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Rocco DCC

This weekend I found a local pusher -- er, hobby shop. They are selling Rocco DCC sets, list price $200, asking $120. The sets have an engine w/decoder installed, a power supply, a controller (LocoMaus), an oval of track and some cars.

The things that disturbed me when I read the manual:

  1. DC and DCC on the same track will fry the controller. My club had a Digitrax demo where there were a DC and DCC engine running on the same track, at the same time, independantly controlled.

  1. They say they're NMRA DCC compliant, but then say only some decoders work with their system.

QUESTIONS:

A. Has anyone out there used this stuff? What ware your experiences, good/bad, and your recommendations?

B. are #1 and 2 above particular to the Rocco system?

TIA

Will

Reply to
wseehorn
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A DC powersupply and a DCC power supply applied to the same section of track at the same time will probably NOT produce good results.

I run my Digitrax equipped loco's on a DC only layout with no problems. I selected "yes" to that option when programming the decoder on an NCE system.

Paul

Reply to
Paul Newhouse

The DCC analogue control works reasonably well with large motors - what is happening is that the alternating pulses of one polarity are extended, imagine 14 volts for a 10 thousandth of a second in one direction and then 2/10 thousandths in the opposite direction. A motor armature with plenty of mass (Athearn for example) will just revolve in the one direction and the extra heat will just disipate. On a little motor such as a Roco model with an N gauge motor, the motor will keep reversing with the voltage and while the outward effect will be forward motion the mechanisim will take a pounding. The high voltage will also cause severe heating and occassionally melt-down.

All DCC decoders should work with it, but only to the standard of the Roco unit, such as limited numbers of addresses, limited speed steps and limited numbers of functions. If those limitations suit your purposes then that is the unit for you, otherwise you will have to dig deeper into your beer money!

Regards, Greg.P.

Reply to
Gregory Procter

I can't comment on #2 but I'll elaborate on your first question. BTW, it is Roco, not Rocco.

DCC was never designed to be able to co-exist with DC. You cannot have both hooked up to the same track. Things would fry !

However, most DCC systems have an "analog" mode avaialble where they can give you control to a plain DC locomotive on the same track as the DCC controlled locos. They can all be simultaniously controlled.

This is done by creatively changing timing to the DCC signal present in the tracks. It gives an averaged out pulse DC voltage which can control a plain CD motor. Since the signal is still DCC, it makes the motor hum and get warm even when it is sitting still. It also doesn't play well with coreless motors. The DCC equipped locos don't still work as they suppose to. Unless their headlight use simplified wiring whuch would cause headlights to dim when using the CD loco on the DCC district. No biggie.

Overall, it is not really recommended to run DC and DCC locos on the same track.

On the other hand, most DCC decoders work well when placed in CD environment. Some are DC enabled by default, others have to be enabled to do so. They just need a higher starting voltage (as the decoder needs some voltage to function properly).

Peteski

Reply to
Peter W.

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