A little D.C.C. help please.

Apply to join the "DCCUK" group on Yahoo! Read the relevant manual supplied with your DCC system. Stanley Ames has produced some very good books on DCC. Refer to the Lenz web-site and your DCC system supplier. Go to the web-site,

by Allan Gartner. Use any suitable code-track. The models will need to individually chipped and it doesn't matter which manufacturer you choose.

Colin Meredith.

You might want to make sure that there is a track feed to all parts of your

*visible* track even when the points are set against that piece of track. This will allow parked locos headlights to shine while they're parked up if you wish. Also any coaches fitted with interior lighting would continue to be lit.

I will not be adding track feeds of this sort to my fiddle yard so that if I forget to turn the headlights off, the lights will go out anyway as soon as the points are set against the track.

Points can be converted to DCC at a later stage, should you wish, but bear in mind that conventional route setting arrangements (as achieved by diode matrix circuits, for example) are not directly reproducable with the Lenz systems as far as I know. I think the Digitrax higher priced systems do route setting. Route setting is also possible using a PC connected into the Lenz system (a sequence of point setting commands).

HTH

-- Mike

All sections of track should be powered at all times with DCC - including the fiddle yard.

EasyDCC does Route Sett>

snip

1. Have you looked over the track plan for wye's, reverse loops, turn tables, or other polarity sensitive situations, and worked out how you are going to get DCC phase alignment as the loco's cross the gaps? There are several options for doing so.
2. You might want to pick one track of the fiddle yard and wire it with a DPDT so that you can switch it from regular DCC to the programming output of your booster. It is nice if the programming track has easy access to some "running room" so that you can easily check out programming tweaks without navigating the loco out of some obscure corner through several sets of points.
3. Wiring standards: consider blocking for debugging. That is, slice up the trackwork into sections of about the size that you are willing to hunt down hidden shorts within :-) A bank of (hopefully) seldom used toggle switches can quickly isolate problems to a section.

-dave

/snip

There are advantages of this method...

1. More feeds -> less voltdrop, but only if the sidings are very long - over say 3m?
2. If the points are not fitted with an auxillary switch and only route power through the contact of the point rails with the stock rails. Then the diverging tracks (the sidings) would feed the point frogs and this would probably result in a more reliable pickup while a loco was traversing a point.

Then there are advantages of not powering all the fiddleyard tracks...

1. An LED connected across the track will light only when the track has power routed from the main circuit (Can also be arranged with continuously powered sidings if isolation joiners are used)
2. If I select the wrong loco and try to drive it, it is likely to be isolated so that the worst that happens is that the loco does not move.
3. If I leave the loco lights on, they only operate while the track is powered - so stored trains aren't lit up.

But I suggest that the best way for any particular layout would depend on the particular layouts construction and intended use. For example, I am considering powering my next layout's fiddleyard tracks because of point 2 above and because point 3 will not be required. But for a simple model railway setup, not powering the tracks may be as good a decision.

-- Mike

Again - ALL sections of track should be powered at all times with DCC.

With DCC you don't need to isolate locos to stop them moving - in fact it can be a problem with some decoders to remove power from them.

So - again - ALL sections of track should be powered at all times with DCC.

It is also better for reliability to ensure that all pieces of rail are electrically bonded to a pair of heavy copper buses running beneath the baseboards. This ensures minimum voltage drop. Also never rely on the point blades to power the crossing vees - use microswitches operated by the tie bars.

pluto wrote:

Unless you're parking illuminated trains in hidden sidings.

A 1 k ohnm resistor across the isolating switch will solve that problem.

Cost.

Some coach lighting would be picked straight off the coach wheel pickups. To fit decoders to these coaches would involve cost & modification. No increase in performance, just cost - unless switchable coach lighting was desired.

I think some Flieshmann driving trailers with red/white lights changing on direction of travel are picked up in this way (i.e. no need for a function decoder in these driving trailers). The catelog states that if these vehicles are operated on a digitaly controlled track, the factory fitted bulbs should be replaced with other, specified bulbs - presumably bulbs with a higher voltage rating.

-- Mike