DCC systems poll - January 2010

***Actually no, it doesn't. I know this radio system very well.

The full duplex radio technology in the NCE system isn't really susceptible to interference at all, nor will it cause it - but its operational range is excellent when "talking to itself" so to speak.

Modern tightly designed digital radio systems work within their own transmission alorythms and on a frequency that is accurate to several decimal points, not like the lower band areas. At the high end of the spectrum, these sort of traditional radio problems are about zero statistically.

Remember, the whole works GSM band is in the same part of the spectrum, and all those many million mobiles rarely interreact badly. (and a mobile puts out several thousand times the power of a radio based DCC controller).

regards

Richard

QUOTE (Brian Considine @ 28 Jan 2010, 17:42) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Probably not in practice, but my comments still stand & that would make the system more suseptable to outside interference.

Yes Marklin is missing but you can argue that it is Motorola not DCC

I have Mobile Station and a Central Station would be nice

QUOTE (Nygma @ 29 Jan 2010, 02:24) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Yes Marklin is missing but you can argue that it is Motorola not DCC

I have Mobile Station and a Central Station would be nice
The new CS2 handles MFX and DCC as well as both types of Motorola. So much the same as ECoS in that respect.

DCC is a world-wide standard followed by the majority of manufacturers, and has been going for at least 15 years now. The standards are set by the NMRA in the US and were based on a system developed in Germany by Lenz, but are followed by many manufacturers both in the US and in Europe. Hence DCC is a non-proprietorial open standard capable of further evolution.

I believe its only current serious main-stream rival in the use of miniaturised computers (the decoders) to control locos, point motors, etc is the Maerklin system. If I am wrong then I'm sure someone will soon correct me. This is only really used by Maerklin and companies who want to be compatible with it. The standards for the Maerklin system are set by Maerklin itself, and hence it is a proprietorial system intended for use with their 3 rail AC system. There is another system - Selectrix, made by the Trix company before they were acquired by Maerklin.

You can mix n match DCC decoders from different manufacturers on a layout provided they all conform to the DCC standards published by the NMRA as DCC refers to the communications protocol used to send the command signals from the controller/base station to the decoders. It also covers the connections from the decoder to the loco or point motor as appropriate. So provided your controler/base station is fully DCC conforming, it should be able to control any DCC conforming decoder irrespective of its manufacturer.

You cannot mix DCC, Maerklin and Selectrix decoders simply because virtually all controllers/base stations are single standard, either DCC, or Maerklin, or Selectrix, and the decoders only respond to instructions from the base station coded for their speciic format. A DCC decoder will not respond to a signal from a Maerklin Base station/controller and vice versa. However, the ESU ECoS, ESU Navigator model 50300, and Maerklin Central Station 2 are, I think, the only exceptions as they can control both DCC and Maerklin, and in the case of the ECoS only Selectrix, decoders simultaneously on the same layout.

Generally speaking you cannot mix n match controllers as the DCC standards do not cover how one controller communicates with and connects electrically to another even if they both use identical looking plugs and sockets. There are some exceptions, but these tend to be few and far between unless a manufacturer has deliberately set out to be compatible with another and followed the other company's standards. Even then compatibility is not always achieved.

I use Hornby, Bachmann, ESU LokPilot, ESU Loksound, and ZTC 255 loco decoders, they're all DCC, with no problems with an ECoS, an excellent, but expensive, piece of kit in my view. But having an ECoS, any additional base station/control kit that I buy must be compatible with the ECoS, which restricts me to products from ESU itself at the moment. Not a problem as the ECoS does all that I currently want.

Choose your controller/base station with great care, it will be the most expensive single item and hence the one thing you really don't want to have to replace because you're dissatisfied with it. So listen to the advice of others, but most importantly, try before you buy.

Good Luck, Unless you're a technophobe, I doubt that you'd want to go back to DC once you've tried DCC.

Keith.

I would have thought it would be useful to ask if any sound locos are being run. Presumably the impact of sound on DCC is increasing year on year. It would be interesting to know by what sort of percentage.

Morning Are we going ahead with this.....?