I’m trying to reduce the number of wires running under my planned HO DCC layout. I thought I would control 13 snap switches traditionally with spst switches on a schematic. Still like this idea…but would involve minumum of 27 wires back to the control area.
Not clear on how function decoders work for DCC switch machines.
I can power them from the track…with a resistor in line ???
What is the best brand decoder for this???..perhaps one with most “hookups” for switches?
How many wires, then, need to be run back to the controller?..none? Do I just programme the switches with the DCC decoder?
How complicated is the operation of the switches when programed…do I need to have a list of the switches and then “key” the id in whenever I want to switch?
There are many possible answers to this subject but i can atleast tell you what ive just done personaly.
On my old layout (DCC), i oppted to use conventional control away from the DCC using STDP switches. I ended up with more wires than you could shake a stick at, there were dozerns of them.
I was scared to go DCC controlled turnouts in the begining because i thought it was complicated, exspensive and tricky to operate and wire. I couldnt have been more wrong.
On the new layout and after seeking advice from this forum, i went with NCE “Switchit’s”, partly because my system is NCE anyway. These will operate 2 points with the option (that i’l use later on) of controling them from a local pannel with LED’s for condition as well as from the cab itself.
Their an absolute breeze to wire and program. 2 power wires to your main ‘bus’ and 2 wires to the switch machine, job done! Ofcourse if you want local control as ive mentiond above, you’l have a few more wires but you can virtualy plug and play in the begining.
The only downside i can forsee is that when your switch machines are all in place and maybe under the road bed like mine are, you can no longer see the numbers ive allocated them writen on the machines themselves so you can forget which one is which i spose. Thats where the local pannel comes in though. You can then see what address does what switch. I simmply addressed all mine 1, 2, 3, etc.
Couple of other things. There are no DCC switch machines as such. the twin coil machines like Peco can be controlled by a DCC stationary decoder but these decoders differ compared with the ones that control a slow motion stall machine like the Tortoise and are NOT interchangable! The various DCC manufacturers state wether the decoder is for a coil machine or a Tortoise, atleast NCE do anyway. NCE sell a “Switch8”, this will control 8 Tortoise machines so is prety good value however i opted to go for the one that does 2 as the 8 version cannot suport local control from a pannel i dont think.
As far as control is concerned, i just press sellect accessory, press the 2 key (for switch 2) press enter. You then see a screen saying 1 for “normal” and 2 for “reverse”. Just press 1 or 2 and the switch changes. The cab automaticly goes back to your train you controlling!
I am also a beginner. I have wondered the following as well with respect to switching and DCC:
1.) Is is possible to have manual switching and/or SPST switches locally for the kids, in addition to DCC switching?
2.) Can routes be programmed into a DCC command station, i.e. I have alot of switches and even for the kids it gets cumbersome running around the track flipping switches?
Yes, it’s possible to have manual ground throws, turnouts controlled with SPST switches, and DCC controlled turnouts, but not two different methods on the same switch – it’s an either/or proposition.
I use manual throws on all turnouts that can be reached to throw by hand, and use DCC SwitchIt controllers and Tortoise motors on those I can’t reach. But you can’t put a ground throw on a turnout that is controlled by a Tortoise or other electric motor because the ground throw would not allow the motor to change the turnout.
So it sounds like you’ve already gotten your track laid & perhaps even run a few trains?!? YOU"RE OVER THE HUMP! CONGRATS!!!
Seriously, you have made terriffic progress this far. And it only gets better with a little scenery, some buildings, etc.
I have a small N-Scale DCC layout with PECO turnouts and PECO twin-coil machines attached to them. I control the turnouts with an MRC Stationary decoder. 2 wires to the track bus & 2 wires to the turnout. That’s all there is to it. Then I can program the turnouts to operate as “routes” or just throw them individually- all from the DCC throttle. When my 4-year-old daughter is “helping” me run the trains she likes to move the points with her fingers. No problem here, as the DCC will take over when I send the command to the turnout next time. Digitrax also offers a dedicated decoder for this purpose- a tiny little thing that is very easy to hide. The MRC ones are nice because they come with a red and blue LED attached to the board. Mount this to your fascia and you can see at a glance which route has been selected. I went as far as mounting the LED’s to a dummy signal (useing CA to glue them onto the face) and I have a trackside signal that shows me the route. Not exactly prototype signaling, but I am a big fan of artistic license when it comes to model railroading…
MRC has a new decoder on the market thats even simpler than this. It is a single circuit board that actually has 4 decoders on it. So there is just the 2-wires to track bus connection & then 2-wires to each turnout. The ones I am using have a little jumper that tells the decoder whether you are running a twin-coil machine (snap switch) or a stall-type motor like the Tortise.
If you do decide to control your turnouts the “old fashioned” way, don’t use toggle switches with twin coil machines. Constant current to them is not good. Use some sort of push button or springloaded toggles so that the machines only get the momentary current they need.