Dcc decoder for Hornby sentinel.

[crazynitwit]

I know that Hornby make a decoder but from what I've seen the the wires seen to be quite brittle. This has made me a reluctant to convert over to dcc as I wouldn't be able to run my sentinel.

If there are any other ways of giving it a decoder or companies who make a 4pin decoder please tell me.

[SRman]

Depending on how good your soldering skills are, you could hard-wire a decoder into the Sentinel, giving you a much wider choice of brands and types.

For my own Sentinel diesel, and three Pecketts (in which Hornby also saw fit to use the non-standard 4-pin decoder), I fitted a TCS M1 decoder (which is smaller than Hornby's intended decoder) by wiring the decoder to the 'blanking' plug. The metal sockets can be pushed out using a small screwdriver to lift the plastic retaining tab.






Otherwise, Hornby make the only 4-pin decoders that I know of, so they have tried to create a captive market.

[Butler Henderson]

Mine are also fitted with TCS M1s although I did a complete strip down on them so discarded the 4 pin socket and also removed the capacitor which is buried under the motor.

[crazynitwit]

This is a bit off topic but where the small railing on the sentinel (nearest the door) is a small crack/split. Will this expand over time. I think it should be fine as I had to put a tiny bit of plastic glue in there to fix the railing in place.