Hornby TTS R8101 Class 31 DCC Sound (Fitting & Speaker Upgrade)

Hornby TTS R8101 Class 31 DCC Sound (& Speaker Upgrade)

With Hornby recently releasing their budget TTS sound decoders & hearing so much about them, we’ve decided to try one out. So both myself & Justin are trying the R8101 Class 31 TTS Sound decoders out for the club. Justin is fitting one in a Hornby Railroad class 31 model (BR blue livery), & i’m fitting one in a super detailed Hornby Class 31 model (BR Dutch livery). Both models are DCC Ready with a 8 pin decoder socket. DCC ready means: Model fitted with a DCC plug socket  & runs on traditional analogue straight out the box. It’s ready to take a DCC decoder by removing the blanking plug & plugging in a DCC decoder. This converts the model to DCC (Digital Command Control).

Justin’s 31 model has been beautifully weathered with extra detailing fitted by club member Bob Bateman. Here’s Justin’s Railroad model below really looking the part with it’s weathering & extra detailing.

The decoder in question can be found here in the Scale Model Scenery shop along with a selection of other diesel & steam sounds:

https://www.scalemodelscenery.co.uk/product-tag/tts-sound-decoder/?v=79cba1185463

In the box comes supplied a 8 pin sound decoder with speaker already wired to the decoder.  Also a fitting guide info sheet & an instruction leaflet.

So first up on the super detailed model is to remove the body by unscrewing the 4 screws, located on the underside towards the front ends under the bogies. Once the screws are removed the body then simply slides off. Next job is to remove the fan assembly. In the photo below you can see the super detailed chassis with the body removed. You’ll also notice on the left a normal DCC decoder already fitted. The DCC socket is located under yellow Kapton tapeon the left.

As i’m not going to be using the fan & give more space for the speaker, the fan assembly is going to be removed. In the photo below left you can see the fan housing held in place by four screw. In the photo below right unscrewing the four fan housing screws prior to removal.

Having unscrewed the fan housing screws & for ease of removal cut the fan rubber drive band. Having done that remove the fan housing but keep two of the screws. This now gives us space for the speaker as seen below.

Next fit the speaker with either the two screws you’ve saved or use the two supplied in a bag with the decoder. Use two of the fan housing screw holes to screw & secure the speaker into place, as seen below.

Now turn attention to fitting the decoder. If no decoder is fitted then unplug the DCC blanking plug from the DCC socket. Keep the blanking plug for safe keeping. In my case it was unplugging the normal DCC decoder i’d fitted previously.  For any one new to DCC plug the decoder into the decoder socket, making sure that the pin with the orange wire goes into the socket hole marked as one. The pin with the orange wire is known as the number one pin, the number pin always goes in the socket hole marked as one (As shown in the photo below). Note: The number one socket is clearly marked on this models PCB board.

As the TTS sound decoder has a reasonable length of wires attached to it’s plug i’ve placed the decoder under the PCB board. Using a DCC decoder insulating sleeve that comes with the class 31 model, cut insulating sleeve to just longer than the decoder. I’ve left both ends of the insulating sleeve open but taped the sleeve in place around the decoder. Leaving a gap at either end allows for air cooling across the decoder. In the photo below the decoder fitted in the insulating sleeve prior to the sleeve being taped to hold it in place around the decoder.

Next unscrew the PCB board (two screws at opposite ends) & lift the PCB board. Place the decoder underneath the PCB. I’ve used Kapton Tape to hold the decoder in place on the PCB board underside. Make sure nothing on the PCB board or on the wires end of the decoder are touching!! Once happy all is okay, re-screw the PCB back into place making sure the decoder doesn’t fowl the drive shafts or flywheels. The photo below shows the decoder fitted in place. The Kapton tape on the left is to insulate & prevent any part of the chassis from contacting with the wires end of the decoder, & thus prevent the decoder shorting out.

Next is to place the loco on your DCC programming track & check that the loco decoder address is on the default address setting of 3. Test run to make sure all is okay, reprogram the loco address to your chosen loco address number. Once happy refit the loco body & time to enjoy some loco sounds!! Hit function one & fire up that engine.

Sound Functions

The decoder has 25 functions with function F25 for Aux if in locomotive. The list of functions are as follows:

F0     Headlight/rearlight (if fitted to locomotive)
F1     Engine start/stop
F2     Horn high-low
F3     Horn low-high
F4     Brake squeal
F5     NOTCH up
F6     NOTCH down
F7     Return to IDLE
F8     Thrash
F9     Cold start override
F10   Compressor
F11   Door slam
F12   Fan
F13   Horn high
F14   Horn low
F15   Primer
F16   Slow flange squeal
F17   Spirax valve
F18   Horn short low
F19   Horn short high
F20   Wagons buffering
F21   Wagons clanging
F22   Coupling
F23   Dispatch whistle
F24   Buffering
F25   Aux (if used in locomotive)

Some of the functions can be toggled on & off, others are momentary action with some will play for as long as the function button is held pressed. TTS stands for Twin Track Sound, so as this is a budget decoder only two sounds can be played at any one time. Hornby have also given the option to set the volumes on all the individual sounds on this decoder. A list of the CV’s and settings are given on the supplied instruction manual.

For the volume of the main engine sound  select CV161. Hornby have set it at the value of 4, though the sound volume can be set as high as 8 & low as 0. I turned the volume up to 8 which for me sounds better than the factory set volume. With the standard supplied speaker it gives a very reasonable sound, however doing a speaker upgrade really does bring out the best of this decoder.

One thing i did notice that my 31 was a little jerky on setting off. A quick read through of the decoder manual shows that CV150 changing from factory settingCV150=0 to CV150=1 cured the jerkiness.

The speaker upgrade

So having a quick search on the internet i ordered a Zimo LS40x20x09 speaker. Hornby Magazine also highly recommend this speaker as an upgrade for Hornby TTS sound decoders. Price is around the £8 mark for this speaker. The Zimo LS40x20x09 speaker is an optimised 3D unit with resonance chamber. It’s a 8 Ohm 1 Watt speaker in which Hornby clearly states in the supplied paper work, that not to fit any speaker rated higher than this!!

So in the two photo’s below you can compare the Zimo speaker  (on the left) with the Hornby TTS speaker (on the right).

So to perform the speaker upgrade Unscrew & remove the TTS decoder & keep the two mounting screws, Left photo below. Then cut the two (red & black) wires near the TTS speaker, right photo below.

With the red & black speaker wires strip the ends back a couple of mm (left photo below) & solder the wires onto the Zimo speaker (right photo below). The two speaker wire tags on the zimo are located on both sides of the speaker. Dosen’t matter which way round you solder the two wires. The two speaker screws will hold the speaker quite snug, again in the left photo below.

Once the wires are re-soldered on test run to make sure all is okay. Just a case of refitting the body & adjsuting the sound volume to suit your personal taste.

In the video to go with this article click on the link below. You’ll see & hear the difference with the TTS decoder with standard speaker & the Zimo speaker upgrade:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ekhk4n6zkEo