DCC SoftSniff

[philg]

OK, question for those of you with LONG DCC memories

 

Aeons ago I stumbled across "SoftSniff" for DCC. This is an awesomely simple DCC packet sniffer

 

It connected to the mic input of a pc (remember those?) and had a SIMPLE three component connection to the track. A program then ran on Windows to analyze the DCC packets

 

SNAG IS, becasue it was so long ago it only runs on Windows XP. My aged Win8 machine is able to run a virtual WinXP so I can get SoftSniff to run fine there, but I don't think this Win8 machine has a long life

 

I've never been able to get a virtual WInXP to start on my current Win10 laptop - and it doesn't have a mic input anyway (just USB-Cs)

 

SO

 

Does anyone know of a cheap DCC packet sniffer that would run either on a Win 10 pc or on a RasPi??

 

Cheers

[WIMorrison]

Have you looked here?

 

DCC Diagnostic Tools

[philg]

13 minutes ago, WIMorrison said:

Have you looked here?

 

DCC Diagnostic Tools

Yes, but I’d rather buy not build…

[PaulCheffus]

29 minutes ago, philg said:

Yes, but I’d rather buy not build…

Hi

NCE used to make one

https://ncedcc.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/200979515-Packet-Analyzer

Unfortunately it has been discontinued.

 

I replaced my NCE packet analyser with one built using the information here

https://www.opendcc.de/elektronik/dcc_sniffer/dcc_sniffer_e.html
 

Cheers

 

Paul

 

[philg]

23 minutes ago, PaulCheffus said:

 

I replaced my NCE packet analyser with one built using the information here

https://www.opendcc.de/elektronik/dcc_sniffer/dcc_sniffer_e.html
 

 

Don’t really fancy all that SMD soldering…….  Wish I could just buy one from somewhere……

[PaulCheffus]

10 hours ago, philg said:

Don’t really fancy all that SMD soldering…….  Wish I could just buy one from somewhere……

Hi

 

In that link there is also a through hole version. I’m not sure there is an available one these days.

 

Cheers

 

Paul

[Crosland]

Picoscopes have DCC decode software, but they can be pricey (mine is an MSO and was a few £hundred). You may need to check if it works on the cheaper models https://www.picotech.com/library/oscilloscopes/digital-command-control-dcc-protocol-decoding

[RAF96]

51 minutes ago, Crosland said:

Picoscopes have DCC decode software, but they can be pricey (mine is an MSO and was a few £hundred). You may need to check if it works on the cheaper models https://www.picotech.com/library/oscilloscopes/digital-command-control-dcc-protocol-decoding

Mine is a four channel model and the DCC serial decoder works on that. I wrote a follow on article for Peco-tech using the Elite. https://www.picotech.com/library/application-note/dcc-demonstrating-the-Hornby-elite-using-picoscope
The critical part of the analysis is writing a link file which translates the binary signal to plain text.

Edited December 15, 2023 by RAF96

[philg]

1 hour ago, Crosland said:

Picoscopes have DCC decode software, but they can be pricey (mine is an MSO and was a few £hundred). You may need to check if it works on the cheaper models https://www.picotech.com/library/oscilloscopes/digital-command-control-dcc-protocol-decoding

Interesting, but may be overkill for the occasional user…..  Thanks though