Digital, digital, digital

Hallo,
sometimes I'm back on this forum, on this fantastic site everyday.
My plan is going on well, but so slowly, soon I'll publish some photos.
I've a question for you.
If I want to have a digital train, what exactly should I buy?
Booster, decoder? what else?
I found an interesting italian site www.dccworld.com, but Ishould like to have some ideas from you.

Thank you

Your biggest issue will be to find digital engines. First you need to find out if the engines you like/want are digital or can be converted to digital. Once you know that, you can see what system you need (dcc or something else) and then focus on the central, booster etc.

sky_68 wrote:

Hallo,
sometimes I'm back on this forum, on this fantastic site everyday.
My plan is going on well, but so slowly, soon I'll publish some photos.
I've a question for you.
If I want to have a digital train, what exactly should I buy?
Booster, decoder? what else?
I found an interesting italian site www.dccworld.com, but Ishould like to have some ideas from you.

Thank you

I have just recently gone over to DCC and I went with TCS MZA-4 replacement boards in my GP35 and 9's and a Z2 in my AZL SD75. I purchased and NCE Power Cab. In Z we do not need the power that N or HO use and as you are not likely to get into sound immediately this is a good place to start becasue you can expand from here if need be. I have 8 x 20 ft layout in an J shape and this works fine for me with a double track main I can run 2 trains at once and both with two power units on the head end.

I also use a car brake light bulb in line with one of the feeds to the track to protect against dead shorts frying my Engines. With the decoders installed I limit the voltage to the motor using the power curve settings of the decoder. The reason I choose the TCS decoders is that engines with this decoder will still work on DC as the decoder automatically can sense when it is on DC or DCC and act accordingly.

This is one mans solution.
cheerz
Garth

I would go with Digitrax Zephyr. It is a relatively inexpensive system that can be extended further. I own one and have used it on HO and N locomotives, both american and european prototypes. Now I have to start working on my Z scale loco

Also the new digitrax DZ125 decoders are really small. Each 6 months they are getting smaller and smaller, making it easier to install them in Z scale locomotives.

As for locomotives. People managed to install a decoder into a DB BR 89, so if you are willing to work on it, the lack of digital locomotives is not an issue.

cheers

Konrad

So I just digitized a Marklin Z scale locomotive. It's a German BR 18 from the Wurtemburger set. I placed a digitrax decoder in the tender. I mostly took pictures.

I will post instructions and photos next week.

Konrad

Thank you Konrad, it will be difficult for me to find in Italy the decoder, I think.
I read you have Digitrax Zephyr, is it a complete system of dcc? Is it so expensive?
What are the pieces that I must buy to start with DCC?

sky_68 wrote:

Thank you Konrad, it will be difficult for me to find in Italy the decoder, I think.
I read you have Digitrax Zephyr, is it a complete system of dcc? Is it so expensive?
What are the pieces that I must buy to start with DCC?

If you start with an NCE Power Cab that is all you need to start in N or Z. It is also the least expensive entrance point to DCC that I know of and you can expand it later. It is also running on a lower voltage than the other systems which is also a bonus in Z scale.

Once you get to the bigger systems you will need to put in Diode voltage reducers as was shown by Atlas to reduce the voltage to the track. Normal DCC systems are designed to run bigger trains so have too high a current rating and voltage to the track and if you get s short on those systems they will fry your Z scale locomotive, they fry HO ones also but in Z it is over in a flash, in HO the breaker will usually trip before damage is done.

cheerz
Garth

Thanks a lot

... yes I'm very ignoramus...
I saw the NCE Power Cab in his site, but I need a decoder for the train too? My english it's terrible, and I read the details of NCE Power Cab and I have not found the decoders to place on the train. I saw right?

sky_68 wrote:

... yes I'm very ignoramus...
I saw the NCE Power Cab in his site, but I need a decoder for the train too? My english it's terrible, and I read the details of NCE Power Cab and I have not found the decoders to place on the train. I saw right?

Your English is fine. You may be new to DCC but that does not make you ignorant just not knowledgeable on the topic.

The advantage of DCC is you can use most decoders with most control systems. If you have a large fleet of locos it would not be unusual to have decoders from several different manufacturers in the various engines.

I use the TCS decoders with my NCE system. I like them because they work well and are compatible with DC so you can run your engines on DC or DCC and the engines are happy. TCS Z2 decoder is very small and I think the only one smaller is a European one we can't get here locally in Canada or the USA. TCS make a drop in decoder for Micro Trains GP and SD engines the MZA4 which is retail list price of 32.00 dollars and is 4 function decoder. Z2 is only a 2 function decoder.

As Garth says, you can use any decoder with any system. That is part of the DCC Compatibility standards. However, some programming values are different between them (lighting effects, special features, etc.) but every parameter to run your trains is common.

TCS Z2, Lenz Silver Mini, Uhlenbrock 73400, CT Elektronik DCX74 and Digitrax DZ125 are the smaller ones. NCE's Z14 is not quite as small but will fit in most places.

You can see most of these in this old Trainboard thread: (see page 6 if the link does not send you that page)
www.trainboard.com/grapevine/showthread.php?t=82441&highlight=decoders&page=6

The NCE Z14 is the easiest to program. Digitrax are the most complex as they have tried to make decoders for every one's needs. Digitrax SUCK for ditch lights as they do not turn the LED's all the way off (designed for lightbulbs). All the other decoders work fine for ditch lights.

Lenz decoders have a unique option: using the Power 1 mondule, dirty track or poor pickup is not a problem ! Your loco can run ~5 to ~30 seconds without track power, using a voltage storage/boost circuit. Need room for this combination (B unit, tender, boxcar, ghost wagon, etc.)

Hi,
Zephyr is somewhat inexpensive approx $150 here in US. It is a full blown control system. Although it does have some limitations that larger Digitrax systems do not have (the biggest one being limit of cabs/locomotives you can control at the same time).

If you are in Europe I would recommend that you try Lenz, Roco Multimouse, or Uhenblock. You will probably get better support for these systems there. Uhenblock is based on Loconet.

cheers

Konrad