Out of the four DCC books that the Kalmbach Hobby Store sells:
The DCC Guide;
The DCC Guide, Second Edition;
Basic DCC Wiring for Your Model Railroad;
DCC Projects & Applications, Volume 3;
They all appear to have basically the same information as described on the stores website. Is there one or two books that are better than the others or is it worth having all 4 of the books for a DCC newby like me to get started in DCC?
I started modeling railroading back in 1967 having numerous layouts and then do to life respondsibilities had to box everything up in 1977 and have been armchairing it ever since. Now that I have retired after about 39 years of real railroading, I am getting back into it and hope to start building a layout next year after getting the house fixed up.
When about to get started, like you, in my re-entry to the hobby but with DCC, I purchased the DCC Guide. I was quite satisfied with it for my overview. I avoided the Project one as that was not what I needed. If there are reviews on the 2nd edition, I’d check them out. Not so much has changed that would make the first edition obsolete, so it’s a matter of what enhancements were made for #2 and/or if any interesting detail from #1 was squeezed out. Maybe someone can comment.
For me, I think the overview book is great and one on just layout wiring is not needed unless you want to buy 3 (overview, wiring, projects) which I would not recommend. Some here will likely advise you don’t need a book at all, given the web info you can readily find. For me, I’d buy the overview book if doing it again and supplement with web and Forum info.
For items like which DCC system or aut reverser to decide upon, you can then jump to the many prior Forum threads for a much better insight (learn how to do an effective forum google search as the Search the Community feature is poor). It’s hard to get specific product recommendations from websites. And if not yet discovered, there are teriffic DCC websites, that cover so many specifics. Examples, how to wire specific brand turnouts, reversing section wiring, etc. The first sites to come to mind for me are:
I also like to advise consulting with a supplier or two. For example, when I had my simple layout plan in hand, I found consulting with the right folks at Tonys Train Exchange very helpful in making my final decision on DCC system brand as well as which downstream circuit breakers / auto reversers to choose. And you can also feel free to ask specific questions
Although it’s a bit dated now (10+ years), I found Lionel Strang’s “DCC Made Easy” quite a well-written book on the subject. Lionel has a real knack for explaining complicates things in very understandable terms.
Some do not realise, DCC is only ONE way of controlling model trains using digital controls. There are probably six different methods today of digital control. Some by wire, some wireless.
Digital control is evolving at a fast rate.
DCC is only the NMRA method.
Modifying your present locomotives will require some work for motor and lights. More if you want sound. There is a lot on the Internet about conversion of locos. TCS decoder site has quite a lot. Older locos will probably not be plug and play. Mechanical, electronic and soldering experience will be a great help.
When I started out layout about a year ago, I bought book #3 on your list.
I took it back about 2-3 weeks later because I found much more useful information on the web for free.
I’ve found the TCS website very useful for doing decoder installs (regardless of the decoder manufacture) and youtube very useful for things such as track wiring, and CV programming.
I don’t think money spent on books is wasted. Info on the Internet is sometimes just plan wrong or not current practice. However my impression is most books start easy and then get to the hard stuff really quick with not much time in the middle.
For me:
The wiring is not hard at all. Some simple requirements for wire gauge, but nothing complicated.
Rewiring locos Daunting. I don’t like to take things apart for the first time. The soldering isn’t hard, but delicate. I’ve got one loco I haven’t figured out, it’s blown 2 NCE decoders. It’s and Atlas RS and the frame is not supposed to be hot.
Programming. Mixed Getting started isn’t hard. Momentum and consisting isn’t hard either. However some of DCC is like genetics. If you want to program a thick beard, maybe you need to program the ear lobe size first. Same in DCC, one CV may have to be changed to change the CV and effect you want to change.
I encountered my F8 mapped as not F8. What does that even mean? It didn’t say it was F2 or F9. In my case it seemed to turn on sound as soon as power was applied to the tracks.
Sound; you either love it or hate it. If you love it, then mostly you think from the factory is too loud, unless you make youtube videos. In the later case your fingers are epoxied to the horn and bell buttons.
