Re: DCC questions

John see below for my thoughts.....

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> You can run a DC loco on DCC, but it may buzz a little due to the AC > current through the motor. You can also programme a chip to work on DC but > this can be switched off, which improves the DCC running of the loco, for > reasons I don't want to go into at the moment as it may complicate a novice. >

You can run a DC loco on a DCC system if the controller will allow it to be done! ROCO LocoMaus does NOT allow the use of ID 0 for DC engines (and others may be the same?) but all four of my engines (ROCO and LENZ decoders) will run on a DC system OK.

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> Andy Sollis > CVMRD >
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- Home of the Churnet Valley Model Railway > Department > Remove the Standard Tank from E-mail to reply to me direct > >

JohnE

Reply to
John.E
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Thanks for all that, its been very helpful. I must say the more and more I study DCC, the more I want to give it a go. The only thing which is still worrying me is how difficult it would be to chip the older locos which arnt DCC ready. Of course, that could be an excuse for buying some new stock!

Reply to
John Ruddy

Older locos can actually be easier to chip, as long as your are confident with a soldering iron. I have several older Hornby locos with the open X03 type motor, these are quite easy to chip, just need to make sure that the spring wire holding the brushes against the motor are fully insulated.

Hornby ringfield and the Lima pancake motors are also quite easy, just have to make sure the motor brushes are insulated.

The only locos that might be difficult are my Mainline 2251 class GWR 0-6-0 and early Bachmann locos where teh motor is incased inside the chassis block.

Reply to
DJO

Don't worry. Just do. I've never had a case where the hard part was the wiring, the hard part has always been finding a good space for the decoder to hide.

And... as to "one loco" DCC layouts... let me take a moment to praise DCC in kid's layouts. If you expect to have a young hand at the throttle, there is a great benefit to being able to set the top speed resulting from 100% throttle. And also, it is much more intuitive explaining direction in terms of Thomas' boiler head instead of some obscure "this switch sets the direction of the track" nonesense.

-dave

Reply to
Dave Curtis

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