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New member 8 posts Dman1111 New member 8 posts
Dman1111

Hello,I recently purchased a digitrax zephyr extra starter kit to convert my layout over to DCC. I also purchased two KATO DCC ready locomotives. I built a small test track, set up the system, Wired the track to rail A and rail B and My analog engines run fine and so do my DCC engines. With the exception of a loud whining noise which I've read seems to be normal. I then set up the following programing track seperate from the test track, hooked the wires up to program A and program B, followed the steps for programming and reading your decoder in the manual. . and .I keep getting a dnr error message which says that the digitrax system was not able to read the decoder. What am I doing wrong? Do the new engines need to have decoders installed into them? I thought that's what the DCC ready meant. After all they were fairly exspensive. I figured they had decoders in them and the digitrax would read them. Any help would be useful. To much invested to quit now. 

 

                                                                               Thank you

                                                                                Dman1111
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joef MRH Founder 17,510 posts
joef

DCC Ready

"DCC Ready" means "ready for a DCC decoder". It means there's a nice simple plug socket in the loco and space for a decoder inside the shell without milling the weight. It does not mean you get a decoder as well unless the manufacturer says "DCC installed".

Joe Fugate​
Publisher, Model Railroad Hobbyist magazine

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Dman1111 New member 8 posts
Dman1111

oh, ok Joe thank you very

oh, ok Joe thank you very much. So I would need to purchase some decoders for the engines then. More research I need to do. Any sugestions for places to purchase decoders and or articles? and can you get them with sound? Thank you Dman1111.
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stevelton Regular poster 149 posts
stevelton

Tony's Train Exchange (an MRH

Tony's Train Exchange (an MRH advertiser) has an easy to navigate website and decent prices on DCC decoders.

As for the price of your engines, Kato's tend to be a higher price, but a better drive mechanism. The high pitch whine you hear was probably from the "DC" motor running on the DCC track (which is "AC"). Once you install a decoder, that should quiet down.

Standard decoders go for between $15-35 depending what control features you want (lighting, Back EMF, transponding etc.). But sound is a whole different ball game. An engine may be DCC ready, but finding a place for a larger decoder, capacitor, and speaker can be a challenge. However, since you have some Kato engines, there may be a place in the fuel tank ready for a speaker. Sound decoders run between $40-200 depending on sound quality and features.

Sound is one of many great benefits of DCC. But remember you wont need sound in every engine. After a while the noise from 30 engines around a medium size layout start to drown out each other. So get a few sound engines and have one in each multi-engine consist to give the effect.

Steven

(Male Voice) UP Detector, Mile Post 2 8 0, No defects, axle count 2 0, train speed 3 5 m p h,  temperature 73 degrees, detector out.
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