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dcc has a checksum so that it can detect corrupted packets and ignore them. see top of 2nd page of NMRA standard 9.2

i've wondered how locomotives with multiple contact points can fail to get power. By multiple contact points, I mean multiple wheels, metal on metal contact between tender trucks and metal frame, and a metal draw-bar. Of course there's a problem if the drawbar looses contact, but I also...

here's a reliable approach to consider from the Pacific Southern. there's a yellow dowel protruding from the block on the left that extends thru the facia. It is moved left/right (vertically in the photo). The block pivots on the screw near the top. The advantage of a toggle over the...

and there's always using the point contact with the main rail

keep alive ?

microwave ovens operate at 2450MHz, resonant freq of water molecules. NCE wireless operates at 916 MHz. some wireless phones. anything that says 900 MHz

The Pacific Southern was using the NCE wireless cab until there were reliability problems. I borrowed a spectrum analyzer from work and we were able to see an intermittent signal at the frequency the NCE system operates (916 MHz ?), which is in the unlicensed and shared ISM band. There...

it's one thing to limit the current thru an LED with a resistor, but not typically done with a motor which has a dynamic load. why not find a supply, a wall wart, that is closer to the operating voltage of the motor and equal or greater current?

have you consider RC car controllers?

why would mechanical relays matter? curious

i don't think you necessarily need 2 separate reversers unless you expect to have two trains enter/exit both loops at the same which may not be possible with the crossovers. both reverse sections would be wired together and a train straddling any of the 4 ends would cause both reverse section...

is there a diagram showing a schematic, as well as a diagram that shows the geometry of the sensor and the track?

presumably in the middle, so that no UTP is more than 15 ft from the supply?

if the other operators also have NCE cabs, they can bring them to your session, as well as you bringing yours to their session

First, I'm not talking about JMRI. I suggesting what PC control software can do. (i'm an electrical/firmware engineer. this is why the Pacific Southern uses custom software) no, everything goes thru the computers. If the computer is off, the railroad is dead. i'm trying to say that the...

I found the JMRI wiki pages difficult to understand. I understand it to be collection of programs. It's not clear to me how well is scales and what it does and doesn't do. Before converting to DCC my understanding is that on the Pacific Southern, you moved from tower to tower to both route...

as i tried to explain, toggles can be used now, but with full computer control, the toggle switch will need to be disconnected from the switch machine and routed to the computer that is now controlling the switch machine. The control software can then either control the switch machine based on...

presumably your looking for a migration path from something that will allow you to operate solo on a partially completed layout to at least something that allow a number of people to operate the layout. The Pacific Southern that has existed for over 50 years, has gone thru several evolutions...

switches can get expensive. Here's a bunch on ebay. 35 cents per

a DCC locomotive moves in the direction it is commanded. The decoder rectifies track voltage and applies the appropriate voltage polarity to the motor so that it moves in the commanded direction. DCC track voltage is constantly alternating. The time between changes in polarity represents...