Good point. I got hung up on the DC stuff.
I spoke a few years ago with a fellow who did not like the CV stuff and gave me a copy of the manual to read. It was good for a person who likes the DCC loco but does not like programming.
Rich
If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.
To answer OP's question...
The Zepher is a complete DCC system that like all DCC systems will allow you to run mutiple trains is you have multiple throttles.
The Tech 6 is not a complete DCC "system". It uses DCC to run one train at a time - always and only address 3. It's purpose in life is to give you access to the sound functions of a DCC locomotive.
I have the right to remain silent. By posting here I have given up that right and accept that anything I say can and will be used as evidence to critique me.
Some years ago my first DCC system was a MRC2K with three throttles on a panel and two on a lanyard. Throttle one on the panel could run a DCC loco or a DC loco.
The DC loco motor would buzz even when stopped because of the AC component in the DCC signal. The spots get hotter as the loco sits. I have a Scope but did not need it. The buzz told me there was AC. The armature was oscillating at the DCC frequency. Later I did to satisfy someone who did not believe me with a photo. The hot spots where at the motor brush contact points on the armature. I measured them with an infrared temperature scanner. It was always recommended to park the loco and turn off the siding when not using the loco.
I would use the DC loco as a pusher and the DCC loco pulling the freight. It worked fine.
I gave the system away and bought a NCE Power Cab. I used a Simple plug to switch from DC to DCC on the layout.
DCC is a digitized voltage that runs at full power, set by you for your gauge, all the time. DC, on the other hand, is variable the way it is commonly used to run trains in the scale worlds; you dial it up or down in real time to get your locomotives to run faster and slower. It often affects the lights as well as you reduce the voltage.
Digitrax allows you to acquire the spurious decoder 'address' of "00" and run that on your throttle as if you had a locomotive with that address. You don't have a decoder with that address, but you do have a DC motor in the one DC locomotive on your rails, and the Digitrax system allows you to move that one locomotive just like it was on DC rails....and not DCC rails.
There are some problems. It works. But......it's also not by any means the nice 'n quiet and appealing run of a locomotive you have ever seen. The digital current makes the can motor groan and squeal as the varying phase makes its effect on the windings of the motor. I think you'll ditch that effort pretty quickly.
Finally, some have reported that leaving a DC-only locomotive on DCC rails gets the motor hot after a bit, hot enough to melt the plastic around it, maybe even fry the motor itself. So the word in the industry is to never...NEVER...leave a DC locomotive that you value on the rails when you have DCC applied to them. Not for more than a couple of minutes.
That's why we need the forum members with oscilloscopes to weigh in.
edit I misread your question, for DC I think that the Zephyr does it by zero bit stretching. Sounds like something Professor Irwin Corey might say.
Maybe this will help Mark Gurries explanation of DC on DCC
DCC on all 3 systems must be real DCC.
DCC doesn't like voltage drop off which happens over distance and is worse with smaller guage wire. If your layout is a little 3' diorama, things aren't so critical. If you are going around your basement, you would want to wire to DCC standards.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Does the 6 put out power the same way a Zepher does in DCC, and does the 6 require the same wiring as far as bus wire size and feeders as the Zepher(or NCE)? I'm thinking it does but am not sure.
The MRC tech 6 has dual outputs, as I understand it. You can run DC locos on DC and DCC locos on either. You will never be outputting DC and DCC to the track at the same time, meaning you can't separately control engines simultaneously like you can with a system running DCC.
The Zephyr can also control DC locos, I don't want to mislead you on how it does that, I'll leave that for others.
The NCE powercab doesn't do DC.
A layout can be DC sometimes and DCC at others with a DCDT center off switch. You never want one track to be DC and another to be DCC at the same time if a train can cross to the "other side" or you will see expensive smoke.
As an electronics novice, what is the difference between the Tech 6 and a Zepher, (or NCE)? I know that the 6 is a "poor man's DCC, but what exactly is the difference?