OT for this discussion, but try using JMRI for your programming needs. Plain-language panes where you just click on what you want and it figures out all the CV stuff for you. Then just tell it to write those settings to the decoder.
I’ve been using JMRI for 14+ years and can’t even remember the last time I had to manually calculate a CV value or know which “associated” CV’s I had to change to get the desired results.
On what I read online was that you would need at least 2-3 books on DCC.
The books I have are DCC Guide and Basic DCC wiring. For the past 10 years I’m try to learn.
I’m trying to read to understand DCC and DCC Corner in MR, but everything I do my head hurts. I do have a DCC system to test locomotives but that’s about it.
Here’s the problem I have with books and generic columns like DCC Corner - they try to cover all systems and all options, and I think that just makes things MORE confusing. In trying to explain how to solve a certain problem in 5 differnet ways so all the common manufacturers get equal coverage, yoou end up giving none of the solutions the attention needed to fully explain it.
Really DCC is not complex at all. There is no need to understand the full NMRA specifications and how all the packet formats work and all that esoteric stuff of interest only to complete geeks and those trying to build their own system. Forget that there’s all sorts of complex electronics in there. You can make full use of DCC by treating the system and the decoders as black boxes.
A decoder has at least 4 wires, plus however many light connections there are. 2 have to go to the track, 2 have to go to the motor. The ones that go to the motor must never touch the ones that go to the track. That’s 99% of a decoder install right there. No technical words.
Reverse loops? No different than DC, if the rails come back on themselves, you need gaps to prevent a short. Use a trivial loop, where the track fromt he straight leg of a turnout loops back on to the diverging route of the same turnout. It should be intuitively obvious that what if the rail on the left going in one side of the turnout comes around and touches the rail that’s on the right. Just like crossing wires, that’s a short circuit and needs to be handled. The ONLY difference between DC and DCC here is that with DCC you cna fix this with an automatic circuit that changes the polarity under the moving train. The old DC method of changing the polarity of the main before the train exits the loop actually still works with DCC, no changed needed - but who wants to flip toggles?
As for the rest - as much detail as you would ever need to know is, with DCC there is a constant voltage on the ra
Also I think the ones saying you need 2-3 books must be booksellers. [:D]
There are seveal basic intros to what DCC is on various web sites. Wiring for DCC starts with the basics and gets in to some advanced stuff. Mark Gurries has some basic explanations as well as advanced stuff on his site. The DCC Wiki has some basic explanations as well.
Maybe. Some of the problem might be to what extent a potential DCC user reads about the subject initially. Had I been an on-the-fencer, two recent postings to this forum, “Normal DCC//…” and “Preliminary Design for my…” would have totally discouraged me.
Mind you, I am not criticizing the posters nor the information they provided. All I’m saying is that I’m not smart enough to know what was being presented, and I was left with a “what-chu talking about, Willis” feeling.
I suspect others might feel the same way, but aren’t willing to say so. However, I do know enough to realize that I don’t need any of that to enjoy DCC.
Maybe there is some validity to the “you only need to connect two wires” statement.
Great discussion topic! I have book #2 and keep it even though much is very technical. It teaches you a lot of things but you might benefit from finding something at a local library.
Honestly, I learned more from the wiringfordcc wepage, this forum (shameless plug), and youtube.
Yes, those are two very technical threads - but really irrelevant to using DCC to run your trains. Both thread are discussing options for advanced signaling and detection systems, and mine in particular is discussing the actual design of the electronic boards to be used, which is probably a bit beyond anyone who’s not also an EE. A more typical approach for those implenting this stuff, Bruce Chubb’s encouragement that anyone can do this notwithstanding, would be to buy off the shelf components and connect them together, not build their own circuits and write their own software. ANd even that is somethign beyond using DCC to run trains. Signals and detection, at least for something that is true working, is a complex topic regardless of how you run the trains, DC or DCC. Some factors of DCC make the detection side easier to implement, but it’
A lot of food for thought, very good information, it’s great to hear all of your thoughts and suggestions. You all have given me a good start on what direction to take. Again I appreciate all the input, this is what makes model railroading great!