How-To Modify & Beef-Up The Hornby Chinese Thyristor Controlled R965 Controller. Hornby Triang. 

Education is a wonderful thing, thank you John, I will be having a go myself when I pluck up the courage.

Lovely job there John, nothing like trying to do a nut up in a small place with big fingers... Another great video. Thanks heaps.. Tim.

Great to have a new video, John. Thank you for uploading :-)

You do have a way with words: "Three hours TV, a cup of tea and a whiskey!" , "Don't worry I'm still sober!" An entertaining video thanks for taking the trouble to make it in your usual inimitable style.

Fantastic as all ways been a long time coming this mod and we'll werth the wait. Look forward to to the next video yours Graham

Such a clever chap you make it look so easy :)

Thank you John, that was worth the wait. Cheers, Michael.

Finally a use for my old chinese R965 controllers which came with various kits. I'd always planned to wire all my lighting straight to a 12v power supply but I rather like the idea of making them dimmable, I think a 50VA transformer from RS should work well with your suggested modifications. Thank you for your most useful video John, keep up the good work.

John - that's the best! Now on the whiskey That's my man! I'm with you!

Hi John, Nice to have you back, thanks for your time very useful video will give it a go ,, have a nice cuppa . All the best Brian 🤗

Good to see you back

Looking at the most recent reliable comments on this channel the news is John is selling his entire collection, moving and downsizing.

Have done this mod on a China made R965 and works very well. Perfect for my servicing rolling road, can test/run in 3 dock shunters at a time now! Just one point, on the circuit board I had the Link "Resistor" above the Hornby Hobbies wording on the PCB, on my controller this was a thermistor so i replaced this with a link wire not that the Thyristor gets remotely warm with the new heatsink. Anyway, many thanks for an excellent guide!

Excellent explanation to understand and and cuuent draw

Missed you, John

John, in a bridge rectifier circuit each diode carries only half the current, so you don't need the 4 extra diodes. 4 x 2Amp diodes will supply 4A. Also the bolt head outside the case breaks the double insulated safety of the original device and may be a safety risk.

That was very useful John. Thank you. David.

Excellent! Many thanks for both of these mods: very clear, very informative! Again, thank-you!

Great video john

thanks john glad u made this vidio will help me alot as i have plenty of china controllers thanks

thanks...great electronics..clear instructions...and must do this to my R965...

Way to go John !!! It works !

Very nice explanations. I don't know why Hornby use such thin wire on their controllers. Even without the modification, the voltage drop on that thin wire is awful and causes track voltages to be low. The only thing putting them in Parallel may do is reduce the voltage drop across the diodes. The circuit, in theory, should handle this and it may give a slight increase to the maximum track voltage. Maybe about 0.4V increase. It can't be ab ad thing. My "Chinese" made controller only gives a maximum of 10.9V to the track, so I am looking forward to trying this mod. I really enjoyed your video.

Great tip about how to video John

Love this and would like to have a go. My quastion is how do you get the base off the controller and what do I do if I brake it.

Cool, thanks for that John

Please do more running sessions with the hst and pendolino also a class 158 class 170 class 166 class 350

Hi John I am going to do this but make the Controller into Panel Mounted and make a wood box the fit them in

hi john question for you - i have a dmu 101 homemade from a 2 x dmu cab cut off the second dmu and fitted to the rear of the first dmu so it looks like a 101 now the problem is the motor its old metal gears etc can i buy a up grade for it with a moden motor if can you recomend what one to buy thanx ian

Is there a transformer you can buy that will fit instead of having a battery charger adapted as we have a layout for our 3 year old and dont fancy having battery chargers under his layout cheers

Hi John Thank you for do this video , Could use a Laptop power supply at 19v A 4,75 be OK No link for part need

Hello John when you did the hm 2000 can you tell me what 2 things you changed thanks

John is your last name smith lol because your defiantly no nonsense.

Fantastic I love watching your very informative videos John can I ask how much is your motor exchange service?

Serious now. How do you calculate the current capability of the print tracks? Clearly you can substitute with wire, but at what point do you have to abandon the tracks & substitute for wire? Also how do youu calculate that 15VA equates to 330mA? Surely 15V passing 5VA = 3Amp ie 3 x 5?

Absolutely excellent tutorial! Are you a university professor?

