How To Find and Use the Horn Function on Piko Digi Fern Controllers

There's good news and bad news for Piko Digi Fern users when it comes to using the horn function on a loco decoder. The good news is that there are four buttons f1 to f4 on the controller which are used to access special functions on the loco decoder.

The confusing news from the manual is contained in several phrases. Firstly, that the "lights are switched on with the f0 key and off with the off key."

These keys are located above the f1-f4 keys which are circled in green on the image of the Piko Digi Fern.

The other confusing phrase from the manual is "the keys A to D switch the special functions f1 to f4 on and off." The A to D keys are circled in blue.

The upshot of all this is that I suspect that the function keys can be used to trigger sounds (among other things) that are pre-programmed in the loco decoder. I make this assumption because similar functions like cab lights (on/off) can be operated with these function keys.

However, since the Digi Fern (and this is the bad news) cannot be used to program a decoder, it's a bit hit and miss to figure out which key does what.

By the way, if you need more than 4 function keys, you can use the f+4 button to access functions higher up the order. There's still no guarantee that these will actually activate something, but that's all part of the trial and error game that is the Piko Digi-Fern.

The first step is to make sure that you're actually controlling the right loco, by selecting the correct transmission channel (with buttons A to D) and keying a known function. For example, press the loco key (it's top-leftmost on the Piko remote) and follow that with the loco address, and the desired function - say the + button to increase speed.

Cancel that operation, so you have a stationary loco, and can proceed to test the various f buttons.

Although the documentation states that the system will 'remember' the last loco that was used, I prefer to key the loco address each time when I'm doing trial and error operations.

So, key loco + address + f(n) and see what happens. Write down what happens, even if it's nothing. An easy test to make sure that the decoder accepts these functions is to start with f0 and off, which should enable you to turn the lights on and off.

Eventually, you should find the horn function, but without any way to visually see what you're doing, there's no actual guarantee! I'm personally saving up for something like the Sprog3 or z21 before I get into advanced functions like sound!

Aha! DCC Conversion for the Hornby Railroad 06 Class Diesel

Recently, those fine folks at Hornby released a Railroad edition of the Class 06 Diesel Shunter for an extremely affordable £20. Now, even a newbie like myself understands that there's a certain disdain reserved, by some people, for the Railroad editions, but when you're just starting out, with limited funds, Metcalfe models, and Railroad stock are just sensible, value for money, options.

Being a Railroad, of course, it's missing DCC, and the DCC plug, has no lights, and being Hornby isn't compatible with my existing Kadee couplers. So, I've got three projects on the go, one of which is now complete - my non-DCC Class 06 Diesel now has a Hornby 4 function DCC chip installed.

For those keeping score - that's £31 spent so far, plus about 45 minutes of work (bracketed by an hours worth of head-scratching.) Before I explain the project, I'd also like to point out that I wouldn't have even bothered, were it not for the free DCC guide that came with August's Model Rail magazine. I'd have just bought an expensive, DCC shunter, and not bothered with the Engine Shed, Goods Shed, track, points, etc. etc. that I was able to buy with the difference...

I should also mention that I have two regrets : I didn't take photos, and I don't have a soldering iron. So, this is a solder-free, no photo project. If you're going to attempt it, I recommend both taking photos, and using solder!

Step 1 : dismantle the loco following the instructions that came with it. If you're reading this in 2015, and bought it second hand at a local fair, then look underneath, there are little clips that can be persuaded to release the body from the frame in two parts.

Step 2 : cut the wires that lead from somewhere udner the motor (from the rail pickups), to the motor itself. Now, I know that there are people out there who will strip it right back, take off the motor, de-solder the TV supression (two capacitors) etc.etc., but I just cut the black wires, folded them back, stripped about 5mm of insulation off,and twisted the ends.

Step 3 : cut the plug off the DCC chip. You don't need it, since there's no DCC socket. But, leave as much wire as you can, as it makes the next bit easier.

Step 4 : put the loco down in front of you, with the front facing. This is important, because, unless you want to reverse the function of forwards and backwards, you have to get the right wire on the right side of the motor.

Step 5 : identify the right and left motor wires from the DCC pin allocations given in the DCC instructions. In my case, it was grey (left) and orange (right).

Step 6 : do the same for the power connections (rails). In my case, these were red (left rail) and black (right rail).

Step 7 : solder the correct colored wires to the correct black wire ends created by the cutting process in step 2. In my case, I twisted them together, and insulated with tape. Following Hornby's own directions, I also taped the wires around the DCC chip, but you might like to leave that until after testing and programming the DCC decoder. So...

Step 8 : test and program the decoder on your programming rail, or on the main.

Step 9 : if it didn't work as planned, check the wiring. If it did, put everything back how you found it, with the addition of the DCC decoder sitting on top of the motor - there's space!

And that's about all there is to it. No doubt I made mistakes, and no doubt others can do it better, but for a newbie, I thought I'd done okay! Next time, photos, I promise...

The next Railroad Class 06 Diesel project is to get rid of those irritating toy-like couplers and put on nice, shiny, but somehow out of place Kadees instead. After all, they did win the Model Rail magazine August edition's Coupling Test (for best auto couplers.)

Other railway modeling magazines are available.