Hi
A friend of mine has a small layout with a ZTC system. He only uses it occasionally and didn't even know about the ZTC issues until he bought himself a new engine the other day.
It's the Hornby model of the EWS engine? Please excuse my ignorance but I'm not a modeller!
The question is what is the best/simplest way to fit a chip to this engine that will work with a ZTC controller? Are there, in fact, any alternative suppliers of chips to suit ZTC?
I'm sure I read (MRE ?) that the ZTC range has been bought and will re- appear?
Cheers Richard
DCC is designed so that equipment from different manufacturers is interchangeable, so you can use any brand of decoder. Many of the ZTC decoders were badged Digitrax or Keuhn decoders, not their own design.
TCS is a well respected mid-range brand. For high end quality, go for Zimo. For cheap, the Hornby decoder should be OK so long as you get new stock with a different colour dot, but I can't remember which colour are the new ones.
Having said that, the ZTC system has some issues. ZTC themselves recommended fitting an isolation switch between the controller and track that should be opened whenever the layout is powered up or down. This is because the ZTC booster puts out so much c**p at these times, it can scramble some decoders that detect pulse edges, rather than sampling the waveform. This is why I do not recommend Lenz decoders in this situation.
MBQ
Scrapbox
The way ZTC handled the discontinuation has left a bad taste in many people's mouths. You don't foster customer (noe dealer) loyalty by just saying "Sorry we're not making DCC anymore and we're not going to answer any questions about it". It's not as if the company went bust due to market conditions, etc. They just decided that was it, no more DCC, changed their name and carried on their remaining business (sub- contract electronics manufacture) as if nothing had happened.
MBQ
On 09/02/2009 11:46, snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com said,
...and for those here that may associate my name with sub-contract electronics manufacturing, the company I work for has no connection with the former ZTC whatsoever. In fact, they are local-ish competition!
Most DCC decoders should work with it but I have found that ZTC decoders didn't work well with my Digitrax system. Lenz decoders should be OK though as the standards for DCC started with them.
Chris
If he bought his ZTC controller more than a couple of years ago then he will need to update the firmware on eprom. SBX Model Rail took over the ownership of the ZTC range last November see
Why? It works good enough for him at the moment. Is this so it will work with other makes of DCC chips?
If it ain't broken, don't fix it.
No.
MBQ
I thought that in your original post you were saying that he had bought a new Hornby loco which I assumed was factory fitted with a Hornby DCC chip (as he wished to run it on a DCC system) that wouldn't work with his ZTC controller which suggests a problem between the Hornby DCC chip fitted in the loco and the ZTC system. A firmware update if the controller's chip if older than say 2.01 (latest is 4.01) seems to be a reasonable suggestion.
Re-reading the original, I now see that it could mean that he is looking for a DCC loco chip that is compatible with the ZTC controller. As all DCC systems should be compliant with the NMRA standards in an ideal world all loco chips should work however if you are unsure then ring the new owners of ZTC ie sbx model rail on 01473 464311 to see what they suggest, it might be an idea to find out the firmware version in the ZTC controller which should be displayed when the unit is switched on.
Alan
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