I know all you dcc guy’s & gal’s are probbably tied of all the ?? 's but he it come’s. First a little insight . I am still in the proccess of making my decision on which dcc system i am going to buy but i am getting very close, way to much to consider. Currently i run a smaller layout with block control, i know flip all switches to one cab hook up dcc and you are good to go. I figure with the size of my layout i shoud not need extra power booster’s. Now for my ?. Can i combine some of my block’s to make district’s, use jfugate’s light bulb method to detect short’s and not have to add booster’s to the distict’s. I hope this make’s sense. Another dcc headache just started. Still learning. Thank you all very much.
On a small layout you should be able to use only one power district for everything. Just connect the DCC power booster’s output in place of your present DC power pack and use the existing block control toggle switches to control which tracks are live.
Nearly every DCC system has internal overload protection circuitry that will turn the system off if you have a short anywhere, and the toggle switches will help you determine where the short might be if you have one.
I agree. The thing to remember is that the lightbulb or other short protection is really meant to save numbers of decoders and perhaps the controller, itself, from frying when the initial power usage, prior to the short, was high. One or two locos do not impose a heavy demand on any DCC system that I know of, except maybe the EZ-Command (would depend on the locos). But if you had seven sound-equipped locos working four trains on a smaller, single district, layout, and it was powered by a 2.5 amp system, like a Zephyr, a short might be disastrous. At least, this is my understanding based on what Randy and Joe have posted numerous times.
So, a single 1156 bulb (or is it 1159?) in your entire layout, with no boosters, should provide you with excellent short protection, even if you had four or five active locos drawing power.
cacole & selector. Thank you. With all you read about dcc ??? just keep popping up. With all the talk about short’s i figured some protection would better than nun.
Thank’s again
Someone posted this link recently. I’m not sure that it was on this forum but it gives a good video explanation of using auto bulbs for short protection.