ok i dont under stand what speed steps do 28 vs 128. ive read a bunch on it but i still cannot grasp what it does exactly. Does one require less turning of the wheel in order to move the loco ???? why exactly do they even give this choice if it does not matter? (from what ive read) . PLAIN AN SIMPLE works better fer me. it either goes faster or slower , takes longer to get to speed ?????? with DC you either go fast or you go slow no friggin speed steps or is that like speed steps on the dc power chingaderas ? ive probably asked this before some where but i still do not get it. (could be ive forgot )
The 128 step has a greater control of speed variances as opposed to 28 which has far fewer increments between stop and full.
It is a “smoother” line (curve) between 0 and max speed. In a digital world, which DCC is, everything is broken up into discrete pieces. The more pieces, between start and finishing points, the smoother the transition appears. For DCC speed steps, the 14 steps, 28 steps and 128 steps are the number of pieces which the throttle can be divided into. The more steps, the finer your control of the throttle.
Think of a pie. You could divide the pie into 14 pieces or 28 pieces or 128 pieces. Each piece of 14 pieces will be bigger than 28, which in turn will be bigger than 128. If you are concerned about how much pie you eat if you consume one piece, 128 pieces gives you more control over how much pie you eat per piece than 14 pieces. Now apply this to speed of your engine. Let's say that your engine has a speed range from 0 to 80 scale mph. This is the pie. If you are using 14 step speed control, each step would be roughly 6 smph (80 divided by 14). If speed step 1 is 1 smph, then speed step 2 is 7, and step 3 is 13, etc. There will be a noticeable "jump" in speed from one step to another. At 28 speed steps, each step is about 3 smph. Less of a jump. And at 128 steps, each step is about half a smph. Much less of a jump. So 128 speed steps gives much finer control over speed. Whether that matters to you, only you can answer. John C.
Oooooh! I gotta have some black coffee with that. We need to get back on topic before my pants start feeling tight!