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Gary,
QUOTE (Gary @ 19 Oct 2006, 22:42) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>How about practical answers to practical questions.
Now given that I class myself as an average proprietory home hobbyist playing with transient set track layouts my largest ever home layout had 19 points, 8 signals and had 6 trains on the track at any one time. This was an exception and 10 points is more the norm.
How many addresses would I need to have this all under DCC control?
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Even with DCC it will be impossible for me to ever have more than 19 points and maybe a maximum of 10 trains somewhere on the layout.
My layout is 7M x 4m. It is primarily a scenic layout and not the traditional throw as much track down as one can type of layout, so it is fairly simple in the scheme of things.
There are still about 35 turnouts (18 in the fiddle yard) and about 40 signals, all fully operational. It can be operated with about 14 trains on call at a time. There are three throttles, so the likelyhood of running any more than 3 trains at a time is fairly low.
So if one combines turnouts, signals and locos, my count above is about 90. But that does not include my other 30 locos or any spare addresses for loco studd expansion or visitors.
My own view is that DCC should stop hanging on to old 1980's technology and have a quantum leap upgrade. 32 bit processing should be the norm and then you could apply what ever address you wanted and have a massive address range.
QUOTE (Gary @ 19 Oct 2006, 22:42) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>OK I may have more than 10 locomotives but I would never go out and buy a chip for them all. I may have a pool of chips which I can move around depending on which locos I want to have a DCC play with.
This is one of the popular 'urban myths' put around by non-DCC users. In practice, it never happens and every loco ends up with its own decoder.
QUOTE (Gary @ 19 Oct 2006, 22:42) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Another question. Does a loco require more than one address reserved if sound and lights are fitted?
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No, it all works off of the same address.
QUOTE (Gary @ 19 Oct 2006, 22:42) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>And I would like to consider return loops so does this feature use up address capacity?
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No, these are based on short detection (rather a fudge solution in my opinion) and do not require an address.
Menu as requested:
Locos - 1 address each (includes sound, lights etc - extra functionality is handled by 'functions')
Turnouts - 1 address each, crossover can be paired under one address and decoder
Signals - 1 address each (semaphore). DCC really doesn't handle MAS
Feedback - 1 address for each device (input and output are normally separate address ranges)
Graham Plowman
QUOTE (Gary @ 19 Oct 2006, 22:42) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>How about practical answers to practical questions.
Now given that I class myself as an average proprietory home hobbyist playing with transient set track layouts my largest ever home layout had 19 points, 8 signals and had 6 trains on the track at any one time. This was an exception and 10 points is more the norm.
How many addresses would I need to have this all under DCC control?
Even with DCC it will be impossible for me to ever have more than 19 points and maybe a maximum of 10 trains somewhere on the layout.
My layout is 7M x 4m. It is primarily a scenic layout and not the traditional throw as much track down as one can type of layout, so it is fairly simple in the scheme of things.
There are still about 35 turnouts (18 in the fiddle yard) and about 40 signals, all fully operational. It can be operated with about 14 trains on call at a time. There are three throttles, so the likelyhood of running any more than 3 trains at a time is fairly low.
So if one combines turnouts, signals and locos, my count above is about 90. But that does not include my other 30 locos or any spare addresses for loco studd expansion or visitors.
My own view is that DCC should stop hanging on to old 1980's technology and have a quantum leap upgrade. 32 bit processing should be the norm and then you could apply what ever address you wanted and have a massive address range.
QUOTE (Gary @ 19 Oct 2006, 22:42) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>OK I may have more than 10 locomotives but I would never go out and buy a chip for them all. I may have a pool of chips which I can move around depending on which locos I want to have a DCC play with.
This is one of the popular 'urban myths' put around by non-DCC users. In practice, it never happens and every loco ends up with its own decoder.
QUOTE (Gary @ 19 Oct 2006, 22:42) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Another question. Does a loco require more than one address reserved if sound and lights are fitted?
No, it all works off of the same address.
QUOTE (Gary @ 19 Oct 2006, 22:42) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>And I would like to consider return loops so does this feature use up address capacity?
No, these are based on short detection (rather a fudge solution in my opinion) and do not require an address.
Menu as requested:
Locos - 1 address each (includes sound, lights etc - extra functionality is handled by 'functions')
Turnouts - 1 address each, crossover can be paired under one address and decoder
Signals - 1 address each (semaphore). DCC really doesn't handle MAS
Feedback - 1 address for each device (input and output are normally separate address ranges)
Graham Plowman
