I don’t know if this has been posted before and I don’t really care. The DCC thing is completely fragmented and unusable on a small scale. For instance the Bachmann EZ Command system is good, but can only address locos 1-9. The Roco Locmaus system is good, but can only address locos 1-99. Now, my gripe is that all railroads, REAL RAILROADS, locomotives have up to 4 digit addresses. In my mind there is no connection between locomotive number and the number of unique addresses a system can deal with. For example, you could have locos numbered 4005, 3574, 455, 2037, 39, 22, and 7017, but you can only deal with them on a really expensive system that can handle 4 digit loco addresses because the designers of these systems assume all the loco numbers from 1-9999 are going to be occupied. This is a completely false assumption. In reality, the Bachmann EZ Command system could handle this situation with the simple implementation of four digit addresses with a max of 9 locos. The capability to address 99 locomotives has nothing to do with the actual (4 digit) locomotive addresses. Actually, 5 digit loco numbers, 4 to deal with the loco and its duplicates, and one digit for a suffix to distinguish between the duplicates, should be ideal. You could pick 99 or 999 total locos as the max number and still not get into the 9999 total loco number territory. I think the current setup is short sighted at best and illustrates the complete lack of understanding of the problem at the worst.
The title of the subject should be Bachmann EZ DCC Complaint or Roco Locmaus or Low-End DCC System Complaint. Not ALL DCC systems have this issue; the aforementioned systems are aimed at the starter market; the idea was to keep it simple while offering product at a low price. Look to Digitrax or NCE for more comprehensive starter systems. BTW, increasing the capability to address numbers higher than 9 makes the electronic circuit much more complex and more expensive to design and manufacture
Should I cry now, or wait 'til later.
There isn’t a DCC system on the planet that I can set up to address my locomotive roster! A few samples:
- C56134 (2-6-0, C56 class)
- D50380 (2-8-2, D50 class - designated derailment checker)
- DD13465 (B-B diesel-hydraulic, DD13 class)
- DD513 (B-2-B diesel-hydraulic, DD51 class)
- ED1618 (1-Bo+Bo-1 1500vdc catenary motor, ED16 class)
- EH106 (Bo-Bo+Bo-Bo 1500vdc catenary motor, EH10 class)
As for powered MU cars that should be addressed as motive power:
- KiHa17322 (DMU commuter-style coach with control compartment, KiHa17 class)
- KiHaYuNi157 (DMU coach-mail-baggage with controls, KiHaYuNi15 class)
- KiRo8015 (DMU chair car, KiRo80 class)
- KuMoHa73158 (EMU commuter coach, control station, traction motors, KuMoHa73 class)
Not my entire roster, or even a signiicant part of it, but you get the idea. (Just to confuse the issue, each of those consonant-vowel combinations is a single symbol in katakana, the Japanese equivalent of block printing.)
So, if you can’t address your motive power by number, use a cheat sheet. No big deal.
(Maybe I’ll feel differently if I ever go to DCC, but I doubt it.)
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
You could use either the last 3 or 4 digits of each loco number to id the units or classify the units by type, i.e., steam locos use 1 plus last three digits, electrics use 2 plus last three digits, diesel 3 plus last three digits. with NCE (North Coast Engineering), 029 and 29 are two entirely different numbers as zero in the digital world is a value. Other systems may support this as well.
Chuck - maybe the Japs make a system to address all the weird numbers? Most of us model US prototypes.
Better idea: train yourself to mentally convert base-10 to base-14. Advantage: it’s ext
Digitrax allows 4-digit addressing. I swear by Digitrax. Your complaint doesn’t apply to the basic Digitrax starting set (Zephyr). Now, I use the Super Empire Builder set, but honesly I could have gotten away with Zephyr. I just really wanted a DT400 throttle and din’t want to pay full price for it.
The Zephyr starter runs about $160 at the online DCC shops.
Zephyr Offers:
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Simple to use controls for running trains.
