Hi!
Just got back from a "trainless" few days in Fredericksburg, Texas and I really missed this forum!
One DCC question that hit me while I was daydreaming while sitting out looking at the beautiful scenery was this......
When you program a loco, such as giving it a numerical address, does that same number stay with it when you take your loco to another layout? If so, what keeps it "in there" - is there a battery or what?
Thanks!
Mobilman44
ENJOY !
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
To further clarify - the decoder stores the setting you give it in flash memory - liek what's in those USB memory sticks everyone now uses since floppies don't hold enough data to be useful anymore. You pull that out of your computer and take it elsewhere and retrieve the data. Likewise, anythign you configure int he decoder - address, start voltage, lighting effects, etc. stay there after the power is off. In theory it should stay programmed for longer than any of us will live, unless you actually change it. In real life - I don't know anyone that has programmed a decoder and then put the loco on a shelf for years, never applying power to it, to test this.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
I've only had one decoder 'lose' it's memory. That was an el cheapo Bachmann decoder. When I wanted to run that loco I'd just put it on the track, give it an address and away it would go until I put it up. The next time I would have to readdress it again. That loco now has a Digitrax decoder.
Dr. Frankendiesel aka Scott Running BearSpace Mouse for president!15 year veteran fire fighterCollector of Apple //e'sRunning Bear EnterprisesHistory Channel Club life member.beatus homo qui invenit sapientiam
This past weekend I took out a Bachmann Doodlebug that I hadn't ran for several years. Put it on the track, entered the decoder number into the NCE ProCab, and away it went.
Flash memory is only guaranteed to hold data for one year before beginning to weaken, but I have never ran into a decoder losing data.
After reading more technical papers that only served to remind me of how much semiconductor theory I've forgotten since college, it appears there are multiple types of flash memory (at the semiconductor level - probably no way to tell just what kind is in use in a particular device unless you get the data sheet for that device). Some has a retention perios of only 2-3 years, some 10 years, and some over 100 years.
Even the old UV erasable PROMs are supposed to have a less than 10 year retention time, assumign reasonable precautions to keep excess UV away from the window on top. But I have some that are much much older than that that still have their code intact. Such as in my very first computer that is nearing it's 30th birthday.
Thank you all for the explanations, your effort is appreciated.
Sounds like the same "flash" principle holds true for my 8 year old home theatre receiver/amplifier. The settings in this Pioneer unit stayed set thru the 4 day power outage from Hurricane Ike. Yet the earlier model (now long gone) would lose its settings if the power were off for a second or so.
Thanks again!