what is the best way to go for digital control? I am starting over with 12' by 8' by 32" wide rectangal. all my stock is of the old ho transformer hookup. any help would be appreciated. Thanks
david
Go to Tony's Train Exchange website and download his "DCC Primer" and read through it before you do anything else. We can't answer vague questions like yours in a forum of this type because it would take a book to thoroughly explain DCC.
In a very basic sense, you would close all block selectors to engage them electronically, keep any reversers engaged, and then hook your two heavy wire ends (if you have a bus leader) to the two output terminals of your DCC base station. Again, that is the general process. But as Chuck suggests, you may be much further ahead to consider breaking your layout into two or more power districts with extra boosters for the DCC signal.
You won't have any problems with power to the rails that you don't already have now. If you control blocks with selectors, they are not needed for DCC...only power reversals are to be managed as before, and you should have good quality shorts detection circuitry. Often that is provided adequately on small layouts by the base station's own short detection circuitry, but as layouts grow, and maybe the voltage drops here and there, shorts may fail to show up for the detector a good distance away. Hence the need for boosters and the odd extra short management device...usually one and the same for your convenience.
-Crandell