I’m all wired for doc on my layout , looking to change over too dcc in the future do I need to do
At first — nothing.
If your layout runs without any electrical issues, you can disconnect the DC power pack/transformer and attach the DCC outputs to each rail and your layout is now under DCC command.
THEN there are the necessary “upgrades” to eliminate some of the special operating requirements of operating with DCC.
You don’t mention the size of your layout or the number of locomotives you plan to operate but as these numbers increase you will need to supply additional power (boosters) and possibly divide your layout into “power districts” using insulating gaps or rail joiners.
Along with this you probably will find you need to add additional electrical feeders to each rail at multiple locations around your trackwork.
Along with this you will want to eliminate every possible chance for a short circuit since every DCC system has a very fast acting and sensitive circuit breaker and the slightest momentary short will shut down all (or part of, if you divided into power districts) of the current supplied to the track.
There are many sources for help found on the internet and several books on the subject. Do a little more searching and you will find the basic information you need.
Good Luck, Ed
If you don’t have a book on DCC try this website. It’s terrific but there is lots(!) of info there so look for the basics and add insight as needed. This is the “DCC Topics” page:
May I emphasize… feeders, lots of feeders. DC is pretty unforgiving of a number of things of which DCC is not. One of the biggies is lack of constant power to the rails in all areas. I put in feeders every 4 feet and on every spur/siding no matter how long. If you do this, you will never regret it.
Ya, all I did when I converted my old layout was add a DPDT Center-off switch. Set one way, it was DC, the other DCC. It worked fine. BTW it’s probably better to do it that way, rather than setting it up so you can make one block of track DC and the other DCC. This way the layout is all DC or all DCC. (It can cause decoder problems if you run from a DCC to a DC block, and accidently running a DC engine into a DCC block isn’t a great idea either.)
As was said, DCC does not like the slightest interruption. Usually unpowered frogs are an issue. Poor connections between section of track is also an issue which can develop over time. Dirty rail is a big issue with DCC.
The decoder has a microprocessor, computer you might say, which resets with an interruption of power.
Stay Alive helps but that is another discussion.
Switching from DC to DCC can be easy but there are Gotchas.
I did it at home with #22 wire for my DC layout.
Our club was wired with #24 in the early 1980’s but was fine for DC. Worked for a while on DCC with one loco or two but as more locos could run, we had to wire with #14 wire. The layout is handlaid track with few additions of Peco turnouts and sectional track now.
Don’t forget, there is an Electronics DCC forum.
Rich