Every Track Powered for DCC???

[LynnB]

Converting my entire diesel roster would be cost prohibitive, so running decoder-equipt and non-decoder engines is a must. I understand you can only run one non-decoder engine at a time, and for most of my operational ideas, that will be fine. (Although, if two non-decoder diesels are very evenly matched in speed, couldn't you run them together? They both would receive the same amount of electricity to move as one unit. Is the only limit to running non-decoder engines with decoder-equipt ones the amount of amps the system is rated at?) But you're right Charlie, right now the whole DCC concept is a mystery to me. I've read several articles and DCC books, understand the basic concept, but I've never installed a decoder or programmed an engine. I have more unanswered questions that answered ones. The DC layout I've created runs well, and with no polarity issues. So right now, I'm hoping I can hook up the Digitrax and with the two decodered equipt engines I have, get up and running quickly.

I have read about setting up blocks or power districts, and will probably do that for safety's sake. The concept seems easy enough...isolatinig several sections of track and routing power to each section. My biggest problem is accomplishing that task. The layout is a narrow shelf layout, 16 feet long, split into two roughly 8 foot lengths. I could take it down to floor lever to work on it, but that's a pretty large hassle. Still, if it has to be done, then it has to be done. Routing the wiring for the straight DC system I have now was a challange, so adding power districts would be a substantial effort. The layout rests on the top of five, built-in shelving units. I can't drill into them to aid in routing wires, so I would need to cut into the foam of the layout to place the wires for power districts. The way I see this playing out is...get the DCC system running, then take down the layout to the garage to work on adding the power districts, ballasting the track and adding scenery, then bring it back into the house to reassemble. Of course all this movement can lead to electrical problems, so testing the continuity of the connections from time to time will be a must. Since the layout's length runs from wall to wall and rests against the back wall, I have only one side I can work from. So even as I'm writing this, I can see that I'll have no other choice than to get the two diesels decoder equipt programmed and running everywhere on the track, then take it apart and moved to work on setting up power districts and soldered to lock in the tracks' placement. All the track is currently pinned in place and the buildings are not affixed to the layout yet. So I can take everything off and store it until the work is completed without any track moving around. Plus, taking it down will allow me to solder the back sections that run parallel to the wall where I couldn't get a solder gun near.

Well, thanks for reading this far...I guess I'm writing this down more to get my thoughts in order than anything else. But if anyone sees a flaw in my logic or better idea - let me know. And if anyone has any other great ideas, please pass them on. For me, going digital will be a big leap and see just how good my track laying skills were on this layout. I'm not naive enough to think that it's going to run perfectly right away...and I anticipate having to improve my track joining. I've already soldered some of the sections and I'm guessing I'll be soldering more to allow proper and even electrical continuity throughout the layout. But I'm really excited to finally have an operating layout that I've hoped for.

Yes you can run as many non decoder engines as you which as long as there not going to run into each other or if there evenly matched you can MU them. If one is faster than the other just put te faster in the front. Problem or more of annoyance with non decoder engines is they hum when there run on a dcc power layout.Been a while since I've ran non decoder on my layout but I think they go under address 0 or is it 3

For power districts you would need a electronic device such as a power shield 4 circuit breaker <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.litchfieldstation.com/xcart/product.php?productid=999002721&cat=0&page=2">http://www.litchfieldstation.com/xcart/ ... t=0&page=2</a><!-- m --> which would divide your layout into 4 power districts
In dcc really you don't need power districts unless you have some real power hogs that will stop the command station from starting up because of kick offs ( kind of like having too many things plugged into one house breaker) or if you have multiple operators and you have an engine short across a turnout and you don't want the entire layout to go down, I use a circuit breaker that seperates my layout into 4 districts and reason I did this was because I have many sound decoders and if I have one too many on any one district when I get a short the layout district with the short won't restart because of overload ( there are adjustments that can be made to adjust kickouts) , what I did was make the staging below the main level 1 district , the engine service area including TT tracks district 2 and the rest of layout district 3 and I keep the sound engines as seperate from each district as I can remember. Setting up the districts are just a matter of rail gaps or insulators then running each district buss wire back to the circuit breaker , the circuit breaker gets the main buss power direct from the command station, simple huh? Personally I don't think you need power districts and in your case the most I would do is install the insulators and this is easy especially if the rail hasn't been ballasted.

This link will answer many of your questions and concerns <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://litchfieldstation.com/DCC-University/University.htm">http://litchfieldstation.com/DCC-Univer ... ersity.htm</a><!-- m --> I've spent probably a few thousand dollars + from Bruce and he has been very helpful.