Sorry I can't post pictures. This link will take you to Loco-Boose Hobbies which has a similar/simpler version you may purchase. www.locoboose.com Rich
This is going to depend more on your goals and desires with the tree. First off if you plan on using more than one locomotive then it becomes almost a necessity to be DCC. If you are only ever going to have the one train, then no, DCC will not be needed. As @CSX Robert mentioned above the back emf is prolly the most valuable benefit aside from the multiple trains. Pro list Multiple trains at different speeds Back emf Sounds from the locomotives Con List Expensive throttle Expensive locomotives
Its going to be depending more on how many trains you plan to run at the same time, more than how many trains you have.
Massey, thank you for the reply, The train does fine now, I will admit, I kind of starve it for power on the way down because I want the train to run slow coming down the tree then quickly get back up to the top. My perfect plan would be to run three small trains (small as in only three cars behind each one) which is the whole reason I am thinking of switching to DCC. Any suggestions on cheapest route to get into DCC?
A second hand Digitrax Zephyr can be had for around $100 on eBay. I would get the DCS51 model, it’s a bit better than the DCS50 version. If you want new the DCS52 (current version) can be had for around $200. NCE Power Cab systems are a bit more money, and work well too, but I personally like the expand ability of the Digitrax system better.
Another thing to consider is Arduino control. You can make an Arduino device that will change the speed as the train goes around the tree. Use IR sensors at the top, which will tell the Arduino where the train is and to slow it down for a graceful trip down, then at the bottom it trips another sensor and the Arduino will increase power to get the train back to the top quickly. It would be DC and wouldn’t be too different than my Tram layout.
The Zephyr has two "jump ports" that allow you to attach a DC throttle to control a DCC train. You obviously have at least one such throttle, so with a Zephyr you would have direct control of two trains right off the bat, and if you happen to have a second DC throttle that would be three (you could actually control more by switching control among different trains, but the Zephyr and two DC throttles gives you direct control of three without purchasing any additional throttles).
If I had three DCC trains, would the one Zephyr be able to control all three? I do love what you said above about the DC trains, currently I have two throttles, one for uphill (helix inside the tree) and one for downhill outside the tree. Was thinking of getting rid of those, mending the track back into one giant circle (I currently have a cut in the track at the top and bottom) and running three DCC trains.
Yes, the Zephyr's built in throttle for one and the DC throttles connected to the two jump ports for the other two.
Yes, but what if I only had three DCC trains? wanting to get rid of the DC so I can 3 trains on the same track and not have them run into each other.
The jump ports let you control DCC trains on the same track using a DC throttle. It basically converts a DC throttle into a DCC throttle.
Thanks for bringing that up it sounded interesting and the book I just got on 'DCC Wiring' also mentioned it. It could make things easier for this old fool. Rich
the Zephyr will allow you to control more than 3 trains at the same time depending on how you do it. You don’t need one throttle per train but that is the safe way to do it. You can call up one address, and set the loco at a speed, then call up another loco and do the same. You can have many locos running in this fashion but it’s only going to have throttle control of the loco currently assigned to the Zephyr throttle. The others will keep running at the speed they were last commanded to. Adding DT series throttles will allow you to control up to 2 locomotives at the same time on one throttle without doing as described above. The Zephyr can operate 20 trains at the same time. @CSX Robert, Yes I am aware of the fact that the Zephyr can use analog throttles as backup throttles. Just a note here the analog throttle must be a smooth DC throttle, and not a PWM type throttle. The Kato throttles are PWM, where the MRC throttles are usually smooth DC. The system I mentioned before wouldn’t use a standard throttle at all. A motor shield, an Arduino, and an IR sensor of some sort. This would allow you to simply change the voltage to the track based on where the train is located. Once it gets to the bottom and trips the lower sensor it will increase the voltage for the climb up the tree. Once at the top of the tree it hits another sensor that tells the Arduino to lower the voltage and the train takes a slow decent down the tree, rinse and repeat. No DCC and the overall expense would be far less than any DCC system out there. Just letting you know there are options out there for ya.
The Kato 22-014 power pack, the standard Kato power pack for years, does not use PWM, but the 22-018 "SX" power pack, which recently replaced the 22-014, apparently does (as well as their "Hyper DX" power pack). Kato does sale a PWM filter that should make the SX and DX power packs compatible with the jump ports. Even the 22-014 power pack isn't really "smooth" DC as the term is generally used, but then again hardly any model train power packs are. Almost all have a fairly low frequency sine wave pulse (from the 60 HZ AC supply and different than the high frequency square wave of PWM) because most engines run better with it, but I haven't heard of that being a issue with the jump ports. The same basic thing could be accomplished by simply having the downhill section of track fed through diodes to reduce the voltage. It would not be as tunable, and you would have sudden changes in speed whereas with the Arduino solution you could have the speed ramp up and down, but it would be a lot easier to implement .
I find it much, much, much easier to have the train under the tree. That way I have room for my bubble lights.
Here is the waveform from a Kato 22-014 throttle. This is at about 50% throttle. It’s not a perfect square wave but it isn’t a sine wave either. It never evens out even at full throttle. That isn’t, smooth DC so I don’t know if this throttle will work for the Zephyr, I personally have never tried it with my Zephyr.
That is a rectified 60Hz sinewave. Apparently the 22-014 doesn't have any filtering at all. I agree, see what I said above about DC model train power packs and smooth DC. I don't have a Kato power to test with, but as I said before I know others have used it and I have not seen any complaints. I do have another power pack that I figured would have little to no filtering so I decided to check it out. Sure enough, it looks a lot like the Kato output: I tested it with a jump port and it worked fine. I monitored the speed step settings being sent to the decoder and they did bounce around, for example, when set on about 50% the actual setting sent to the decoder varied from 42 to 50 (it never dropped anywhere close to zero, so there must be some filtering on the jump port input); however, this did not appear to negatively impact the decoder's operation. Even with momentum set to zero, there is some momentum in the decoder and the loco just didn't have time to react to the speed changes. If it had, I'm sure it could have been alleviated with additional momentum programmed into the decoder. The only time it gave me any issue at all was if I tried to set the throttle to speed step 1 or 2, it would bounce to zero and I could hear the loco starting and stopping, but I suspect this would bean issue with just about any DC power pack since most of them are not truly smooth.