Hi John after watching this video I am wondering if you could try and fix a couple of hornby transformers for me. I bought them off eBay and neither of them work. It’s the R905 and a R910. One has no out put on the 12V variable outlet but does work on the none variable outlet. The other one works for a couple of seconds at a time and cuts out. Would be really grateful if you would have a look at them for me and maybe do a how to video at the same time Thanks John

Hello John, I have 3 Thyristor Controlled R965 Controllers and all of them have the circuits cut near the two AC bolts and a bridge wire going across. The circuit that is cut comes from the right hand connection to the speed controller as you look the back , it is cut just after the first capacitor joins it, then is bridged after the cut and connects to the other end of that same capacitor. Any ideas why this is, was considering doing away with the bridge and rejoining it up as per the circuit then doing your beef up?

Hello John, do you do an exchange service for Lima motors ? I have an old DMU with (I think) a 'pancake' motor in and a Deltic-type diesel also with a suspect motor. The Lima controllers aren't up to much (about 20 years old) but, I will mod my R965 as it's nearly new. Thanks for a very informative video.

Just watched your conversion on the Chinese hornby transformer. When you do the comparison is the provided transformer supplying ac current and the other is supplying dc current. Just want to know if but that is right. Thanks

John i think you are quite some person with a massive stock of trains!my only question for you is why dont you build a bigger model railway as you are so limited on the size of your layout!i know it might come down to space but im sure im not the first person to ask this question?

The laptop power supply are switching types so i would be very edgy about the circuit as you have to remember voltage spikes and peak to peak current levels

Very Jack Hargreaves!

Hi John, I have just bought 1 of these controllers, it does say 'mad in china' but no year. With it the wall plug power supply is a hornby C912 Transformer. The label shows PRI- 230V~50Hz & SEC- 16V~13VA. After I have attempted the conversion, possibly with 4amp diodes, will this Transformer be powerful enough to run a loaded HST125 with a couple of carriages? Thank you Mick

Hi John would you consider using a computer power pack from a tower if so would it run your modified chinise controller also would you consider making a video to talk us all threw it please with lots of pom pom poms de drums de drums 👍😁

Cheers John, many thanks for your time and effort it really is appreciated. Would this mod give better control or ability to run a loco at lower speed or give greater speed control. I find these unmodded controllers are very ' off or on' if that makes sense.

Hi, Do you have a circuit diagram for this as I have one that is behaving oddly and want to get a friend to fix it. Thanks

Hi John, perhaps you can help me. I am building a new layout that I wish to wire for DCC, however as I have a fairly large collection of DC locos(and it will take a lot of time to convert) which I still want to run in the meantime. Can I wire, then substitute a dc controller for the dcc one, ie have a dual system. Your thoughts would be appreciated.

Hi John, Watched a number of your videos, which I think are very helpful. check out the conversions I have done on my Hornby sets after watching yours "Craig's Hornby Upgrades". Anywho, I have been upgrading a Chinese R965 as above but something has gone wrong, I have no potentiometer control of the speed, full speed forward or reverse on the switch. unsoldered and checked the resistance of the pot and it measures 0-200 ohms both sides of the common...changed the Thyristor the transistor and all the diodes...going crazy now. what does that "link" capacitor do? could it be that?

Very interesting video John. Have you seen the new Hornby controller? It''s a waste of money. Sam''s Trains did a review on it. If you have time to watch it. Many thanks. Martin (Thailand)

Did you make a video on the way you did the hornby controller 2000 too make it more powerful thanks

Video request can you do a video of the intercity HST 225

Can anyone recommend a PSU, please.

Hi John I have a friend how is good with electrics what AC transformers would need for him to build good power supply for two hornby controllers

Interesting video John. Very informative and enjoyable. I noticed that there was some sort of resonance(?) from one of the motors(the Hymek?) at various times. It was initially apparent at 44:42 and occurred later in your testing too. What exactly is that? I have an old Bachmann American Dash 9 diesel locomotive that makes the same racket most of the time so I haven't used it in a while. I'd like to fix it if possible, but I'm not sure where to start. Could you possibly advise me?............David

All of my electronic projects turn out to be light dimmers.

I don’t have it😭

its daisy now on my layout - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-CR2ahLWVc8Y.html if you listen to the motor you see what i mean i need a quieter motor thanx ian

First