DCC Function only decoder

[Neal Ball]

Hi guys,

 

Does anyone have any experience of building their own function-only decoder? - I read a while ago in the Model Rail introduction to DCC articles that it is possible to make for a few £.

 

I want to put it into a carriage to switch the lighting on/off, together with the tail lamp.

 

Thanks,

[Nigelcliffe]

I have built Paul Harman's design. Costs around £2.50 if you can program the PIC yourself.

 

Nigel

[Suzie]

You might like to have a look at the website:-

 

http://www.dccdiy.org.uk/function.html

 

They are very straightforward to make and kits are available if you don't want to fiddle about trying to source the components which can be quite cheap if you are making a few.

 

I have put one together from a kit in half an hour, so you should not have too much trouble making your own, all the components are standard sized so it is not too fiddly.

 

For carriage lighting you can build the decoder on a piece of stripboard cut to fit in the roof, and mount all the LEDs on it which makes for a neat installation, and with eight outputs you can even have separate control of the lights in each compartment which is cool.

[Ian J.]

If you only need one or two, and want to get something up an running quickly then it's possible to use the basic Hornby decoder without the motor attached. R8249 if I remember correctly.

[Neal Ball]

I have built Paul Harman's design. Costs around £2.50 if you can program the PIC yourself.

 

Nigel

 

Wow! that sounds good.

 

You might like to have a look at the website:-

 

http://www.dccdiy.org.uk/function.html

 

They are very straightforward to make and kits are available if you don't want to fiddle about trying to source the components which can be quite cheap if you are making a few.

 

I have put one together from a kit in half an hour, so you should not have too much trouble making your own, all the components are standard sized so it is not too fiddly.

 

For carriage lighting you can build the decoder on a piece of stripboard cut to fit in the roof, and mount all the LEDs on it which makes for a neat installation, and with eight outputs you can even have separate control of the lights in each compartment which is cool.

 

Excellent thanks very much! - the details look very straight-forward, easy enough to build. I thought the processor might be prohibitive, but RS are quoting a price of £1.00 - although I am not sure about the Microchip PICkit2as RS are quoting £23.63 unless I am looking at the wrong thing! http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/microcontroller-processor/0381582/

 

Whilst the initial cost increases, spread over a few applications, it will pay for itself.

 

 

If you only need one or two, and want to get something up an running quickly then it's possible to use the basic Hornby decoder without the motor attached. R8249 if I remember correctly.

Yes the Hornby one is an option, but even at £10 (or so) that bumps the price right up for the work on the carriages.

 

Thanks for your suggestions. Looks as if this is the way to go! - Particularly as I see Paul also sells pre-programmed processors which will save me the bother. Just need to solder it all together!