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 On the left, Team Digital SC82 servo accessory decoder with two micro SG90 servos connected, and on the right, a Tam Valley dual frog juicer to handle the polarity switching of two point frogs. All with plug-in or screw connectors. Photo: Mick Moignard
Depending on the choice you make of accessory decoders also depends on how you can operate them. Clearly you can send commands to them from the DCC system, if your system and throttle supports that. Most do. Or, if you have a connected computer as we mentioned earlier, the computer can send out commands to the system to operate points. That might be done from a simple mimic diagram which you could draw with the JMRI PanelPro program, or it might be custom software that implements an entire interlocking tower panel and interlocking mechanism, maybe even simulating a prototype entry-exit panel. Or, if you like, you can still build a physical control panel. Many accessory decoders support the concept of “local input” buttons to send them commands from such a panel, and there are also products that enable an entire panel to be created that when operates just sends out appropriate commands on the DCC bus.
The choice is enormous, which is part of the power and appeal of DCC.
What's Next?
This article is in the Back to Basics series, so I've tried to keep it simple and factual, and offer you the advice you need as a newcomer to DCC. But I'd also be failing if I didn't suggest other things that DCC can do for you which will increase the value of your DCC investment and your enjoyment of this great hobby.
Probably the simplest is proper multiple-unit loco operation, called Consisting, in ways that DC layouts just cannot offer. DCC offers three different ways to do this, and depending on your DCC system choice, you'll find that some are easier to use than others.
The simplest is Basic consisting, which is a copout really, as all you do is give the locos in the consist the same address. It’s really only useful where the locos are permanently coupled together such as an A&B unit, and requires a trip to the program track to set it up.
Command-Station Consisting, which has a number of proprietary names that come with systems that support it, is the next simplest. How that works is that the command station is told to run a set of locos together, as one loco. The better systems can do this even if the locomotives are pointing in different directions. The locomotives themselves don’t know about being in the consist, and there is no programming of the locos involved. The command station takes care of all of that, and also takes care of how function commands are sent to the locos.
The last method is called Decoder Assisted consisting, and requires most care to set up. It involves CV19 in the decoder as a consist address, common to all the locos in the consist, and the locomotives are operated via that consist address. There are other CVs in the decoder that you can use to control how each loco responds to
functions, so that for example only the lead locos’s headlight works and only the lead loco responds to horn and bell commands. There is some good news in that again, more advanced DCC systems mask the complexity and will often enable such consists to be set up without a trip to the program track, or even any Ops mode programming.
When using the latter two consisting methods, you get to be able to move the locos individually to couple them together, and them move them as one onto the train as double-headers or train loco. You can then add more locos to the train as mid or rear-end helpers, and once coupled, add them into the consist. Once the train is fully built, you then operate all the locos in it as a single loco to move the train over the system, and when you’ve arrived, just as easily split the consist apart.
It goes almost without saying that DCC will also enables you, with some forethought, to be able to speed-match the locos so that they run at the same speed at a given throttle setting, important when running multi-loco consists.
DCC offers vastly extended loco functions. We mentioned control over lights, and sound. Some decoders offer brakes, too, which makes train operation even more realistic, as stopping the train is no longer a matter of turning the knob back, but requires thought and care with the brakes. Some loco decoders can also control on-board servos, to do things like operate electric loco pantographs or coach doors. Or how about adding sound to rolling stock to simulate a mechanical reefer, or get that nostalgic clicketyclack as the train rolls past and away down the line?
The layout itself and its operations benefit, too. Instead of control panels attached to the layout with vast festoons of wires, DCC offers products that enable such panels to be connected by a single cable, or, even, placed on computer screen rather than having to be made in wood and plastic, so they don't even need to be in the same room. You can then implement an interlocking tower, have the despatcher and operators control signals and points, and the engineers drive to the signals. Add track circuiting so that the location of trains can be shown on these screens, which can then allow the computer to drive some of the trains, all using software packages that are available off the shelf. Yes, much of this is doable on a DC layout, but it is so much more doable with DCC, particularly with the upcoming NMRA LCC standards and products.
That just a taster of the added value that comes with using DCC, and the best thing about all of that is that you don’t have to do it all at once, or even do too much planning in advance. You start by getting the DCC system running the trains, and then move on, step by step, at the speed that suits you, while all the time enjoying what you've done so far.
How cool is that?
 


















































































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