Hi. Tbh I was surprised to see the Hornby one go twice the distance as the other. But most importantly it’s good to have different ones with different shapes, enabling fitting into different shape locos. Cheers Dave.
Hi Jenny. I've purchased 3 of these AE power banks. I am not a traditional DCC user but decided to give the Hornby HM7000 system a go. I have 5 locos with an HM 7000 Bluetooth decoder fitted running through the HM7000 app (no Dcc controller). I did a very simple test . I placed each of the locos with an AE power bank in turn on the track with no other loco on the track. Started the loco and at a marked position cut the power. Each of the locos continued to a distance between 60 and 65 cm after cutting power. I did run my 'Black Watch ' Hornby deltic to which I added the Hornby power bank. The loco ran on for 71 cm after cutting the power. I have poor track and the power banks are doing their intended job. I love the Hornby HM7000 system but do need the help of the power banks. If Hornby's power banks had been available I would have purchased them. The AE banks fitted the decoder power bank slots without any problems and provided a very creditable alternative.
Can I question whether those ranges you measured were down to the power banks. During each test, your DCC Alphameter power draw only seemed to drop when the last wheel of the loco crossed onto the tape which makes me wonder if that loco has pick-ups on the last wheels. If this is the case then the power bank doesn't surely kick in until the full loco is on the tape and therefore the extra distance traveled, because of the power bank, would be from the tape start to where the last loco wheel is when it stopped.
I’m keen to see these since the Hornby ones have never made it to Australia yet. The 28 pin decoders aren’t marked for a soldered on keep alive so I need the plug in ones. Luckily we’ve got some good DccConcepts stockists here so more of a chance of seeing it.
The supplies of these AE units isn’t plentiful wither , as yet anyway. Also check out the Laisdcc stay alive options - 4 different sizes and capacities. They aren’t plug-in, but are cheaper if you’re ok with delicate soldering. I’ve used them on Hornby’s TXS decoders and they work well, even on Lima Ringfield motors adapted for dcc running with TXS chips. Product choice is good, although it’s clear that Hornby’s own are probably the best. They must be kicking themselves over lost sales.
The AE units are in stock and available from ourselves, Rails (they will be receiving aa delivery on Monday), TMC and KMS. More stock is also inbound to populate other model shops.
That test might be more meaningful if there was NOTHING else on the track that was drawing current. Even when the test loco was fully on the paper tape, something was still drawing nearly 2 amps.
It is meaningful when both stay alives were subjected to the same environment. The 2A draw is the base draw of the full layout. That includes lamps, point decoders and other locomotives set at idle. All layouts have a resting draw even when no trains are running.
So just checking with anyone who may know, with the HM7000 chips can you hard wire them? And if not what socket is required to be hard wired in. I'm struggling to find info on these; I want to upgrade a non-DCC ready loco.
