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So having made the decision, how did I get going?


Tallpaul69

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So having decided to go for DCC, how did I get going?

I have kicked off with an NCE Power Cab. Having seen good comments on this controller on my "To DCC or not" thread, and as my local model shop is a stockist and can give me help and support, it seemed a sensible way to go.

I am taking things one step at a time, initially I bought one chipped loco, a brand new Hornby TTS Castle (I like Castles!). I expect that sound will by the cost be limited mainly to shunting and slow moving locos, where I think it will be most effective.

Chipping is not something that I feel confident to try myself, so I am happy to pay the charges to have it done for me.

So I have an existing 56xx tank being sound chipped and collected three chipped locos yesterday. They are a Hornby 08, a Bachmann Pannier and a Hornby Castle. All are fitted with Zimo non sound chips.
These locos were chosen to explore facets of DCC:-
The Castle to compare with my TTS Castle - I have third Castle which might soon get a sound chip.

Further to the above, I have received information which says that the HCC Castle (amongst others) was the Airfix 1979 body on a Dapol 1985 Chassis.


The shunters to compare diesel and steam shunters under DCC. Later a similar pair will get sound chips, again for comparison.
The panier is also non DCC ready, so I get a view of hard wired against socketed chips.

So today, I got a view on setting up loco addresses, and also see how the above locos run on my test track.
I have now completed the readdressing of the three locos recently chipped, and am pleased to say it was not difficult. They all work fine.


I then got overconfident and decided to try pairing the two shunters in what the NCE manual calls a consist.
This was not difficult, but the problem I have is that I can't work out and the manual doesn't help on how to stop the locos working in a consist and return them to working against their individual addresses.
When I call up the individual addresses and advance the throttle, they just don't move?

Any help on this would be appreciated?

 

I am also off to Ally Pally this weekend to gen up further on the possibilities.

Best regards
Paul

 

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It is not actually NCE who call them a consist. On the real railway, any train made up of individual vehicles is called a consist. For some reason, modellers have never used the term before.

 

What type of consist are you using? Standard or advanced?

Standard is managed by your PowerCab. You define an address & the system sends a command individually to each loco.

Advanced adds a second address to the decoders. They should both respond to this address but it seems to be a little more complicated than that.

The system knows about the consist so you can make them move by addressing one of the individual locos. Some sounds are activated from both & some from the leading one.

 

Example: This is from memory so may not be 100% accurate but will hopefully be good enough to get you started.

 

I want to run Black 5s 5000 & 5020 together. Their addresses are 5000 & 5020. When creating an advanced consist, I give it the address of 120.

In order to drive them, I just communicate with 1 (usually the 'leading' one, which is the first defined in the consist). So they should both respond to 1240. I think both respond to turning on their sounds individually but once running, they respond together. Playing the horn only plays on the loco you are talking to.

 

Hornby standard chips do not support advanced consisting. TTS chips are effectively standard Hornby chips with added sound, so these do not support advanced consisting either.

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