Model Railway Forum

The answer is yes but not from the same bus.
You can have one controller running the layout and another running program track and test track but these must be treated as separate layouts - think separate rooms electrically.

Hmm .. While the above is correct, under no circumstances can you allow one DCC system to directly connect to another. Nor can a DCC system connect to a DC controller. If they do it will cost a lot of money to repair or replace one or both systems!

Using one DCC system for loco control and a second system for Point/accessory will control work, but the installer must be aware it can can be disastrous under some conditions, especially where Electrofrog point switching is used and even more so with Cobalt ip Digital motors where the Frog polarity switching is taken from the motors operating DCC supply via the dedicated frog feeding Terminal 3 connection. Here using two systems would connect one to the other. In this scenario the frog polarity switching would have to be via the one set of independent change-over contacts on the Digital ip.
So always be aware!!

Ok so as I read this, I can use the Powercab to control all locos fed from the bus wires etc.

Then I can set up on my workbench a separate programming and maintenance track fed directly from the Elink feed

Will all loco address remain the same on both systems.

station master wrote: ↑Wed Mar 03, 2021 8:56 pm

Will all loco address remain the same on both systems.

Yes. The loco address is stored in the decoder.

station master wrote: ↑Wed Mar 03, 2021 8:56 pm Ok so as I read this, I can use the Powercab to control all locos fed from the bus wires etc.

Then I can set up on my workbench a separate programming and maintenance track fed directly from the Elink feed

Will all loco address remain the same on both systems.

Yes. As Rog (RJ) has said the address is stored in the locos decoder plus all the other information such as most CV settings for acceleration/deceleration and motor controls. So you can take a loco from home to club or a friends DCC layout and it will perform under the same address number and setting you gave it at home.

I in fact have two separate programming tracks. One is feed from the main DCC system via it dedicated Programming output, while the other is a totally separate piece of track connected to a SPROG II and worked via JMRI on a PC, this records and stores on the PC all decoder setting for each loco I own.
However, the two system can never connect to each other. So really they are like two totally separate layouts and could as well be in separate rooms to each other.

What you cannot do is to allow the eLink to connect directly in anyway to the PowerCab.

Fantastic help Gents very many thanks