Short and Long DCC addresses

[ColinK]

I'm hoping someone can advise me on setting loco adresses.

 

I model blue diesels and to make it easy to select a loco, I used short addreses set to the locomotive class number. So the address of my class 37 was '37', my class 50 was '50' etc. it does mean I can only have one loco from each class, which is fine for me. My method was fine for my dmu too as its a class 105 and my NCE system allows up to 127 as a short address.

 

However, I now have a class 128 diesel parcels unit, but I can't have 128 as a short address.

 

This is where my knowledge runs out.

 

Can I use long addresses instead, but still keeping eg '47' for my class 47, or does it have to become 0047?

 

I don't want to use loco numbers as 47555 does not work as an address.

 

Suggestions please.

[giz]

I've got a Powercab and there is no problem mixing long and short addresses. Just leave your existing locos as they are and give the 128 a long address and select locos as required..

[Oldddudders]

I would be most surprised if you can't use short and long. Every decoder arrives as address 3, making it unreachable if only 128+ numbers were available. Long addresses were a goal for the developers in DCC systems, because in the US - where obviously the Recommended Practices were developed - most locos had a 4-digit number, certainly on the larger roads.

 

My Digitrax system happily works with both, and the switch happens between 127 and 128 - but some systems use the more logical break between 99 and 100.

[Phil S]

Caveat: The potential problem area is numbers 100-127 and this applies if you move your stock between systems - eg home and club....

On MOST sytems I am aware of, to the user, there is 'no difference' when USING a short or long address ...  simply select the loco by number ('omitting leading zeroes')

The controller then decides whether to handle it as a short or long address, and transmits the appropriate codes to the track.##

 

HOWEVER, as controllers developed, eg from the orignal Lenz Maus with 1-8 locos, then  1-22 with LGB, through controllers with '2 digit displays' a 'natural break' occured at 99, even though the decoders could be programmed as high as 127.   Now most controllers quote their range as being upto 10000  (9999)  whilst a few offer the complete range possible - such as Massoth's Dimax/Navigator.

 

Lenz's Expressnet recommends 1-99 be used as Short Addresses, and 100-9999 as long addresses, HOIWEVER ZTC 511 (which uses Expressnet) followed the conflicting nmra recommendation that 1-127 should be treated as a short address, and 128+ as long addresses ..... neither giving the USER the choice of when to change over.

 

PHYSICALLY, of course, 100-127 Short Addresses [CV1}  are completely different address codes to 100-127 Long Addresses.[CV17,18]

SOME Controllers (NCE being an example [?])  allows the USER to decide whether to USE short or long addresses:   1-127 as short, and 0001-0127  and beyond as LONG (or EXTENDED) addresses.

 

So, on a Lenz/Roco etc system, using an address 100-127 will both  program and recall a SHORT adddress, BUT on a ZTC and 'nmra recommendation folIowing in this case')  controller will program and recall a LONG/ Extended address ......  moving a loco in this range from one system to the other will result in a non-responding loco.  BUT on the NCE simply changing between 100-127 and 0100 - 0127 will allow BOTH sets to addresses to be used, independantly of each other !!! with the potential to confuse lots of users !!!

 

(NOTE: If both Roco/Lenz and ZTC are used on the same Expressnet bus, then it depends which one is the MASTER as to which rule is followed.)

 

For me too, the overlap is BR heritage DMUs  ... with TOPS codes ... however for many such locos I use first and last pair of digits, making a 4 digit number - the centre is usally 0 with a steam loco (with 2 excpetions on my layout where it is a 1) ... but with eg class 47, the sub class number is significant,,, but often followed by a zero; so I drop the (mid-zero).

[F-UnitMad]

Blimey talk about complicating things....

 

NCE Powercab; yes it can handle long & short addresses at the same time. The trick is to use the Programming Track settings in the handset.

It'll ask you if you want to set the address, short address first. You could leave it as the default, 3. It then asks if you want to activate the short address; '1' is yes, 'Enter' is no. Press Enter, it'll then go to setting up the long address. You can enter '128' without a '0' in front, & then '1' when it asks if you want to activate the long address.

From then on, when you 'Select loco', you can just enter '128' & it'll work your DMU.

 

For British numbers where you have more than one of a Class, you could use the long address with the first two digits the Class (eg '37') & the secong two the last two digits of the number, eg '56', so 37 056 becomes address 3756. Of course where this plan falls down is if you also have 37 156 & 37 256 as well. I don't run my UK outline stuff on DCC so it's only a suggestion.

[ColinK]

Thanks everyone for your replies. I now know what to do.

 

ColinK