Anybody using lots of NCE Switch-Its?

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- Vince
  
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posted
18 years ago

Thu, Dec 22, 2005 12:28 AM

I'm about ready to start putting in some stationary decoders on my layout. I'm leaning toward going cheap and simple...that is, NCE Switch-It decoders, but I was a little worried about the extra electrical load on the DCC signal (on the rails). I have enough capacity from an amperage perspective....just wondering if using lots of Switch-Its (say, eventually, 20 of 'em or so) has some other negative effect (like the extra parasitics rounding off the DCC signal or something).

Any experience out there? It would also obviously be nice to not have to run a 12V bus to those babies...although, I'll still have 12V lying around for other switches that will not be DCC controlled.

Regards,

Vince

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- Dale Gloer
  
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posted
18 years ago

Thu, Dec 22, 2005 3:33 PM

You should provide a separate booster for your Switch-Its. Two reasons, one is that they don't produce extra load on your track power and the second more important one - If you are using track power and run a switch causing a short, your track power shuts down and now you can't throw the switch to correct the short.

Dale Gloer

V> I'm about ready to start putting in some stationary decoders on my

- S
- Stevert
  
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posted
18 years ago

Thu, Dec 22, 2005 5:26 PM

Dale's giving some good, sound advice. But instead of a separate booster, I use a PM42 to split the output of my single booster. Three of the PM42's outputs go to various track segments and the fourth is used exclusively for stationary decoders (I use DS54's and SRC8's). Depending on the requirements of your particular layout, this may be a more economical solution than an additional booster.

Stevert