Newbie Questions

Graeme,

The British N gauge loco's have solder pads that you solder the wires on to. Only the Dapol Voyager has the 6 pin jacks to plug the decoder into.

analogue locos will run on a dcc system but it will only run 1 DCC loco at a time. however it will not do the motors much good.

Most decoders should still run on an analogue controller. although i have not tried it.

I am not sure on the points front as my layout only has 4 ( ) and are all seperatly dcc controlledl.

Ask all the questions you want as i am sure that others are wondering the same things. I know i was!!

Alistair

QUOTE Q1: If I got a DCC system, can it run the analogue loco's until I get them changed?

Q2: If I get DCC Ready loco's and chip them, can they be run using an analogue controller if necessary?

Q3: Would separating out points control into a seperate board be better?
Hi Graeme,
In order...
1. Not all DC systems will work that way around. Some offer the option of one DC loco. While some systems may allow this, consideration needs to be given to the fact that the DCC power is permanently applied to the rails, as a sort of ac signal, I really don't think your loco's motors may like that long term!
2. Some, not all decoders, offer this option. So chose your decoders carefully.
3. Not sure what you mean by "a separate board"?? If you mean controlling the points from a Non DCC source then that's ok. However if you chose to operate them from the DCC system I would recommend providing a separate power supply to actually drive the motors, as using the DCC bus supply will rob the loco's eventually of sufficient power.

Why not take the plunge and change fully over to DCC ? If you can't convert all the locos immediatly then either leave them on a totally isolated siding (Both rails insulated) or in the dispaly case

QUOTE (Graeme T @ 26 Apr 2007, 09:35) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>What I was going to do was get a cheap DCC system to play with while I am messing about and building the thing, then introduce a better DCC system later.

I went the cheap route first, by buying the hornby mixed goods digital set. It was a good value for money intro to dcc, however i outgrew the capabilities of the select controller so quickly that within a month i was after something bigger and better. I hung around a while, did the research, waited for the elite and news on the dynamis etc....etc

Anyway to cut along story short i ended up buying an ecos whilst i was in germany last week. Yes it is a bit expensive but bang for buck as they say it's not so bad. A lenz set 100 with a reasonable power supply would only have been about £30 quid less and the ecos just has so much more potential it was well worth the extra little bit.

I'll probably end up flogging the select as i don't really have a use for it anymore, but hey it did a job for me and if i get a few quid back i'll be happy.

Good luck whichever route you go down.

Cheers

Mark

QUOTE (markw @ 26 Apr 2007, 10:13) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>I went the cheap route first, by buying the hornby mixed goods digital set. It was a good value for money intro to dcc, however i outgrew the capabilities of the select controller so quickly that within a month i was after something bigger and better. I hung around a while, did the research, waited for the elite and news on the dynamis etc....etc

Anyway to cut along story short i ended up buying an ecos whilst i was in germany last week. Yes it is a bit expensive but bang for buck as they say it's not so bad. A lenz set 100 with a reasonable power supply would only have been about £30 quid less and the ecos just has so much more potential it was well worth the extra little bit.

I'll probably end up flogging the select as i don't really have a use for it anymore, but hey it did a job for me and if i get a few quid back i'll be happy.

Good luck whichever route you go down.

Cheers

Mark

The Ecos system just looks so 'sexy', and for £300-350 it is really tempting. Considering I am essentially starting from scratch I may well go down this route. I might get the Manc voyager first though, as these Dapol models are quite limited in number.