New to DCC- any advice?

[Penfold]

Hi all,

New to the forum, I’m due to receive a NCE powercab in the next few days. Naturally I’ll follow the instructions… but any advice for a new user of the system in terms of set up or operations?

Thank you

[Rog (RJ)]

Just enjoy it. Pretty simple to set up

[Brian]

Dont overload it, Ensure the flat cable is plugged into the correct socket and don't use the coiled cable. Other than that as suggested just enjoy it.

[Mountain Goat]

One thing I would say to avoid costs (Unless one wants to have fun with them) is to control points via the more conventional non-DCC method (Stud and probe or the passing contact type point switch). The only reason why I say this is it is cheaper as those DCC point control modules (Can't remember their exact name) are not that cheap to buy and will only control either four or six points per module (Depending on make etc) so on a larger layout things can get expensive. But if you only have a few points to control or have a bit more cash then by all means, go the full DCC route for point control.

The other reccomendation I can think of is to provide additional link wires to the track when you get you layout set up.

Regarding locos. New DCC locos are set to a default address 03. One then programs them to ones desired DCC address number.

Sometimes if one has hard wired a decoder to a loco, one may have a loco which runs and then does a dead stop and runs again and stops. This puzzled me for a while until I asked about it on one of these sites. The solution was to dissable the inertia settings on the decoder (Set the inertia to 0 or 1 (Whatever is the lowest value)) and if that does not work to do the same with the back EMF setting. The reason why is some locos that do not have quite so many pickups at the wheels may work fine on DC but have a small feaction of a second where it has lost track power (Not noticeable on DC) and the decoder will assume it is starting the train from stationary and start the inertia sequence all over again. Switching the inertia off will solve this and the loco will then run fine.

[Penfold]

Thanks for the advice all. I’ve spent far too much on trains now so not rushing into the next phase of automating things.

Useful point on the inertia, will have to watch that one.

Thanks again

[Penfold]

Well, slow start. The NCE starter set was missing the “2 pin track wire connector” so I couldn’t get it set up. Seller was quick to respond and apologise sending out a new part tomorrow.

Will try again later in the week.

[Brian]

Do you mean the little (Usually Green) plug with two grub screw connectors that plugs into the PCP? I find it best to pre wire these plugs then push them home, rather than try to wire them when plugged in, as it can put a strain on the circuit board by pushing down on the grub screws
BTW do not use the NCE supplied coiled cable as it only has four wires and the Cab needs six (which is what the flat cable provides) Ensure the cable is plugged into the PCPs Left Hand socket with the red LED at the bottom.

[Penfold]

That’s the one, the green bit was missing. Hopefully arrive today or tomorrow as was despatched yesterday but I may not get into it until the weekend now to trial.

Coiled cable seems a bit daft to include!

[Gareth 73]

Coiled cable seems a bit daft to include!

The coiled cable is there for when you upgrade to a 5amp booster the hand held controller then comes a dumb unit with the brains transfered to the booster allowing u to unplug from 1 place and goto another with out trains stopping.

If you have 2 brains working it won't go very well.

Also another tip if you have a roundy round layout is dont have a complete ring main on the bus wires as at some point the loco will receive the command twice but milliseconds apart which can confuse the chips

[Mountain Goat]

Sometimes if one has hard wired a decoder to a loco, one may have a loco which runs and then does a dead stop and runs again and stops. This puzzled me for a while until I asked about it on one of these sites. The solution was to dissable the inertia settings on the decoder (Set the inertia to 0 or 1 (Whatever is the lowest value)) and if that does not work to do the same with the back EMF setting. The reason why is some locos that do not have quite so many pickups at the wheels may work fine on DC but have a small feaction of a second where it has lost track power (Not noticeable on DC) and the decoder will assume it is starting the train from stationary and start the inertia sequence all over again. Switching the inertia off will solve this and the loco will then run fine.

I have just looked up the CV's on the old Lenz decoders.

CV3 is acceleration delay. Factory default setting is 1 but to turn this off set it to 0.
CV4 is the deceleration delay. Factory default is 1. Set this to 0 as well and you will have a loco which will run the same as a DC loco runs. One should avoid the stop and start the inertia again by setting these two CV's to 0. I have just tried it on a loco and it does work on that loco. I hope this helps.
Modern DCC locos usually have more pickups so they are less of an issue but even then some smaller locos like 0-4-0's and 0-6-0's may need this done to help thrm run well.
I hope this helps anyone who may have a problem and assume it is the decoder like I did in the past. Changing the decoders helped at the time because I don't think that the very early decoders I used that I put in instead had the inertia feature in those days! If I had known back then it would have saved changing decoders which were hard wired in.