Crosland

Your hand is only shown if some else bids at a similar level and the proxy system steps the bids upwards until one person is the winner. If someone else has outbid you, you lose however you time your bid.

Which is exactly what the ebay system lets you do!!! Bid what you are prepared to pay. The proxy bidding system does the rest.

If that's true then it causes buyers to pay more!!! But it's not true. Items sell for the highest bid, whether it was placed in the opening or dying seconds of the auction.

But a late bid will result in the auction being extended to allow other bidders to respond. Very different to ebay where the hammer falls at a fixed time. WOW! Someone who actually understands how ebay works 🙂 That's always my policy, bid what I'm prepared to pay. If I win I'm happy, if I lose there'll probably be another one along soon.

The latest JMRI test release is 5.1.4 but two Dapol decoders were added in 5.1.3 https://www.jmri.org/releasenotes/jmri5.1.3.shtml From the post on the JMRI Users group it looks like esmedune has the production JMRI, 5.0.

Where's the problem? The DCC standards have always allowed for manufacturer specific CVs. Some manufacturers have done a better job than others of using these CVs to allow for v=better configurability and interrogation of features.

It's also worth looking at Tam Valley cutouts. They also operate very fast.

Decoders are generally common positive on the function outputs, so the common LED connection would be to the blue wire or the Positive pad, to the LED Anodes. The connect the LED cathodes to the lights. I don't use +ve and -ve for LEDs as they can mean different things to different people, but the most +ve side of the LED is the Anode. By default the light may be directional, controlled by F0 on your handset. If you want individual control you will need to alter the function mapping CVs (see the Zimo manual). You can then map the functions to the function keys of your choice. If you just want one LED then wire the motor so that it turns the correct direction when set to forward and then wire the LED to the Front ligh connection.

TCS went legal with DCC Concepts around 10 years ago but, as far as I know, little came of it.

It was born thorough poor design and testing, usually a race to be first to market and let the customer be the test program.

We had to redesign the SPROGs to cater for components only available in certain packages. LOL. It was "over a year" a year ago, for some components, and still is!

Oh no he didn't - is it Panto season already? The OB (Original Builder) named it, not the OP. 😀

That doesn't ring true at all. See https://ncedcc.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360048108114-Cab-Bus-Technical-Reference I've seen very little on the JMRI developers group (where I would expect to) about problems with NCE.

The real problem with WiFi at exhibitions is not so much interference between layouts, but the number of mobile phones being carried around by the visitors, with WiFi turned on, each one trying to connect to your layouts access point and possibly swamping it. Radio throttles will work a lot better, if they have been designed with exhibition environments in mind, i.e., protected access for a layout and enough processing power to filter out the traffic not intended for the layout.

There's a thread about that somewhere. I got the impression it was more related to the proprietors mindset rather than anything explicitly Brexit related.

Either way, if that's the case it would fail EMC regulations for emissions and/or susceptibility.

You are conflating two different mechanisms. If no valid DCC signal is detected (whether addressed to the decoder or not) then the decoder may switch to an alternate power source, including DC. If no command is explicitly addressed to a decoder after some timeout period it must stop. The timeout is mandatory, minimum of 20s, but may be disabled.

Loco commands have to be repeated in case they are missed due to dirty track, etc. Speed zero (stop) is no different to any other speed and needs to be repeated some number of times to guarantee reception. It's really down to the system designer's interpretation of the specs. A common scheme is to have a "stack" of currently active locos, even those that are stationary, that are refreshed.

It's quite easy, but it can cause problems, so unless anyone really want to know, and can't find the solution, I will say edit the JMRI connection preferences.

I've been away :) There seems to be some confusion. The JMRI error is "not found" not "in use" or "not in use". The device manager screen shot seems to show that show hidden devices option is selected (some of the devices are greyed out) so COM5 and COM7 have been used for something in the past, but COM3 is not allocated to anything. As other have said, simply edit the JMRI connection preferences to COM4 and then use the same physical USB socket each time you connect the SPROG. Andrew

They are wired in series so the current drawn by the juicer is being detected. You know this, just stating it for clarity. They are still in series (or should be if connected as recommended) but the current flows through the juicer and then the detector. When the crossing is occupied the detector should respond just as it would if no juicer were involved.

Switch ratings are more to do with the current they can interrupt (i.e., when the switch opens), hence the same switch will have a much higher rating for AC. Opening a switch when a high current is flowing causes an arc. In extremis it will destroy the contacts, within spec it's fine, in-between will lead to greater and greater degradation of the contacts over time. The AC rating for a switch will always be higher than the DC rating as AC current decays to zero twice every cycle, extinguishing any arc. The much higher switching frequency of DCC (compared to the usual 50Hz switch rating) means any arcing will be extinguished even quicker. For as long as the contacts remain closed, it will probably handle a much higher current that that which it is rated for.

Please! Stop digging yourself even deeper! The ONLY current flowing in a DCC system is that which is drawn by the locos being operated. If there is no loco on the frog then there is NO current flowing through the switch.

Assume the voltage at the function outputs will be the same as the track voltage, less a couple of volts. A single resistor for 6 - 18V operation will result in some variation in brightness, at different voltages. DCC track voltage will typically be towards the upper end of the range, but could be higher. They're cheap, so try one. If they work for you, fine, otherwise you may need to replace/augment the resistors. Add an extra resistor for dimmer, replace with a lower value for brighter).

What are you modelling? The "iron silk road"? 😀