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Large speed control knob and direction switch with brake.
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Full numeric key pad.
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Easy 2 and 4 digit addressing.
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Smooth speed control.
Run multiple trains at once without blocking!
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Run up to 10 addresses at the same time on your system.
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Run up to 10 throttles at the same time on your system.
Jump Ports for using DC power packs as additional throttles
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Use one or two smooth DC power packs as throttles to control DCC equipped locomotives.
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Simple, cost effective way to add more throttles to your Zephyr set.
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Makes it easy to share the fun of DCC with layout visitors and young operators.
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Functions on locos controlled by Jump throttles remain active.
Over 9000 Locomotive Addresses
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Use Address 00 to run one or more locos without DCC decoders
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Two Digit Addressing is easy to use. (Address 01-127)
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Four Digit Addressing-use the number painted on your engines as its address.
2.5 Amps of Power to run multiple trains.
- Booster outputs 12V for safe operation in N and HO scales.
Function Control
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Control 10 functions-F0 through F8.
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Function 2 is a special
First off you get what you pay for. If you want a BMW then you need to fork over the $$$ but if you buy a Pinto then dont expect it to be a BMW M3. The EZ-Command was designed for the younger crowd and for those that want to get their feet wet without spending alot of money. In order to do this they needed to make the system simple to use and cheap. They did just what they intended to do and that is what you paid for. NCE Powercab and the Digitrax Zypher are
As you can see, complaints against DCC are not allowed.
Any problems you experience are operator error.
Oh, boy… here we go…
The OP had some majorly FALSE information (i.e., none of the basic starter sets offer 4-digit addressing).
If someone was ranting about something that’s not true, wouldn’t you want to help him out? It really doesn’t matter if it’s DCC or if it’s complaining that all O scale track has 3 rails! If it ain’t true, and just ain’t true!
SO the EZ-Command doesn’t do 4-digit addressing? HELLO! It wasn’t designed to, and I like it just the way it is. I don’t go by the number painted on the loco at all, rather I select a number form 1 - 9 and program the loco for that number. An adhesive backed label with the number on it is put on the bottom of the loco in question. Therefore when I get a DCC loco off the display shelf I just look at the label on the bottom and I know exactly which address to dial up. If you’re wanting to do 4 digit addressing with a $70 - $100 unit, it ain’t gonna happen. Buy one of the more expensive setups.
You are correct.
But, I swear, if someone posted that their DCC system wouldn’t make toast for breakfast, there’d be–in just minutes–ten posts explaining (a) how it could, in fact be done, if the user just hadn’t bought the Base Model, or (b) asking why in the world the OP would even want toast.
I want Toast…
Sry I couldn’t resist
But it’s easy to make toast on any DCC system! Just put the bread on the unit, and rewire the unit to plug into the 220 line behind your electric stove or dryer!
(Oh, you wanted to run trains again with the system after that? Well, you should have said so. And seriously, don’t do this. I’d hope no one is foolish enough to try, but I suppose I should provide a warning just in case.)
Instructions for those who are dissatisfied with their starter sets:
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Make toast as above. Or, eBay your old system and get something for it, anyway.
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Go out and buy a more capable system.
Hmmmm? How hard would it be to wire a decoder into a toaster?[:o)]
Well, I knew that was coming…
WOW! You can make toast WITHOUT using DCC? [:O]
Not that hard at all, the red and black wires go to the track power, orange and grey to the toaster elements. You’ll have to get a decoder that can handle the power consumption of the decoder thuogh…
Now, you can also hook functions 1-4 so that you don’t have to touch any of the toaster’s onboard controls…[:D][tup]
Speak for yourself. Like Chuck, I also model Japanese railways with their “weird” numbers - which are no weirder than some of the numbering schemes used on US railroads. And I use DCC…
Parochially yours,
Mark.
Right now I think the two systems noted are the only ones that don’t allow four digit addressing. Early DCC systems only allowed 2-digit, 4 has been the standard for some time.