What does "DCC Ready" really mean?

Model Railroader Electronics and DCC
1

I purchased a Bachmann Alco S-4 switcher which was termed as “DCC Ready”, specifically and per the ad (Bachmann is pleased to offer the S4 in this DCC-ready model with factory-installed 8-pin socket for the DCC decoder installation of your choice). I installed a Digitrax DH123-D decoder and promptly burned out the head and reverse light! Obviously, the resisters for the lights were a part of the circuit board which I removed to make room for my Digitrax Decoder. I did not find an 8 pin socket, per the description above.

So, I do not consider this to have been a “DCC Ready” locomotive.

I also don’t understand why Bachmann produces some of these locos (Alco S-4s) with DCC/Sound and some supposedly DCC Ready?

2

To me, DCC Ready means you can install a decoder without fear that the motor is somehow grounded to the frame.

As far as the lights are concerned, you always need to be concerned about the possible need for a resistor. Does the manual mention anything about resistors?

Whenever a manufacturer produces the same loco in DCC and DCC Ready, a DC user will choose DCC Ready because that is all it is, a DC loco that is ready to be converted to DCC with the installation of a decoder.

Rich

3

Eh? You removed the board? The plug you were looking for should have been on the board you removed. DCC ready means that they used a standard board on all of their equipment, and then on the DCC version added the DCC module to that board. If you did not see the DCC plug on the module you removed, that likely means that it had a jumper across it that had to be removed before you could attach the DCC chip to it.

If DCC would not fin in your equipment with that mother board in there, then you needed to buy a small DCC unit.

Now the LION, on the other hand, does get rid of all of those boards, but puts all different lighting and powering systems into his equipment. And, ho, him not use DCC!

ROAR

4

There was no DCC plug.

5

I have also had problems with term “DCC Ready”. I got this clip below off the Bachmann Web Site. It is a unedited copy & Paste!

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The expression ‘DCC Ready’ is now an established note in the catalogue against many Bachmann locomotives.

What does it mean?

It means that the locomotive has space for a DCC decoder and a standard NMRA socket to plug it into.

And that means?

DCC - digital command control - is a control system for the model railway where a decoder onboard the locomotive is used to provide control of speed and direction of the motor. The instructions are passed from the ‘throttle’ to the decoder by means of digital signals that are superimposed over a constant track voltage. Put simply, you control the locomotive and not the track.

As well as output to power the motor, many decoders also have a number of a

6

Even though is said, with factory installed 8-pin socket?

No plug-in socket?

Rich

7

Here’s a link to a photo of the Bachmann S2/S4 PCB. The 8-pin plug is right in the middle, between the axial resistors and the SMD’s. You just unplug the jumper and plug in the decoder:

http://estore.bachmanntrains.com/index.php?main_page=popup_image&pID=4100

Here’s a link to the exploded diagram for the DCC-ready S4, which also shows the PCB with the socket/jumper:

http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/dwg/dwgs/HO_ALCO_S4_(DCC_READY).pdf

The good news is that they have a listing for the LED’s, so you should be able to get replacements:

http://estore.bachmanntrains.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=66_68_573&products_id=7118

Not sure how much room is in the loco, but if I had one I’d probably look at something like a Digitrax DZ126PS for it.

8

So if there no DCC plug or socket, how did you install the Digitrax DCC decoder? Solder wires to the circuit board?

9

I have seen a similar question before. Here is the link to the DCC Ready PC board. Some did not know the plugged in DC adapter was removable.

http://estore.bachmanntrains.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=66_68_573&products_id=4100

You would do good to join the Bachmann forums where there are forums for different scales and all other kinds of info along with Bachmann reps.

Many seem to resist joining more than one forum.

Rich

10

I have a DCC ready Bachmann 0-6-0T. But it doesn’t have a socket Was it does have it soldering pads to connect the decoder too.

Technically speaking it is DCC ready because all you have to do is attach the decoder to the existing circuit board. But it sure isn’t convenient.

11

Because some people want them with sound and some people want them without.

12

DCC ready means the motor is electrically isolated from the rails…nothing more.

13

“DCC Ready” means a lot of things, depending on how the seller decided to define DCC Ready.

It can mean the motor is isolated from the frame, or it can mean that you just need to plug in a decoder (with the correct plug) to the locomotive interface. Depends again on how the term is defined by the manufacturer offering the product.

Remember the olden days when you saw “Digital Ready” on speakers and headphones? Same issue.

14

Not that I saw, Richhotrain. In fact, I just remembered that the red & black wires (track power) was reveresed on the Bachmann S-4.

15

I am a member of Bachmann’s forum. Suggesting that we all go there w

16

That would seem a reasonable answer to some. However, since all that needs to be done is to swap one chassis with another and put on the correct body and then every customer could be happy with the outcome. This seems a pretty reasonable way to do business and actually smart business in my opinion!

17

I would have thought it means much more than this; however, I think I’m going to go with your definition!

I would think that the NMRA would have some input on what “DCC Ready” should mean?

18

Interesting.

I did a decoder install in a Bachmann S4, it had an 8 pin dummy plug that I just removed and hooked the decoder up there. In fact, I did two of them, one for myself and one for a friend, both have the plug. Every Bachmann engine I’ve bought in the last 3-4 years that were advertised as DCC-Ready were 8-pin equipped.

19

I did this installation in November of last year. I no longer have the circuit board that I removed from the S-4 and do not recall it having any type of plug on it. Certainley, I have installed enough decoders in locomotives to feel I would have recognized a plug, should there have been one! However, I was 64 at the time I did this and it is possible my feeble mind did not catch that there was!

Is the plug shown in the exploded view of the loco, with the plans supplied? Tell me where the plug is in the exploded view provided in this link:

http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/dwg/dwgs/HO_ALCO_S2_DCC_READY.pdf

20

When manufacturers first started using this term, it wasn’t uncommon for locomotives to use the frame as one side of the circuit from the wheels to the motor, with the motor and contact for one brush attached directly to the frame. In some locos, the hardest part of the decoder install was isolating the motor from the frame and/or the frame from the wheels. In the early days, “DCC Ready” was coined to refer to a locomotive with the motor isolated from the wheels, thus eliminating the hardest part of some installs.

Well, “DCC Ready” was coined by manufacturers, not the NMRA, so it would be tough for the NMRA to come in after the fact and say what it should mean.