Sound - DCC vs. DC

Jarrell–

Yah, well, my friend, people like you and I have to kinda/sorta put up with what God gave us, right, LOL?

Tom [:D]

Eat your hearts out guys. I was born Rich and devastatingly good looking! I’m just not sure what has happened to me since then.

Rich

Rich:

Perhaps the same thing that happened to me? I think it’s spelled “G-R-A-V-I-T-Y”, lol!

Tom [:P]

LOL

I guess the best way to describe me is to imagine a photo of Brad Pitt - - - with the photo turned upside down. [(-D]

Rich

On DC the sound comes on between 6-8 volts. The engine will be at idlel with random sounds. You can activate the bell and blow the horn while the sounds play.It will not move until you advance the throttle further. This is true for MRC, Qsi, .Bkue line, Atlas gold, Broadway limited, Proto . I have them all and have no problems running them on DC.

Each system has it’s own method of activating sounds. just about all systems will give you random sounds and motor/engine/chuff when idel or running without doing anything.

With QSI ,Broadway, Atlas Gold,or Proto you can flip the direction switch to activate the bell and whistle/horn. This is why you can’t run a non sound engine with a sound. If you flip the switch the non sound engine will reverse. To get all the sounds you need a QSI DC sound add on control or MRC black box. The tech 6 will also work but replaces your power pack.

Mrc has DC and DCC sound units for engines. Several of the Mrc DC sound unit use a handheld remote control to control the sounds. I beleive this is radio waves. Mrc also has several stand alone sound units for under the table or hang on the wall.

The Blue line and Paragon 2 by Broadway limited will require the DC master add on controler to activate the all non-automatic sounds

If you get the QSI and DC master controlers you can wire them in line with your DC power pack and run all your DC and sound engines just the way you run them now. … You can run 2 or more matched engines at one time if your power pack is big enough. I have a MRC 20 and can run 5 at a time. You can not mix sound and non sound engines.

The add on controlers will also let you program most needed CV"s on the sound engines.

I have no problems running engines with dual mode DC/DCC deoders.

Bob

There are many ways to have sound on a DC layout.

  1. Modern digital sound units, so far all the responses have been directed to this system so I ignore it.

  2. Individual battery powered sound units. Through the years there have been several of these. I have one of the older ones in an Athearn F unit. I don’t even remember the brand, but it is pathetic. Sierra by SoundTraxx comes to mind as one of the better ones.

  3. Sound through the rails. This is done by sending a sound signal along with the track power. The power is filtered from the speaker by using a capacitor, and the sound signal is filtered from the motor and lamps and other DC things with choke coils. This method has been used by the Pacific Fast Mail(PFM), PBL (no idea what it stands for), and Grizzly Mountain Engineering (GME). I have a couple PFM II (not Mark 2) and PFM Mini-sounds in my collection. I really like the sound quality and control that the unit provides. The engineer can control the exhaust cut off and tone, the whistle lever is almost as good as a real locomotives.

  4. Non on-board sound. This is sound that comes from speakers that are not in the locomotive but placed around the layout. There are several different variations and brands. One that comes to mind is the MRC Symphony 77.

Wayne, I couldn;t agree more. Steam locos should not be MUed on DCC, instead, the ability of DCC to run multiple locos indpendently on the same track should be used for any helper operations. Heck, with sound you can even use whistles signals instead of the two engineers talking to one another. No brake gauge, so the pusher on the rear needs to watch the slack, but mostly realistic operation is possible, I know some do do this.

As for the crane, this has sort of been done, a while ago, actually, and even in HO. Roco has (had) a DCC operated crane which allows you to rotate the cab, raise and lower the boom, and raise and lower the line all by DCC control. There is even an electromagnet you cna turn on and off that cna be fitted so you cna do completely hands-free moving of loads. It is sort of a cross between a Euro model and a modern US diesel wreck crane, but appearances can be fixed. A common mod for Digitrax DCC users was to get an old, long outdated Challenger system throttle and alter it for crane control - those throttles had FOUR knobs to control upt o 4 trains at a time, with the mod they give the capability to control each of the crane’s motions on a dedicated knob. Normal operation requires you to select different functions to switch between controlling the cab/boom/hook.

–Randy

I have a simple two track oval so all the exotic DCC features aren’t needed

However I had DCC steamers that I ran DC with reduced sound availability and like others have posted was not satisfied

I purchased a NCE Power Cab and like as I said I don’t need all the control features but the improvement in the sound availability and running quality was well worth the purchase

One solution:

Buy the affordably priced MRC Sound Controller 2.0.

It has a “DCC” mode and a “DC” mode and toggles between them at the push of a button. The “DCC” mode is really a pseudo form of DCC that allows users to edit cv’s if desired and gives the user easy pushbutton control of the first so many functions so that they can enjoy sound and DCC equipped locomotives on a regular DC-only layout.

Now I can run anything with one relatively inexpensive controller on my DC only layout–and it works very well. I have the fine running qualities at low speed of DCC, the sound, etc. and I personally don’t ever have to mess with cv’s if I don’t want to–I just choose to leave all engines at the manufacturer’s settings, but that won’t work for everyone.

It is a joy to place the new Bachmann 2-6-0 with sound and DCC on the layout and play with it. It’s also a joy to be able to run my silent DC-only Athearn Genesis SP 4-8-2’s (but not at the same time as a DCC equipped locomotive).

John

Trust me, the benefits outweigh the time required to install DCC.

John,

I’m sure that is the case for many modelers but not necessarily for all of us. Locomotive sounds from the few DCC layouts I’ve seen are more of a distraction for me than an asset…but that’s just me. The blaring of horns, ringing bells, coming from several locomotives is just not pleasant—I prefer more subtle ambient sounds rather than a cacophony of noise. However, I do recognize there are other benefits to DCC other than sound, but it just doesn’t fit with the way I operate my model railroad.

Wayne

Again, guys, let’s not let this get sidetracked into an argument of DC vs. DCC for control, let’s keep it stirctly on how the various systems can allow us to use sound on our layouts, okay? That’s what happened to the last thread on this subject, and we ended up so far off-topic on the ORIGINAL discussion that it couldn’t be ‘re-railed’.

So let’s discuss sound in both DC and DCC and leave it at that, okay?

Tom

Yep, as the OP, I agree wholeheartedly with Tom.

The issue here is simply about sound on a DC layout.

Does it work, and how does it work? Since DC powers the rails, not the individual locomtives, how do you control sound to a single locomotive.

What is the overall experience with sound on a DC layout?

Rich