Parad1ddle

Thanks to all for the interesting replies. I will be canvassing members to obtain details of the locos they intend to use. Then create a data base for all to see. My own system is Roco with the Multimaus and locmause slaves. With the Multimaus I can use 5 digit displays using letters or numbers mixed if I like. These addresses are stored in a library within the controller. They don,t show on the locmaus so I need to allocate addresses within the decoder. I am buying the gaugemaster prodigy to try it out but still like the Roco Multimaus. The Roco system appears to be more powerful than the Gaugemaster and the Multimaus fits the hand better and is easy to use one handed.

I recently moved to a new town 250 miles away. So I started to build anew layout in the loft. This is to be quite large and the DCC. System I chose over ten years ago will be ROCO Multimaus with 3 boosters and several slave locomaus. I joined the local club and found that the 00 system was controlled by Gaugemaster prodigy controllers and express controllers. Recently one of the senior members has resigned due to illness and it turns out that he was considered to be the most qualified person in understanding DCC and programming decoders. It seems that all the members of the 00 section relied on him to program the locos . In a rash moment I blurted out that it was easy and that I programmed my own collection. It was quickly decided that I had the job. The club is at the moment moving into larger premises and the current layout is to be pulled down and a new one built. It appears that there was no system of allocating decoder numbers and that the small group of approximately 12 each had three or four chipped locomotives that they brought to the club on a regular basis and that there was some duplication of addresses. I have down loaded the instructions for gaugemaster DCC so that I can familiarise my self with the system. As I have accepted the role of electronic controller I would like to get things a little more organised. My first thoughts are to allocate addresses to each member. Currently they are using the last two digits of the of the locomotives number. This only allows a total of 127 addresses. If I change the system to recognise 9999 addresses I can divide the addresses up into 10 members having 1000 addresses each , or 20 members having 500 addresses each. A written log book of all locos and the addresses they use could be kept . I would be interested in thoughts on this that might help me.