Voltage from two transformers

Will wonders never cease?

I hope not!

Some folks like to watch NASCAR roundy-roundy shows, others like road races on real courses. Roundy-roundy seems pretty boring to me, too - good thing you've got those guys to provide background scenery for the railroad, eh?

Spot-on. I don't care much for NASCAR type operations either, but I can really get stuck into an IMSA road race or a Grand Prix event. So then, it really is very much "each to his own", isn't it?

CH

Aw, rats! Here comes the same old stupid DC vs. DCC argument again! Look guys, some of us like DC while others like DCC. Personally I like DC for several reasons, not the least of which is the cost of putting a piece of electronics in every loco, some of which don't have a whole lot of room.

-- Why isn't there an Ozone Hole at the NORTH Pole?

Here we go again, the fiction that DCC controls the train from the locomotive but DC does not. What a load of rubbish. Both systems use the track to transmit the control signal to the locomotive.

No from me! :-)

The bulk of the rubbish is coming from your end. You know perfectly well that your way of doing things controls the way the track behaves under the locomotive. you transmit power to the loco motor either as a variable voltage or a pulse-width modulated voltage. There is nothing inside the locomotive that tells it that the power is or is not meant for it, so then, every locomotive on that piece of track responds to the command and they all do exactly the same thing.

My DCC locomotive knows when I want it to do or not do something, and so I can have the power to the track on at full strength at all times. since control of the locomotive unit is in the locomotive and not on the track under it, I can make any one of several locos all on the same track, move independently.

Now, expand that idea to encompass the entire model railway layout as a single block of track which is at full power at all times, and upon which each locomotive unit can independently be caused to behave as desired, and you begin to see the power and simplicity of the thing. There are no design obstacles to overcome or solve. There are no issues of block selection, and block locating and positioning with which to deal. There are no routes nor any route selection system to engineer, ALL of which you need to be able to do in order to engineer and construct a DC system that will behave almost as well as a DCC system that you can take home, plug in and run.

So, if you want to claim "rubbish", you go right ahead and do it. It doesn't change the fact that I can independently control each individual locomotive unit and you cannot.

CH

And most of us have valid reasons for our preference.

BTW, Bob (ACHTUNG! - OFF TOPIC! - ACHTUNG!) I just saw an article that says ozone levels are diminishing at the north pole as well :-).

I've had O scale equipment that you couldn't put a deconder int! As a result, I've looked at DCC but not implemented it even in O scale.

-- Why isn't there an Ozone Hole at the NORTH Pole?

electrical/electronic crap, I

conventional DC, once

When you get a short on a decoder output it usually means buy a new one. Shorts are as common on DCC as DC. Depends on the layout. If you keep your DCC wiring as simple as possible, that is one block, when you get a problem it is harder to fault find compared to a blocked DC layout. And until you find it, all your layout is non operational. If you block your DCC layout, it makes fault finding easier, and you now have a similar amount of extra layout wiring as a DC layout. A similar likely hood of faults developing.

No, it doesn't. You don't use DCC and its decoders, so you have limited experience from which to draw your conclusions

Another specious argument. You divide the DCC power distribution into sections with a circuit breaker in each section, but it is infinitely simpler than doing so with a DC/cab/block system. You will not begin to approach the degree of complexity and aggravating work that the same thing on a DC/cab//block design would require. You still have only two wires to worry about. The black one goes to one rail, the red one goes to the other. That this is repeated several times does not make it any more difficult or complex since the red wire always goes to the same rail etc. Been there-done that many times, both ways. I know what I am talking about.

CH>

Terry's point is that the smaller the block, the less track you have to search to find the problem. For every DCC booster block you might have 4 or 5 trains (the whole point of DCC) whereas with analogue control you should only have one train. With analogue you simply turn off all blocks and turn them on one at a time until the problem reappears - there's your problem. With DCC you can turn each booster block on until the problem reappears - somewhere in that major area is a fault.

Greg.P.

whole point of

If you really want smooth operation you have relatively small blocks, i.e. one local switching area or one yard and protect it with a self-resetting electronic breaker. Normally the block is small enough that there are no more than two locos in the protected area and usually only one. Several of these breaker protected blocks are tied to a single booster so the booster is not affected. Typically only the troublemaker is shut down.

This situation is useful for a layout with several operators since most of the activity is unaffected.

in article NNGqmIRtbIm0-pn2-cSDgqFbiJiYY@localhost, Ernie Fisch at snipped-for-privacy@cox.net wrote on 3/4/05 4:13 PM:

If you divide your DCC into blocks for fault detection, etc., I strongly suggest using a Digitrax PM42 (or equivalent). It provides at least two benefits:

A lower power self-reseting circuit breaker which is adjustable. You may have a 5amp or even larger (I have an 8amp) booster, and 8 amps is just TOO big a trip value. I've set my PM42's to 3 amps.

The PM42 has a light for each power district which glows RED upon failure. So if something trips, it beeps, clicks, and I get a red light which I've labeled so I know right where to look the the loco I've run against a turnout.

whole point of

You're going to end up with analogue sized blocks but with the extra expense of breakers! :-)

search to find

whole point of

somewhere in

breakers! :-)

That's OK too, because it's still not analog and is invisible to the user. The only time it matters is when there is a fault. it never requires any attention or programming to operate. No one needs to know where it is or how big it is or what its limits are. Any money I spend on DCC, I consider as money well spent. It relieves me of doing that which I do not like to do, so that I can enjoy the facets of the hobby that I do like.

CH

search to find

(the whole point of

time until the

somewhere in

of breakers! :-)

I prefer to lay DC blocks, program my computer so that I never have to see what goes on and not have to pay for DCC modules or program all that non-railway stuff! Greg.P.