Track and electrical/DCC
Thread: Roco (Fleischmann) Z21 - Help talk me down...
I am extremely intrigued by the Roco Z21 DCC system
Dear Abby: Help, I've lost that magic smoke!
Dear Abby,
OK, it's not as bad as it sounds, but I attempted to install a Digitrax DN136PS decoder in a friend's HO scale Bachmann GP40 -- the newer version, DCC-ready with an eight-plug. A pretty good little runner on DC.
So, been here, done this -- orange wire is pin 1. Plug decoder male pins into circuit board female receptors. No worries, right?
Well, after dialing in address 03, all I got was an unprogrammed Rule 17 light show on both ends and no motion. Turned off the Digitrax DCC.
Decoder Tester
Is there a way to test a decoder to make sure it is still functional apart from installing it and seeing if it works?
If I attach the grey and orange leads to a motor, then touch the red and black leads to live rails being fed by a DCC system, should I expect the motor to go?
I am aware that there are DCC testers for sale, I was hoping for a simple test at home to determine if the decoder even works or not.
Standard conformity of DCC decoders
I'm a little bit confused about the different factory installed DCC decoders.
Are they all following the DCC standard and programmable as usual without the need of some proprietary hardware?
Favorite switch machine (or special mounting technique) for shallow benchwork
A portion of my layout is going to have fairly shallow benchwork, shallow enough that the standard method of mounting a Tortoise won't conceal them completely. What alternatives, either machine of choice or mounting technique, would folks recommend?
Mike
Old buildings with grain of wheat and 12V bus
I have a few older built-from-scratch buildings I'd like to incorporate on my layout. They have grain of rice/wheat bulbs in them.
Since my new layout is DCC and I have buses running underneath, I have an accessories bus that is hooked up to a regulated 12V wall wart. Small things like building lights and effects boards run off this bus. These things are LED-based. These items have controls in them to take care of power, whether regulators, diodes, resistors, etc.
Programming Functions for Lights
I have an HO scale Proto 2000 BL-2 that I have installed a Digitrax DH163 decoder in. The engine runs great, but I decided to try and install running lights. The train has molded on running lights. I trimmed them off, drilled them out and mounted LEDs in place. I wired four 1.8mm red LED's in series with a 1K resister, and tested them by touching the ends of the wire to the track. They all lit up correctly, and so I installed them in the loco. One end connected to the blue wire, and the other end connected to the green wire.
Too many mortally wounded decoders.
In 8 weeks, three decoders have been rendered useless. One Tsunami lost its forward motor control (sound and reverse operation remained normal), one ESU Select lost its sound (all other control aspect remained operational), and this week, ESU Select number 2 lost its motor control while maintaining all sound and light functions.
Which track gets which wire on a wye?
Image from www.wiringfordcc.com
A previous post covered gap placement and reversers for a wye on my layout that has a similar config to the image below.
My question is: Does it matter what wire, red/black, goes to which rail in the wye tail below? I have gaps where shown and an auto-reverser to hook up. I think I can just pick a rail for the red and black and the AR will handle the reversing when needed.
Thanks.
Charles
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