DCC and O gauge..

Yes Jonathan it is that easy, but you have to be careful which decoders you use as the larger motors in O usually require more power. I have used the cheapest lenz decoderers in some lima locos as it did not seem worth spending much on these but I have found that they run much better on DCC than they ever did on DC.

I have now standerdised on TCS T1's for most of my scratch/kit built locos as these were recomended by an O gauge modereller that had been using them for several years. I have found them very good with my prodigy unit and would also recomend them for O scale use.

The only point I would make is that you have to be careful not to cause shorts as this can blow chips quite easily, especially if loco chasis are live and yu have wagons that are live but of the oposite polarity, I speak from experiance.

regards

mike g

Hi Mike,

When you say more power, I take it you mean Amps, rather than Volts.. ? O gauge runs on the same voltage as OO ?

I shall bare in mind the shorting out issues.

Thankyou.

Jonathan.

Its both, as the voltage is about 14, with my system, and the amps can be much higher, most modern OO locos use about .2/.5 amps, my locos with 1833 motors take from .5 to 1.5 amps depending on load and with the higher voltage the motors can tend to become hotter. I have just tried using a smaller 1628 motor and it has enough power for a SR O2 and runs at approx .7 amps so well within the TCS T1 range as are most of the other locos.

regards

mike g

Thanks for that, just out of curiosity ( I am new to 7mm/ft ) what are the voltage ranges on general systems, from basic analogue up to full on Electronic systems ?

Jonathan.

Not real sure but from my experiance it ranges from 9V for N to 24V for some O systems the general seems to be 12V at about 2amps max, one of the BRM team has had to use helmsman units (DC) as they are upto 5A, the gaugemaster O units are 1.5/2A and tend to heat up with continuous use of the larger O motors used, our club units are gradually going with use as they do not now turn off completely, there is leakage of volts at the off position and some locos will move that have modern 7 pole motors.

regards

mike g

Ok, thanks for the info.

Jonathan.