And, let’s reinforce an important point for a poster a few posts back.
They will all move in the same direction (left or right), without regard for which way the locos are “facing”. A pair of back to back units will move togther just like they do on real DC.
And again I think the OP has made the smart choice by not running DC locos on his DCC system. Just like I don’t run DCC locos on my DC system.
You don’t (can’t) assign an address of 00 TO a DC engine. When address 00 is selected, the information (zero stretching) is broadcast over the entire layout and only non-decodered DC engines will respond to it, whether it’
You’re not assigning an address to anything when you use address 00. It’s just putting a DC like voltage to the tracks instead of the DCC signals so any DC locomotive on the tracks will respond. Just for giggles I put a B&O dockside on the tracks with the chassis of an Athearn SD40-T2 for my Cary E-7 which are both DC locomotive and turned up the throttle on my DCS-50 with address 00. Both of them moved in opposite directions and when I reversed the direction, they ran towards each other.
Could have run more but I only have 2 DC locomotives.
You can run more than one DC loco but there will be a current limit. No idea what it is one that controlller.
Some years ago I had an MR Command 2000 DCC controller with five throttles which had a one amp limit. Three on the main panel and two on a hand held controller. Number one on the panel was for a DCC or DC loco.
You can still find it on ebay last I knew.
I think the Bachmann EZ Command has a one amp limit.
If using Add 00, any DC loco on the rails will move at the speed it’s engineered/geared to run at the voltage currently imparted to the rails for 00. This could be a single locomotive or 12, assuming their need for motive power severally does not exceed the output of the system, and that their individual and unique drive ‘stickiness’ gets them underway as voltage rises in discrete steps per setup of speed steps.
The manual may not mention it, but the logical inference ought to be that any DC locos will respond commensurate to the configuration of the voltage if Add 00 is enabled.
I have learned something new today. Sheldon doesn’t ‘run’ his trains because they move when he manipulates his DC throttles.[%-)]
Already covered, you don’t ‘assign’ address 0 to anything. But even if it did - I can ‘assign’ any valid DCC address to any number of locos - and they will all run at the same time that address is selected. The difference is, a DCC loco, when commanded to forward, move ‘forward’ regardless of which way they are facing, unless the motor wires are swapped or CV29 set for reverse direction of movement.
It’s more complicated than that, and probably far more interesting.
When address “OO” is active, what has to be happening is that the entire DCC voltage is being modulated in such a way that it approximates PWM DC at the appropriate chosen polarity (that term now being used advisedly, in the DC context) for whichever direction is currently toggled. We know this in part because Digitrax advises that there is massive bandwidth consumption in this mode, meaning that there may be latency in control recognition for ‘other’ DCC signals being sent to decoder-equipped locomotives. Presumably the modulation is accomplished so that regular DC motors ‘see’ only a complexly-modulated voltage (unfortunately some parts respond to the quickly-pulsed combination of logic and PWM and start to buzz and heat up…)
Don’t ask me how decoder functions requiring relatively high minimum voltage continue to work when the commanded voltage for 00 drops the aggregate ‘track voltage’ below that level. Perhaps they don’t.
DCS51 documentation specifically references that you can run (so there!) more than one DC locomotive at once. (Of course you can’t control them ‘separately’ but if you’re wanting multiple trains going around and around at the same time, that could be done.)
Why? Because you don’t understand the term “zero stretching”?
The DCC signal is a pulsed AC signal, address 00 alters that pulse so a DC motor sees part of it as a PWM DC voltage. If they shift the pulse foward on the right hand rail, the DC loco moves “forward”, if the shift the pulse forward on the left hand rail, the loco moves in “reverse”.
The farther forward they shift the pulse, the higher effective voltage the DC motor sees, so it goes faster.
Mean while, the rest of the DCC AC signal is bouncing around overheating the motor…which they warn you about…
What part of this is so hard to understand. You are controlling both of them, just like putting two DC locos randomly on a DC layout with no blocks and turning up the throttle.
Most of the people in this conversation referring to operating two locos on address 00 are referring to double headed/MU operation, not two seperate trains.
Obviously how you turn the voltage up and down affects how fast they all go. Were you expecting a single control to give you independent modulation of different functions? Doesn’t work that way.
Now if you had a yard goat that ran much more slowly at “7 volts” than the locomotives on main lines, it wouldn’t get into trouble as fast as the others, and you could ‘wait longer’ before mashing the reverse to make it go the other way for a while.
As noted, the principal use of ‘more than one locomotive’ on a single DC throttle control is double- or multiple-heading. Sheldon has summarized it pretty well. More amps at the ‘commanded’ PWM voltage level will run additional engines on or in the same train just fine.
In DCC, the short pulse is a 1 bit, the longer pulse is a 0 bit. There is a minimum and a maximum for the short 1 bit pulse, then a dead area where the pulse is neither a 1 or a 0 and so you should never see one with a duration in that window, then there is a minumum length for a 0 bit, and a VERY large maximim. Since the 0 is already a longer pulse, making it longer for one side or the other half of the wavefor makes a net non-zero DC voltage in the track and doesn’t prevent decoder equipped locos from understanding the data signal part of it. However, since you are making ever 0 bit transmitted take longer to transmit, it does reduce the bandwidth available for signalling. For the intended use - smaller layouts where you haven’t converted every loco yet - the effect is not even noticable. But in a club setting, running 50 decoder equipped locos and one person tries running on address 00 - yes, response to commands for the DCC locos will be slowed. Especially noticeable with sound decoders, press the horn button and there’s a very obvious delay until the horn souinds on the loco.
But you are 'running; as many DC loco as the system can handle. The same exact way you cna put 4 or more locos on the rails and use an ordinary DC power pack. It is EXACTLY the same. If you had sidings that were isolated and had toggles to kill the power, you could park one DC loco, kill the power (so it’s safe sitting there - no power = it won;t heat up) and run a different one on address 00. Just like you would on a DC layout with only one power pack.
I say “running” and “operating” are not at all the same thing.
indeed, my biggest objection to DCC is that one operator can only operate one locomotive at a time anyway so why bother with multiple controls that can only be controlled one at a time?
All that technology just to allow two or more locomotives to run at the same time at different velocities.
At address 00 only one locomotive can be operated at one time BUT any other DC locomotive on track will run at the same time (or at least sit there and buzz) That locomotive will literally run out of control.
I can know how DCC works without understanding how it works. That’s what ergonomics are about.
Operating a DC locomotive using DCC power is just never a good idea. Operating or running DCC equipped locomotives under DC power works just fine nowadays.
For me the Holy Grail of locomotive control would allow both DC and DCC locomotives to operate under the level of control available to a DCC locomotive on the same track at the same time, even in a consist. All locomotives run on DC power, the only difference is where the AC aspect is rectified: in the powerpack or in the locomotive. DCC is mind blowingly complex if you try to actually understand it. Frankly, the ergonomics are lousy also. It is a fundamentally unsound idea to merge the control signal with the power signal, decode that at the working end only to have to also rectify the power signal. It is long since overdue to separate the control signal out and send that wirelessly. Although it is now possible to still send the signal down the rails, given the extent of debate about continuity problems why bother.
Clearly, this is technically possible, even fairly easy with current computer and LAN wifi radio signal control. But, there’s such a huge investment in the now seriously outdated technology that is DCC this very useful innovation is having a hard time entering the market.