Individual DCC address for A,B,C E-units

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Hi,

I’m wondering what others do in the following situation?

I just received my new BLI E7 A/B/C set. Beautiful (with one quibble- the unpowered “C” unit is labelled “B”), love the sound and very smooth runners.

However, one thing I hadn’t thought of:
The road numbers are (IIRC), 746A, 746B, 746C (the ABC portion is correct… not absolutely certain about the #, but they’re all the same). Ideally, I would like to be able to address the MU combination as addresses 46 (2-digit) and 746 (I can’t remember if it’s even possible to address an MU as 4-digit, so please forgive my error if you can’t.)

The point is, though, I don’t think I want to just program them ALL to 46/746 (Basic Consisting). I would prefer to use Universal, per Digitrax’s Just the FAQ (http://www.digitrax.com/appnote_advancedc.php). That means each unit will need its own address, though, and I’ll need to come up with something easy to remember.

So, has anyone else run into this situation? Got suggestions for some easy way to remember the individual unit addresses, or should I just go with the Basic consisting?

To some extent, right now it’s kinda a moot point, since the portable layout is so small. However, in a couple of years, when my young-'un is old-enough to use a hammer, we’ll be starting on a bigger permanent layout, and I’ll certainly be wanting to have big consists then.

Brian “Eyes are bigger than his layout” Pickering

(I should note- my son was SO happy yesterday to have both the Veranda and the E7s running around, both at the same time and making LOTS of noise! I wi***his DCC stuff was available when I was young! Now I just need to wait for the back-ordered UT4 so that HE can control one of the locos [I’m not letting a four-year-old run those all by himself, no-sirree…])

2

It really depends on how you intend to operate them. If they will ALWAYS be together, just make them all the same address, problem solved. No MU issue.
For individual addresses, you could go maybe to four full digits - 7461 for 746A, 7462 for 746B, etc.
The top address in the MU ca be any address - you can create a consist as 46 and include all three, or create a consists with 7461 (746A) as the top loco and the other two added. The ‘controlling’ address is the ‘top’ address, and that can be a valid address or a dummy one, 2 or 4 digit.

–Randy

3

Make sure that you program one to run backwards.

4

Another variation on Randy’s suggestion would be to use #0746, #1746 and #2746 for A, B and C respecitvely. Actually, with one unit unpowered, does it even need a number? Is that where the sound module is located? If not, you really only need two numbers for the two powered units.
-Joe