrix/IBM/AMD et al were cheaper processors to buy than the Power PC ones and of course the motherboards created to one standard rather than bespoke. I am not a hater of Windows, I do like it and have used every version of it including ME (lol) and seen how much more stable and robust it is compared to how using development tools would crash all the time in Windows 95 and 97 - and long for Windows 2000. Windows was there during the increase of PC use, it is not the main factor for PC sales increasing - if it was all about usability, people would have gone the Mac route for that reason alone.

@@johnpapworth433 tl;dr

[@tonyslight826]

Hi Jenny is there a sound file for the class 37 loco as I could not find one on my hH.M7000 TXS app could you let me know please. Regards

[@JenniferEKirk]

It is due this quarter.